People love they dogs and cats but eat pigs and cows.\nThey love they parrots, but eat chicken and turkeys.\nIf only vegetarians can see that farming and eating animals is cruel, does this mean that unless one stops eating animals, one will never see that this is cruel?\nIs the callousness needed for eating animals that have been killed to please our taste buds, the same callousness that is needed for killing, people for the sake of some ideology or religion?
121318
Yes, it is hypocritical. \nI have often asked my friends to watch documentary about meat industry: the slaughter houses, the raising of animal. Not one ever dared. Mostly their reaction was that it will be too horrible and too disgusting. Well, I agree it truly is disgusting and horrible to watch, but not wanting to hear about it, think about is hypocritical.\n\nNow it is not hypocritical to hunt animal. A hunter, is clearly aware of where his meat comes from. A hunter does not have to hide the truth from himself when he eats his meat. http://www.vegsource.com
168507
It isnt that they worship them... \n\nHinus believe that all animals have Atman or soul and thus should not be killed. Also killing leads to bad karmic consequences and the consumption of flesh is not sattvic; meaning one can not achieve full spirituality or a close connection with Lord.
25908
Kindness and respect.  \n\nI think we have a responsibility to care for all animals with kindness and respect.  That includes the care and treatment of our pets as well as the care and protection of wildlife.  Although I often raise animals for meat, I believe that even an animal that is to be used for food should be treated with kindness and respect.  \n\nWhile I think that it is prudent to treat vegetable life with respect, I believe there is a difference.  Animals are living, breathing, thinking creatures.  They have relationships within their own social groups.  Many times within those groups other creatures rejoice in their birth, enjoy (and often share) their care, and mourn their passing.  Additionally, many of these creatures relate to us on terms we can appreciate and enjoy.  Therefore, they are valuable to others in their own group, as well as having value to us.  For that reason alone, their ability to "build" relationships, I feel we are ethically obligated to should show them kindness and respect them as living creatures.
373446
Good question, what I want to know is who saw a pig rolling around in its own filth and said 'yum that looks tasty lets eat the animal that eats its own crap!'
165624
I think animals are creatures that have been created to help us!\nyou can't try a drug on a human directly and you have to test it what do you think the best way for this?\nit is cruel but animals can sacrifice for us.. don't you eat meat?
311217
In many western cultures a dog, like any pet is part of the family! Would you eat your family member? What if it was ok to eat family members in other cultures? What would you think? I heard cannibalism was pretty popular in Cambodia at one time. \n\nI guess people just consider it uncivilized.\n\nThen again some people have pet cows and chickens, so I digress.
47301
yup. off and on for 15 years... now a full vegan with only occasional lapses with some really good organic cheese (oooh, gouda). \n\nbecause of health (good fats, no build up of mercury or mad cow disease) \n\nenvironmental degradation (eating meat requires 4000 gallons of water a day, vegetarians only consume 300 gallons... plus the loss of our ocean's fish due to overfishing, plus factory farms ....)\n\nand now, because i'm living with and in love with a professional ethicist, i've been persuaded that the animal rights issue is important as well. (it just doesn't make any sense to do to animals the things we do. just too disgusting and unnecessary.)\n\nyou'll get a bunch of answers about how humans are supposedly "not designed" to be vegetarians, but really, we weren't designed to ride in cars either, were we? and we REALLY weren't designed to eat poisonous food, become overweight, and poison our earth in the process.\n\nand BTW, i've never needed any kind of vitamins, and my doc says i'm on the best diet there is (mainstream, reg. doc too). i hardly think a cow was "born to be eaten." like all living things, it was born to live. (and die of old age.)
290050
They are against evreything, including having pets. They believe all animals should run free & wild. I may be a vegetarian, but PETA is crazy.
497467
I agree. I believe that animals are equal to people and they should be treated as such. I'm not a vegitarian or anything, but I still think other creatures deserve their rights. After all, humans are animals too. In fact, I don't consider the animals in my family as pets, I think of them as my brothers/sisters. It is unfair to animals and pets, but humans tend to think they're the dominant species.
513847
Humans are omnivores. Their, vegans, claim is moral or a health consideration. They have little empirical support, though. So, eat meat in moderation, if you want.
595712
well basically what you eat does have alot of affect on your habits. forexample carnivores who eat meat are stronger and vicious than other herbivores. so i think that explains their victory and defeat
349874
An interesting point.  And, at first glance, I would say yes.  However, from the Christian point of view, nature was corrupted along with the fall of man.   Also, different kinds of animals function in different ways.  Many elements of nature function in a strictly selfish, self-preserving way - in the individualistic sense.  Others are more centred on the collectivity.\nSome animals owned by man (dogs, horses) have been known to behave in seemingly unselfish ways,  putting their owners life before their own.  Hard to know what motivates them - is it the self-preserving instinct for the collectivity that has been deterred toward the human owner?  I don't know.\nSo, not being an expert in zoology, I would still suggest that we need a more absolute measure of morality than nature, even though we can learn some things from nature.
1687
I think you may be confusing Jesus' ministry with your respect for animals.  I understand and respect your beliefs, but I really don't think anyone who eats an animal product is being untrue to anything Jesus taught or to Christmas.
93599
If people admit that animals are worth being in relationships with, it calls up all the other problems. People have trouble morally with all that they do to animals and they don't want to be reminded of it.
464634
They routinely grind up meat parts and process it into cattle feed.  That's one reason that they had a problem in Britain with the mad cow's disease - they still let them use, of all things, road kill in the cattle's food.  We never allowed that here.\n\nCow's normally won't eat a piece of meat, at least when it looks like meat and tastes like meat.  And they chew things up very thoroughly, so it is almost impossible that they would "accidentally" eat the stuff.  It is only when it is ground up and dried and slipped in with oats and stuff that they eat it.\n\nSo since they SEEM fine with this, general health wise, I imagine that other plant eaters would seem to be, too.  I believe they do this with poultry feed also.  How they really are or feel.......
139722
Part of what makes us, as humans, special, is our ability to do things that aren't "natural." \n\nThere's this weird thing going on where people try to argue that because something is natural, it is good, and if something is unnatural, it is bad. If man-made inventions, ideas, and customs are bad, which by that definition they would be, since they are unnatural, then turn off your computer, your television, and your fridge, and disregard any culture. Only eat, screw, sleep, and survive, since these are the only things that are "natural," if you are making this argument and don't want to be hypocritical.\n\nOh, and you have it the wrong way around on one of your points. Should vegetarians allow meat eaters to continue eating meat, should be the question. And the answer is no, but that's another issue.\n\nAnd you suck Mainworry, for making me scroll past that ridiculous chunk of nonsense.
393400
Modern Americans have been conditioned that hunting and hunters are "bad" and that wild animals would be happy if just left alone. \n\nWhether or not this is an intentional conspiracy or not remains to be debated, but the fact that it's true is unarguable. \n\nThe truth is, animals are neither "happy" or "sad" and their harvesting by humans in the wild is part of NATURE that has been going on for millions of years. \n\nOne facet of this conditioning that fascinates the heck out of me is "anthropomorphism", that is, assigning human traits and characteristics to animals. It causes kids to grow up with a false and distorted view of animals and then to take ridiculous position like being "anti-hunter" and to joining terror groups like PETA.