As I get older, I just feel bad about doing it. I've always felt that a cow or chickens life should be valued as well and I feel terrible eating beef, chicken, fish whatever. I've tried to be a vegetarian multiple times, but never feel quite as good and don't stick with it. Am I being overly sensitive? Am I just an animal as well and it's no different than a predator eating its prey. Would you want an alien or a superior being showing you mercy if humans became food?
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Is it wrong to eat an animal?
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Out of the Rafters at the Q
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Jack Brickman
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Humans are predators and so, no, I don't think it's inherently wrong to eat meat. I have no problem with those who take issue with how we treat livestock animals in this country, and who go vegetarian or vegan as a result, though. That's a personal dietary choice and it doesn't impact me in the slightest.
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When I met my wife, I had been a pescitarian for a few years.
I read Diet for a Small Planet and agreed that the environmental impact of the world's meat-based diet negatively impacts most animals lives and the air we breathe. I felt that wild caught and sustainably raised seafood pushed the rest of the world to prioritize restoring and preserving the environment, so I ate fish two or three times a week. I also liked the fact that I had a 31 inch waist so the fish-based diet was good for my dating life. So, I get what you are saying.
Eventually, I got tired of turning down free food at gatherings. My wife had other dietary needs that aren't a choice and actually intolerances, so I just fell into eating meat again. I do try to eat meat sparingly some days out of the week because I see the change to my waistline.
One day, I walked with my family to the Asian grocery stores to pick out a Dungeness crab for my wife's birthday. My four year old son was excited to pick the crab out from the tank. It crawled around in a paper bag as we made our way home.
As I boiled salted water in a huge stock pot, my kid asked to play with the crab. That's when it came to me - the seafood section of the store is a few blocks down from the aquarium supply store. He thought the crab would live in our fish tank.
So after a lot of tears, we ate my son's new pet crab as a birthday dinner. He refused to eat seafood from that moment until just recently. It negatively impacted me personally, but I respected his position. Eventually I convinced him that barbequed eel at sushi places aren't seafood, just evil looking sea snakes that deserve to die. It all came full circle.
I read Diet for a Small Planet and agreed that the environmental impact of the world's meat-based diet negatively impacts most animals lives and the air we breathe. I felt that wild caught and sustainably raised seafood pushed the rest of the world to prioritize restoring and preserving the environment, so I ate fish two or three times a week. I also liked the fact that I had a 31 inch waist so the fish-based diet was good for my dating life. So, I get what you are saying.
Eventually, I got tired of turning down free food at gatherings. My wife had other dietary needs that aren't a choice and actually intolerances, so I just fell into eating meat again. I do try to eat meat sparingly some days out of the week because I see the change to my waistline.
One day, I walked with my family to the Asian grocery stores to pick out a Dungeness crab for my wife's birthday. My four year old son was excited to pick the crab out from the tank. It crawled around in a paper bag as we made our way home.
As I boiled salted water in a huge stock pot, my kid asked to play with the crab. That's when it came to me - the seafood section of the store is a few blocks down from the aquarium supply store. He thought the crab would live in our fish tank.
So after a lot of tears, we ate my son's new pet crab as a birthday dinner. He refused to eat seafood from that moment until just recently. It negatively impacted me personally, but I respected his position. Eventually I convinced him that barbequed eel at sushi places aren't seafood, just evil looking sea snakes that deserve to die. It all came full circle.
Lee
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well that took a quick turn
Sir'Dom Pointer
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You are supposed to eat animals. This is the only way to be healthy.
I have a host of auto immune problems and I have been Carnivore for 3 weeks now and I feel much better.
I also have a lot of empathy for animals, but you are not going to be healthy eating plants. Let me tell you that much. So it depends on your priorities.. but don't expect to become healthy by being vegan or pretend like it's healthy just to make yourself feel a little bit better. You may do it for morale, but even then, it's not so cut and dry.
I have a host of auto immune problems and I have been Carnivore for 3 weeks now and I feel much better.
I also have a lot of empathy for animals, but you are not going to be healthy eating plants. Let me tell you that much. So it depends on your priorities.. but don't expect to become healthy by being vegan or pretend like it's healthy just to make yourself feel a little bit better. You may do it for morale, but even then, it's not so cut and dry.
Out of the Rafters at the Q
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foucault87
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As a lifelong vegetarian, it is how I have always believed. But I am not one to say that how I live is how everyone else should. It is a pretty fascinating ethical question, and unfortunately I think PETA poisoned the well for having any rational discussion.
Benway
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Damn autocorrect!.gif "Doh (31) :doh (31):")
KI4MVP
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I gave up beef several years ago. Partly for health reasons (elevated TMAO levels that is tied to eating beef and is correlated to heart disease), partly because of the environment. Dr said I could have it occasionally, I cut it back to once/year - we have prime rib for christmas.
I struggle a bit with the is it okay to eat animals part of it too. The animals we'll eat and won't eat seems arbitrary. We have dogs for pets, love them like family and see their intelligence and range of emotions, but eat pigs and cows.
I haven't given up meat completely, but when I do eat meat it's usually chicken (and occasionally pork).
On a related note, when my mom was a kid, they had a pet cow. She came home from school one day, her pet was gone, the freezer was full. She wouldn't eat beef again until she knew it wasn't her pet, but did keep eating beef for most of her life, then became a vegan about a decade ago.
I struggle a bit with the is it okay to eat animals part of it too. The animals we'll eat and won't eat seems arbitrary. We have dogs for pets, love them like family and see their intelligence and range of emotions, but eat pigs and cows.
I haven't given up meat completely, but when I do eat meat it's usually chicken (and occasionally pork).
On a related note, when my mom was a kid, they had a pet cow. She came home from school one day, her pet was gone, the freezer was full. She wouldn't eat beef again until she knew it wasn't her pet, but did keep eating beef for most of her life, then became a vegan about a decade ago.
Stark
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Is it wrong to eat animals / fish? In my opinion, no.
Are there huge fundamental industrial problems in how these animals are treated and fish are harvested from the ocean for the most part? Most definitely.
Are there huge fundamental industrial problems in how these animals are treated and fish are harvested from the ocean for the most part? Most definitely.