answer:Great question. I was a vegetarian for 9 years, but still struggle with my choices. I’m actually going to post a question about the ethics of fishing soon. If we are not specifically discussing food, I think many people are ok with smashing a fly or mosquito because we don’t believe it is conscious. While we may eat a pig, you’d be challenged to find someone here who could justify killing a pig with the same carelessness as we would a mosquito. It is confusing. It appears that if our intention is to minimize our suffering and act morally, we would be concerned with conscious creatures. Many of us eat meat, however. But even eating meat has different levels of concerns. For example, is there something significantly different between hunting and killing a deer for food vs. paying people to raise cattle and chickens in factory farms, exposing them to lives of pure misery that only end when they are finally slaughtered for our consumption? I have yet to meet someone who has this completely figured out. I see people make attempts by trying to live with extreme care to minimize death and suffering, and then there are those who seem to resent such efforts and have little concern for non-human suffering. I’m not sure it’s just a “find a place in the middle” situation. It might be that some level of arbitrary preference is necessary, while making intentional compassion and care for conscious creatures a active concern.