Meat eaters should have to kill for their food.

[The_Yeti]

Plants have feelings, bltch. learn what it means to harvest grain by hand and then tell me your not just a plant version of the grim reaper.

Its proven medically that its easier to convert flesh to flesh than plants to flesh, You sir, are inefficient.

 

[Snake Plissken]

WARNING: This is pretty much gonna be one of those self righteous, one sided, poorly written rants that have been done before, so feel free to ignore this and move on.

Let me start by saying that I was raised a vegetarian and have been a vegan for a few years, but what confuses a lot of people is that I'm not really anti-hunting. In fact, I respect those who hunt and kill animals for food far more than the average McDonald's customer. The reason for this is because the hunter at least understands the implications of his meal.

Many pro-meat advocates say that humans are omnivores and eating animals is part of the "circle of life", and I agree with this to an extent. The problem with this is that in the industrial age, we don't raise or prey on animals as much as we manufacture them. I know a lot of (usually female) people who say they'd never kill a chicken or a cow, yet they eat meat regularly. This is because they don't think of their burgers or chicken sandwiches as animals that were killed; instead, they think of them as delicious, cheap food that might have involved an animal at some point, "but it's already dead, so it's best not to think about it."

While it's not practical in modern times to slaughter your evening meal every day, everyone who eats meat should kill for their food at least once. If you can bring yourself to kill for food, then you have a stronger will than I do, and I have (almost) no problem with you eating meat. If you refuse to kill a cow, but demand 1$ Jr. Double Cheeseburgers, you're a hypocrite in denial, and I have no respect for you.

TL;DR: An animal was killed for you to have that sandwich, learn what it means to kill an animal.

EDIT: Just to clarify on a few things:

I said meat eaters should kill an animal at least once. That's my personal opinion; you can do whatever you want, not trying to force you to do anything.

The straw argument of "You should make an x before you use one." is ridiculous. We're talking about a process that involves the voluntary killing of something else, it's a bit different from wood carving/computer assembly ect... As far the "you should grow a plant before you eat one" argument goes: plants lack a nervous system and brain, so it's not really harming a plant to farm one, but for the record, I do have a decently sized vegetable garden in my backyard if it's any consolation.

It is true that every purchasing decision we make has implications we never see. Someone buys a pair of Nike sneakers, and they might have been made at a sweat shop that uses child labor; they just don't know or don't think about it. As a society, we need to learn more about the source of every product we buy, and make well informed purchasing decisions accordingly. I'm just arguing about the meat industry at the moment.

At the very least, you can learn about how animals are killed in factories via internet. It's not pretty, to say the least.

For the record, I'm probably the only person in the thread who agrees with you and doesn't eat meat for the exact same reasons as you.

It's not that I don't like meat, it's just that I don't feel I have the right to eat meat. I don't generally throw around the judgment that you do on other people, but I at least understand and agree with you on nearly everything.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

If I had to kill animals to eat meat, I would do so without thinking about it. So long as the animal isn't sentient, I have no problem eating it.

 

[Firetaffer]

If I had to kill animals to eat meat, I would do so without thinking about it. So long as the animal isn't sentient, I have no problem eating it.

There is no way to know whether anything is sentient.

 

[Astoria]

I understand your argument but you seem to believe that all other meat eaters kill their own food. This isn't true. I know very little about animals but I know that male lions do not kill their prey, the lionesses (sp?) kill for them. Scavengers eat meat but they don't kill their prey. I agree that the way animals are manufactured these days is wrong in many cases.

 

[Deleted]

But other people can prepare your food for you so you don't need to work on a farm...

I do know about how poorly managed some chicken farms are, but a chicken's life isn't worth as much as a humans. Do animals even have thoughts? Are they self aware to the extent that they realize what their purpose in life is? Or is it because chickens and cows are not as ugly as mosquitos and cockroaches that we shouldn't kill them?

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

If I had to kill animals to eat meat, I would do so without thinking about it. So long as the animal isn't sentient, I have no problem eating it.

There is no way to know whether anything is sentient.

There are quite a few established methods of testing sentience. They aren't fool proof by any stretch of the imagination but lets just say that until cows start proving otherwise, I am going to eat them.

 

[pppppppppppppppppp]

Snip

Thanks for making an intelligent and well phrased post that consists of something other than "Stupid hippie douche hypocrite. I'm gonna go eat more meat now!"

While we do live in a society than never has to experience violence on a regular basis, our media is filled with violent killings. We have "murder simulators" (as Jack Thompson calls them) becoming more and more popular and realistic, yet violent crime has reduced since the introduction of video games. While there is no evidence that video games do reduce violent crime, there is a strong correlation between video game popularity and amount of violence in the U.S.

I went to go see Transformers 3, and I grew to not care about any of the little civilians who died in the robots' crossfire, but that doesn't mean I care any less about a human life. While there is a huge difference between real and virtual death, there is also a difference between seeing a chicken die and seeing a person die. I doubt animal death would have a substantial enough psychological effect on people to cause a noticeable rise in violence, just as virtual death has no effect or possibly a positive effect on violence.

 

[Nickolai77]

If i had to kill an animal to eat meat i would do it, preferably with a rifle, but i think it would be waste of perfectly good ammunition just to prove an inane point.

Humans have divided labour since the stone age, this allows us to get tasks done more quickly and effectively, as it allows for specialisation. This inevitably means that one group of humans don't understand what another group of humans do. A bunch of hunters don't understand the difficulties and challenges of fishing or finding safe mushrooms to eat, but that doesn't mean the hunters should be made to understand fishing or finding mushrooms, that would be a waste of their time.

To apply to the modern day, most of us don't truly understand how cars and planes work, but that doesn't mean that before embarking on a plane or driving a car we have to make and assemble a plane or car just so we can appreciate the skill, talent and labour that goes into making such things.

I eat meat and never killed an animal more significant than a spider...i couldn't give a toss what the OP thinks of me. I'm a free individual and i should be able to eat what i want to eat, my only limitation on my freedom to eat being wherever it harms human beings.

Coming to think of it though- where do we draw the line? I've killed all sorts of small bugs and insects in my life, and they are animals like pigs and sheep. Plus, people do eat spiders and bugs etc, Aborigines in Australia do, as does also Bear Grylls. Maybe i've passed the OP's test already?

 

[Arafiro]

You claim that we cannot use metaphorical arguments regarding other processes of product creation, like "print your own circuit board.. at least once", as it does not involve killing.

I find this an abritrary point at best, as it assumes the reader finds there to be a question of morality involved and that they regard killing an animal as any different than printing a circuit board (other than one being decidedly more messy than the other).

 

[Vault101]

eating meat in NOT wrong

farming pracitices is another issue but the very act of easting meat is GOOD

 

[Volkov]

This idea is fucking stupid.

 

[PeacanPie]

Well, it would kill the agricultural business. So no.
I've lived in the countryside for the past... 8 years. I know what it's like to kill your food, and of course its not pleasant, but I like meat and naturally I should. Humans are made as omnivores not... Vegevores. Animals should be treated well and not made to suffer, but realistically we are now in a world where everyone having their own cows, chickens and pigs in their non-existent back gardens is simply not practical.
And no offense to you, but I don't even understand the good points of being vegan unless there's a health issue like lactose intolerance.

 

[TornadoADV]

Well, it would kill the agricultural business. So no.
I've lived in the countryside for the past... 8 years. I know what it's like to kill your food, and of course its not pleasant, but I like meat and naturally I should. Humans are made as omnivores not... Vegevores.
And no offense to you, but I don't even understand the good points of being vegan unless there's a health issue like lactose intolerance.

The word you're looking for is, "Herbivores".

 

[jamesworkshop]

I don't really get your argument, you object to eating meat but think it's fine as long as we don't do it through a proxy, I don't see the difference, the animal is the same and the outcome are the same.

I would love to get off a murder charge by having stranggled someone myself rather than paying Agent 47 to do it.

If you object to me going to a butchers, I really doubt you would be more comfortable watching me finishing off a half dead rabbit by grabbing it behind the ears and pulling on it's hind legs.

 

[Sonicron]

I've caught and killed fish for consumption, does that count? In this country you can't exactly walk into a shop, get a gun and then go hunting. However, my father's a hunter, and I helped him skin, dismember and process a lot of prey over the years. So, even though I don't think your demand is reasonable, I suppose I meet it nonetheless.

 

[Semi-Human]

I'm sorry but this is just dumb. Just plain dumb. Yeah i know what your getting at but if you thought this through for a sec you'd realize just how dumb this idea is. Society functions bye ppl doing there job not byw doing every one else's job. I don't want to pic up garbage like a garbage man, does that mean my garbage shouldn't get picked up? I don't want to risk my life and health mining for coal yet i'm more then willing to use the electricity made using that coal.

Just because you don't want to do something your self doesn't mean you shouldn't reap the benefits. We got to where we are bye doing things for others.

Not to mention the there is a pretty good chance that ppl would fuck up there first kill so good job you just proposed a idea that would increase the suffering of animals, brilliant

 

[Avistew]

My point is requiring people to know how everything they use is made is a waste of time and to only force one product to be understood is hypocritical.

Agreed. It's not a requirement and I wouldn't focus on that single thing. But it was the subject of the thread and I had to admit that yeah, it would probably be interesting for people to know how things work.

Now, when I first saw the thread, my first though was "what a stupid idea" too, but I didn't want to dismiss the whole thing completely. As I said, there is merit to knowing how things work and making informed decisions.

And then I gave my opinion on what I would like for the meat industry, which, hey, is just my opinion and not something anyone is forced to have an opinion on or care about. I'm certainly not enforcing it in any way. And I too hate when people try to tell others what they should it, be it to tell them not to eat meat or to eat it or something else altogether.

 

[PeacanPie]

Well, it would kill the agricultural business. So no.
I've lived in the countryside for the past... 8 years. I know what it's like to kill your food, and of course its not pleasant, but I like meat and naturally I should. Humans are made as omnivores not... Vegevores.
And no offense to you, but I don't even understand the good points of being vegan unless there's a health issue like lactose intolerance.

The word you're looking for is, "Herbivores".

I know what the word is >_> Thank you.