From Emile, or On Education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau:
(This was at a time when the English were noted for their appetite for beef. Viz The Roast Beef of Old England)
Now as an Englishman and a meat-eater both I take exception to this. But is there any scientific validity to it? Have any studies been done? Must I really forego that juicy steak if I want to be a better and kinder human being?
Don’t take it personally. He was French. We’re bred to hate on you Brits and vice versa :). If only you hadn’t burnt the bitch… 
If they hadn’t, another reason would have been found.
True dat.
I hate to Godwin so early in the thread, but Hitler was a vegetarian…
Weeelll, there was talk of a liver dumpling soup he was fond of…
I don’t know about people but consider this: A predator may attack you if he’s hungry, A herbivore will attack you any chance they get.
I have always suspected that cows are just lulling me into a false sense of security before pouncing when my back is turned.
I’m French, I can assure you we eat more meat than the English 
There is nothing cruel in eating what you are supposed to eat.
And Popeye! Look at how Popeye conducts himself!
The author of this article clearly has a bone to pick, but offers some pretty convincing primary source evidence that Hitler’s vegetarianism was mostly a propaganda effort by Goebbels, and that Hitler ate a ton of sausage, ham, and liver dumpling.
Mother Teresa ate meat…mic drop.
I didn’t see any convincing primary source evidence. And there is no timeline. The article doesn’t really advance the issue in any direction.
It does contain some bad history. The author claims that Hitler banned vegetarian groups. The Nazi regime banned those groups. If the author believes that Hitler knew or ordered the bannings he doesn’t provide any evidence. Hitler had far bigger fish to fry.
Don’t know about the rest of you, but I get pretty mean if I don’t get my animal proteins on a pretty regular basis. So in a way, perhaps the OP premise is true.
You can stop worrying on that score, at least. Cows never pounce — they’re just not built for it.
It’s more of a sudden lunge, accompanied by a goring action.
Yes, we probably are.
Isn’t this just the obverse of the old stereotype that vegetarians are soft, weak, tired and unwilling to take risks?
Do you know how many thousands of years of breeding it took to domesticate animals and a bull will still kill you if you’re not careful. That’s why Buffalo in Yellowstone are the most dangerous animal.
Konrad Lorenz found that animals that kill to eat treated pack members and young far more kindly than animals that did not. His example was the highly structured society of wolf packs, which protect the young and train them and almost never have fatal conflicts, with pigeons and deer, which will kill other members of the group for little or no reason.
I have dogs, cats, and rabbits. The rabbits are by far the most vicious and have to be kept separate or they will kill each other.