Don't get the whole Vegetarian and Vegan thing??????

Question

I'm not trying to disrespect anyone's choice but I am curious why people advocate so adamently for people to not consume meat and or anything that comes from an animal.

If we were to go back to the earlier days...like the native americans for example wouldn't we see a group of people that respected mother nature and gave thanks to her for the hunt??

My roomie is a vegetarian so I have no problem with the Veg Heads :-)....just curious to the different reasons why some of you came to the conclusion that you did??

Oh yeah one more thing I'm wondering why people use their reasons as that animals aren't here for our food....if that is so then what do you say about wild animals eating other wild animals?? I've seen those wild kingdom shows and its pretty brutal & I'm 100% positive they prey felt pain....

Answer 1

I think the hunting and giving thanks way is better than the meat industry, but it is still unnecessary with what we have available today. My main reason is pretty simple: I know I can survive healthfully and easily on a vegan diet, and I know buying vegan food and other items does not support an industry that causes animals to die or suffer, so I do what I can to refuse supporting that industry.

The myriad environmental and health benefits are just more nails in my former animal-eating habit's coffin, so to speak.

To answer your additional detail: You say "I'm 100% positive they prey felt pain." Right, and that's exactly why I'm vegan. As a human, I have both the ability to choose and a body capable of easily going without meat, so I made my choice to not cause pain to others when possible.

Answer 2

I'm a vegetarian and I do it for my own reasons. People may have different reasons and no, I DONT think that animals were put here for us to eat (just my opinion). If you're looking at what wild animals eat (as you said, other wild animals) then do you also say that because dogs eat their own poop that you should feel obligated to eat yours as well? Same thing. And that's not an insult or anything, just a comparison. If you want to know my reasons, here they are:

1) You don't have to kill animals to survive. There is plenty of healthy food on this planet.
2) Animals should be treated with the same respect as human beings
3) I believe in reincarnation. With this being said, I would hate to know that someone could eat meat and possibly be consuming my grandmother.
4) There are way too many hormones injected into meat. Meat these days can make a 9 year old girl develop like a 20 year old girl fast.
5) Meat is SO unhealthy and it is the reason for most obesity, blood clots, and heart disease
6) We should not kill animals to control their population because they were here before us, I don't have a problem sharing this world with other species.

Anyway, just my reasons.. I'm not trying to convert anybody.

Answer 3

I'm a 15 year old vegetarian. I do not think it is wrong to eat meat. Like other vegetarians and vegans, i think that the way animals are raised and slaughtered is inhuman and sadistic. If all animals were free-range and slaughtered humanly than i would eat meat. Unfortunately, 97% of animals raised for food are raised in factory farms where they like in pins and are fed steroids so that the process of raising the "food" is quicker. people neglect the fact that these are living breathing creatures who suffer, feel pain and have emotions just like we do. Chickens raised in factory farms are slaughters at 4-6 weeks old. They are babies in grown bodies. they often are crippled from not being able to hold their own weight. Animals in factory farms also receive no veterinary care. Instead, they are beat to death with what the factory workers call "killing sticks". They also stomp calves and piglets into the ground with their boots as the baby animals helplessly struggle and fight for their lives. other animals like ducks and geese are treated horribly. Geese are force fed many times each day with rods that the workers shove down the animals throats. this often breaks the animals beak or they choke on their own vomit. This is all done to make Foi Gras (sp). I could go on like this for hours. but I'll stop =]

Answer 4

Well, I am a vegan and I am very sympathetic towards animals. And it's not really so much that I am against eating meat, I decided to give up animal products after seeing how the animals are treated. I don't care if people think they're uninteligent, humans are the ones destroying the planet, not the animals so why are they suffering and dying to fuel our species destructive habbits? They are totally innocent and they are the ones suffering! And yes, animals do kill each other, but they do not lock each other up in over crowded ware houses. Humans are the only species that kill for sport, people actuall enjoy killing other animals! And why?

Answer 5

It's the bio-industry that made me a vegetarian.

The word says it: INDUSTRY.
It's absolutly disgusting that humans can be so cruel towards animals that have no way of defending themself.

Also, the knowledge that most people throw meat in their shoppingbaskets and never even think about where it came from, made me stop eating it. It's time we go back to our roots indeed, and realise we shouldn't take everything for granted. I don't mind that we eat animals - as long as the animal had a happy, long and free life and died a natural death. It's unnatural how things are going anno 2007.

This bio-industry is simply disgusting me!

I hope this answer helps you in your search, lets hope you might get convinced some day to join us. :P Or at least make you realize you dont *need* meat everyday, you could skip it 2-3 times a week, there are enough alternatives. :)

(sorry if i'm double posting, i'm having connection trouble)

Answer 6

I'm a veggie for a ploethra of reasons. Health being one, animal cruelty being another.
I have more energy and I feel much better now that I don't eat meat.
I think you answered your own question in the second part - many of us believe that animals are not here for OUR consumption. When animals eat other animals, that's a completely different story. I personally think that they are supposed to eat one another as they have the teeth, body, digestive tract, and stomach to do so. We don't.

Answer 7

Yes wild animals eat other animals but did you ever see a cow eat a deer? Humans were born to be vegetarians. We don't have sharp canines like those of a lion, we have longer intestines like those of a cow to digest the vegetarian food unlike those of a carnivore which needs the flesh they eat to be out of the body faster.We don't have claws like those of carnivores so there is no way God wanted us to catch our own food. We cannot run very fast or have any other characteristics which make us a carnivore. I am answering your question in a scientific manner. If I were to give you the real reason why people are vegetarian or vegan I would say God have given you enough to eat you don't have to kill a poor animal to satisfy your hunger. In ancient times maybe cavemen living in jungles did not know how to grow food so they hunted. We know how to grow our grains and vegetables, we don't need to kill poor animals. God has given us a heart to feel the pain of animals and that heart stops us vegetarians and vegans from hurting the animals or seeing their pain.
Please research the scientific points I told you here:
http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/09/are-humans-carnivores-or-herbivores-2/
http://www.tierversuchsgegner.org/Gesundheit/taxonomy.html

Answer 8

Most vegetarian choose to be so for moral reasons. You only have to look at modern farming to see the abuse, cruelty and pain paid for by meateaters.

You cannot compare your modern meat-eating methods with history, as if what you do is natural....nothing like.

I live in the middle of the farming community ( i own an arable farm )...imagine the worst you can think of how animals are treated. Multiply it by 100 and you are getting somewhere near.

The truth is available for all of you if you actually choose to find it.

Because you've seen a lion kill its prey on TV how does that somehow make it ok for you to sponsor all that cruelty that you do...it just doesn't make sense.

Meat-eaters need to get honest with themselves and admit all the torture they inflict, not pretend its something natural.

Answer 9

i just thought that their are so many others things to eat so why kill animals to get food?