Student: Obviously, animals have the same moral rights and moral status that humans have.
Professor: All of the same moral rights?
Student: Yes.
Professor: Including the right not to be killed for the benefit of another?
Student: Yes.
Professor: Are you morally opposed to eating meat?
Student. No.
Professor: So you don’t believe that eating meat is morally wrong?
Student: No.
Professor: Is cannibalism morally wrong?
Student: What?!
Professor: There’s an episode in The Walking Dead in which practitioners of cannibalism deceive, capture, kill, and eat other human beings. Is this practice morally wrong? Are these cannibalistic characters violating the moral rights of those humans they capture, kill, and eat?
Student: Well, of course, cannibalism is morally wrong! Yes, obviously, they are violating the moral rights of their victims!
Professor: Are your views inconsistent?
Student: How so?
Professor: You say that humans and non-human animals have the same moral status and all the same moral rights, including the right not to be killed for the benefit of another.
Student: Yes.
Professor: And yet you are not opposed to humans eating non-human animal flesh, which suggests that you don’t believe that killing and eating non-human animals violates their moral rights.
Student: Correct.
Professor: So why do you believe that humans killing and eating other human animals violates the moral rights of those who are eaten? After all, you’ve admitted that humans and non-human animals have the same moral status and rights.
Student: I don't know. I'm not sure what you mean.
Professor: Given your views about humans and non-human animals being "the same," doesn't logical consistency require that you treat them the same such that either you admit that eating animal flesh is wrong or you admit that cannibalism is morally acceptable?
Student: Well, no, I don't have to admit either of those claims.
Professor: Why not?
Student: Because I like the taste of meat.
Professor: Why should your subjective tastes be sufficient to give you a special exception to the principle that we ought not to violate another’s moral rights? After all, what if the cannibal likes the taste of human flesh - as do some of the characters in TWD? Should he also be granted a special exception on the basis of his subjective tastes?
Student: Gosh, I never thought this class would be so complicated.
I'm a meat-eater, but back when my kids were teenagers, the animal rights people were pulling some sort of local stunt (I can't remember what). The kids were laughing about them, but I said, "Assuming that they are vegans and don't wear leather, at least they are being consistent!".