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Originally Posted by VEGANGELICA
I agree, kayleigh, that the members of one species killing animals of another species *is* completely normal, and in the case of a lion is its only way to survive, brutal as that is for the gazelle: asphyxiation by having one's throat clamped by sharp teeth certainly can't be pleasant.
Yet since people can choose not to live that way, then people are left with the question: how do they decide whom to kill and eat? We each answer this question differently.
I feel that looking to other species and what is normal for them to help us decide what to do doesn't really work well because we aren't lions or tigers and we *can* survive without eating other animals.
Furthermore, it is completely normal for members of a species to kill each other. Does this mean we should do it? Murdering humans is completely natural. Cannibalism doesn't go against nature and has been practiced for a variety of reasons over the years (among Aztecs and among starving sailors drawing straws to see who gets eaten next). That doesn't mean we will all want to be cannibals. I can think of several good reasons for not being a cannibal.
Uh...about the 21-years-old business, kayleigh...I'm a teensy bit older than that, now that it's no longer April Fool's day and I have to tell the truth! 
This is very true, Urban! Nutritionists view all mammal meat as red meat. Red meat - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
This might be true today but it certainly wasn't as recent as a century ago.
Nevermind the fact that humans aren't biologically capable of taking advantage of the full caloric capacity of plant matter. We require proteins and complex carbohydrates plus essential amino acids which you can only find nominal amounts of in vegetables. Compare this to say, a cow, and you'll see that the cow can process cellulose (which comprises about 95% of the actual energy potential in plant matter) much better than we can and actually uses it to expend energy.
It isn't bad to be omnivorous, Erica. A healthy, balanced diet that includes meat products can lead to a rich and fulfilling life. It isn't bad to be vegetarian/vegan either, but justifying it by saying you don't want animals to die seems stupid to me. Animals will die everyday for a long time to come, with or without us to expedite their demise. Instead of trying to get people to stop eating meat altogether, why not focus on a different goal?
What I believe humans need to do is address lingering problems in the meat industry, even at the expense of productivity. The reason why there's so much opposition from the industry is that it will destroy profit margins for them and drive down demand so far that beef, bovine and poultry farmers will lose their livelihoods. What reason would they have to change their farming methods when most people simply do not care/are not aware? Whether there needs to be a twenty-first century
Jungle written, I do not know, but it is obvious that there isn't much incentive for the industry to correct itself.