If you are a vegetarian, why?

Answer 1

(1) because I prefer to pet the animals instead of eat the animals.
(2) because I do not wish to feel the way I did when I ate meat everyday. weighed down with no energy and knowing that I wasn't treating my temple well... that it would come back to haunt me one day... basically, to live longer and feel better.
(3) because I enjoy the company of my dogs and love playing with them, that may make me selfish but I enjoy them just the same. They are a part of my family. I love playing with them and the personality each has as a being that wishes not to be eaten... the only thing that they both do as animals and for approval is to try to love and be loved.

Answer 2

About 5 years ago I started studying Buddhism. I don't remember making an actual decision to become vegetarian, I just started eating less & less meat then none. I have been a vegetarian for over 4½ years now.

Specifically, I'm an ovo-laco-vegetarian. I still drink [cows] milk, eat cheese (rennet free only) and eat eggs (strictly of the free range, chickens running around a paddock variety). I am aware that the dairy and egg industries still cause animals to suffer but I choose to live with that.

I wear leather clothing (motorcycle gear mostly) that I purchased prior to becoming vegetarian. I haven't bought anything leather since. I avoid gelatin (in many yogurts, desserts, lollies).

Having not eaten meat for so long, and having continued to study Buddhism I really don't think I could ever eat meat again. I try to eat a healthy balanced diet, I take a multi vitamin daily and overall feel very well.

Everyone chooses to be vegetarian for their own reasons. Some are more militant about it than others, some are more vocal then others. My dietary choices are my own, and those of others are their own.

Answer 3

The reason I am a vegetarian is because I am civilised. Civilised people don't kill. If you are a carnivore and take your children to the farm to pet the lambs, and then give them the dead lamb to eat, is that any different from teaching them to kill and eat their pet puppy? Try taking them to the slaughterhouse for a day out instead. Let them listen to the cries of fellow living creatures being murdered in the animal holocaust. Part of the school curriculum should be a visit to the local animal Auschwitz.
Why is it the meat in supermarkets is wrapped in fancy packages? Because the truth is brutal. Humans are supposed to be more highly evolved than animals, yet most still eat flesh like the beasts. It is why they murder each other and go to war. If you don't want to kill your fellow creatures, it is unlikely you will go to war or commit murder.
I am a vegetarian because I think the human race is destined to rise above its animalistic senses.

Answer 4

I am, because cows and chickens weren't put on this planet to be butchered cruelly to fill up our stomachs. The smell of the burning animal, and the texture of the stringy meat grosses the hell out of me. I've been a vegetarian since I was about 10. I've never liked meat.

Answer 5

I choose to be a vegetarian because of heath reasons, in the last 9 months since then I have felt so good...no heartburn or indigestion and a large weight loss! Amazingly enough my body's hormones have evened out which is hard for PCOSers . Everyone has their own reasons but that was mine.

Answer 6

I became vegetarian 30 years ago because I'd studied other ways of thought, and I didn't feel locked into a Western way of thinking. I felt I could express my love of animals in a real way, and expunge meat from my diet. It was freeing, and I've never turned back.

Answer 7

The foremost reason among the dozens of equally valid and justifible reasons I chose to become and still am after 7 years a very strict vegan, which not only excludes meat but also dairy, eggs, gelatin, leather, honey, and a long list of other foods and products ... the foremost reason is human rights.

It is my right as a human being to choose to accept or refuse to consume any product I desire, and in our semi-democratic capitalist society, no man, corporation, organisation, or authority can force me to consume animal products, just as it is illegal to force a person to smoke cigarettes or jump off a cliff. It's called homicide.

Most people in todays society take such human rights for granted, or are not aware they have them at all. The majority of people simply follow the trend of what everyone else does, because of the sense of security and safety that being in a pack provides, even if said pack is unknowningly leading themselves down a suicidal path. When the forerunners see the danger that approaches, and begin to attempt escape, it may already be too late to save yourselves.

This philosophy applies to another reason I'm very passionate about, the environment. I'm sure by now you are aware of climate change. It has been proven by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that the worldwide consumption of animal products is one of the most significant contributors, similar to the output of carbon that the world's transportation vehicles expel, or the world's electrical generation plants. I know you may be thinking I'm making this up, that meat eating couldn't possibly be that harmful to the planet, our only home, especially since the human race has been eating meat for as far back as civilised historical records can provide. It's true, such an idea is hard to swallow, just as it was hard to swallow the idea that human activity on this massive planet could disrupt our environment at all, far less make some areas of the world that were once the most fertile farmland or reef on Earth permanently uninhabitable due to rising sea levels, increased acidity in the oceans, or increased salinity levels in the soil.

Going vegetarian is a decision that runs far deeper than saving the lives of the animals you don't eat, or having a healthier heart for not eating all that cholesterol and fat. It's not even soley about the slave labour that is used to run meat processing plants in the world's poorest countries, which has an average death and injury rate higher than those in life fire combat in active warzones like the beach runs at Normandy, or flushing out Vietnamese from their tunnels and caves. Hell, this is not even only about saving our way of life, our very ability to live comfortably on a planet which a rich oxygen atmosphere, vibrant wildlife, and an active inner mantle and core under this thin crust we inhabit. What this is really about is our choice to leave this life, this existence we've only known our whole lives, knowing that our legacy will have included ensuring the survival of the species "human", to live on for another billion generations to come in harmony with their environment with the lessons we learn for them today.

This is about living, loving, learning, and leaving a legacy: the four characteristics that a person needs in their life to feel fully complete, satisfied, proud, and valued.

This is about me, you, and them. This is about us, working together for a common goal of survival.

"The whole is greater than the sum of the parts." - Gestalt Theory of SYNERGY by Max Wertheimer

Enjoy Awareness NOW

Answer 8

For me it is the cruelty of killing to satisfy a personal taste preference. However, if you really find out what American processed meat is then you will not have a choice. The meat industry is absolutely filthy!

I also try to avoid all leather and other products in which an animal has to be killed. It is hard because many products have leather detailing or something.

Answer 9

I'm not but I know some vegetarians. Some do it because they are animal lovers, others for their own health.

Answer 10

1. I don't like the idea of killing animals. I have a great deal of respect for life.

2. It is not necessary to eat meat for adequate nutition. A lot of people think so, but that is really more of a cultural thing than scientific fact.