Vegetarian or No?

I feel the need to be vegetarian for the sake of animals.
Im not really sure what I am going to do.
If I eat meat I am supporting the butchery of innocent life.
The way people do things makes me sick.
Who here are vegetarians and why?
What does the public think?

this was a pretty good discussion a while ago, especially when MG jumped in.

http://www.captaincynic.com/thread.php3/thrdid=37304-u-frmid=1

humans are omnivores, we're suppose to eat meat sometimes. yet, morally it feels wrong to people. perhaps somewhere down the evolutionary road we will become herbivores, but for now this really shouldnt be nearly as big of an issue as people make it.

personally, i rarely eat meat (once a month) but ive never felt guilty about doing it and its stupid for people to try to make me feel guilty.

I agree that we are indeed omnivores lol.
I just feel horrible after the stuff I have seen.
I concluded that I belive that it is only ok for me to eat meat if my survival depended on it.
I can easily survive while sparing inoccent animal life.
I respect all life.
Yet I am still to greedy and lazy to get my ass off the meat diet and do something about it.
I suck.

After metal giant and I had our little clash of quips we came to terms that he felt that eating the lowest lifeform possible was morally correct. I however felt that all life was equal and you should eat what ever you liked because killing a bird or a carrot was the same.

blood is not shed if you kill a carrot. the shedding of blood is a carnivourous thing. would you eat your own flesh? I mean your flesh is no different from the birds. and your blood is no more different than in genetics what does the color say? are your eyes going to enpower your mind? or destroy it?

have you ever heard of juice?
take all the juice, or just some, out of a plant and see if it doesnt die.

What the hell are you blathering about 730?

generally the public doesnt have problems with vegetarians. Sure there will always be some asshole that will say you dont eat meat well then your not human but hey thats a rarity depending on where you go in the world. Myself being a semi-vegetraian, yes it sounds strange that im only one when i feel like it but hey.

personally i think that the issue is not necessarily with the killing of the animal, but with how they are treated prior to death. i don't think there is anything morally wrong with killing for food, but i also think that the way we breed animals for food is a disgrace.
death is simply a part of life. every time you wash your hands you kill bacteria. thats life. does that mean that we have the right to breed animals for food and keep them in horrid conditions? no. but it does mean, in my opinion, that simply eating meat is in no way immoral.
i think that if an animal in the wild is hunted and killed by another animal, there is a certain dignity to that. dying so that another can live. but there is no dignity in the way we breed these creatures for slaughter, simply so we can be gluttons. so the issue i have is with the way we produce the meat, not with the act of eating animals.

There are bigger problems in the world than animal abuse. Eat meat or don't, the animals won't mind one way or the other.

How would people here propose to correct the slaughterhouse system?

The only practical reason for becoming a vegetarian is a health related one. Being a vegetarian is really healthy but saying it's morally wrong to kill an animal for food is just silly. Animals are a resource for humans to live off of. Anyone who says differently is just being over sensitive and probably has too much time on their hands. I don't mind if animals get treated badly in the process because it's business. The animals get treated badly so it lowers the price on food. If the price of meat doubled the majority of people wouldn't think twice of the animal's feelings. I'd rather a poor man eat his steak than let animals live a comfortable meaningless life.

how would you define a meaningless life? is something's meaningfulness determined by its usefulness to people?

Anything not human. Save your weak hippy propoganda. Get out into the real world.

hah people are so quick to get defensive and hurl petty insults. apparently i am a hippie because i believe that life has intrinsic value beyond what people see as "useful". i asked a question hoping to get an answer, i can see how that qualifies as "propaganda". i'm not even a vegetarian myself, but i can see where they are coming from. i don't see why its silly for people to care about suffering. i work on an ambulance for a living, so i see suffering all the time. i guess because it bothers me when living things suffer, i'm not a part of your "real world". oh well.

Yeah that does make you a hippie if you would consider that an insult. By get out into the real world I meant be practical. Worrying about animal pain is obviously silly compared to the pain of people. But, I must mention I seriously doubt you drive an ambulance. It's rare that someone at age 20 has received the credentials. If it is true then I send my congratulations on your acomplishment.