[ WP ] try to justify the most terrible act possible , without using anything similar to a `` kill a few to save a bunch '' clause .

In the end, the vegetarians probably had a point. 
 
 No, not about cows having souls or the hidden cruelty behind chicken nuggets. Nobody cares about that crap. But you have to admit they saw the issue eons before we did. 
 
 You see, as sentient carnivores we ’ d all been buying into a sort of... collective rationale. We knew that animals could think, and feel, and care for one another. But we ate them anyway. And it was okay, we thought, because we were so much smarter than they were. So many steps above them on the evolutionary ladder that we considered ourselves an entirely separate rank of life. Sentience -- to coin a phrase -- granted us sovereignty. 
 
 The problem is, sentience isn ’ t a hard line. It ’ s just one point on a grand spectrum of intelligence. And when the beings from X ’ lathri Prime first arrived on Earth, humanity quickly learned two very important things: 
 
 1 ) The X ’ lathrins are much, much smarter than we are. 
 
 2 ) Humans taste GREAT with ketchup.
