Yum, squirrel. FYI, there’s a few squirrel recipes at rec.hunting.
My grandparents had squirrel one Christmas day dinner. They’re rather queer sometimes. When I think of Christmas day dinner I don’t usually think, “Wow, a rat with a furry tail would really hit the spot!”
“Happiness is nonetheless true happiness because it must come to an end, nor do thought and love lose their value because they are not everlasting.”
- Bertrand Russell
Wow, you really don’t understand anything, do you. What part of the word UNNECCESSARY do you not comprehend? We need to eat to survive. However, we don’t need to eat meat, and doing so CERTAINLY causes a lot of suffering, so why do it? Also, lacking a central nervous system, a plant doesn’t experience pain in the same way an animal does. It may or may not experience pain at all. Regardless, an animal CERTAINLY experiences pain, no questions, no doubt. And again I add–UNNECCESSARILY. So yes, it is a moral decision to reduce the amount of death and suffering one causes in their life. Who are you to say it isn’t? Get over it already. Do you feel guilty or something, that you need to attack people for trying to be a little kinder than they otherwise would be? How pathetic are you?
–
O p a l C a t
www.opalcat.com
PLD and OPAL – I find this very interesting, and I’m not flaming in the least, I’m genuinely curious: If I could serve you a chicken that lived a life of total freedom and happiness until the instant it was humanely and painlessly killed, would you eat it? If not, why not?
Why do it? Because I like the way it tastes, and have no qualms about chomping down on dead animals. If you do, then don’t eat them. I just hate it when people look at me like I’m a murderer for eating chicken wings. Keep the morality issues to yourself, please, and let me enjoy my meal in peace. It’s not like I’m eating a big steaming plate of your cousin.
At one of my favorite college dive restaurants in town, they recently started offering a portabello mushroom sandwich. The menu description is “Great for vegetarians, and grownups too!” Given that I’m on a college campus, where vegetarianism is just about as trendy as bisexuality, I think that caption is hilarious. It got a bunch of veggies all huffy, though, so most of the menus are scribbled over with crayon.
Wow, you really don’t understand anything, do you. What part of the word UNNECCESSARY do you not comprehend?
You’re right. I wrote this thread to debate whether animals have more of a right to exist than plants.
We need to eat to survive. However, we don’t need to eat meat, and doing so CERTAINLY causes a lot of suffering, so why do it?
99% of my day is spent doing things humans don’t need to do to survive. I suspect most other people find themselves in similar situations. You don’t need to drive. Your car polutes. Do you drive?
Also, lacking a central nervous system, a plant doesn’t experience pain in the same way an animal does. It may or may not experience pain at all.
Is this an excuse? Just because we don’t understand it makes it o.k.? Not all animals have as complex a central nervous system as ours. You admit that plants may experience pain. If you found out for sure would you only eat tofu?
Regardless, an animal CERTAINLY experiences pain, no questions, no doubt. And again I add–UNNECCESSARILY. So yes, it is a moral decision to reduce the amount of death and suffering one causes in their life. Who are you to say it isn’t? Get over it already.
I never said it isn’t, exactly. Does the Earth and it’s natural cycles care about your morals.
What’s deemed obscene is just a matter of culture. I was trying to seperate learned beliefs from the natural cycle of Earth to consumes then regenerate. I’m not one of those ‘thin the herd’ type guys, but for heaven’s sake, we are part of a food chain. I don’t think you could argue that eating meat interrupts the natural cycle of Earth. Well, not like car polution anyway.
Do you feel guilty or something, that you need to attack people for trying to be a little kinder than they otherwise would be? How pathetic are you?
Wow, I haven’t seen an argument that strong since, well since your first sentence. I don’t believe i’ve attacked anyone. As I noted, I respect vegatarians for their decision. I’ve just found that the reason to be a vegatarian to be odd sometimes. I’ve never considered personal attacks to be a replacement for a logical statement. That is why you won’t find any in my statements.
The title was merely to get people to drop in.
All this science, I don’t understand. It’s just my job 5 days a week-- Rocketman
Oh, I also hate it when veggies say, “If you had to kill that animal to eat it, I’ll bet you wouldn’t.”
So fucking what? I’ll bet if I was born in a time when I had to do this, or on a farm now, I would be able to handle it just fine.
But I wasn’t, so Mr. Grocery Store does the dirty work for me. Or Mr. Restaurant. No problem here!
jodih, at this point, I don’t think I would. I haven’t had a piece of beef, pork, fish or poultry in . . . er, 8 years (I had to count back a bit), and I don’t really miss it.
And I have no problem with anyone who does it eat, either. I simply refuse to give my money to an industry that perpetuates the amount of cruelty the factory farming industry does. We may eat animals, but I don’t think we need to torture them.
“I love God! He’s so deliciously evil!” - Stewie Griffin, Family Guy
Last year it was lesbianism, wasn’t it?
Rich
This is the phrase that always cracks me up.
And Metroshane, if you’re going to question vegetarians, at least learn how to spell the word.
Rich
You’re right, Rich. Sorry. I hadn’t felt it was the most important part of the thread. I’ll try and do better.
All this science, I don’t understand. It’s just my job 5 days a week-- Rocketman
For the record, I have never been in a manage-au-tois with anyone’s grandparents. At least not while the grandparents were together. 
HUGS!
Sqrl
PS. I am so happy that people find me delicious.
Gasoline: As an accompaniement to cereal it made a refreshing change. Glen Baxter
Ok, just my input here.
So all you vegiterians out there don’t wear leather?..or suede?..no leather shoes or anything like that?.
No feather pillows?
No down comforters?
And talking about our need to do something, do you really need to wear those clothes that were probably made in some 3rd world country by children being paid a quarter a day or something?..Look, I don’t mind if you’re trying to make the world a better place, but don’t tell me you’re doing your best to make a kinder, gentler society while you walk around in Nike shoes.
“Some drink at the fountain of knowledge…others just gargle.”
-Anon
SqrlCub: The willing meat.
SqrlCub: Modern day smoo.
SqlrCub: No just for breakfast anymore.
Metroshane: I agree with what you were saying in the OP. There’s nothing wrong with being a vegetarian, but some of the reasons people give are eyebrow raisers. My suitemate at college is a vegetarian on the basis that it’s cruel to eat animals. She’s something of a hyper-activist where animals are concerned – she completely freaked out when I made the mistake of telling her how my fish died on the way back to college after summer break, after she asked why I didn’t have my aquarium set up (I wouldn’t have told her otherwise). I was quite literally in the middle of nowhere on the way to the interstate when I was forced off the road, jolting the bag and breaking the blue-plus-yellow-equals-green seal. I thought it more humane to put my beloved fish out of their misery quickly than to have them suffocate the whole way to the interstate in the little bit of contaminated water that had pooled on my floorboards. She was immediately pissed off, called me a murderer, and wouldn’t speak to me for over a week. Now don’t get me wrong, I love my suitemate like a sister and respect her views on animals and why she doesn’t eat them. However, I find it just a bit flaky that she thinks it an exploitation of animals to have a burger or what have you, but it’s somehow not exploitation to drink milk, eat cheese, or use chicken/beef broth in her cooking. shrug I don’t ask anymore, I just smile and nod and discreetly excuse myself when someone makes the mistake of asking her why she’s a vegetarian.
As for myself, I am currently an omnivore because it’s the healthier alternative at my current college; all the vegetarian fare here consists of mostly carbohydrates, and very rarely has proteins. However, once my year is up and I’ve got an apartment of my own, I plan to go back to being a vegetarian. It’s quite enjoyable for me when I’m preparing my own food, and I feel better when my diet doesn’t contain meat. Why do I prefer to be a vegetarian? Mostly for health reasons. Diabetes runs in my family and I want to cut my chances of needing insulin to control it (after all, it skips generations for us and it’s my generation to get it). Someone else mentioned in the thread that it’s cheaper to go veg – that is a consideration of mine as well.
I don’t have any moral reasons for not eating meat and I freely admit that. I don’t see how it’s morally wrong to follow the order of the food chain by eating other animals – after all, we have those sharp pointy teeth for a reason. 
I do, however, see the moral issues concerning the way animals are treated and agree that disrupting an animal’s natural functions and cycles to get it to produce more eggs or whatever is cruel; to have animals packed into a pen next to the room where the slaughtering is done is a form of torture because animals can smell the death/fear of the other animals. That was why my father taught me that when slaughtering the rabbits we bred for food, you take them individually to another part of the property where the other animals won’t get spooked by what’s going on and kill the animal as quickly as possible to avoid making the animal suffer needless pain.
Bleh… I’m rambling. Time to hop off to bed…
Jenn
OK, here come the dumbfuck “you’re a hypocrite” arguments:
Don’t own a shred of it. Metal watchband, manmade shoes & belts, etc.
Ditto.
http://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk . It’s worth it to me to pay extra.
Nope.
100% cotton.
>cough< strawman
My sneakers were bought at Payless. I don’t buy Nike. And, in any case, who said it’s an either/or proposition?
“I love God! He’s so deliciously evil!” - Stewie Griffin, Family Guy
Not entirely a strawman, Phil. IF the theory is to avoid the eating of meat in order to save another creature pain and suffering, does that extend to humans as well? Driving polluting automobiles, purchasing goods manufactured in sweatshops, et al. (ad nauseum) can be construed as a logical extension of the “no suffering” idea applied to humankind.
I’m not disagreeing with you–I think the “hypocrisy” argument is generally lame too. But mostly I just managed to use two pretentious Latin phrases in succession.
-andros-
Phil,
I am genuinely curious on one point. I’ve known a number of vegetarians who owned pets. They fed their pets regular pet food. How does one answer calls of hypocrisy on this issue. In my mind it’s the cat’s nature to eat meat, and forcing my will on it is cruelty in itself. Hence, don’t own cats.
I did see once on TV a family of vegans who fed their cat some sort of non-meat protein source. As I recall–which is poorly at that–the cat wasn’t too healthy. But that’s beside the point a cat’s nature is to eat mice, not soy.
I am vegephobic.
I don’t eat vegetables, fruit, seafood, condiments, or nuts.
Not for health reasons. Not for moral reasons. I don’t eat these things, because they are yucky.
My favorite flavor is Scorched Cow.
And I, too, resent it when somebody says I’m causing that cow more suffering than he causes a carrot. At least I don’t rip that cow straight out of the ground and eat it while it’s still alive, “central nervous system” or not. Ruthless, murdering plant killers if you asked me.
P.S. And I hate people from Vega, too.
Quick-N-Dirty Aviation: Trading altitude for airspeed since 1992.
Phil, if what you say about you not having leather/down/etc. is true, I’m very impressed. It’s not as easy to avoid all that stuff as it sounds. I’ve met very few people who actually do the “no animals” thing the whole way. I don’t necessarily agree with it, but it impresses me to see someone true to their convictions.