Anyway, for whatever reason, I have always seen myself as an animal
and animals as people. No matter what animal you are, we have the same feelings
and none of us are simply biological machines. We all make mistakes, we all do
things for pure pleasure and we all feel pain. As a student of science I now
view these things slightly different. I can see that there is a scale on
‘intelligent’ capability (but don’t get me wrong, I don’t see humans at the top
of this scale), however I also am a firm believer of the concept that
intelligence is relevant to the life you lead, thus we are all equal in our own
ways. I also understand that some animals have more of an emotional capacity,
again humans are not the top here either, and some animals do not have the time
to allow for energy waste on pleasure or mistakes. Humans believe that work and
jobs and society is a human creation, but when you see a lion pride working in union
to take down their prey, you are seeing a family doing their job and each
member is working as part of a team, as part of their complex society. We just
call society with animals ‘hierarchy’.
I also know that the more I learn, the less I actually know – the
old cliché that is undeniably true. On the surface it seems that we know
everything there is about animal emotions, animal sentience and animal lives,
when really we are discovering new and profound things on a day-to-day basis.
Dolphins take drugs, elephants can tell the difference between elephant bones
and other animals bones (and grieve accordingly), and dogs can read our
thoughts better than most other humans, and we can recognize the meaning behind
their barks. Animal science and behavioral science and neurology are all
fascinating, and if you look at things with an open mind you will never cease
to be amazed and enlightened. If somebody tells you something you don’t know,
or don’t think can be possible, don’t be negative and dismiss it – look it up
yourself and be prepared to be surprised, and find joy in that surprise.
So, back to the topic I originally planned to write about when I
started this entry… vegetarianism, the dreaded topic…
At the age of eighteen, when I first started buying meat for myself as I was a fresh faced university student, I realized I had no more excuses I could give for satisfying my desire to taste meat. I have always loved the taste of meat, bacon sandwiches, roast chicken, pork chops etc but I could no longer qualify why it is okay to kill these animals on mass when I can quite happily survive without it. The idea of snacking on meat was starting to make me feel queasy, the cost of meat from animals that had lived in decent environments with little stress was too high, and it just seemed that the idea of taking an animals life for a few moments of pleasure was just as bad as going out and hunting for sport. Meat isn’t a necessity for life, but not having meat is a necessity for a farm animal’s survival.
At the age of eighteen, when I first started buying meat for myself as I was a fresh faced university student, I realized I had no more excuses I could give for satisfying my desire to taste meat. I have always loved the taste of meat, bacon sandwiches, roast chicken, pork chops etc but I could no longer qualify why it is okay to kill these animals on mass when I can quite happily survive without it. The idea of snacking on meat was starting to make me feel queasy, the cost of meat from animals that had lived in decent environments with little stress was too high, and it just seemed that the idea of taking an animals life for a few moments of pleasure was just as bad as going out and hunting for sport. Meat isn’t a necessity for life, but not having meat is a necessity for a farm animal’s survival.
Now don’t take me the wrong way, I don’t believe that eating meat is
wrong. We are omnivores at the end of the day, having meat in our diet
(although not a necessity) is something we have evolved to enjoy, but the way
that we farm animals and treat these living breathing creatures as objects to
satisfy our greed is wrong. Meat should be a luxury. It should be understood
that to eat the meat on your plate you had to take the life of another being.
Meat should be respected. Animals are not bags of flesh for us to just pick off
one by one, they feel pain, stress, grief and they feel joy.
I’m not going to get into all the environmental benefits here right
now, as people just seem to ignore all the things they could do to limit the
impact of global warming and environmental death anyway so there is no point. I
just want people to think more about what they are eating and to understand why
vegetarians can be so forthright in their opinions. Although, from my
experience, the only time a vegetarian tends to state their beliefs is when
they are asked or when something has upset them. Just like with any other
belief in the entire human social system. Also, it can be very difficult to see
the hypocrisy that many meat eaters live by – you know, having a pet dog and
being like ‘it would be horrendous if somebody killed my dog to have a snack,’
but being like, ‘oh but its cool to kill a pig for some bacon’.
Oh and my biggest pet peeve is when somebody says, ‘I would love to
be a vegetarian but I just can’t do it, I love meat to much’, or something of
the like. I used to devour bacon sandwiches. Roast chicken was my savior. Meat
was a daily part of my life, and god it was hard to give up. And even now I
will sometimes lapse, or have thoughts about eating meat as it tastes so good –
but the reasons not to do it are just too strong, and I am still chubby and eat
so much great food without meat in it, you can’t go on that whole ‘vegetarians
are unhealthy and skinny and sickly’ thing either. I have only changed for the
better as I eat more veg – which is healthy, as we all know…
The only reason people aren’t vegetarians is because they don’t want to be a vegetarian. And that is fine, if that is what you want to do. But realize that vegetarians are doing something that many find quite difficult, and doing it for reasons they feel very strongly about. Vegetarians are fighting for animal rights and animal life – meat eaters are not, and have no real leg to stand on. So just don’t get involved, if you don’t like vegetarians for whatever reason just don’t speak to them. Don’t say hateful things and don’t pick fights.
The only reason people aren’t vegetarians is because they don’t want to be a vegetarian. And that is fine, if that is what you want to do. But realize that vegetarians are doing something that many find quite difficult, and doing it for reasons they feel very strongly about. Vegetarians are fighting for animal rights and animal life – meat eaters are not, and have no real leg to stand on. So just don’t get involved, if you don’t like vegetarians for whatever reason just don’t speak to them. Don’t say hateful things and don’t pick fights.
Anyway, I am going to finish here. Everything I have said in the
above is purely my opinion, and if you don’t agree then that is fine. I just
wanted to put my point across. Also not all vegetarians are like me, just like
all factors in life, we are all individuals so please don’t stereotype. I’m an
animal rights activist but disagree with the way PETA do things. I’m more of a
Martin Luther King Jr follower than a Malcolm X-er. Fighting for rights with
peace not war. I’m sure many vegetarians are dicks, but the ones I have come
across are just trying to do a good thing so please lay off and let us get on
with it. I give you permission to have ago at somebody who rams their beliefs
down your throat, vegetarian or otherwise, but just remember – who started the
discussion. If it was you asking, “so why are you a vegetarian?” remember that
you started it!
Okay… I’m stopping now…
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