Peter Singer

I had previously (see below) hyphothesized a question to Peter Singer about the over-population of deer species, and interesting enough, almost the same question was proposed to him during his lecture at Williams College this past Thursday. He was asked something along the lines of, "with regards to hunters, what do you think about killing deer, especially with the problems caused by their over-population?" And Singer responded that he was not entirely opposed to killing deer to quell the problems they have caused, as long as the person killing them is a good shot, and is killing them almost immediately upon impact, so to not prolong any suffering. He also said he thinks it is more ethical to kill and eat deer than cows. He did say (even if indirectly) that we should continue consuming cows, because their existence depends on humans. Though the treatment of cows during their life should be reevaluated so to assure they have a more enjoying life.

I also found it interesting that not once during his lecture did Singer say flat out that he thinks it is ethically wrong to kill or eat animals. The lecture revoloved more around taking steps towards eating more ethically, as in locally (better for the environment, less travel) and organically/free-range so we support farms that allow their animals to live a life with minimal suffering before their death. He did, however, claim that he thinks becoming a vegetarian or vegan is an even further step toward eating ethically. The ethics were not just taking into account the life of sentient beings, but also the environment. Overall, I thought his lecture was very realistic, as it is not likely for the entire population to just stop eating meat over-night.