A person who would otherwise be a vegan makes the case that it is okay to eat non-sentient animals. She believes acerebral animals must be non-sentient: other authors have suggested that animals with distributed nodal nervous systems may be sentient.

http://sentientist.org/2013/05/20/the-ethical-case-for-eating-oysters-and-mussels/

I don’t have strong views on the topic.

My question is: Apart from bivalves, what animals have no brains?

“Clams Have Feelings Too (Actually They Don’t)”

Birds are dumb, ‘cause small bird brains
But so are kids and old people
Some birds talk, most others sing
I don’t see you eat a talking bird

Pigs smell bad, they roll in poo
But so do kids and elderly
I don’t see you chop off an old man’s feet
Put ‘em in a mason jar and pickle them

No chowder for you, ‘cause clams have feelings too
Actually they don’t have central nervousness
No manhatten style, clams have the right to smile
Come to think about it, they don’t have a face

They have no face, no place for ears
There’s no clam eyes, to cry clam tears
No spinal cord, they must get bored
Might as well just put them out of misery

I don’t beleive it’s selfish
To eat defenceless shellfish

No chowder for you, clams have feelings too
It could happen to you, clams have feelings too
I don’t think they do, clams have feelings too

corals, jellyfish…

maybe sponges.

still thinking…

dv said:

A person who would otherwise be a vegan makes the case that it is okay to eat non-sentient animals. She believes acerebral animals must be non-sentient: other authors have suggested that animals with distributed nodal nervous systems may be sentient.

http://sentientist.org/2013/05/20/the-ethical-case-for-eating-oysters-and-mussels/

I don’t have strong views on the topic.

My question is: Apart from bivalves, what animals have no brains?

Star-fish?

It makes perfect sense to me that we should draw the limit about what living things we eat somewhere other than the 2 points chosen by most people (i.e. it’s OK to eat anything except humans, or it’s OK to eat anything that isn’t an animal).

Of course, any dividing line will be arbitrary, but as we need to eat this is a case where either/orism is a necessity.

the ocean is the place…

do star fish have a brain??

sea cucumbers, sea urchins

can’t think of anything else

The Rev Dodgson said:

Star-fish?

It makes perfect sense to me that we should draw the limit about what living things we eat somewhere other than the 2 points chosen by most people (i.e. it’s OK to eat anything except humans, or it’s OK to eat anything that isn’t an animal).

Of course, any dividing line will be arbitrary, but as we need to eat this is a case where either/orism is a necessity.

Even I’d draw such a line. I would not eat a chimpanzee.

• Even I’d draw such a line. I would not eat a chimpanzee.

I wouldn’t eat an oyster…

dv said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Star-fish?

It makes perfect sense to me that we should draw the limit about what living things we eat somewhere other than the 2 points chosen by most people (i.e. it’s OK to eat anything except humans, or it’s OK to eat anything that isn’t an animal).

Of course, any dividing line will be arbitrary, but as we need to eat this is a case where either/orism is a necessity.

Even I’d draw such a line. I would not eat a chimpanzee.

I would extend that to elephants, whales, dolphins, any ape, dogs, cats, and horses.

There was a time I included cows, pigs and sheep, but I gave that up long ago.

dv said:

Even I’d draw such a line. I would not eat a chimpanzee.

What if it were a particularly dim chimpanzee?

The Rev Dodgson said:

dv said:

The Rev Dodgson said:

Star-fish?

It makes perfect sense to me that we should draw the limit about what living things we eat somewhere other than the 2 points chosen by most people (i.e. it’s OK to eat anything except humans, or it’s OK to eat anything that isn’t an animal).

Of course, any dividing line will be arbitrary, but as we need to eat this is a case where either/orism is a necessity.

Even I’d draw such a line. I would not eat a chimpanzee.

I would extend that to elephants, whales, dolphins, any ape, dogs, cats, and horses.

There was a time I included cows, pigs and sheep, but I gave that up long ago.

“elephants”
I wouldn’t eat anything endangered or vulnerable to endangerment.

“whales, dolphins”
Yeah okay I’ll lay off the cetaceans.

“any ape”
Deal.

“dogs, cats”
The circumstances under which I would eat dog or cat would be unusual but I would not have any ethical qualm about it.

“horses”
I’d probably eat horse without any problems.

• I’d probably eat horse without any problems.

You probably already have…

Witty Rejoinder said:

dv said:

Even I’d draw such a line. I would not eat a chimpanzee.

What if it were a particularly dim chimpanzee?

I’m not saying I’d vote for it but I wouldn’t eat it.

You’d need to define a brain.
At what point does it stop being a neural ganglion and become a brain?

There’s loads of inverts that don’t have “brains” in the sense of a vertebrate’s large energy hungry noggin mush.

Jellyfish do not have “brains” yet Cubazoans (box jellyfish) have image forming eyes that can see a range of colours. They will actively hunt prey. If it can see images and hunt down a meal, surely that’s evidence of self awareness and thus sentience.

Teleost said:

You’d need to define a brain.
At what point does it stop being a neural ganglion and become a brain?

There’s loads of inverts that don’t have “brains” in the sense of a vertebrate’s large energy hungry noggin mush.

Jellyfish do not have “brains” yet Cubazoans (box jellyfish) have image forming eyes that can see a range of colours. They will actively hunt prey. If it can see images and hunt down a meal, surely that’s evidence of self awareness and thus sentience.

Not that I’m about to start relying on jellyfish. Though others may have to.

Carrots scream when you pull them too.

roughbarked said:

Teleost said:

You’d need to define a brain.
At what point does it stop being a neural ganglion and become a brain?

There’s loads of inverts that don’t have “brains” in the sense of a vertebrate’s large energy hungry noggin mush.

Jellyfish do not have “brains” yet Cubazoans (box jellyfish) have image forming eyes that can see a range of colours. They will actively hunt prey. If it can see images and hunt down a meal, surely that’s evidence of self awareness and thus sentience.

Not that I’m about to start relying on jellyfish. Though others may have to.

Carrots scream when you pull them too.

All Earth species are interesting for planetary species study