"You can't truly love animals unless you go vegan."

[HEMI6point1]

There's a girl on my Facebook friends list that is a hardcore vegan. She uses her page to "raise awareness on the cruelty of eating anything from animals." She goes so far as to share images from slaughterhouses and says, "This is what happens just because you want that hamburger."

Some time ago, a person posted on her wall a link to some story about dogfighting, and said, "This is the type of cruelty that you should be campaigning against, not livestock that's raised for the table."

She responded by saying, "Come on. Do NOT be outraged at a bunch of blokes taking part in a horrible form of cruelty then be perfectly okay with the slaughter of pigs or cows."

She always says, well, the title of my post: "You can't truly love animals unless you go vegan."

I wanted to write this on her wall: "I love animals too. I too wanted to punch something when I saw Lady Gaga come out of a clothing store wearing a rabbit fur coat and having that smug look on her face. However, I don't go out of my way to make people feel like shit for eating a nice steak dinner or a chicken sandwich for lunch. Why? Because I know the difference between legit animal cruelty and livestock animals that are bred and raised to go into the nation's food supply. These type of animals have been raised for food for thousands of years. It's not going to stop."

I don't, because I don't want her to unfriend me. But it's just that extremist mindset that I don't care for.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I agree. Whenever I see a hardcore vegan/vegetarian take such a rigid stance, I always want to say, "What happens then if you find out that plants feel pain? What are you going to eat then?"

In fact, it was eating meat that meant that modern human beings developed a big brain.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0420105539.htm

I'll go further. Australopithecines Robust was a species of early human that was entirely vegetarian. Cuz of climate change, which meant the disappearence of the plants they ate and losing at the direct competition with Homo Habilis, who were meat eaters, the vegetarian human species went extinct. So, if early humans had stuck with eating nothing but plants, the human race would never have come to be.

[TheHuckster]

The thing I dislike most about the vegan stance is we are just as much carnivorous animals as any other carnivore. The only reason one can be vegan today is because thanks to technology we are able to consume essential proteins and vitamins through other manufactured means that otherwise would need to be consumed by eating meat.

I dislike "Factory Farms" and truly cruel methods of keeping livestock, but there are options there as well, such as eating meat from local farms which do not keep their livestock in cruel conditions. The meat tastes much better, too.

What I hate most are the measures PETA takes to "inform" the public about vegetarian and vegan diets. They have literature that tell children to hide their dogs and cats from their fishing father "because their pets could be next" and compare hen houses to holocaust prisoners, which I consider tasteless and absolutely disgraceful.

Now, if you excuse me, dinner is served. I think we're having a delicious filet served with salad with blue cheese dressing. Even my salad isn't vegan.

[AdminAssistant]

My thoughts on militant veganism can be summed up in this quote from Anthony Bourdain: "Vegetarianism is a first world luxury."

I don't even judge people that wear fur, honestly. A friend I went to school with used to wear this gorgeous fur coat and if anybody gave her grief she'd say, "It's vintage and I'm Canadian*, so STFU."

*Meaning, "I lived in a place cold enough that fur coats are actually really helpful."

[Nekojin]

The thing I dislike most about the vegan stance is we are just as much carnivorous animals as any other carnivore. The only reason one can be vegan today is because thanks to technology we are able to consume essential proteins and vitamins through other manufactured means that otherwise would need to be consumed by eating meat.

It's a bit more blindly hypocritical than that. Many of the vitamins that Vegans need to consume in order to avoid eating meat or animal products are produced by - you guessed it - using livestock!

It is possible to live an entirely (and honestly) vegan diet, but it's fucking expensive. First World Problems, indeed.

[guywithashovel]

Several years ago when I was still in grad school, I got to one of my classes early. One of my fellow students had a veggie sub from Subway out on the table with her. She and other student struck up a conversation about food, and when she said her sub was a veggie sub, she afterward revealed she was a vegetarian.

The person she was talking to said that she, too, was a vegetarian, and she complained about getting strange looks from fast food workers when she went to the counter and ordered "a hamburger without the hamburger patty." She said that they just look at her with a blank stare when she does that.

"I guess that's what you get for being vegetarian!" she complained.

Well, yeah, they do look at you with strange looks when you order something like that. Wanna know why? It's because the hamburger patty is pretty much what makes a hamburger a hamburger. Without it, it's just a bun with some condiments in the middle.

Thing is, she's not the only vegetarian I've heard talk about doing this and complain about the workers behind the counter giving them strange looks. Some even insinuate that the workers are stupid because they give them "huh?" looks when they order "hamburgers without the hamburger patties."

Imagine if I went to an Italian restaurant and ordered "spaghetti and meatballs without the spaghetti noodles."

Nevertheless, I really don't think they do this because they really want a "hamburger without the patty." I think they're doing it so they can have an excuse to broadcast that they're vegetarians. Think about it: if you order a salad, you don't have much of a reason to haughtily explain that you're a vegetarian. However, with the hamburger thing, you do have an excuse. Hence, why they do it.

[AdminAssistant]

A friend and her husband are temporary vegetarians* and they have had a hard time eating out simply due to people not knowing what's in the food they're serving. Her example - going to a Thai place and being told, "Oh yes, this is dish is vegetarian" when it has fish sauce in it. Incredibly, she's said that Taco Bell is one of the best places to go for vegetarian fast food.

*They're doing a 'year of ethical living' experiment where they eat vegetarian, recycle more, join a CSA, double their charitable giving, and spend a certain amount of time volunteering. She studies philosophy and I think this is part of her dissertation.

[Rageaholic]

Oh god I hate PETA.

Eating meat does not put me in the same league as an animal killer. To do that I'd have to actually kill an animal which I haven't. But since extremists see things in black and white, this simple fact never dawns on them.

[mikoyan29]

I'm in the camp of they'd get more respect if they focused on the actual acts of animal cruelty like dogfighting and factory farms. I realize that most of the meat I eat probably comes from factory farms but....

[Lace Neil Singer]

Over here, it is possible to buy food from supermarkets that's free range, and it's often not very expensive. For example, there's Freedom Food stickers on all the meat, and the poultry is all RSPB approved.

Also...

The only reason one can be vegan today is because thanks to technology we are able to consume essential proteins and vitamins through other manufactured means that otherwise would need to be consumed by eating meat.

It's a bit more blindly hypocritical than that. Many of the vitamins that Vegans need to consume in order to avoid eating meat or animal products are produced by - you guessed it - using livestock!

It gets worse. XD Vegetarians and vegans are the cause of animals being killed, just via their eating habits.

http://theconversation.edu.au/orderi...our-hands-4659

Scroll down and read the part about mice. They sing to each other and to their offspring. They are living creatures, just like the cattle that the veggies and vegans preach about saving, yet in order to farm arable land, these innocent creatures are slaughtered by the hundred. Chew on that, veggies and vegans. Mice murderers!

[bara]

At least my food can fight back!

But think, the poor carrot. Happily growing care-free in the ever fertile womb of its dear mother earth. Its entire life, it has been sheltered from harm by the moist soil. Its leaves above ground for the nourishment of the sun's light.
Then, one day the poor defenseless carrot is harshly ripped from it's mother's womb. It cannot fight back, it cant even cry out at this depravity! It is thrown with abandon into a crate with it's brothers and sisters who also are unable to even cry out much less fight back at the brutes who have taken them from their mother. They are then put away from the light, and moved over great distances from the place of their birth. It is exposed to sounds and sensations it could never imagine. At the end of which it is placed in a cold place, only to be fondled by countless hands. It is then taken to its final destination only to be burned to death and then consumed!

[Andara Bledin]

"Let the rabbits wear glasses!"

... *cough*

As you were. >_>

^-.-^

[Bloodsoul]

I was just thinking (never a good sign): do they have anything against the consumption of plants that consume animals? Also if PETA is against the mistreatment of animals, why aren't they boycotting Orkin, Terminix, and Raid? Bugs need love, too!

They are living creatures, just like the cattle that the veggies and vegans preach about saving, yet in order to farm arable land, these innocent creatures are slaughtered by the hundred. Chew on that, veggies and vegans. Mice murderers!

Urge to watch "The Secret of NIMH" rising…

[TheHuckster]

Urge to watch "The Secret of NIMH" rising…

Last I saw it was on Netflix.

I think I read somewhere that some members of PETA have a problem with what they call the "systematic eradication of bugs" when you're fumigating or otherwise treating an infestation that is, ironically, destroying your habitat. Remember, they don't give a shit if bugs and mice are destroying where you live, they only care if you're defending your home from them.

I also recall reading comments from "concerned people" on articles about municipalities spraying mosquitoes to prevent widespread west nile virus and EEE infections saying it was cruel to them.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Give into it. XD

And bara; consider the plight of the poor apple tree. "My babies!" it screams, in a voice that can't be heard by human ears, as its children are brutally torn from its loving embrace, to be devoured by unthinking humans. Berefit of its children, the apple tree is left to weep in the field next to other mothers who have suffered a similar fate.