"But its natural to eat meat, its the food chain, etc"
Well first of all, that's pretty doubtful. You ever seen a cat's teeth/jaw? Sharp incisors for tearing meat. Humans have flat molars for grinding leaves/berries etc. Similarly cats and other carnivores can't move their jaws side to side as there's no need, whereas we can - again, for grinding berries and whatnot.
Another point is that when humans eat meat they get heart disease. Admittedly, you have to eat a hell of a lot, but hey, lions eat nothing BUT meat. You ever see a morbidly obese lion with coronary heart disease caused by red meat?
And even if it is natural, so what? Its "natural" for humans to hit each other with rocks and worship trees. Should we do that then? (although actually I really like trees, so maybe...) You and me are thinking creatures, we have extraordinary brainpower, why don't you use it? We can make informed decisions, we don't have to rely on what is "natural" and "instinctive".
"Animals will be dead anyway, who cares about suffering?"
Well, what can I say? See above about brainpower. Would you say this about a person? Is it ok to torture someone, as long as you kill them after? Of course not. So why is it any different with animals? Animals aren't robots, they have nerves, they have brains, they can experience fear and pain. The treatment of animals in factory farming is absolutely horrific. Calfs are torn from their mothers and slaughtered in front of them; the mothers are then forcefully impregnated again (essentially rape) and the cycle goes on. And its not like they don't notice. I live near a farm, and you can hear the cows going mental when this happens, and trust me, its not a nice thing to hear.
So what makes animals different from humans? Most people would say that they have lesser brains than us, and don't experience emotions and such as much as us. Fair enough, I suppose you'd be ok to torture, kill and eat someone with down's syndrome then? Of course you wouldn't. You'd give them extra care, because they need it. So maybe its just because they're animals, and thats reason enough? Well, what if there was a pig with the brain of a human, able to read, write and appreciate deep subby vibes? Would you eat that? I wouldn't, I'd invite him out for a spliff and have a banging time. So that doesn't work either. I'm genuinely interested, if anyone has an answer to this.
And to anyone who says they're more manly for eating meat, well yeah, if you judge going to Tesco's and buying a small harmless chicken that someone tortured and slaughtered many many miles from you, then yeah, you're all man
I mean fair enough if you fought a bear, but come on...
I'd like to point out that I'm not too averse to eating meat, if it was absolutely necessary. By which I mean I was in the wilderness with no form of sustenance except for killing an animal. And even then I would make sure I used all of the animal and was damn grateful for it.
But hey, do what you want man, I'm not gonna stop you. And apologies for the long post, just something I feel strongly about
