Your feelings about animals...

[PsychedelicRabbit]

Oh no, see, I love dairy things. Cheese, milk, cream, CHOCOLATE. Lol.

I also love eggs, BUT I don’t see eating them as a problem as long as the chickens in question are left completely to their own devices. Like, if a chicken laid an egg and if someone didn’t take it for people, it would just rot on the ground, well…you know, in that specific case, why not eat it? lol (I’m sure it’s not quite as simple as this though maybe)

Good for you, Rabbit. My best friend is a vegetarian (as is my girlfriend and some of my other friends) but she first tried to do it when we were 16 and still at school and she had no say over what meals she got, and she just left the meat, but then ended up fainting and having dangerously low blood pressure cause she wasn’t able to replace the iron and stuff with anything else. So she had to wait but she’s happy now, not eating meat.

I am sort of the opposite of you in terms of you saying you’d eat a cheeseburger if you wanted to, even as a vegetarian. I’m sort of not like that. It’s one of the things I would completely avoid, because for me, it’s like throwing away the cow’s life for a crap, fast food burger. If I’m gonna eat meat, I at least want it to be a gourmet steak meal at a lovely restaurant that I can savour and enjoy, you know?

Meh.

Thing is, I do like some meat. I like cheeseburgers, ribs, steaks, and KFC/Publix chicken, mostly. (Publix is a grocery store here in Florida ) The rest I really can do without. And it's actually not that common for me to crave meat. It does happen, though. And when I do want meat, the southern girl in me comes out. I like good southern food, stuff that sticks to your bones, you know? Which is weird, because my Dad and his side are all from New York, and have been there since the 1700's. My mom's parent's are from Pennsylvania. I have no southern roots. So I don't know why I love southern food as I do. Haha. But I am southern, so maybe that's it.

Now that I've rambled on about nothing...

I am mentally a vegetarian, though. If you stopped giving me meat, I probably wouldn't even care much until I craved it. And I don't like eggs that much, except in cakes and stuff. A friend told me once that eggs are a chicken's menstrual cycle, and that did it for me. I never looked at eggs the same way. Plus, they don't even taste good. I need loads of ketchup and salsa to enjoy eggs.

I just see animals as you'd see a human being. They're all like us, though some have fur, some fly, and some can swim underwater. And they can't talk, unless they were a trained exotic bird or something. I don't see them as beings that should be harmed. I'm not extreme about this, and I don't have any pictures of a pig's guts to show you, but I don't think it's a good thing to do.
I'm not very adamant about it - if you like meat, eat it. If you don't, then don't eat it. It doesn't bother me either way. Go partial vegetarian, go full vegetarian, or be a carnivore. I don't care either way. The only thing that bugs me is when one group tells the other what is "right"...because I don't believe in right and wrong. There's opinions, but no right opinion, you know? For carnivores, eating meat is right. For vegetarians, it's wrong to eat meat. No biggie. Do your thing, whatever it is. Doesn't bother me any.

[graceslick]

Yeah, that’s how I feel. I don’t mind if you’re not a vegetarian. That’s someone’s choice, you know? I’m not a vegetarian. I hardly eat meat, but I do like chicken and the occasional steak, as I said. I even had several cheeseburgers a few months ago even though I said I’d never eat them again. lol.

My girlfriend’s a vegetarian and has been for many, many years, but she eats seafood and fish, so technically she’s an aquatarian or something. She’s never pressured me to not eat meat, which is nice.

I think I’m just really lazy and self indulgent I guess, which is why I’ve not made the proper leap into vegetarianism despite my beliefs.

[graceslick]

I like Linda. I believe if she was still alive, she and Paul would still be together. *sigh*

Anyway, I also agree with what she said about slaughterhouses and glass walls. I think maybe 90% of the population would be vegetarian if it were in our faces more.

For example, I refuse to eat a fish that is served whole on the plate- like, it's still got its head and its eyes and face and stuff. No way. And I couldn't eat any animal if I had to kill it myself, except MAYBE chicken (and fish and seafood) if I was desperate. I have killed a fish once. My friend caught it, another friend cooked it and it was my job to bash it to death and then gut it. I did all this without much feeling. I was about 19 at the time and just didn't care. But a few months after this, I started to feel really bad and ever since, I've felt SO bad about it. I could never do it again (unless, as I said, I was desperate/starving, etc)

The whole process of eating meat for most people is so distant from what it really is. We don't go out and find a fluffy, wooly sheep and then kill it and skin it and cook it and eat it. We go to the supermarket and find a packet of meat and cook and eat it. And all is right with the world. It's meant to look like that. You don't go and browse through aisles of wooly sheep at the supermarket or butcher.

This is what allows most people (including myself sometimes) to be hypocrites. I love sheep and would never kill one for food or any other reason (except a really weird case of self defence if it came to it), but I'd still eat it from the packet (actually, that's a bad example cause I don't eat lamb, but you hopefully get the idea).

[plastictramp]

I was raised on meat and I'm not really bitter about it, but around age 11 or 12, I realized I couldn't eat it anymore. Eating something that lived and breathed and had a family seems kind of barbaric. Animals may do that to each other, but we, the so-called "superior species", have a choice. We can survive without munching on corpses and there's no reason we should continue in the practice...

Educating people in the actual process of how some farmers torture animals just so they can have a steak(that's probably pumped full of steroids by the way...) is important, but I don't think people should be quite as obnoxious about it as they tend to be. Annoying your carnivorous friends is no way to bring them into a better lifestyle and it only turns them from carnivorous friends into carnivorous enemies. There's a non-irritating, non-accusatory way of going about it that all vegetarians and vegans need to learn.

[okeedoe]

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[PsychedelicRabbit]

But why not let people be who they are? If they want to eat meat, fantastic. Let them. If they don't, that's great. And as someone who is all for animals rights, mentally vegetarian and working on the physical...I can tell you that seeing a picture of a pigs guts isn't at the top of my "things to do" list. That's just me, and I've got this huge fear of blood. I get queasy to the point of almost fainting.

But anywayyy, just let people be who they are, you know? Eventually, they might wake up and realize that it's incredibly stupid to eat meat. They might not. Just let them be who they are. And it's incredibly dreadful trying to do/be something your not.

That's how I view it, anyway.

[okeedoe]

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[PsychedelicRabbit]

I'm with you on that.
I just hate meat. I realize right now, after attempting to eat a hot dog, that I really don't like meat. If I crave it, fantastic, I'll eat it. But other than that, I do not like meat. It just tastes...unnatural to me.

GOD, I've been craving fruits right now. I'm really wanting to eat fruit.

Now, that isn't to say that I can't EVER eat meat. I do. But it isn't because I want to. I should be able to go vegetarian completely, but my parents eat meat and force me to eat it as well.

God, I just really don't like meat. I love animals. I see them as you see human beings. They are part of us. If OTHERS eat meat, that is good. Let them. But I just personally am really getting sick of meat.

[okeedoe]

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[PsychedelicRabbit]

To you, it isn't healthy to eat meat. To another person, eating meat is a healthy thing.
Your body isn't like that of anyone else. Like me for example. I hate raw tomatoes and onions. But you might love tomatoes and onions. No two people are alike. And what is healthy for one person might not be to another.

To put a universal meaning to what is healthy and what is not, isn't right to me. What is right to one is a wrong to another. What is healthy to one isn't to another.

It all depends on you as a person. That's my belief.

So no, in this case, I do not believe eating meat is any more right than vegetarianism. I do not believe vegetarianism is more right than eating me. It is what is it.

[plastictramp]

But why not let people be who they are? If they want to eat meat, fantastic. Let them. If they don't, that's great. And as someone who is all for animals rights, mentally vegetarian and working on the physical...I can tell you that seeing a picture of a pigs guts isn't at the top of my "things to do" list. That's just me, and I've got this huge fear of blood. I get queasy to the point of almost fainting.

But anywayyy, just let people be who they are, you know? Eventually, they might wake up and realize that it's incredibly stupid to eat meat. They might not. Just let them be who they are. And it's incredibly dreadful trying to do/be something your not.

That's how I view it, anyway.

I agree with you. Let people be who they are. We can't change them with gory pictures and self-righteous rants about how immoral and disgusting their diets are. Still, they'll never know what they're doing if no one tells them. I don't think we should go around Food Lion handing out gigantic pictures of mangled chickens or anything, but there's nothing wrong with telling people about your diet and why you are the way you are. I've found that people often ask me about it, when they find out. I only take issue with obnoxious vegetarians who ignore all the other problems in the world, like Darfur, because Bessie the Cow being abused. If you're going to stand up against brutality, stand up against ALL brutality, not just animal abuse.

Meh...
We could argue it into the floor, but I won't.
Suffice to say, I pretty much agree with you Rabbit.

[plastictramp]

What about this, a choice how to live like this ;

(1) FUN take live how it is, do only things you like to do to have FUN
Smoke tobacco and or something else... drink some beer or something else...
Eat hamburgers and or something you like... don't care much about next year...
You live only once !... so, grab your chance and LIVE and have FUN...

(2) Don't smoke tobacco because of the risk to get cancer. No meat because of the
risk to get cancer... No alcohol because it is a killer... No drugs because..............
HEY... WTF... all that shit is like ; DON'T YOU DARE TO HAVE FUN !!!

The best thing to do is take some of (1) and (2) and..... LIVE & Have FUN !!!.
And don't forget.......... Grace & Jefferson Airplane

Yup. It's all about balance. Take a bit of option 1, a bit of option 2 and do whatever works for you, but be open to other people's ideas too.
I don't completely rule out anything, until I've tried it or found some sort of solid evidence that it isn't going to be good for me. My dad says it's stupid, that I act like "fire isn't fire until it burns me", but I don't think I do. I recognize "fire" when I see it.

[Susan Butcher]

Mangled chickens are bad enough, but we'd really be up shit creek if plants were all pink, fleshy, and dripped red sap when you cut them.

[PsychedelicRabbit]

But why not let people be who they are? If they want to eat meat, fantastic. Let them. If they don't, that's great. And as someone who is all for animals rights, mentally vegetarian and working on the physical...I can tell you that seeing a picture of a pigs guts isn't at the top of my "things to do" list. That's just me, and I've got this huge fear of blood. I get queasy to the point of almost fainting.

But anywayyy, just let people be who they are, you know? Eventually, they might wake up and realize that it's incredibly stupid to eat meat. They might not. Just let them be who they are. And it's incredibly dreadful trying to do/be something your not.

That's how I view it, anyway.

I agree with you. Let people be who they are. We can't change them with gory pictures and self-righteous rants about how immoral and disgusting their diets are. Still, they'll never know what they're doing if no one tells them. I don't think we should go around Food Lion handing out gigantic pictures of mangled chickens or anything, but there's nothing wrong with telling people about your diet and why you are the way you are. I've found that people often ask me about it, when they find out. I only take issue with obnoxious vegetarians who ignore all the other problems in the world, like Darfur, because Bessie the Cow being abused. If you're going to stand up against brutality, stand up against ALL brutality, not just animal abuse.

Meh...
We could argue it into the floor, but I won't.
Suffice to say, I pretty much agree with you Rabbit.

Well, I just know that I'm tired of having a cow's ass sit next to my green beans. I don't like meat. I have to use pounds of ketchup, ranch, or any other condiment you can think of to even THINK of eating meat. I'm kind of sick of that, too. I love ketchup and ranch, but geez...to put it on meat? It's just WRONG. It tastes to funky and unnatural to me.

But if meat is your cup of tea, then help yourself. Fuck, eat my share of it, too, if you'd like. I don't care one way or the other. I just assume people will be just as stubborn as me on the subject. Some are easier to convince, yes, but others aren't. So you gotta know who you're talking to, as well. I just let people be. If you want a cow's ass next to your green beans, then fine. Do so freely.

I just don't see the point in proving people right or wrong. There is NO right or wrong. There are just opinions. And this happens to be our opinion: animals shouldn't be eaten. But if you think animals should be eaten, and that is why they're put on this earth, then go ahead. That is your opinion. I'm not saying meat eaters are right, I'm not saying I'm right. I'm just saying...there are opinions and beliefs. It all depends on your opinions and beliefs.

I'm just go with the flow, I guess, when it comes to this. I just let people be as they are, and enjoy them thoroughly that way.

Also, remember...I still eat meat, but am entirely sick of doing so. I'd very much rather like to barf on my plate than eat more meat. But in my house, if I don't eat my dinner, I'd starve. I think I'll stick to eating.

[Susan Butcher]

Sandoz saved my life, too!