I'm not a vegetarian. I eat meat. I just think that the animals that are feeding me deserve more respect.

Well, then you're a hypocrite, since your entire argument is "We should because we can". There are a lot of things people can do, to the environment, and to one another, that they shouldn't, and I'm sure you wouldn't argue against a lot of them.

*sigh* Again, I am not talking about doing harmful things to the environemt... or hurting other people... I AM TALKING ABOUT EATING ANIMALS. It would be silly to not use us being at the top of the food chain to our advantage. Saying I am a hypocrite because I want to eat animals, and also don't want my family attacked by a pack of wolves is stupid.

The point I was trying to make about how life would change if you were a dog was this:

If you were a dog, your experience of life would still have value to YOU. No, you couldn't type out your ideas, but you would be surrounded by wonderful, interesting smells that we humans are incapable of appreciating as much as you could if you were a dog. Your reality as a dog would be different than your reality experienced as a human, but not of less VALUE. In other words, you do not have to understand something (such as life) intellectually in order to appreciate it.

But since you don't like hypotheticals, here is some reality for you.

This first video of a pig farm in Spain explains several reasons I feel eating meat is ethically murder. Raising animals to kill them involves people not just killing animals, but also often depriving them of their sanity and chance for freedom of choice, mental stimulation, and a normal family life. The final scene shows how people bludgeon or "thump" piglets to death...a completely legal and common practice in the U.S.



The second video shows the poor conditions in which many pigs are raised in the European Union, which is supposed to have much better humane standards than the U.S.:



Finally, this third video shows a pig playing with a ball...a simple toy pigs enjoy but people rarely give to them when raising them with the intent to kill. Pigs are very intelligent, social, curious animals, but humans usually deprive them of the chance to experience many of life's simple delights:

This is a very controversial topic and obviously many people have different opinions regarding whether we should eat meat. I am a meat eater but its more out of necessity than anything else. I would much rather be able to be a vegetarian but my school serves almost nothing that is healthy and vegetarian. I believe that people who want to eat meat should go ahead and do so, I am not stopping you but the way animals are raised precisely to be killed today is despicable. These animals are harshly treated and never get to enjoy themselves. These animals feel things too and deserve a better life. These processed animals are usually pumped with crap that should not be in them as it is which in turn negatively affects humans when we eat the meat. All of these hormones that are used to fatten up chickens, pigs and cows are extremely detrimental to your and my health but no one seems to care about that. Its all about profit in corporate America and the sad thing is nothing will probably change that.

Im not a vegan (atleast not yet) but I've never really liked meat that much. It just tastes really bland to me. Well sometimes you get a good steak, but that's quite rare since I'm a student and I don't have money to buy good steak or eat on a restaurant. So lately I've been mostly eating soy, beans etc. this is also do to me going into a new school where we get to choose a vegan lunch wich is usually really delicious and also my good friend went Pescetarian and we make alot of vegan food when were together.

Question for vegetarians and vegans.
Can you guys eat seitan? I think its great but I know some vegetarians avoid it because its too "meaty". I loved meat but I guess if you quit eating it because you didn't like the texture then you'd hate seitan too.
I've actually had eggplant and tofu that was so good that I had to check to see if I had eaten meat accidentally.....

sometimes i lie awake at night thinking about how many trillions upon trillions of creatures have died horrible, painful deaths in the jaws and claws of predators during the hundreds of millions of years that complex life has existed on this planet.

it kind of puts things in perspective, you know?

Um ...I gotta ask this:

Are the people opposed to eating meat brain-dead?

You do realize there's not even enough food on the planet as it is....you think we have starving people in the world now?...well...take meat out of the equation, and see what happens....think about that next time you're hugging a chicken.

I don't really care how they were treated....if they were in the jungle, a lion would rip them to shreds and eat them alive.

Now if you'll excuse me...my delicious steak is almost ready.

Not that I'm a vegetarian, but I don't really get your argument here. Generally speaking, it might take 10 kilos of food (like corn f.ex) to make a pig gain 1 kilo of meat. So if you want to maximize the amount of food there is in the world, you should drop the pig and just grow and eat the corn (and other veggies) you'd otherwise feed the pigs with.

My goodness Introvox, you really should have put some more thought in that posting dude :D