Vegetarians and Chicken?

Question

I don't mean to be condescending, but...

Why is it that some vegetarians (pollo/pescetarians) feel that it is OK tho eat chicken or fish but not other meats? How is killing a chicken or fish different than a cow or a pig?

Answer 1

There is no difference
I agree with you 100 %
When people find out I am vegetarian they say "but you do eat chicken" like chicken is a vegetable

Answer 2

Everyone draws the line somewhere. Even though I'm a vegan and won't eat honey, shellac (VeggieTart, many thanks for correcting me - when I wrote "carnauba wax" I meant "shellac" but was tired and confused and made myself look an idiot), cochineal etc, I still can't, with my hand on my heart, say that I rate insects as high as reptiles and mammals. I try to avoid killing them, but if I accidentally tread on a beetle, I'm not as upset and guilty as I would be if I accidentally ran over a cat.

If other people draw the line only at eating mammals, I respect that decision, and I still think they should be applauded for actually thinking about the morality of what they eat, which is more than 90% of society does, even if the conclusions they draw are different from mine.

Whether they can call themselves "vegetarian" is a moot point. For many of them, they're not claiming to make a particular standpoint, it's just a shorthand - "I'm a vegetarian but I also eat chicken and fish," while not strictly accurate, is a much more comprehensible way of letting people know what they eat than saying "I'm a pollo/pescetarian."

Personally, I don't get really hung up on the words "vegetarian" and "vegan" - it really doesn't bother me whether other people who call themselves vegans eat honey or not or whether people who call themselves vegetarian eat fish. I wish all people who are interested in animal rights would put all their efforts into attacking the factory farming industry, rather than attacking each other.

Answer 3

Well, they're not vegetarians at all. Chicken has cholesterol and zero fiber. Fish has cholesterol and zero fiber. Chicken is contaminated with numerous horrible bacteria. Fish is often contaminated with mercury. The health argument falls apart right there. Furthermore, chickens are the most abused animals in the whole horrible collection of animal industries. But many people don't know this.

Wanderlust--carnauba wax is vegan. It's beeswax you probably avoid.

Answer 4

Some people don't eat red meat for health reasons, but will eat poultry and fish because it doesn't pose the same health risks.

To give you an example, red meat is high in bad cholesterol, whereas fish and chicken do not generally have bad cholesterol levels that are as high, so many people with cholesterol problems don't eat red meat.

They aren't vegetarian, they have just excluded red meat from their diet.

Answer 5

It's not and these people are not vegetarians.

Edit:
While I agree with wanderlust for the most part, I DO have a problem with people misusing the words. If "vegetarian" is to mean anything at all, it can't mean just anything. I can applaud the efforts people are making in the direction of vegetarianism, but I they dilute the meaning of the word if they can eat anything they want and still call themselves vegetarian.

Answer 6

It's not different at all. The people who say stupid things like that probably dozed off in high school biology class.

If it's not a plant or fungus, and it has a cellular structure, it's not vegetarian. Milk and eggs are 'vegetarian' because they lack a cellular structure (an egg is 1 cell. The largest cell is an ostrich egg).

Edit:

SST, I believe that is exactly what I said. If it's a plant or fungus, it's vegetarian. If it's *not* a plant or fungus, *and* it has no cellular structure, it is *still* vegetarian, although not always vegan. Sorry, I should've specified MULTIcellular structure. Gelatin has a mushed up cellular structure too, so it's not vegetarian.

Answer 7

Vegetarians do not eat chicken or fish! Why does this question get asked twice a week?

Answer 8

There is a very easy answer to that. Those people AREN'T vegetarians at all. Hence the different name. It is a healthier lifestyle than eating red meats, but it no more than that.

Answer 9

People become vegetarians for different reasons. If your reason is because you don't like killing animals, then no, it wouldn't make sense.

If your a vegetarian for the health benefits, then occasional chicken or fish would be fine.

Personally, I just think red meat and pork is gross. That's the main reason I don't eat them. I occasionally eat grain fed free range chicken and wild caught fish because for my palate they aren't gross. it's a personal choice.

Answer 10

in case you consume poultry inventory, with the help of definition, you at the instant are not a vegetarian. So in case your objective is to be vegetarian, purely donate the soup to a mealschronic so it does not flow to waste and don't purchase to any extent further.