I've been vegetarian since I was 12, and I'm 19 now and grew up in an all meat-eating family, so I have pretty strong opinions on this debate and have probably heard any argument meat eaters have on the subject a million times!
Personally, I don't think there is any justification for, what I see as murdering an animal for NO reason what so ever. I don't believe eating meat is better for your health; as long as you eat a balanced vegetarian diet you will gain protein and iron from a wide range of pulses and vegetables as well as from meat substitutes. If anything I am much healthier, and have so much more energy, now than I ever was when I was a meat eater. It's also helped me to discover a wider range of healthier, tastier foods. Also, let's not forget that consumption of red meat has been linked to heart disease and stomach and colon cancers.
Slaughterhouses and meat processing plants emit more harmful gases which contribute to global warming than anything else, bar cars.
I agree that people who eat meat should think about what it really is that they are eating, and to see it as a dead animal, rather than just something tasty to eat. People say they couldn't kill the animal themselves, or can't bear to watch programmes about slaughterhouses because they're trying to distance themselves from what it really is in front of them. If you're eating meat, I think you should be comfortable with what it really is. What makes the life of a cow, chicken or lamb less important than a dog's?!
Annnnnd finally, for anybody who plans using the "there would be too many animals about if we didn't eat meat", it might be useful for you to know that most animals we eat are reared on farms in which animals are bred, usually using artificial insemination, to create MORE animals, which are reared specifically to be killed and eaten. No meat eaters = no surplus of animals being bred = no radical increase in animals compared to humans.
Animals are not killed for us to "survive". If they were, myself and millions of people around the world wouldn't be not only surviving, but doing so quite healthily, today.
EDIT: OH! And, I don't see meat-eating as "natural" either, as if that was the case, why is everything used to kill and prepare meat man made? Lions, yes, naturally they can eat meat: their weapons are their teeth, speed and natural strength and they eat it raw, as it is. If we went running after a cow and sunk our teeth in, how far do you think we'd get?!
Edited by user 11 June 2009 07:09:43(UTC)
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