When does killing an animal constitute murder?

I would say that while I respect all living things my compassion for an animal is proportional to it's intelligence. This proportion is tempered by the subject animals tastiness, bacon would be a good example. I will kill a mosquito with less thought than I will kill a duck and a duck with less concern than I would a dog. As all moral judgments are based on our own subjective viewpoints I guess it comes down to why the killing is being done. The most important thing is to consider your place in the food chain. Hunger does away with a lot of equivocating.Here is a wrench in the works. Would it be morally acceptable for a species of greater intellect to come along and farm humans for food or adrenaline or amusement? Would that be murder? Hmmm...maybe I should be a vegetarian after all.

I was having a conversation with my brother in law about how old the earth was. After listening to his explanation as to why the earth could not be any more than 6,000 yrs old I told him that I wouldn't feed that logic to my dog out of fear that he wouldn't keep it down. He made some comment about casting pearls before swine and I reminded him that "As the dog returns to his vomit so the fool returns to his folly." Things degenerated from there. Do you mean that it is only ok to kill animals that are not aware that you are going to kill them? All animals feel pain don't they? There is some evidence, I understand, that shows that plants are capable of communicating distress to their neighbours.From the Wiki Today I eat salad and tomorrow I am plant food.

This use of the word 'murder' is so diffuse that it renders the term meaningless. Murder can only be committed by a human against another human.'I am the Lord thy God...eat me.'