The following is excerpted from an online interview with Dr. Peter Singer, conducted by the Universist Movement. Peter Singer is considered by many to be the most prominent ethicist alive. His 1975 book Animal Liberation is credited by many as sparking the modern animal liberation movement. Among his many other books are Animal Liberation: A Graphic Guide, The Great Ape Project, In Defense of Animals, and Animal Rights and Human Obligations. Learn more about his views on animals at ethics here.
Peter_Singer: The best argument against vegetarianism comes from dumpster divers. If you get your meat out of a supermarket dumpster, when it was going to be thrown out anyway, go ahead and eat it, you’re not supporting the abuse of animals by paying for meat.
Ford_Vox: tyciol: About the dumpster diver defence of flesh consumption, by eating the flesh aren’t you eating flesh which could have been eaten by a less moral dumpster diver, or pet of a human, who will then have to look elsewhere for a meat source, eventually paying for it because they can but might have gotten it free?
Peter_Singer: Re the followup to the dumpster diver, no, the assumption is that if you don’t pull it out of the dumpster, it will just go for trash, no one, and no one’s pet, is going to eat it. If that assumption doesn’t hold, of course the situation is different.