Why are you a vegetarian?

Answer 1

why?
cruelty to animals mostly.The green pastures and idyllic barnyard scenes of years past are now distant memories. On today’s factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates, and other confinement systems. These animals will never raise their families, root in the soil, build nests, or do anything that is natural to them. They won’t even feel the sun on their backs or breathe fresh air until the day they are loaded onto trucks bound for slaughter.

Animals on today’s factory farms have no legal protection from cruelty that would be illegal if it were inflicted on dogs or cats: neglect, mutilation, genetic manipulation, and drug regimens that cause chronic pain and crippling, transport through all weather extremes, and gruesome and violent slaughter. Yet farmed animals are no less intelligent or capable of feeling pain than are the dogs and cats we cherish as companions.

The factory farming system of modern agriculture strives to maximize output while minimizing costs. Cows, calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, and other animals are kept in small cages, in jam-packed sheds, or on filthy feedlots, often with so little space that they can’t even turn around or lie down comfortably. They are deprived of exercise so that all their bodies’ energy goes toward producing flesh, eggs, or milk for human consumption.

They are fed drugs to fatten them faster and to keep them alive in conditions that would otherwise kill them, and they are genetically altered to grow faster or to produce much more milk or eggs than they would naturally. Many animals become crippled under their own weight and die within inches of water and food.

While the suffering of all animals on factory farms is similar, each type of farmed animal faces different types of cruelty

Answer 2

A few reasons.

When I first started it was morally and ethically the right thing to do (in my mind). It makes sense, I don't like the idea that animals are being killed for us to eat (yeah yeah its what we naturally do, food chain, its instinct - heard it all before) so i don't eat meat. But i figured that i can be perfectly fine without meat (which i am).

I don't for a second think that me being a vegetarian will change anything in the world, or that less animals will be killed or anything like that. Which is where my initial argument falls in a hole, because even though i am not eating meat, animals are still being killed for food.

So even if i am not making a difference to the world, on a personal level i am making a difference to myself and i feel happier with my meat-free lifestyle.

Other than that, I much prefer a vegetarian diet, and i still obtain adequate amounts of protein and i take B12 supplements occasionally. I feel healthier and have lost weight.

Answer 3

Why? Because I was tired of eating meat and I wanted to lose weight. Last year I became a vegetaian to shead ten pounds and cutting back on the meat really hepled me as well as watching the carbs and eating more fruits and vegetables. I lost the weight in six weeks while eating meat two or three times a week. After that I became a full vegetarian.

Answer 4

I live in cattle country and we BBQ about once a week. Could never do it. My son interestedly enough refuses to eat meat and now tells everyone he is a vegetarian. He is almost 7. I thought it was a texture issue or something but I wonder if he doesn't digest it well. He also eats very little sugar by choice. Since he is so young I know it isn't any kind of political issue or something he knows is bad for him.

Answer 5

I'm not a full blown vegetarian because I will eat chicken and fish. However, I just can't eat red meat. The taste of it makes me sick. But it's funny because I love the smell of a bbq or a roast cooking and I really try to eat it but I just can't. So my reasons aren't to lose weight or due to ethical issues with killing animals.

Answer 6

I was a vegetarian for 18 months. I started out as a vegan but that lasted only 1 month. I initially started 'cause I saw the PETA website and was soon bawling with tears streaked down my face.

I love meat but hate the meat, poultry, and dairy industries. I have no problem with killing animals for food ONLY (never for game and never to wear the fur), but it's the way the animals are treated that I disagree with.

I eat meat now but not a lot of it. Some days I go meatless and it's cool, there are plenty of other foods to eat.

P.S. As for the argument of humans being omnipotent by the "proof" of us having incisors, this argument is weak and it fails. Look at your incisors, are they designed to tear raw flesh? Of course they aren't, only fangs are designed for that purpose. Human incisors are puny, not designed at all for tearing raw flesh. I'm not saying we aren't suited to eat meat, just pointing out that human incisors are a weak/dead argument in favor of it.

Answer 7

some people choose to go vegetarian because they, well, i guess you could say that they are boycotting the meat industries, sort of. sometimes it's because meat makes them sick and just doesn't agree with their appetite. I've thought about going vegetarian because I beleve that it's a terrible thing to kill animals. It's all up to you and your oppinion and/or appetite.

Answer 8

I don't like the contaminants, antibiotics, antibiotic-resistant germs, growth horomones, or diseases in my food.

I don't like supporting a high-pollution industry. Waste from large pork factor-farms is worse than the sewags of small cities. During bad storms animal waste cesspools oveflow and fill our rivers (drinking water) with E coli and other waste. Runoff from poultry farm waste was causing Pfisteria in MD/DE, making whole creeks unsafe to fish from and killing/sickening fish.

I don't like that many meat industries have traded favors with the Fed government and now get huge subsidies. My tax money goes to prop up these industries but healtheir food like many vegetable farmers go without any help.

I like that my cholesterol is extremely low for my age & weight. My fat intake is also lower (if I avoid dairy/egg)

I like that from a moral standpoint, I'm not paying to cause a lifetime of sufferng to animals. I don't *need* to eat meat. Animals don't *need* to suffer.

From a psychological standpoint, I don't like that i'd be grossed out by seeing bloody meat on the side of the road (roadkill) but people pay for the same thing shrink-wrapped in the grocery store. If it's not OK to eat roadkill or dogs, why is it ok to eat cows, horses, or pigs?

I like that on average, per-per pound non-animal groceries cost far less than those made of/from animals.

And best of all, I don't feel like I'm missing anything.

Answer 9

I'm not. Why? Because humans are omnivores. How do I know this? Because I have opened my mouth and looked at my teeth. Humans have the teeth of both herbivores and carnivores. Humans were made to eat both meat and vegtables/fruit.

Answer 10

I believe it is the right way to be for human beings. I believe it is best for my spiritual path (Hinduism) to not cause harm to any living being, and to not eat things which are bad for me and for the environment.