I became a vegetarian

After visiting www.peta.org and viewing horrible videos of animal abuse, including miserable dairy/meat/fur industry, I decided to go vegetarian. So far, I've been vegetarian for at least 4 months. I do not intend to eat meat ever again, but I will continue to eat vegetarian meat (e.g. 'meatless meat'). It's high in proteins, calcium, B12 and other vitamins and it tastes better than anything!

I am also thinking about kicking out milk from my food, because I feel guilty of contributing to horrible suffering cows are put through (e.g. they are artificially impregnated every year and their babies are slaughtered so that cows could produce milk for another year).

I encourage other people to stop using meat. Animal suffering is unnecessary.
True, animals are not highly inteligent beings like humans, but they also have feelings. They can feel pain, fear, even sadness. Let's stop animal abuse. There are healthy alternatives out there - vegetarian meat is the tastiest meat you will ever have, so go for it!

 

vegetarians are the future of our society.

 

welcome !...
By becoming a veg. i have learnt how to cook! And i no more skin problems. and i have more energy, and i have understood some crazy things about society: the nazy "auchwitz" repression vibe lives on, it has moved over to the animals. By stopping meat "production" (!), we brake an unconscious habit of repression....
Freeyourmind! by becoming a veg...

 

vegetarians are believed by some to be not only our future, but our past. its like full circle.

 

Hey Leonard!


There's nothing wrong in "meatless meat". It's produced from plants, so no guilt! As for the milk, try soy or rice milk. Plain soy milk, in my opinion, is only good for cooking (doesn't taste really good). But vanilla or chocolate flavored soy milk is awsome and full of vitamins.

Congrats on going veg and keep it up!

Rain

 

CongRATS on your deciscion to become veg.I have been veg for a few yers now and have never felt better! I love the fake meats! I especially love tofurky! One of my favorite foods! I love the slices and love them on bagels.Yummy! If you haven't tried tofurky, I suggest you do!!!!

 

Im going to try to be as unbiassed as i possibly can.
So all of you, have some class and charisma -
do the same. If you flame/attack me- that proves you
are controlling, too opinionated, and most likely, uneducated past the opinion of one particular view.

Good points!

Animal suffering is unnessisary. True.
Animal abuse does need to stop. Such as KFC's brutal abuse (kicking) of chickens. unnessisary.

they can feel pain and sadness, true.

Calves should not be slaughtered so dairy cows can produce more milk.
And that is disapearing.
Now, they have certain non-life threatening ways of making cows produce milk all year- with or without calves.


Animals are not intelligent like humans : False. Intelligence is not based upon knowledge of literature, literacy, etc. Its social intelligence.

Other primates have same traits as humans.
- Attachment to a parent

- Feeding

- Reproduction

- Avoidance of predators

- Maintaining status in the group

- Caregiving to offspring

They even have communication.

However,

1. It has been put forward that we have incisors for tearing meat. the "incisors are for hard veggies not meat" theory is simply disproved. Incisors are for tearing, and ripping. what HARD VEGGIE do you need pointy teeth to "rip or tear"? None. Puncture, yes. Break in parts, yes. But if a veggie is hard enough that we need pointed objects- it would not be the reason for incisors.
2. "We do not have claws or talons for tearing flesh. " How many cavemen carried fingernail clippers? Please. When we hunted, we killed. When we killed, we used incisors and nails to break it up. Tools came along later, and helped us out. BUT nails are there for a reason, and even if we use tools such as forks and spoons now, we didnt always. Nails are for defensive purposes and as the bodies tool.
3. "We have a longer digestive system so we are better able to get the nutrients from our foods as opposed to the shorter tract that carnivores have to enable them to pass the meat through their body before it becomes rancid. " - this was developed when creatures evolved. Example: Humans eat both meat and vegetables, fruits, etc. We require the long tract. They do not. They do not eat foods like vegetables that require a long tract. If we ate only meat- not fruit, veggies, grains, or anything BUT MEAT, then evolution wouldve changed our organs and how they function . But because we were basically pigs who ate anything--- we did not have a shorter tract.

All of those ideas and supposed reasons why humans were not meant to eat meat, are from http://www.vegetarianteen.com/questions/question34.shtml
for reference.


Anyhow,

Originally Posted by peacegal
There are plenty of good reasons to become a vegetarian. A food columnist lists some you may not have considered.
http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/index....line_vegetarian

Yeah. Consider this.


No. I like steak, l like burgers, and hell, I enjoy a good meatball every now and again.

I am a horrible meat-eater.

Do not take into account that i

• am an activist for animal rights. volunteered at non-kill shelter in northern minnesota for seven years, created and was president of junior kids club for the shelter- pro spay and neuter- low income and free vet clinics.
• I will never buy a fur coat. I cant afford it, and I like my beavers better in my lake outside my house and i like my chinchilla better in his cage.
• I protested KFC, MCDONALDS, and a few others for animal abuse cases. I didnt protest because they used animals for food,i protested the method due to it being inhumane.

Theres a difference in standing for a cause and being a recruiter. I am no cult leader- yet i believe animals should not be abused. I continue to eat them- because humans do have canines- proof that all throughout history and centuries, we were meat-eaters. Im not about to deny instinct- and im not about to sit back and let chickens be beat to death at KFC.

I am not of asian culture- so i do not eat dog or cat (fact, not stereo-type) and so you dont have to worry about me harming domesticated house pets. I am not gonna have my HOT DOG in the literal sense. I have conformed to society's way of thinking by 50% by not eating domesticated house pets. However, i will continue to eat meat such as cows and chickens- because im afraid if i completely conform to this view--- my brain will take over, ask me what the hell am I trying to do other than deprive myself of nutrients, and I will spontaneously combust.

There is a fine line, where someone can be an effective activist without being an extremist.

 

i wonder if Leonard is still veggie....

 

Congrats!!!!!!! I my self have been a vegetarian for 6 years now and it is a wonderful choice!! Good luck with it!

 

i've been vegetarian since september, but find myself being forced into a more pescetarian stance because whenever i dine out there is no alternatives for the vegetards. i only originally intended to be a pescetarian becuase i didn't think i could give up fish, but they once had a heart beat too. hopefully i do not feel obligated to order fish that often.

i plan on going vegan once i get my own place in the city.

 

as eveninmadness said, i dont think 'killing animals' is a reason to go vegetarian. However inhumane acts against animals and treating them as products is a reason to protest.

I posted this in a different thread:

"Basically i do not support any slaughterhouse type killings, nor do i support any farms where animals are basically 'mass produced'. But I am not a vegetarian, nor am I the reason animals die. Money is the reason animals die. People raise them in a 4 by 8 box by the masses to be killed and shipped off for profit. However, slaughter in a more 'primal' type way such as hunting where the animal lives it's instinctive life and is generally instantly killed and eaten for food, is something that i DO agree with. As well as personal farming where the animals are not treated as inanimate products. So for me, the problem is not 'killing animals'. I also don't really agree with the theory that humans were not meant to eat meat. If that were they case, either we never would have started eating meat in the first place, or we would probably get sick from it. Nor would primitive hunter/gatherers have eaten meat.

The livestock laws are cruel and corrupt. Any animal that is raised and then sold is considered live stock, there for any animal can be treated the same way including dogs cats birds fish etc etc etc. If you think the cattle/poultry business is cruel, wait till you see where many of the dogs are raised. Three or four full sized dogs in a small 4 by 6 cage until they are purchased. These animals never have touched grass before until they are in a home. Many of them must be trained to walk even at the age of three. Many females that aren't purchased are forced into reproductive cycles dozens of times giving birth to hundreds and hundreds of pups until they are considered useless, and by that time they are infested will disease and illness and killed.

Only buy from shelters or farms where puppies are kept in humane environments. Not from pet stores that purchase from puppy mills!

Look up puppy mill videos."

Personally i dont beleive becoming a vegetarian helps anything. True: it may decrease profits of slaughterhouses by a hair. But what is also true is that you will end up giving money to them one way or another. Through some sort of product. Either become a vegetarian and protest, or just protest. We just need to stop the idea that animals are nothing but products.

 

i just became a vegetarian too! my body feels better and my conscience feels clearer.

 

friday will be my three year... being a vegitarian is the most dedicated thing i have done so far. Another big point for vegitarianism from personal experience... I went to Costa Rica in March and the vast majority of the rainforest being cut down is for cattle raising.

 

meat f*in sucks man go vegitarian. its the best choice

 

Good on you for going vegetarian : )

I've been vegan for nearly a year, and vegetarian for another year before that. I'll never know how people can have knowledge of the injustice of what's happening to these poor animals, yet still eat them.

 

this is so exciting to hear! i'm reaching my 6 year point in about a month, and it's the best thing i've ever done with myself. Once I've matured a little bit I would like to become vegan, but i know that i couldn't do this in a healthy way for some time. So it will have to wait.

 

i just drove by a dairy last night on my way to my friend's house. it was wide open. nice facilities. clean, spacious, the cows were let out to wander a bit. they looked good.

 

PETA aren't any better... they're extremist terrorists.

 

they terrorize terrorism :O

 

Terrorists? hardly. Meat is a perfectly normal, if not important, staple of any diet which is difficult, if not impossible, to be healthy without.
I hardly think a family eating hamburgers are terrorists