Hermosillo 1

Joel Hermosillo

Professor Greg Graham

Composition II

18 February 2023

Is it wrong to eat animals?

Whenever you eat a burger, steak, chicken sandwich, or any dish with meat in it, have

you ever thought about where that meat comes from? Or how that meat was obtained? What

some people don’t realize is that whenever a piece of meat is eaten, it means that a life was taken

and that life went through intense suffering just so that someone can get a piece of meat on their

plate(John Robbins). Any animal lover should be aware of this, and yet despite their claim that

they do love animals, they continue to eat meat. There are plenty of reasons why eating meat is

not only unethical but also pointless and causes more harm than good.

If one truly believes that animals' lives matter just as much as human lives, then one

should be aware of the process of how meat is obtained. Not only are the methods unethical and

horrible, but it also violates the rights of a living creature. Taking a life from an animal is no

different than taking a life from a human. An animal who is raised only “for food is used by

others and not being respected for itself”(Ethics, Eating animals). Aside from having rights,

animals, like us, have interests. Meat lovers have an interest in eating meat that “contradicts the

animals’ interest to live” which is a right that every living creature deserves”(Ethics, Eating

animals). Every living soul has “the basic right to be treated as an end for oneself and not as a

means for someone else's ends,” so killing animals for food is used as a means humans, is

stripping and disrespecting their rights to treat themselves as an end (Ethics, Eating animals).
 Hermosillo 2

Meat lovers will give the argument that meat is needed for protein and other nutrients that

we need to survive. However, that isn’t true at all. Eating animals does more harm to consumers

and the earth than good. Meat is full of grease and fat which is unhealthy for humans, but there

are other ways to obtain protein like protein shakes, soybeans, nuts, etc. For those who are

unaware of the meat-making process, just to produce one pound of meat uses more than 2,000

gallons of water, which is a complete waste because there are people in the world who need that

water more (Eating Animals Is Ruining Our Planet). Eating animals also harms the planet itself.

For example, meat industries are bulldozing large amounts of land to make room to raise cows,

pigs, chickens, etc., just so that they can be killed and eaten(Eating Animals Is Ruining Our

Planet). Another hazard is that the more humans continue to kill animals for food, the closer

those animals are to extinction. And this doesn’t just affect the animals who are being eaten, but

it also affects animals whose homes have been destroyed by the meat industries bulldozing large

acres of land.

Killing and eating animals is morally wrong. It is unethical and disrespectful to the lives

of those animals. Each life, no matter how big or small, has the right to live and to use itself as a

means to an end, and humans are in no position to take away that right. There are plenty of other

healthier and more beneficial options for eating than the use of meat. Not that those options are

beneficial for humans, but they would be beneficial for the planet overall. Which is why humans

need to find solutions to this meat-eating problem so that every life has a chance to live.
 Work Cited

“Eating Animals Is Ruining Our Planet!” PETA Kids, 22 Apr. 2022,

www.petakids.com/save-animals/eating-animals-ruins-planet/#:~:text=Eating%20animals

%20is%20bad%20for,who%20are%20raised%20for%20meat.

“Ethics - Animal Ethics: Eating Animals.” BBC, BBC,

www.bbc.co.uk/ethics/animals/using/eating_1.shtml#:~:text=Violated%20rights,as%20an

%20end%20in%20itself.

“John Robbins: Is It Wrong to Eat Animals?” YouTube, YouTube, 12 Apr. 2009,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbVRugmzuDs.