• Question: Do humans and animals actually need to hunt and eat meat to survive any more or could we manage without? Humans have foods like Quorn and Soya but could predators find other sources of protein?

    Asked by marialovesmusic to Charlotte, Jo, Kevin, Louise, Valeria on 15 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Kevin Mahon

      Kevin Mahon answered on 15 Jun 2012:

      Humans choose to not eat meat out of ethical/health reasons – these kinds of thought processes are very higher level and advanced, a result of human evolution of the brain – predatory wild animals are unlikely to be influenced by this logic as they don’t understand it or think it.

      They are programmed to hunt, kill and eat their prey.

    • Photo: Joanna Cruden

      Joanna Cruden answered on 17 Jun 2012:

      Humans in some parts of the world may still need to hunt to survive some people live in the jungle or on the plains, and may reply on the animals as a food source and there may not be shops or other ways of getting meat or meat substitutes.

      Generally in the more developed parts of the world it is a choice and we don’t need to hunt or eat meat to survive but if we do not eat meat we have to make sure we are getting the right vitamins and minerals from other food sources or supplements.

      True carnivores like ferrets and big cats would not survive on non-meat sources even if they wanted to because their digestive system is developed to process meat so they really do need to hunt and kill.

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