This question is for ETHICAL vegetarians and/or animal rights activists?

Question

I have been debating something in my mind for some time now. Perhaps it would help if I got some others input on this from others that understand where I am coming from....
Anyway, I have been unemployed off and on for some time now and lately I have been considering taking a job as a pizza delivery person, but as you might guess I have some real ethical issues with doing so.
I think I would enjoy certain aspects of the job, such as the freedom of being somewhat independent and I do love to drive. I also understand that the pay can sometimes be quite good too but at the same time I can't help but feel like I would be taking part in exploiting animals if I were to do this job.
Am I right to think this way? Would I be taking part in hurting animals if I were to do this job?
The other part of this is that there is not a lot of jobs around either so my choices are also a bit limited at the time as well but I suppose if I keep looking I can probably find something else..but the pay at another job might not be as good as this would be and, as I said, i definelty love the idea of working independently with no bosses directly on my back and the freedom involved with this kind of driving work.
Anyway, I am really curious about what others think of this?..I would especially like to know if you think I would be taking part in exploiting animals if I were to do this job? and would you do this job if you were me? and if not for a long term maybe just for a short while anyway? Do you think it is as bad as working in a slaughterhouse or steakhouse? Please be totally honest with me on this. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much in advance.

Answer 1

Hi, Sandra. I notice this is your second post with the same question. What someone else might or might not choose to do in a similar situation is irrelevant. You're not them and they cannot make this decision for you. This is your dilemma to resolve, and yours alone to live with.



Which way do you want to be nudged? Do you want be dissuaded from taking this job? Or do you want to be assured that you're not an "awful person" if you were to take this job?



If you're seeking a reassurance that you wouldn't be "hurting animals," then yes, your delivering pizzas will not increase, or even for that matter, decrease the hurt (which the animals have already been subjected to). Regardless of what you opt to do, the sum total of brutality imposed upon the animals remains unaffected. You'll be neither contributing to nor diminishing their misery.



The only factor, and the most important one in my opinion, is the effect of taking this (or any other) job on you and your psyche. Keep in mind that you will be interacting almost exclusively with people who see absolutely no issues with handling, trashing, tossing, sampling, commenting on, joking 'bout, or consuming animal products. You will be exposing yourself to products and sensations and tangibles which are bound to be stark reminders of their origins.



Our interactions matter. Our sensations matter. You may either become desensitized (in fact, I suspect that you probably will if you take this job) or simmer in a constant unease of playing a part, however dispassionate or non-contributory, in being a facilitator in this matrix of misery.



Either way, an emotional confusion arising either immediately or down the road seems inevitable. Are you willing the pay the price? Would the freedom you so desire be worth it? There's a price for everything, including the freedom you seek.



Consider how actively you're willing to look for other opportunities, how bitter might you feel with a lower-paying job? Would you feel like you had short-changed or cheated your lifestyle if you didn't take the job? Would you feel like you had short-changed or cheated your principles if you did take the job?



Experiment, learn, backtrack, regret, ponder, charge ahead, toss a coin, start from square one... in other words, undertake the experience. None of us knows what the right answers are, but as we discover ourselves, as we learn what our unique strengths and weakness are, the next time life throws us this question or challenge, the answers hopefully will be that much clearer based upon what we've learnt about ourselves.



Good luck to you. :)

Answer 2

Honestly, no matter what we do there will be animals slaughtered and there meat will be sold. Taking as a job a pizza delivery person doesn't say that you support the slaughtering of animals. Working in a slaughterhouse, that's a different story. I say take the job if you want to, and don't feel that you're exploiting animals because you're not. If you want this to be a short or long term job is up to you, but yeah, hope that helps :))

Answer 3

I have taken a job at a deli (lots of handling of meat) once in a similar situation. Which wasn't nearly as much fun as you make pizza delivery sound, but hey, I had to make a living somehow. It was a real case of either taking the job or leeching off others; and my ethics ALSO frown on leeching off others if there is ANY alternative enabling me to provide for myself.



So I took the job, kept looking and found something more suitable within a few weeks. I have no regrets.

Answer 4

If you are alive and breathing you are "exploiting" some part of the planet we are on. Cut the self-analyzing about delivering pizzas. You ain't going to work for the butcher shop are you?

Besides , you'll probably get shot during a robbery and won't have to worry about it anymore.



I'm not being sarcastic either, delivering pizzas is a good way to get killed.

Answer 5

Of course delivering meat and animal products to people involves participating in these industries.



How does it not?



I wouldn't take the job personally. I've been broke and homeless before to avoid funding killing,

and I still had a clean conscience.

Answer 6

It's rather a query of where you draw your line: it'll consistently be arbitrary but you have to decide for yourself what you can reside with and what you can't. The one you are occupied with here is a tough one. I think it would be an less complicated decision to not work for a butcher or slaughterhouse, or even a steakhouse. But pizza? You probably have a obstacle with their use of cheese I would see it being similar. But when it can be simplest the meat toppings, recognize that an awful significant sort of businesses sell or use animal products of some form. Exploiting animals shouldn't be *central* to a pizza business and it's reasonable to attract that line instead. If you're relaxed with that as your line, or should you suppose like you can't commit to living your life around a precept to that extent, take the job. Otherwise, quality of luck. Appreciate although that you just constantly do draw a line somewhere: the money you spend will almost always come to be within the hand of a meat-eater finally, and when you begin pondering of chains of accountability which might be too lengthy you can start thinking you have got to cast off yourself from society entirely. And even though you do not, you need to eat and that means you might be drinking resources and contributing to the pattern of human growth and discount of animal habitats.