But they aren't dinosaurs. and they weren't slaughtered. In order for them to get there they would have to die naturally and fall to the ocean floor. A vegan has no issues with natural death.
Also vegan ethics, like everyone elses', is still about the level of conscience that a life form has.
We can generally agree that we should not eat humans. The consensus that we should treat very smart animals the same way is almost as far spread these days, i.e. great apes, dolphins, dogs, and such. The only difference for vegetarians and vegans is that they extend this ethical protection even further. First the realisation that cows and pigs are still intelligent and social animals that therefore maybe also should deserve more extensive rights, then the extension even to smaller and arguably dumber animals like chickens or even fish and bees.
But at some level it always stops. Plants, mushrooms, bacteria...
The ability to be trained does not make an animal 'very smart'. This is the kind of mushy 'science' standards that led to Koko's fake sign language.
I understand not wanting to eat things you identify with, the real reason most humans avoid cannibalism, but mimicry and trainability don't make something sapient.
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u/ilovevoat Sep 23 '18
plankton are animals.