Ironically, we do not eat the meat of predators, but on the contrary, we take their behavior as a model, as Rousseau correctly noted.. Even the most sincere animal lovers do not hesitate to sometimes eat the flesh of their four-legged or feathered pets. The famous ethologist Konrad Lorenz says that from early childhood he was crazy about animals and always kept a wide variety of pets at home. At the same time, already on the first page of his book Man Meets Dog, he confesses:
“Today for breakfast I ate some toasted bread with sausage. Both the sausage and the fat on which the bread was fried belonged to the same pig that I knew as a cute tiny pig. When this stage in its development had passed, in order to avoid conflict with my conscience, I avoided further communication with this animal in every possible way. If I had to kill them myself, I probably would forever refuse to eat the meat of creatures that are on the steps of evolution above fish or, at most, frogs. Of course, one has to admit that this is nothing but blatant hypocrisy – to try in this way abdicate moral responsibility for the murders committed …«
How does the author try justify his lack of moral responsibility for what he unmistakably and accurately defines as murder? “The consideration that partly explains the actions of a person in this situation is that he is not bound by any semblance of an agreement or contract with the animal in question, which would provide for a different treatment than that which enemies who have been captured deserve to be treated.”