JMD it sounds like you are saying that it is ok to raise animals to be used for food, but we should not hunt animals just to be killing them.

yah pretty much that kind of!!!
not sure i can't explain my mind so hope you understand!

but 70% is true mostly!

Love My Budgies has a great point. Many people who eat meat do not know fully everything involved in the process. I definitely believe that a person who eats meat should be fully aware of what goes on. If they then want to still choose to eat meat, it is an informed choice. I think people should act on informed choices as much as they can, that is a responsibility they have as adults (or as proto-adults as the case may be).

There are many great videos and movies out there that talk about how certain animals are raised and treated. So there is no shortage of options to gain that knowledge. NetFlix must stock a few of them, I'm sure.

I think the issue of Animals and treatment in the Bible is a very important one, but that needs to be a separate thread. So please discuss that here -

http://www.wineintro.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/394360

Let's keep this thread about how we personally feel about eating meat.

I think we can all agree with the starting assumption that we shouldn't be eating anything on the verge of extinction, that to kill off forever something just to eat it would be sad.

In cleaning out my pile of New Yorkers I came across a great article on "should you eat meat". It says Americans spend $40 billion a year on pet animals - and the number rises even in recessions. People would rather feed their pet well even if they live on mac & cheese. 46 million families have dogs, 38 million have cats.

At the same time, we eat 35 million cows, and 9 billion birds a year. The vast majority raised in "barbaric" (her words) conditions. She goes into some of the details. She then wonders why we slave over pets with avian manicures, but at the same time allow the food-animals we ingest to be tortured.

She's not saying necessarily that we should stop eating meat. She's just saying, if we care for animals so much, we should care for all of them that are part of our lives (including the ones we eat) and ensure all of them are treated well.

An interesting point she brings up is with milk. Many vegetarians drink milk. But the process to make cows continually churn out milk, and to then milk them 3 times a day by machine, can be really nasty to a cow. How about eggs? The chickens are kept in tiny rooms and their beaks cut so they don't peck each other in frustration.

So the main thrust of the article was - whether you choose to eat meat, or eggs, or milk, or anything - that you should be very aware of the path the animal takes to get to you and ensure you are supporting a humane, healthy animal life.

I agree that in this day and age no matter what your decision to eat, one should know what they are eating, how it got on their plate, and what it costs the planet.
Some main stream movies available that can enlighten are Food, Inc., King Corn, Fast Food Nation, Supersize Me, Death on a Factory Farm, Earthlings, Meet Your Meat.
Michael Pollan has a few good books out about food. But my favorite book on the subject is The Perfectly Contented Meat-Eater's Guide to Vegetarianism by Mark Warren Reinhardt.

"...only eat people in emergency survival situations..." That's funny! I like meat with every meal, probably because I was raised with that kind of diet. I don't like the way meat production has changed through the years. I visited slaughter houses before and it was horrible. Most of my meat comes from my sisters farm. When animals die from natural causes, my sisters family can't eat the whole animal so she ships the meat to family members. It helps me to know that all animals have not been brutally slaughtered. When I lived in the mountains I did what the American Indians did, I only killed for survival and used every bit of the creature. With prices and economy as they are my biggest concern is being able to afford food.

And the cost of hunting now far exceeds the average cost of a grocery trip to the market..the money for it goes into the study and preservation of wildlife also...whereas the cost of a trip to the grocery store doesnt.

I'm a vegetarian actually - hence the name - and I just wanted to share my opinion on the matter. A) You cannot argue to eat meat because there's "so many animals." That's because people purposely raise those animals for slaughter. B) An arbitrary peice of info, but the USA has the highest allowance of cow puss in milk - somewhere under 10% - in the world (where it's regulated, anyway). C) I would eat meat if I knew where it came from, that it hadn't been tortured, dissected alive, etc. But I don't, and I respect them too much to endorse that kind of thing. D) TEMPLE GRANDIN - my hero, and an excellent movie. She designed a humane slaughter process, despite being autistic, and says that we have the obligation to take care of them. Even if they end up meat, they are an individual until death, and deserve our respect.

I get sad when I look at my kitties and think that in some places, they eat cat.

But I can't go vegetarian. As I said in a much earlier topic, I can't rationalize vegetables not feeling anything enough to feel that superior to everyone else because I only eat them. Philosophically, for all I know, they could feel pain, I just can't detect it.

So I'm at peace with knowing that no mater what, if I want to live, something must die to feed me.

Good point. I've wondered if veggies feel pain too, only then people look at me funny, so I shut up and settle for not eating what I know has felt pain.