Sfdebris.net

Riedquat wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 8:45 pm

clearspira wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 8:14 pm I actually agree with you in that a Tribble is clearly a prey animal. They exist to be eaten. Am I about to poke the vegan hornets nest by saying that not all animals are created equal? Probably.

No animals exist to be eaten, otherwise they wouldn't evolve behaviours to try to avoid it. That's different from pointing out that they make up part of the food chain.

Mickey_Rat15 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 02, 2020 1:15 am

Riedquat wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 8:45 pm

clearspira wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 8:14 pm I actually agree with you in that a Tribble is clearly a prey animal. They exist to be eaten. Am I about to poke the vegan hornets nest by saying that not all animals are created equal? Probably.

No animals exist to be eaten, otherwise they wouldn't evolve behaviours to try to avoid it. That's different from pointing out that they make up part of the food chain.

But the tribble's survival strategy does not seem to avoid being eaten, it is a reproductive strategy to overwhelm the predators with sheer numbers. They actually require predation to keep their numbers down so they do not outbreed their environment.

Mickey_Rat15 wrote: ↑Sun Feb 02, 2020 1:15 am

Riedquat wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 8:45 pm

clearspira wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 8:14 pm I actually agree with you in that a Tribble is clearly a prey animal. They exist to be eaten. Am I about to poke the vegan hornets nest by saying that not all animals are created equal? Probably.

No animals exist to be eaten, otherwise they wouldn't evolve behaviours to try to avoid it. That's different from pointing out that they make up part of the food chain.

But the tribble's survival strategy does not seem to avoid being eaten, it is a reproductive strategy to overwhelm the predators with sheer numbers. They actually require predation to keep their numbers down so they do not outbreed their environment.

SFDebris wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 10:45 pm I was kinda hoping Phlox's degree would be the subject discussed, as I went through about nine versions trying to make it as both ridiculous yet plausible as possible.

To clarify about the Tribble:
1) Carnivores and Omnivores eat meat. I hope that those who feed it to me end the lives of my food in as humane a way as possible.
2) I first confirmed via several sites that veterinarians recommend against live feeding for a number of reasons, including protecting the pet (live prey fights back) and the cruelty of forcing a terrifying, unnatural end on a creature (being trapped in a cage allows for no means of escape, which most prey animals have as their defense). They say that the number of pets that cannot be trained to accept dead food is virtually nil (things like crickets are pretty much the only exceptions).
3) The tribble is clearly both aware and terrified as it screams several times before death. No attempt is made to mitigate its suffering, either because it is not possible without harming the predator, or because Phlox can't be arsed to do it.
4) If Phlox could do something but instead smiles while the tribble screams in its final moment, that's monstrous.
5) If Phlox can do nothing, smiling doesn't suggest he's exactly torn up about sentencing this creature to its terrifying end.
6) The scene is presented as dark comedy, which it is, but it is the same as when Janeway does something cruelly authoritarian, the show unwittingly confirms the joke as being the reality (that Phlox is someone for whom "ethics" is merely a word for "I don't want to do that").
7) Nice timing in placing this scene at the start of an episode supposedly about how Phlox is not an unethical monster.

bluebydefault wrote: ↑Sun Feb 02, 2020 4:21 am Lol the first thing I thought when I saw them climbing down that cave was the Molemen ep of MST3K.
I heard Mike saying Down Down....

clearspira wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 10:02 pm

Nealithi wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 9:39 pm

clearspira wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 9:05 pm

Riedquat wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 8:45 pm

clearspira wrote: ↑Sat Feb 01, 2020 8:14 pm I actually agree with you in that a Tribble is clearly a prey animal. They exist to be eaten. Am I about to poke the vegan hornets nest by saying that not all animals are created equal? Probably.

No animals exist to be eaten, otherwise they wouldn't evolve behaviours to try to avoid it. That's different from pointing out that they make up part of the food chain.

That is a matter of perspective: If you were to ask a tiger then he would say that the antelope exist to be eaten because he cannot eat anything else. If you were to ask a farmer then he would say that the pigs exist to be eaten because he reared them to be eaten - without him, the pigs would never have been born.

While I am still an omnivore. This argument is in error. Pigs can breed just fine without the aid of humans.
And as far as evolution is concerned. Predators evolved to eat prey. Part of prey evolution is higher birth rates. Rabbits, mice, and tribbles. . .

A pig can indeed given birth perfectly fine without the aid of humans... but if I went and bought a pig to eat from a farmer who breeds pigs for no other reason then to eat, and then that pig gave birth to another pig to eat using resources that I paid for and a man pig that I have also bought for the sole reason to mate with the lady pig, then that pig would never have existed if I didn't one day decide to go and buy a pig to eat (yes, I have no idea the correct names for male and female pigs).

And on a side note, that is one thing that vegans never seem to understand. What do they think is going to happen to farmyard animals if we ever stop eating meat? They won't be freed, they'll be culled for being unprofitable because animals do not exist for free.