but don't you also cause pain with the will? you voluntarily eat vegetables, do you not? in doing so you inflict damage to the little critters that compete with you for those vegetables. do you ENJOY eating vegetables or, heaven forbid, gardening? if so you are murdering with wanton pleasure, similar to the hunter.

do you take antibiotics to ward off infection? if so, how dare you put your own life above that of the tiny little organism that has invaded your ecosystem? just because a virus does not have a kind, gentle, knowing face (unlike, say, a bull) you don't hesitate to kill it. isn't that a bit of a double-standard?

i submit: the argument that animals should not be exploited for the well-being of humans is a circular one, and can only be resolved by putting a revolver in your mouth and squeezing the trigger. that will well and truly preserve the well-being of all creatures great and small. your carcass, left unattended, will help sustain the small.

the fact is, nature is full of things called food chains, and by happy coincidence we, humans, are the mothers of all predators. we're at the apex. personally, i rather like it here.

moreover, with the discovery that chimps modify sticks to harvest termites we can put to rest the tired hypothesis that humans are the only ones who can use tools, and therefore have some kind of unfair advantage. it just so happens our tools are a tad more efficient.

face it. evolution happened. we won the race.