Mark K. — I am basically with you, as you know. But I’m just not sure I’m convinced by this:

None of the practical reasons offered for such a moral principle hold any water, which is why the only meaningful basis for such a normative stance is that animals are on the same moral plane as human beings.

I think there are probably many kinds of vegetarianism and it doesn’t seem to me necessary to conclude that they all depend on the assumption that animals are on the same “moral plane” as human beings. No doubt, there are many people who do believe this, but such people don’t exhaust the supply of those whom we can fairly be call “vegetarians” or practitioners of vegitarianism. Scully himself is a self-described vegetarian, I believe. And while I think his views have evolved a bit since he wrote Dominion, I believe he still doesn’t think humans and animals are on the same moral plane. I think he believes that the moral plane humans inhabit requires them to treat animals much better than we do. (Matt’s a friend and he’s free to chime in, btw).