On a desert island with only an animal - would you eat it?

[TheFirstBus]

Ah yes that was the simpsons knockoff of Lord of the Flys

[feline01]

That reminds me of a time I was watching the lobsters at the supermarket. They were really packed in there. Two jumped on the backs of the others and started fighting. A third lobster jumped up and got between them, pushing them away from each other with his claws, breaking up the tussle. It was as if he was saying, "Peace brothers, we're all in this together."
I hate those tanks. I always wondered how many people actually buy their lobsters in a Pathmark or Shop Rite which means those lobsters are living in such horrible conditions for probably quite a long time. I bet more die from the horrible conditions they're kept in rather than from being purchased and boiled alive. :mad:

[PinkFluffyCloud]

That's awful!! You need the 'Lobster Liberation Front' over there, like we have here in the U.K.

[VeganMan]

Of course I would (reluctantly).

Survival is ALWAYS just cause. It's only wrong when the motive is something even SLIGHTLY less than survival.

[PinkFluffyCloud]

Oh, get back to those babies!! :p

[zendogjoe]

This is the type of question that I answer with, "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it."

[eve]

Or I'll eat what the animal is eating (as long as it isn't another animal!).

[angelamc]

Even if I was going to starve, I think I would probably get really grossed out and throw up if I tried to kill and "clean" an animal in order to eat it. Maybe I could do a fish, but even that might be too disgusting. So my answer would most likely be NO, I would not eat an animal in that scenario because I don't think I could get it down. I think that's a very fair and honest answer (to a question that's kindof unreasonable).:rolleyes:

[angelamc]

Lisa sees the boar licking slime off a rock and suggests the kids eat the slime too,
Yummm, slime is my favorite vegan food! :eek:Yeah, that episode was a little silly!

[crimson~noir]

Even if I was going to starve, I think I would probably get really grossed out and throw up if I tried to kill and "clean" an animal in order to eat it. Maybe I could do a fish, but even that might be too disgusting. So my answer would most likely be NO, I would not eat an animal in that scenario because I don't think I could get it down. I think that's a very fair and honest answer (to a question that's kindof unreasonable).:rolleyes:

I agree - the idea of killing and cooking an animal by hand is so repulsive to me as I think it would be even to non vegans.

[RubyDuby]

Or I'll eat what the animal is eating (as long as it isn't another animal!).

either way, the animal that animal is eating would have to be eating something I could eat.

I'm not cut out for murder.

[coney]

"On a desert island with only an animal - would you eat it?"

No, because if you ate it, you're still stuck on a desert island, but now you have no friend.

[Jeebs]

well i would probably make friends with the animal, give it a name so i really couldnt eat it. Wilson? - and whatever it eats i would assume would be safe for me to eat too.

[LittleSeaWolf]

I wouldn't wanna die alone. :p Id gnaw my leg off first.

[antman]

Well, there are all sorts of answers to this that give both you and the animal a way to continue living (and as coney recently said, eating the animal wouldn't get you off the island anyways), as has been posted before.

But if none of those options were available, then still no, I wouldn't eat the animal. I see no happiness in continuing to live knowing that I do so off the back of sacrificing all my principles and another life. I'm sure I would do some desperate things in desperate situations, but murder for nothing more than my own life? No.

[pavotrouge]

is there an option of eating the island :D ?

sorry, but this is just such a stupid unrealistic question, I'm so tired of it...

[xrodolfox]

A better question would be would "if you were on a deserted island with only one other person, would you eat them?"

My answer is simple? Do you like that person?

[pavotrouge]

if I got all PMSy, I would eat anybody who was stuck with me anywhere :D:o

[RationalVegan74]

It's such an insulting story, isn't it! How could one ever end up in such a contrived situation?

Regarding the version of it used on vegans, even if there really were no edible plants around, and even if I could somehow convince myself to destroy this other creature, eating meat when you've been vegan years would be a tremendous mistake; we usually become quite ill when we first try to eat meat again, due to body changes. My time would be much more profitably employed working on ways to get off the island. Most of us will live 30 or 40 days without food; that's long enough to exploit any options that might exist there.

I'd say the same is true for the non-vegan version of the story; you should be working on escaping, not wasting time killing the only animal on the island.

Here's a much more realistic question for them: If this is about survival, considering the negative health effects of meat-consumption, how come the fact your life depends on it hasn't been enough to motivate you to give up eating animals? If you say that happiness is more important than a longer life, then you should have no problem with my assertion that I would not eat the animal!

[fiamma]

I imagine the desert island would be pretty hot, so even if I did kill this other creature, I daresay there wouldn't be any fridges around, so I'd only be able to eat its flesh for a few days before it started rotting...

So I'd end up with a decomposing carcass rather than a beautiful live creature for company... not a pleasant thought.

So my answer is no...

[Mahk]

Of course we don't know all the details but presumably this animal is indigenous to the island and has some food source, otherwise how could it be alive? Saying "I'll have what she's having" is a bit of a cop-out since the implication is that there is no other food for us on the island. Let's say the animal's food source is inedible to us for some reason then. I would make friends with the animal, learn its language and try to negotiate a deal that in exchange for letting me drink one or two cups of its blood per day I would in exchange help her and/or her family in some way: Foot rubs, back massages, building small huts to avoid rain/wind, teaching how to read an ingredients list to look for possible animal products, etc. I'm sure there must be some skill I have that she would value in exchange for my mutually consensual vampirism scheme. Assuming the animal is large, like a horse or a cow, and has plenty of water and food, a blood loss like this wouldn't mean much.

Do I win for "most novel answer"?:)

[sugarmouse]

lol Mahk!
My usual response is, if the animal is surviving, there is obviously vegetation available...I would eat that:)

[Mahk]

Ok, plan "B": I'd eat the island (http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2007-01/27/content_794424.htm).

[fiamma]

Well at least she doesn't need a B12 supplement :D

[horselesspaul]

If we were both plonked on an island with absolutely nothing edible and it had no soil I guess me an' my new animal best mate would slowly slip into a coma together and die..as you do.