Why do you find the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle appealing?!

I agree, eating meat is natural. Plenty of animals are carnivorous and there is nothing wrong with that. The problem is, however, that the vast majority of meat is produced in factory farms. They may kill the animals humanely, and that's important. However, they don't permit them to have a decent quality of life, which is far more important. These animals are crammed into tiny cages, injected with hormones, manhandled... it's not a pretty sight. And if you look it up, you will find that the label "Free range" is often times false or misleading.

Unfortunately, organizations like PETA give vegetarians/vegans a bad name because although their main ideology is good, they have horrible execution.

Since I go to college and have to eat dorm food, I know the meat is likely from factory farms. I personally cannot justify the suffering these animals go through, that's why I'm vegetarian.

ehe, i dont really care
im vege, thats it,if the 'lifestyle' ,whatever that is, comes with that, thenit comes with it

i dont enjoy the thought of myself eating animals that were tortured horribly killed and then we get their corpses to eat, just, doesnt appeal to me personally, thats it

killing humanely is an oxymoron

Since when are we called to follow the law of the jungle??? According to your logic, we should allow rapists and murders because they are just doing what other animals in the wild do.

No, scientific studies have proven that in general, vegetarians have are leaner. This is according to the American dietetic Association's position paper on vegetarian diets. It may also protect you from certain diseases.

You are very naive to believe in so called "regulations." Don't you know that capitalism runs this country??? Companies are very powerful and they will lobby to get their way as well as sponsor candidates. Its also like a revolving door. The same people who work in for the fda etc. are the same ones working for the companies such Monsanto as an example.

Due to the high demand of cheap meat...companies have resorted on treating animals like profit machines. They have no quality of life and are crammed in a small cage with others their whole life. Of course for companies, this economically makes sense to them. The more animals crammed in a cage the more money for them. I suggest you read more about it....its pretty bad.

I initially became vegan not because I thought it was wrong to eat animals but because of the how over 90% of the animals are raised today. Industrialized agriculture is also very bad for the environment.

Now I see the bigger picture. I realized more and I am happy to do what I can for the animals and the environment. Of course I think it'll be great if more and more people went vegetarian. Its more efficient and uses less resources. We are NOT carnivores. In fact, we resemble herbivores more than true carnivores. Many of us are thriving on a vegetarian diet. Weather we evolve to eat meat or not....I'm not going to argue that. I think its kinda irrelevant to eating meat today anyway when really there is no need for anyone in a developed country. I have no problem if people choose to eat meat ethically by only supporting local farmers or hunting themselves. At least those animals live a decent life. But I personally view animals differently now and its why I choose not to eat them. I have no need for that.

I read Mad Cowboy about a rancher who used to be in the business and now turned vegetarian. I also read Food Revolution. I don't really know about the organizations you listed.

Vegan

We can be predators, it doesn't mean we should. It's completely unnecessary to kill for food. Self-defense is the only situation where killing would be okay. If I see someone wearing a shirt I like, I don't just walk up and kill them. For the B12 argument everyone brings up, it's found in soil. An animal dies, bacteria breaks it down, the ground is fertilized, and a plant grows. If vegetables weren't washed a million times before eating, we would consume a small amount of soil stuck on the plant. Cows don't wash their food and they're looked at as a source of B12, well they have to get it from somewhere. Also, there's a clear difference between humans and dogs and lions. We don't run on four legs, we stand on two so we can reach. We have fingers for picking. Dogs and lions can hunt down their prey naturally and chase them. Obviously, we would all be vegans if it weren't for guns or knives (with the exception of maybe insects). I'm a vegetarian because eating and killing animals is unnatural and if I wasn't a human I would want to be respected by humans, not exploited. Meat is also a waste of plants we could eat instead. Meat-eaters consume more plants than vegetarians. It is also unnecessary pollution.

If human act by basic instinct, hunt an animal down when hungry, ripped off its skin and eat it almost alive with just bare hands and cuspids then I would say human eating meat is really by nature but we don't. Even cavemen have to kill animals with weapons.
I've never seen tiger keeping a farm of chickens just to eat them, neither do I see lion wearing the skin of a leopard for beauty purpose.

I tried being vegetarian (I've failed but starting again) so I agree meat can be delicious but I just don't feel like eating meat most of the time actually. Nothing thrilling or fantastic being labeled as vegetarian or whatever, just eating what I want since I could.

Meat is bad for your health, it causes several diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease.

http://www.naturalnews.com/025957_meat_c…

http://www.scribd.com/doc/19352009/Some-…

"Studies show that the meat industry is a huge producer of greenhouse gases, almost surpassing cars as the leading producer of such gases. Methane from animals, transportation costs, energy used in making feed and raising livestock all produce huge amounts of greenhouse gases. Believe or not, vegans are making big contributions to reducing global warming by going green in their diets."

http://www.ehow.com/how_4395273_reduce-i…

ALF and ELF activists are good people that risk their lifes and freedom to defend the Earth and animals. ALF activists have liberated thousands of animals and caused the animal industry huge financial loss. The ELF have done a great job at protecting the Earth and stopping people from exploiting it.

A vegan diet is great, its healthy, it helps the environment and it helps save animals.

Appealing to the ethics of creatures who HAVE NO ETHICS is quite silly. NATURE positively selects for human beings who are willing to rape and cannibalize one another. I'm assuming you don't think those are ethical? There's nothing natural about human beings purposefully breeding, intensively confining, and pumping full of hormones, anti-biotics, and steroids, BILLIONS of creatures so that we might gorge on their flesh. If it was so "natural" it wouldn't kill millions of us in the west annually.

Meat-eaters are leaner, you say?

The Imperial Cancer Research Fund
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/96223…
Cancer Research UK
http://www.nature.com/ijo/journal/v27/n6…
Physicians Committee For Responsible Medicine
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles…
and The American Dietetic Association
http://www.eatright.org/Media/content.as…

disagree.

The animals on factory farms lead miserable lives and routinely die in horrific ways. The "regulations" you speak of are usually bare-minimum regulations which must be followed anyway to keep the animal ALIVE for the few weeks or months until he or she is slaughtered. Even the most "humane" means of death is barbaric. If you disagree, you're more than welcome to volunteer for a captive bolt shot into your skull.

The entire question addressed above, of course, presupposes that it's not INHERENTLY wrong to use sentient creatures as THINGS, regardless of how they fare- and rest assured, there is no instance in history where a person or animal whose legal status was "property" wasn't subject to abuse.

You say meat is delicious, I find it nauseating. ALF is hardly "terrorism". It's odd you'd call the (extremely infrequent) destruction of PROPERTY "terrorism", while advocating the torture and death of BILLIONS OF SENTIENT CREATURES. As for PETA, it's quite the hilarious assertion to call middle-class hipsters who stand on the sidewalks holding signs "terrorists".

Jeff Dahmer probably thought the humans he ate were delicious too. That doesn't make it less gross or disturbing. There are plenty of animals on Earth that eat each other...since you said humans ARE animals. In the description you gave of male lions killing cubs, you make it sound like we should be cannibals and kill other humans. I don't want to watch a human being be slaughtered like in the movie Saw, nor do I want to see a cow go through the same thing in a factory farm. And then at the end of that horror, EAT IT?! Like @Ulrina said, it is no longer *neccessary* to kill for food, so why? Abstaining from meat feels better to me in many many ways.

I'd also like to see what your sources are for "meat eaters are usually leaner than those on a no meat diet". Because it SOUNDS like you're basing that on the few vegetarians or vegans you've come across in your life. Being thin or overweight has nothing to do with what you eat (meat, potatoes, etc), but about how many CALORIES. In addition to that, do they exercise? Do they strenth train? Do they sit all day at work? Genetics? There are SO many reasons why a person is thin or fat. As a vegetarian or vegan, you're avoiding meat which has steroids, anti-biotics, growth hormones, and pesticides. I don't want to eat chemicals. Do you?

Also, "meat is delicious" is a pure OPINION. I HATE raisins, but I bet there's someone on these boards who could eat raisins all day. That's an opinion. A taste preference. And most meat is only "delicious" to people because of spices, marinade, and condiments.

And you're right, not EVERY vegetarian or vegan supports groups like PETA. But what you've done by saying that is the same thing as saying "All Arabic people are suicide bombers". Not everyone from a specific group acts like the radicals of that "group".

Vegan

Hi, I do it because it feels healthy and clean and I can feel I'm doing my bit to help the planet, world hunger and animal suffering.

Taking your first argument, yes humans are animals, but the difference between us and the lions etc is that we can survive perfectly well without meat. Therefore any killing we do is, by definition, unnecessary. No, I would not tell an animal to stop eating meat, because it would die without it! Tat doesn't apply to humans. There are so many lovely vegan foods, so if we can have a balanced diet without killing anything that seems like a good choice.

Can I ask what you regard as a humane way of killing? Most of the methods used in slaughterhouses would cause a massive outcry if they were used on death row prisoners, eg throat slitting. In any case, I'd go as far to argue that it can never really be humane to kill something just to eat it!

I'm not disputing that humans have been eating meat for centuries, but seeing as it is now possible to live a healthy, balanced life without it, it is no longer necessary. Choosing not to do it therefore feels right.

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Vegan