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JoannAnthony - I intentionally chose three "benign" activities that are illegal in many jurisdictions to make the point that it's not the legality that's at issue with me - it's the involvement of a being that did not, and could not, choose to participate.
Scott - food is different. Food is not entertainment. For what it's worth, I am not a vegetarian, but I do try as much as possible to buy cage-free organic eggs, range beef, etc, because the quality of life of the animal is important to me. The fact that the animal dies is in the mix, but there is still far less suffering, and it's not just for entertainment.
On the hot dog eating contests, I don't think it's quite the same. The animal didn't suffer for entertainment. But on the other hand, I also think that it's not that far removed from using frozen turkeys for bowling in that although the animal didn't suffer, it did die for what amounts to entertainment. So in the future I will consider some eating contests equally odious to dogfighting or cockfighting.
Joann