I have a feeling I may piss people off or alienate them, and I'm sorry

[aprilstarchild]

Vegans Taste Better. Short sweet summary of why a person would be vegan. Like, say, me. *lol*

Bleh. Tricky stuff. I'm not big on evangelizing to my friends, even though I wouldn't mind leafletting total strangers. BUT: I am personally of the opinion that, when given all the facts on the matter, most people would severely cut down their consumption of animal products. Note that I didn't say that most people would become vegetarian or vegan. But more of them would, certainly.

It's hard, because I know a lot of my friends are very caring and wonderful people, but the things they eat are doing so much harm to the world. Several environmental organizations have pointed out that not eating meat is the biggest thing you can do for the environment. Not trading your car for a bike, or recycling, or using low-flow showerheads and toilets. But not eating animals.

I am not against the idea of killing things to eat them. However, if I know I can be perfectly healthy (chances are, I'll be healthier!) and happy without having to kill animals, why not? Also, the way most food animals are treated (whether for meat or eggs or milk) is inexusable. Period. I won't go into details, but it's pretty awful, and the awful stuff is not the exception.

I feel healthier. Everyone around me has been laid up with a cold. I spent one day lying down and then was fine. In fact, during the day I rarely had any symptoms other than an occasional cough and having to blow my nose. I can't help but think it's related to my diet. I've always had a weak immune system, catching everything that blows by and being in bed for a week, so this is a new thing. *knock on wood* Watch, now I'll catch something awful. *lol*

Blargh. Feel free to ignore this post if you want. Please please know that I'm not angry at anybody. I know that vegetarianism and veganism are the exception in this world. I just wish people would think about it more....

Comments

[sagcat.livejournal.com]

Amen, sister! Eating an animal is as good as cutting it's throat. I worked my ass off at the humane society to have people treat animals better, and eating them is simply *not* a nice thing to do, no matter how you rationalize it. (and it's so obvious that it's mean, i just can't see how people continue to ignore it.)

How would X person feel if someone said, "I'd like to eat you and your family?" If that kind of thing wouldn't bother you, your a fucking psychopath. The only difference is that the animals can't stick up for themselves.

But then again, with all the disease in the meat, maybe they *are* sticking up for themselves. Every person who dies from diseased meat is just another fucking darwin award winner, as far as i'm concerned. Eating meat is stupid. Eating meat is cruel.

yeah- these are the things we feel and are not supposed to say, but i figure 1) I'm a tactless Sag, and 2) I've had a couple of beers.

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

Something else to think about: animals at a slaughterhouse know what's coming. They can only see the animal in front of them, but they can smell the blood and hear them making noise. You really have to force the animals to come toward you when they realize what's going on. So they become afraid, and they have a rush of adrenaline (I know this is true of mammals, anyway, not so sure about birds). All that adrenaline is in the meat when you eat it. Yay! You're eating pure fear!

[sagcat.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of a quote in the sixth season buffy episode when Willow does a forgetting spell that goes wrong and makes everyone forget who they are. There's a vamp going after Tara, Dawn, Xander and Willow in the sewers and they're hiding right? So he picks up their scent and says, "Smells like fear. Smells tasty!"

[aprilstarchild.livejournal.com]

LOL

I love that, when something reminds me of something completely different.

[sagcat.livejournal.com]

=-) I thought they were pretty related. Vamps eating people = bad, but "the food chain." Same excuse people use for slaughtering and eating a poor ickle piglet.