I dont believe animals are smart enough to have emotion.
Why?

So, do you believe all animals experience emotion then? What about insects? Bacteria, single-cell organisms? But not plants...right?

Are you for freeing all living creatures of harm done to them because of humans, or just the cute, people-like creatures? Where is the line drawn? And what reasons do you have for drawing the line where you've drawn the line, and why would you expect anyone to follow your arbitrary guideline of which creatures have emotion and are worth fighting for, and which are not?
I'm not trying to enforce anything, when are you gonna get that? I'm making moral decisions for myself and myself alone. I've only been explaining why i believe what i believe, now, I ask again, why do you believe what you believe?

I draw the line as best i can with the information that is currently available to me, that's really all any1 can do. Insects feel something, but I'd be willing to bet that what they feel is far more primitive than anything the more advanced animals feel. Plants, well i have no idea about what if anything plants could feel and as for single-celled organisms, they can react, but they can never react with purpose in mind (because they dont have a mind) and they can't feel, because they dont have a nervous system. And like i said b4, if i need to eat life forms to survive, well, that is an unfortunate necessity, but it is a necessity. Besides I already told you that my goal was to reduce suffering and i have already accomplished that goal and will continue to accomplish that goal in the future.



Maybe these animals should put their distraught emotion (over the fact that their whole purpose is to become my lunch) to good use and work harder to get their way up the food chain. Until that time comes, they will continue to be part of my diet.
Well that's a funny thing for you to say... according to your logic, and with this part i agree, they dont know why they are in that situation and they certainly don't know how to work towards getting out of that situation, but i realize that you were prolly saying that more in jest than anything.

I think you need a base intelligence in order to have emotions, or to be affected by them the way that we are. Babies aren't emotional, they become emotional beings later, when their brain has developed enough.
They certainly cry a lot for beings that arn't emotional. And what of my earlier example? What about the severely retarded people that don't develop into fully functional human beings? Would it be ok, in your view, to eat them?