I kill plenty of spiders. The rule that the spiders are expected to abide by is: As long as they stay in their corner and eat flies and stuff and don’t come crawling in to my bed, or near my feet… they can live in my house.
I can rationalize a fish. I can deal with that. I think fish are significantly more simplistic animals than chickens. I can’t take responsibility for what I consider to be a truly sentient being. If I were starving to death, I probably could kill a bird or a squirrel or the like. I could never, however, bring myself to kill a deer. Its the mammals in particular that get to me.
If I were given an option about eating fish, I probably wouldn’t. It isn’t an optional thing with me. Its complicated. I’m not well and probably shouldn’t be a vegetarian anyways. I just… can’t eat meat. I can’t bring myself to do it. I HAD to rationalize the fish thing a while ago and do my best to be mindful of it. I appreciate every fishie that I munch and do see them wriggling there in my head. Its a difficult situation.
Plus, dead things remind me of dead people, which I work with.