Is it ethical for me to eat a homeless cat if I encounter one?

Questions of what is ethical and what is not are mostly complicated and controversial, to most of which no one single answer that satisfies everyone can ever be realized. And even whether eating a homeless cat is ethical or not is not easy to determine, either. As a Cambodian living in Phnom Penh, looking at the culture of this society, eating a cat is clearly a taboo, but is it as clearly an unethical behavior? In fact, according to a few other reasons, it is more unethical than ethical.

Indeed, for that homeless cat to be eaten, it needs to be killed, and killing is universally considered unethical (as in the theory of objectivism). Although cat is just an animal, it has a life, and to take away one’s life is not right. Opponents of this view might bring up the fact that we human beings kill a huge number of cows, chickens, pigs, horses and the like everyday to satisfy our appetite; however, two wrongs don’t make one right. Just that we have done countless unethical acts of killing animals and/or consuming their meat (indirect killing) does not make it fine to commit such unethical things as killing another animal. We must conscientiously admit that stabbing animals and making them go through excruciating pain of death so that their flesh can be used as food is wrong; we human beings, excluding faithful vegetarians, are arguably unethical carnivores.

Let us analyze this behavior in relation to the four domains of ethics – action, motive(s), attitude/heart, and consequence(s) – if I ate a homeless cat. One: how is this act of killing itself? It ends one life, which involves physical harm with bones broken and blood shed. Plus, as far as Buddhism and Khmer cultures are concerned, it is simply cruel, sinful, and taboo. Two: would there be any understandably appropriate motive behind me deciding to kill and eat the homeless cat I see on the street? I don’t think so. The most likely motive would simply be me being hungry and wanting to eat cat meat. But if I really am hungry, with the money I have and with my home to go to, where sufficient food is made ready before every meal, I simply never have a motive good enough to do such a taboo act. Three:  would I kill the cat for meat with a good, innocent heart? Plainly, a university student, who can think perfectly well, would do such a thing with only a selfish, inconsiderate heart. Four: would the consequence of eating the cat be so great that such repugnant act could be reasonably compensated? The most obvious outcome would simply be me being full and the cat being physically harmed and then killed, and the full stomach of a person that can well afford proper diets everyday is never justifiable enough to make up for the painful loss of one life. Therefore, as in the other three domains, the consequences of this killing are also unjustifiable.

At this point, after putting out these afore-mentioned arguments I am even more confident now, than when I started this essay, that to eat a homeless cat is unethical. After all, what else is left to prove ethicality of this act, when the result of the examination of this act through the four domains of ethics has shown no favors? Anyway, having earlier regarded human beings as unethical carnivores, I, nevertheless, do not mean to encourage everyone to care no more about what is ethical and what is not. Despite being an unethical eater, it remains true and necessary that we be an ethical citizen, an ethical family member, an ethical neighbor, an ethical employee, and so on and so forth.