Should we stop eating other animals? What are the moral, environmental, and health issues involved?
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Vegetarianism
- Thread starter The Dragon Master
- Start date
Evil Eye said:
You would have to kill some yes, but we wouldn't breed them like hell, therefore, there wouldn't be an over population of animals. Animals don't just constantly mate and have calfs, chicks etc. They have to be put with a rooster or bull etc.
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Anyway, I'm a Vegan. I'm happy, people will never understand what the real effects they are having by eating meat unless they actually see it happening, thats why so many turn a blind eye to it, they don't want to see what they are eating.
I've been through this topic so many times on this forum and others, i just can't be bothered anymore, but eat meat if you wish, but i can tell you if you watch the film Earthlings, you will never look at your meat the same again.
Your avvy, it reminds me of the ALF. Also, I respect you for being a vegan. That takes real dedication.
This earth has existed for millions of years before us, and it has never failed to regulate itself without us messing around with it. In fact, I believe that most of the animal overpopulation is due to us taking animals to environments that aren't evolved to handle them. A certain frog overpopulation issue comes to mind.
In any case, I used to be a vegetarian, and I reintroduced fish into my diet last autumn due to it being a cheap source of protein and me being very hard pressed for money (and due to months of harassment by my father). I haven't noticed any health changes since I reintroduced meat into my diet, however I felt like I had sold out my morals when I started eating meat again. It is my personal belief that we should try to avoid killing if possible, and I feel that eating meat justifies that killing.
I refuse to tell anyone else what to eat or how to live, but it is my personal moral choice to avoid eating meat, for multiple reasons which I don't feel like getting into at midnight on a work night. I do look forward, however, to the point in time when I become a vegetarian again. Next time will be for good.
This earth has existed for millions of years before us, and it has never failed to regulate itself without us messing around with it. In fact, I believe that most of the animal overpopulation is due to us taking animals to environments that aren't evolved to handle them. A certain frog overpopulation issue comes to mind.
In any case, I used to be a vegetarian, and I reintroduced fish into my diet last autumn due to it being a cheap source of protein and me being very hard pressed for money (and due to months of harassment by my father). I haven't noticed any health changes since I reintroduced meat into my diet, however I felt like I had sold out my morals when I started eating meat again. It is my personal belief that we should try to avoid killing if possible, and I feel that eating meat justifies that killing.
I refuse to tell anyone else what to eat or how to live, but it is my personal moral choice to avoid eating meat, for multiple reasons which I don't feel like getting into at midnight on a work night. I do look forward, however, to the point in time when I become a vegetarian again. Next time will be for good.
Evil Eye said:
True, though we couldn't stop breeding them because our pets'd still eat meat...[/quote]
Pet's can still eat vegetables etc, besides, there would always be some form of live stock, just not the mass amounts we have in todays world, and hopefully, no slaughter houses, just killed on the farm, the humane way it should always be done.
On a vegetarian aspect, one convincing argument I have considered on this subject is the energy pyramid. I'm personally not a fan of people not eating meat because they find it cruel while ignoring how they eat other organisms. It's not like plants don't have nerves and cannot feel pain, it's proven that they have feelings like animals and humans. If you rip corn from its stalk and eat it raw, aren't you eating it alive? I've seen many vegetarians continue to eat sea food as well... When you eat a lobster or a crab, people have to boil it alive for you. If you consider these and still continue to eat your way like I do with meat then I completely support your choice if you're doing it for moral purposes.
Bottom line is that something has to die for you to eat.
I don't believe any human should stop eating meat but it's always the individual's choice. All I'll ask is that they at least have a level of respect towards the organism and don't think less of something just because it doesn't communicate like you do. If you're doing it for health reasons or environmental, I support that too.
Bottom line is that something has to die for you to eat.
I don't believe any human should stop eating meat but it's always the individual's choice. All I'll ask is that they at least have a level of respect towards the organism and don't think less of something just because it doesn't communicate like you do. If you're doing it for health reasons or environmental, I support that too.
Silverpaw said:
Wrong. Scientist have proven that plants do not feel pain or do not have feelings. There's no scientific evidence that says they do.
Yes, and the Vegetarians who eat Sea Food are not really a Vegetarian.
Aaaah, guess that was my bad!
I can't argue that if I only heard it from someone else.
It doesn't take feelings to have respect towards plants anyway. I just included it because people still seem to ignore that they are living organisms too and pain seems to be the only few traits for us to sympathize with when everything functions differently to begin with.
True which bothers me when they say they are vegetarian.
Edit: Haha searched it up and now I feel silly for even mentioning it!
How embarrassing.
It doesn't take feelings to have respect towards plants anyway. I just included it because people still seem to ignore that they are living organisms too and pain seems to be the only few traits for us to sympathize with when everything functions differently to begin with.
True which bothers me when they say they are vegetarian.
Edit: Haha searched it up and now I feel silly for even mentioning it!
Liberation! said:
As a former/future vegetarian who eats seafood, I completely agree with this statement. A vegetarian is someone who doesn't eat any animal life, with the possible exception of eggs. What ticks me off, though, is people who stop eating beef and pork and call themselves vegetarian.
The Dragon Master said:
No, we shouldn't stop eating meat. Human beings are omnivorous by nature. The thought of me never having meat again fills me with dread, I simply love the stuff. Not to mention that life without meat would be very boring for me at least.
Wolvendeer said:
Second this.
I don't understand why they would consider themselves vegetarian when there are even meat eaters who won't eat pork and beef.
Just to include this in there, people who work solely on growing their own food and raise their own animals normally do not have a choice on eating animals or not. (As food gets scarce) From the places I've been in they lectured anyone who were vegetarian stating that they would be forced to eat meat if they decided to live like this. Getting to my point I'm pretty sure that anyone who replies in this thread would probably live in an area that provides many supplements for meat and it's easier for us to have access vegetables and fruits. We may be omnivores but it's quite easy for us to live without meat.
I still believe no one should stop eating meat but felt like mentioning that.
Yes, but the thing is, in poverty riven countries, they don't have slaughter houses, they don't have huge trucks which they pack animals on, they don't have massive factories which they stuff their animals full of hormones, drugs etc.
They are free range animals, living a normal life, and they get a simple hit to the head at the end of their life, unlike in our culture, where they are kept in pens their whole lives, put in a crowded truck, dragged up stairs, hung up by their legs and have a knife put into their neck so they can slowly bleed out and choke on their own blood.
So really, in those countries, even though there is a lot of poverty, the animals before slaughter have a way better life than the animals here.
I have no problem if animals are killed humanly and in a stress free way, hell, I'd probably eat meat if they were killed within a second without even knowing. I do this for the animals, not for myself.
They are free range animals, living a normal life, and they get a simple hit to the head at the end of their life, unlike in our culture, where they are kept in pens their whole lives, put in a crowded truck, dragged up stairs, hung up by their legs and have a knife put into their neck so they can slowly bleed out and choke on their own blood.
So really, in those countries, even though there is a lot of poverty, the animals before slaughter have a way better life than the animals here.
I have no problem if animals are killed humanly and in a stress free way, hell, I'd probably eat meat if they were killed within a second without even knowing. I do this for the animals, not for myself.
Very true.
They don't choke on their own blood. You failed to mention that they are rendered insensible (unconscious) before a main artery is cut and they die painlessly of blood loss.[/quote]Kasynlie said:
I beg to differ. If you have actually seen what happens you would understand, company's and educational videos mislead people, the majority of the time they are still conscious, it takes a few minutes for them to get hooked up once they have been stunned, and they slowly go up, so they come back to consciousness.
I've seen enough to understand what happens.
If the process of preparing meat was that inhumane I'm sure SAFE, [R]SPCA and various other organizations would have forced the governments to make changes to the particular legislation that governs the slaughtering of animals.
You'd think so, but they don't. It's very inhumane, but the thing is, the RSPCA don't really care, they don't want to go up against huge organizations because they will lose.
Watch some youtube videos or earthlings, and you will see how inhumane our meat industry really is
Watch some youtube videos or earthlings, and you will see how inhumane our meat industry really is
What Liberation said. Also, they have some good lobbyists and some good money. It isn't as easy to stop it as what it should be.
