Hi Chrysaetos.

We are morally and ethically responsible for our actions because we have' institutionalized' animal abuse (all in the name of food). And like I said before, we have the ability to grow spiritually to the point where the notion of causing suffering is or should be entirely reprehensible. Those are reasons why we can't hold the lion to the same standard. He is a 'prisoner' of his instincts, his environment, his abilities and his (compared to ours) limited intellect.

And we don't minimize the pain. I read an article a couple years ago that the Washington Post printed about the slaughterhouse process. The gist of it was that one interviewed worker talked about how as cattle arrived at the station where their legs were being cut off, often they were blinking and mooing.......but the line never stopped and the chain saw started and the legs came off.

Last year in Australia, for 6 months, cattle exports to Indonesia was halted due to the extreme abuse and cruelty of the slaughter process. But it wasn't long before money won out and despite the fact that little changed in Indonesian slaughterhouses, the cattle began to be shipped again. http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/speci...aJune2011enews

What's more, the laws that prohibit animal cruelty and abuse are weak and unevenly implemented and as far as food animals are concerned, there are almost no laws that protect them. If I lock my cat in a rubbermaid bin for her entire life (with air holes and a place for her to stick her head out) and she is unable to turn around and can only lay down with difficulty, then charges of abuse can be made against me. But millions of pigs around the world, individually spend their entire breeding lives like that. And it is referred to as 'industry standards' instead of physical and mental torture of an animal that is at least as smart as your five year old child.

The whole 'animals eating animals' is a red herring, intended to distract from the real issue which is that we humans are abusive and cruel in our behavior and that despite the possibility for spiritual growth and moral and ethical improvement, we chose not to because our apparently inherent selfish nature rears its ugly head and screams "me first, me first!". And that invariably leaves the animals of the world swinging in the wind.