Trivial Human Interests

In response to Quincy - full post here

I would agree with your assessment of the meaning of trivial human interests. I am not yet sure if trivial human interests means that the action brought about through the interest is necessarily immoral. I think the relative immorality depends on the treatment of the animal as well. If an non-human animal had to die in order to be a spectacle at a zoo, then it would certainly be immoral.

One trivial human interest that I think is most prevalent in our society and is often overlooked as trivial is the consumption of meat. Most human beings can survive quite well with a vegetarian diet - that is, a diet without meat. Many humans continue to bring about the deaths of animals for consumption because it's slightly inconvenient to not do so and/or because they like the taste of meat. I think both of those are rather trivial interests, and, seeing as how it does require the death of a non-human animal, it is certainly not a morally justified action for most human beings.