After being inspired by Exobyte's thread Humans vs Animals, a question that's been spooking through my mind for a while rose up again. I think it's a very complicated and interesting topic, so I'm expecting a lot of milage out of this discussion. ^^

Here's the rub:

1) What is the value of an animal (let's just say a pig or something).
2) In relation to the value of the animal, what would its concrete animal rights be? Would it be morally justified to kill them and eat them?

In other words: convince me to become, or not to become a vegetarian or even a vegan...


Feel free to elaborate as much as you want. Wanna discuss human value and human rights? Go right ahead. Wanna discuss systems of ethics? Go right ahead.
I don't mind the topic being expanded for the sake of justifying the original question of "what are an animal's rights?"


READY? FIGHT!!