The meat eaters’ first line of defense is obvious: Why should we treat animals any more ethically than they treat one another? Ben Franklin actually tried this tack long before me. He tells in his autobiography of one day watching friends catch fish and wondering, “If you eat one another, I don’t see why we may not eat you.” He admits, however, that this rationale didn’t occur to him until the fish were in the frying pan, beginning to smell “admirably well.” The great advantage of being a “reasonable creature,” Franklin remarks, is that you can find a reason for whatever you want to do.
