Why do so many so-called vegetarians insist that fish is not meat?

Question

I understand that vegans are true vegetarians, but fish is meat.

A point to make that was inspired by some of the answers. Could one call themself a part-time vegetarian if they ate meat occasionally? Say, on spacial occasions or holidays?

A point to make that was inspired by some of the answers. Could one call themself a part-time vegetarian if they ate meat occasionally? Say, on special occasions or holidays?

BTW. This question didn't originate with me, I just brought it here to see what different people think, as it is a common question. Also, as with my usual intent when asking questions on Yahoo, I intended to open an educational thread. Well, as inevitable as always, you can learn 'something' from anyone's answer whether you agree the answer or not. I didn't come here to label people or provoke arguemnent. I am not "looking for reasons to fight and separate people".
This question is vegetarian related and therefore I posted it in the category which was appropriate. If humans are animals, which I do believe, then anyone that ate any kind of meat, eggs or dairy alongside thier fruits and veggies would be considered an omnivoure. If I wanted to provoke anargument, I wouldn't have used this question. It would be more like this. Why do some (vegan,vegetarians, environmentalists), and so on self justify their words and actions when practically everything they touch daily...

...there were three major negative consequences as a result of those things to coming into existence.

The destruction of wild habitats; death of individual plants and animals, decline in population of various species, and so on.

Transportation and delivery of goods; Burning of fuel, the use of vehicles, loading and unloading of "goods", and so on.

The exploitation of workers and human rights violations; most people don't know where these products come from and have no clue to the fact that people suffer in horrid conditions to produce these "goods".

Yeah, now that would be creating an argumement. The majority of humans are participating daily in the intentional/non-intentional destruction of Mother Nature. This would really stir people up, there would be a frenzy of TDs and TUs for every answer and every self rightious backlass or statement that proclaimed, "Not me, I..." I could post this in every category/sub-category and get 100 posts within the day. Out od space. TBC

Answer 1

I do not know why people claim that they are vegetarians if they eat fish. I have gotten into arguments with "vegetarians" about that exact topic! It annoys me because I have been a REAL vegetarian (no fish, red or poultry or gelatin) for four years. And you are completely right: fish is ANIMAL FLESH!!!!! Why don't some people get that? And if people eat any kind of meat occasionally, they are not a vegetarian or even a "part-time vegetarian". I call that being a CARNIVORE!!!! Doy!!! Eating meat occasionally= carnivorious behavior!!! Oh, and by the way, I am 12 years old!

Answer 2

Either they get the misinformation from the Internet, or they like to play semantics with the word "meat" so they can (for whatever reason) take on a label without actually living the lifestyle.

Why they try to force themselves to "belong" in the vegetarian category is beyond me. Vegetarians get enough crap from meat eaters... why decide to take that on when you don't actually believe in vegetarianism? I suppose it may make them feel special.

However, thanks to fish-eaters, vegetarians get even more crap thanks to the complete hypocrisy of picking and choosing which animal carcasses to eat.

This is why I simply say, "Vegetarians do not eat animals." It is true of the definition and it doesn't leave room for semantic ridiculousness.

I then direct them to http://www.vegsoc.org/newveg/fft/basics.html (an actual credible vegetarian site) where they can read the following information and much more:

"Vegetarians don’t eat:
• Meat
• Poultry
• Game
• Fish, shellfish and crustacea
• Slaughterhouse by-products such as gelatine, rennet and animal fats.
People who don’t eat red meat but do eat chicken or fish are making a very important first step, but they aren’t vegetarians. We usually call such people meat-reducers."
~The Vegetarian Society.

:)

Answer 3

The only "meat" I eat is fish. I don't call myself a "vegetarian". I am just a person that doesn't eat any other meat besides fish. I do this because I want to. Why do I need a label?
I believe a TRUE vegetarian is someone that doesn't eat "anything with a face." Last time a checked, a fish has a face.

Answer 4

I recently met someone like this. We were at lunch and he was telling me how long he'd been a vegetarian as he was eating his fish burrito.

I don't know why. I'm sure Catholicism's influence is a big part of it. Maybe they just think of meat as land animals and that makes fish fair game. A lot of people give up meat for health reasons so when someone comes along and makes ridiculous claims like fish is good for you because it has healthy oil then people believe it (see post of the imposter VeganConscript who is actually a troll meat-eater pretending to be a long-time contributing memeber of this section and has been spouting incorrect information which, personally, I think is very vindictive and karma will get him in the end). The TRUTH is, fish is just as fatty as many meats and causes high cholesterol and disease just like other animal proteins. Somewhere alng the line people got the idea that chicken and fish and turkey are "heart healthy" - dangerously wrong! If you look at a site like http://www.nutritiondata.com/ and compare different servings of different types of animal flesh and the saturated fats they contain, you'll see what I mean. The same type of healthy oils in fish can be found in much better places that won't contribute to heart disease (like walnuts). It's truly disturbing that such incorrect health information gets distributed. Please spread the word!

Answer 5

Most of us here know fish is meat. We also know that vegetarians don't eat fish but sadly..there are much false info on the internet that says different.

Answer 6

Yes, of course it's meat. Just another example of people redefining things so that they can justify behavior or just feel good about themselves. We don't have to deal with the veggie freaks up here in Montana, I'm still waiting to "meat" one some day. One of my favorite bumper stickers "save a cow, eat a vegetarian"

Answer 7

Because they're either desperate for the title or have too little understanding of speciesism and Animal Liberation philosophy, as well as respect for true vegetarians and vegans to realise the difference.

A woman I used to know somehow: "You're vegetarian aren't you?
Me: "Sort of, I'm vegan."
Woman(/idiot): "That's great, I was vegetarian for 10 years - ask me any questions you need to know."
Me: "...Were you? Nice."
Idiot: "Yeah! I ate chicken, and fish though."

*throttle*

Some say it's "easier" when ordering food, explaining things.

...Whatever.

As far as I understand it, the only non-plant based veg*an suitable foods that didn't come out of a lab and petrie dish are mushrooms, and yeast.

"Pescetarians"

...Whatever.

Answer 8

Indeed , it is meat.

The defintion of a vegetarian is someone who "does not eat meat, fish, poultry or slaughter by-products"

This has been the formally accepted moderated defintion ifor 140 years.

Anything else is just made up nonsense that has been fueled in the past 10 years by the internet.

Answer 9

The answer to this goes back many a year. First, there are two types of vegetarian, vegetarian and vegan. Technically, both are supposed to be herbavorous but many vegetarians will eat fish thus making them omnivorous like the other 99% of the human race. The argument was that animals feel pain when slaughtered and therefore it is wrong to eat meat. However, if any of those vegetarians actually seen the suffering that fish have to endure, I'm sure that fish will be off their menu. An animal is slaughtered quickly and endures only a couple of minutes of pain whereas a fish is first caught in a net and struggles for up to three or four hours. Then the fish is brought out of the water and is slowly suffocated. After a period of anything between 10 minutes and one or two hours of slow suffocation the fish then ha it's stomach cut open, whilst it is still living and is gutted whilst alive. Therefore, vegetarians are hypocrites whereas vegans are true vegetarians as they are herbivors and only eat vegetation. Finally, it is also not uncommon for some vegetarians to use dairy produce; milk in tea, cream on scones, ice-cream, cakes made with eggs etc. etc. So there's your answer. You have hypocrites and you have vegetarians. Hypocrites are called vegetarians and vegetarians are called vegan.

Answer 10

This comes from religion... At one time catholics were forbidden to eat "meat" on Friday. Why? I don't know... But were allowed to eat fish.. So people assume You have Meat and then Fish.. I personally think its the stupidest thing I've ever heard..