are humans really the king of all living things?

Excerpt from an auto-forwarded Reuters newsletter into our group mailbox.

CHICAGO, February 10 (Reuters) - The prospects look good for a record strong showing by U.S. meat exporters this year given the growing global demand for meat products and the recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMB) in South and North Korea, which has led to the culling of millions of livestock in that region. But with rising crop prices posing a direct threat to livestock feeding operations, the road to success may be a bumpy one, and only those operators with diligent input-hedging practices will likely reap the full rewards.

What does reading the above news make you feel?

This, in particular, was most poignant in my opinion:

"..recent outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in South and North Korea...led to the culling of millions of livestock in that region.."

As I get older, and my beliefs start to take a more solid form, I feel more and more inclined towards turning vegetarian. Why should animals get killed simply for the safety and protection of human beings? Who do we think we are to take away the lives of 'millions' of animals just to secure our supposedly-more-important lives?

Humans only triumph in the fact that we have developed more powerful tools/technology, that we start rearing/owning animals just for the sake of killing them to meet our demands- diet, health, religious, fashion, and worst of all, hunting entertainment.

In the natural world, where other animals kill one another only for the sake of survival, there isn't even such a thing as a living thing 'owning' another living thing. Why do we assume we have the rights to regard ourselves as the invincible king at the top of the foodweb?

I'm not against eating meat for survival & health reasons. But for all other purposes, I think it's unnecessary. That is why I will make sure any meat ordered on the food table is finished; no animal should die only to get thrown away and decay subsequently.

I'm not sure about fish & crustaceans, but I'm rather certain that mammals & birds have feelings, thoughts & memories like us. Therefore as much as we fear death, they must too.

But I guess I still need more willpower to completely abstain from meat, especially if social circumstances or the inconvenience of locating a vegetarian stall deters a non-meat diet.

I'm uplifted by the fact that zk is starting to have these same beliefs as me. We have made a pact to eat only vegetarian when it's just the both of us going out from now on!