This may have been asked before; if it has, I’m sorry, feel free to close this thread and link to the original one. Anyway, here is my question:
Some vegetarians don’t eat meat because, among other reasons, they don’t like the taste of meat. This question is not for those people. I’m talking to the people who like(d) the taste of meat, but don’t eat it because they don’t want animals to die.
Let’s imagine a hypothetical situation: You have a friend who is eating something with meat in it, and he/she decides that they are too full to eat the rest of it and they want to throw the rest away. And let’s imagine in this example that you are really hungry.
Would you eat the meat?
First of all, the animal would be already dead, and there wouldn’t be anything that you could do to change that.
Secondlt, if you’re vegetarian, I’m assuming you wouldn’t buy meat, because it would create a demand for more meat, which would require killing more animals. So you wouldn’t want to buy meat, or eat someone else’s meat, which would create more of a demand.
But what if the person was about to just throw the meat away? And you were hungry? Would you eat it? If not, why?
(Once again, I’m not asking vegetarians who don’t like the taste of meat, or people who don’t eat it because of religion. Just people who do it for moral/ethical reasons.)
Why do you ask? Why are you curious about this? Are you planning on becoming a “psuedo-vegetarian” who will eat other people’s meat leftovers, and you want to know if it’s OK?
No, I wouldn’t. The concept of eating an animal’s body is far too distubing. I find it sad that the animal’s life was given for nothing, but I really couldn’t face eating something I was so morally opposed to.
I’m not planning to become a vegetarian (at the moment), I’m just curious. It would seem logical to me, but if the thought of eating animals grosses you out, I can understand.
No. Having not eaten meat for somewhere in the neighborhood of three years now, I wouldn’t even want to remind myself how good it tastes. I also find meat rather disgusting as a feature of its very nature. However, I do have a vegan friend who will eat non-vegan, non-meat foods in the kind of situation you described.
Just chiming in. I agree with what others have said. If you’re vegetarian, you don’t eat meat. Period. You could say “I don’t pay for meat,” but you’re still not a vegetarian (anyone ever heard of “freegans”? seems kinda dumb to me). Never mind the fact that, if I did eat meat, I’d probably have a horrible stomachache trying to process it.
Judging by the question, you obviously don’t know how revolted most vegetarians are by the thought of eating meat. Are you repulsed by the idea of eating any kinds of meat? Haggis, say?
To take your example of moral indignation to a ridiculous extreme, what about family pets? If somebody has a plate full of Mr. Whiskers, and is just going to throw it away, would you partake?
Sorry, I’m usually not this digusting so early in the morning.
>>To take your example of moral indignation to a ridiculous extreme
I didn’t detect any moral indignation. I think it was an
honest question, from someone, you’re tight, who had no
idea whether most vegetarians were revolted by the idea
of eating meat.
I think the OP is misunderstanding the motivation of most vegetarians. If someone finds the raising and eating of animals to be wrong (either because of the overall ethics of killing a living thing, or the cruelty with which we treat the animals we eat in this country), then they don’t eat meat.
It’s not just an economic protest, but a moral decision. Part of that is living by example – if you hope to make people realize that eating meat is wrong, then just being a good example of how to live happily without meat is probably the best thing you can do to change their minds. Scarfing down the scraps from their plate makes it look like being a vegetarian is some sort of self-imposed punishment which no one actually enjoys.
>>I didn’t detect any moral indignation. I think it was an
honest question, from someone, you’re tight, who had no
idea whether most vegetarians were revolted by the idea
of eating meat. So s/he asked.
Perhaps I wasn’t clear enough. I don’t mean that the original poster was exhibiting moral indignation. I was referring to his/her belief that vegetarians must feel moral indignation, given his/her not knowing most vegetarians are revolted by the idea. It seems implicit in what s/he’s saying (otherwise, why not eat meat?).
This is perhaps not entirely related to the OP, but I wanted to clarify a little something about vegetarians: I think there are subgroups:
Those who believe eating meat is wrong, and campaign for others to stop eating meat.
Those who believe that the conditions that animals are exposed to in the butchering process are disgusting, and don’t eat meat in protest- also seeking converts.
And those who don’t eat meat because they don’t like the idea of it, but who don’t necessarily believe eating meat in and of itself is wrong.
I fall into the third category- I don’t mind that others eat meat, but I find it repulsive and wouldn’t eat it under any conditions.
Just my two cents.
It was an honest question. I only know 1 vegetarian, and part of the reason he doesn’t like meat is the taste/smell; he says that if he didn’t mind the taste, then he would eat the meat in that situation. So I decided to find out what other people think. I asked a question, and I got answers. Voila. Case (thread?) closed.
Haggis? I don’t know. I’ve never had haggis. For all I know, it’s the tastiest food there is. I never say anything is bad until I’ve tried it ([anti idiot-response] within reason. [/anti idiot-response])
I liked the taste of meat, but it grossed me out. Like hot dogs. Loved 'em until some other 5th grader informed me what was in them. Then I couldn’t stomach it. At some point, I was developing a personal philosophy, and meat-eating just began to give me an icky feeling in my stomach. It still SMELLS good, bacon sizzling, hamburgers grilling. But if I bit into it, I’d just see bloody animal carcasses in my mind’s eye. Damn active imagination.
I have a good friend who’s vegetarian. She will not eat meat at all. Occasionally, she gets some accidentally, but if she finds out she’s eaten meat, she gets sickish. Like once, we were at Disney World, and all got lentil soup off the soup/salad bar at the Crystal Palace. Damn, it was good. But half-way through the bowl, she found some ham or bacon or something. That was it…I don’t think she ate much of anything after that, and definitely not the soup.
