Are humans predators?
One of my favorite arguments against veganism is that “humans are predators.” Whereas that may technically be true, and was partially true about humans in the past, modern-day humans aren’t predators like those found in nature.
Some will say that we are predators simply because we have eyes on the front of our heads, but that is easily debunked:
“All primates, for example, including lemurs, bushbabies, tarsiers, old-world monkeys, new-world monkeys, and the great apes, have forward facing eyes. With two exceptions, none of these are primarily predators. Many are entirely herbivorous, others will opportunistically take small animals for food but these are usually encountered at close range while foraging, or otherwise under conditions that don't require accurate pounces, and the meat thus gained is but a small contribution to their diet.”
Another good one is that we’re predators because we have canines, but that too is easily disproven:
“Not only do most mammals, including herbivores, have canine teeth; but the largest canine teeth of any land mammal belong to a true herbivore.”
And then there’s my favorite: “humans are apex predators.” Let’s look at the definition of an apex predator:
“a predator at the top of a food chain that is not preyed upon by any other animal.”
Humans are, of course, not top of the food chain:
“Next come the omnivores that eat a mixture of plants and herbivores. That's where humans rank, with a trophic level of 2.2. Above us are carnivores, such as foxes, that eat just herbivores. At the top of the scale are meat-eaters that don't have any predators themselves, such as polar bears and orca whales. Instead, we sit somewhere between pigs and anchovies, scientists reported recently. That puts us right in the middle of the chain, with polar bears and orca whales occupying the highest position.”
The second part of the apex predator definition says, “not preyed upon by any other animal.” However, we are preyed upon by other animals - wolves, bears, lions, sharks, alligators, crocodiles, etc. So by definition, we are not apex predators.
Now let’s compare humans to predators found in nature. An actual predator runs around in the woods naked, chases after their prey, grabs the animal with their teeth, kills the animal in their mouth, and eats the animal raw. Predators do this because they have to in order to survive.
Now let’s look at what humans do. A human hunter dresses up in layers of warm clothes, brings all their gadgets and accessories, hides like a coward in a tree, uses a gun or bow to kill a defenseless animal, then takes the animal home and cooks them. The human doesn’t do this because they have to, as they have readily available food. Instead, they choose to cowardly take a life, mostly in an effort to impress other human men. If a human tried to kill an animal the way actual predators do, at best, they would fail miserably and starve to death, and at worst, they would be killed by the animal they were trying to kill.
As an aside, an actual carnivore or omnivore will immediately eat the animal after killing them, and will eat them raw. Humans must cook the animals before eating or they’ll get sick and possibly die. And for those that don’t hunt, they buy their meat from grocery stores where the decaying flesh is pumped full of chemicals to stay “fresh.” Eating rotting, decaying flesh that you had to cook doesn’t make you a carnivore or an omnivore, it makes you a necrovore.
It’s also worth noting that even though humans may be classified as omnivores, our biology is much closer to that of an herbivore.
Side note: researchers found evidence that hunting is linked to psychosexual inadequacy.
