Quote Originally Posted by mfqr
I don't mind vegetarians, given that they don't bother me about how I eat meat.
The thing that they don't seem to understand is that everything feeds on everything to stay alive (web of life). We humans are just the predators of Earth. Just like predators have evolutionary advantages to their pray, we do as well, but more on the lines of technological advantages. They call meat eaters inhumane for supporting the meat industry, but they never bring up people who physically abuse their dogs or cats, or whatever.

However, this is one thing that I have noticed over the years. It seems as if hunting nowadays is too far-fetched, such as people who just go out to shoot deer and other animals just for the sport of it. I am very against that. I don't understand why there's a sport to killing other living things, but it really bothers me sometimes. Other than that, we have adapted to our environment (the whole planet in general), and have found ways to catch our prey. Our bodies are made to eat meat AND vegetables. Somehow I think that eating vegetables alone leaves one malnourished, but I could be wrong.

I ate a lot of fillet mignon on Mother's Day. It was delicious.
I'm not even vegetarian, but that came off as a bit condescending. Of course most vegetarians, at least all the ones I know, are well aware that humans have to feed on other life to survive. The point of being vegetarian (at least the most common one I've encountered) isn't to preserve life, but to preserve quality of life by preventing more animals from being born into a life of senseless misery and inhumane slaughter. A lot of animals suffer in incredibly dirty, crowded conditions, without proper veteranary care, without enough exercise or stimulus, being fed hormones and the remains of other animals (Mad cow disease is spread by feeding the ground-up spinal columns of cows to other cows), only to end up being processed while still alive. Granted, some meat industry operations are much less gruesome than others, but for the most part animals could be treated a hell of a lot better than they are.

I think what a lot of people overlook is that animals aren't meat until they're slaughtered. Just because we breed animals for the purpose of eating them doesn't mean they're objects to be used and abused. Until they're actually dead, they're living, breathing, feeling creatures. Actually, I think the fact that we consciously bring these animals into the world should impose some responsibility on our part to ensure that they're treated well, or decently at the very least.

Besides, this is the food that you're using to nourish your own body. For YOUR sake you should show it some respect.