What percentage of new vegetarians?

Question

What percentage of new vegetarians go vegetarian because of PETA efforts to reach meat eaters?

Would you say most people go vegetarian because they researched it and decided to go vegetarian?

Angel, thanks

christie, thanks for the well thought out reply. I totally agree with you on the fake meat.

As I have gathered from reading the replies, PETA is responsibe for leading many people to a pure lifestyle.

Answer 1

I became vegetarian 23 years ago and I don't remember if I ever heard of PETA before that.

I had friends who belonged to the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (Hare Krishna). I had already wanted to be vegetarian before that but I bought into the misinformation that you had to eat meat. They encouraged me to research for myself that eating meat was not necessary for health.

Answer 2

I personally became a vegetarian at the age of 11 because my parents were butchers and I knew too well the suffering of animals until their miserabele deaths.

During high school I became involved with PETA and decided to make the transition into veganism. PETA does a great job of recruiting and converting vegs.

Most people dont actively go searching for information on the suffering of animals raised for meat because they rather enjoy the whole "ignorance is bliss" attitude. Most people who seek out PETA's information are those who have already been somewhat exposed to the information, but would like more.... like myself, or someone who has a vegan or veggie friend/relative.

I would sincerely hope that anyone who becomes vegetarian does so because of research. Guarenteed, if someone makes this choice without researching it they will a) not do it properly (ie unknowingly consume items that contain animal products) or b) be very unhealthy.

Research is absolutely vital to vegan or veggie lifestyles.

Answer 3

A pure lifestyle is to live in perfect harmony with nature.

With so many more things wrong with the world than just what we eat PETA views are strong and shocking a tactic and biased it's easy to bring out the worst in anything!!!!!

Cruelty and eating to survive are two different things we all gota eat and since so many people even today have nothing to eat, choice is a luxury to those that have it and a dream for those who don't.

For anyone to then say this basic freedom to eat as we wish should be altered to suit one person's view or a groups view is simply not the right way no matter how strong the view point.

Perfect is only possible to the very few who have that chance.

Answer 4

None. PETA cause far more damage to animals and their treatment than any meat eater.

As you like watching videos I suggest you watch the official police videos of the damage and suffering caused to animals at some local UK farms after PETA representatives paid them a visit.

As you support PETA I consider you to be of a militant tendancy, and I would go to extreme lengths to protect MY animals from any attentions by you or your group.

From what I've heard so far, you only seem to be able to protest about beefburgers.

If I were you I would concentrate more on making people aware of the excellent vegetarian recipes that are available so that people are more likely to try them and slowly wean themselves away from meat.

As soon as you become offensive, most people will take a defensive stand and you will get absolutely nowhere.

Apart from being the most well known negatively attributed troll on this site of course.

Answer 5

All those who enjoyed life and had lot of parties, drinks and food develop BP and cholestrol at the age of 50. They are advised not to take fat and calorie rich. It is wrongly assumed that we should not eat meat, so people become vegetarians.

No doctor will advise to stop protein intake at any age. It is the tissue repair ingredient and is a must, whether it is animal or plant origin.

Answer 6

I began the year as a vegetarian bc/ it was my new year's resolution. I reasearched it and gave it a go. About april I quit. Then I went to a PETA site one night at work and have been a vegetarian ever since. It's not even the torture so much as the lack of regulations, the fact that animals mostly live in their own poop until we eat them, and they are pumped with hormones. The first time I started eating mostly pasta, bread, cereal and grains bc/ I'm not accustomed to eating veggies, but this time I really am eating more vegetables, and making meals out of vegetables instead of eating veggie burgers, or fake meat - - blech.

Answer 7

A lot. This is exactly why I don't bash PETA. They don't do everything right but they lead a lot of people to the land of ricemilk and tofu.

Answer 8

i don't know the percentage of vegetarians who turned vegetarian because of PETA. i personally have both PETA and my own common sense to credit.

i do not fully support peta because of some of the tactics they use: handing out comics to young children that says "your mommy kills bunnies" with an atrocious drawing of a woman holding a bloodied rabbit... or dressing up as sheep and showing how they are de-wooled. as an animal-loving vegan, i see those two methods as very counterproductive, pushing meat-eaters even further from vegetarianism.

BUT, i do have them to thank for showing what happens behind the scenes in farm factories. an acquaintance had mentioned something about PETA, and what i saw has changed my life forever. so in a weird way... thanks to PETA, my family and i became vegetarian. then by doing lots of additional research on our own, we decided to become vegan.

Answer 9

For every step forward PETA make, you take us all 10 back.

Have you "turned the page" yet ?

Answer 10

Rather than quote PETA who are well known to falsify their presentations (personal involvement and witness) - why not consider the full medical and ethical grounds.

For instance http://www.nobeliefs.com/comments9.htm

As an omni I would rather ensure the correct breeding and treatment of animals rather than be responsible for the genocide of entire species as a vegetarian.