"You can't say you love animals if you still eat meat."

Meat is a great source of protein and nutrition. More importantly, I always pray and say thanks to the kind animal before eating because it is keeping me alive and helping in my growth

 

You can't say you love women if you still watch porn.

 

That is so true. And recently I have been giving them a lot of respect.

 

I love animals. I love chicken, pork, beef...

 

I agree. All life must be respected.

 

As a kid I always loved animals (and still do). But I also loved to eat meat - especially steak. I often asked myself it was possible to eat meat and still love animals, because I always felt guilty when I looked at the flesh on my plate. But I just accepted it as a part of life, and that it wasn't really my concern. In high school I heard a song called "meat is murder" and it triggered a feeling of intense guilt. Having someone else share the same concerns I always had about animals allowed me to finally realize that I was engaging in cognitive dissonance - that my love of animals and love of meat were in contradiction with one another. So I went vegetarian for a year or so, then fully vegan, which I remain today.

So to answer your question - it depends on what you mean by "love." My definition is that I care about animals on a deep level and want them to be happy and suffer as little as possible. When some people say they love animals, they mean it in more of a selfish way. If your idea of love is similar to mine, then eating meat would be very hypocritical.

 

When I was vegan I was very adamant that a person cannot love animals and be a meat eater, but I changed my position when I realized I could never accuse Native Americans as being people who didn’t love animals and nature. They clearly did, and so I began to feel that consumption of animal products in and of itself isn’t an indication that one lacks love for animals; I think overconsumption and waste would be to me the indicators that one lacks a love and respect for animals.

 

There is definetly a lack of understanding on this topic. People are raised with the force of religion that it is justified to eat animal products. They want to praise morality but it is definetly contradictive to praise love but kill animals at the same time. Yes Animals eating other animals. Yes thats correct and animals have also alot of sex whenever they want to. But we humans are different. We have a higher intellect than animals and we can overthink a topic more often before we give a decision to any topic. So why are people still stuck into speciesm? You definetly don't need animal products to survive and of course you also don't need all the processed vegan meat which is not natural and healthy at all. I think people should eat a diet without violence on your plate and also no processed food this would include quitting sugar and white flour as well. Clean eating is the real deal and important for our diggestive system. And with eating animal products your colon can function weaker and weaker until you get old and sick. Watch the video Colonoscopy with the japanese Dr.Hiromi Shinya. There are so many deseases, so we can say that peacefood is the right path. For now everything seems okay to consume animal products like drinking milk but when you get older alot of people will have problems to consume that. But I have personally no problems with people who still eats pork beef chicken and other stuff. Even when my future girlfriend is not vegan I can deal with it.

 

I've never heard of any Native Americans who described their attitude towards animals as "love". Furthermore, they existed in a hunter-gatherer society. We live in an agricultural society. Most people in western countries have the option to not eat meat, so it's not like going to McDonald's is a necessary evil or something.

 

I love animals, but you know what, I still eat meat.

I was raised in the rural countryside and I've spent generous amounts of time around farm animals that were later butchered and parted off to whoever bought it.

I don't see it as a sad thing or as any indication that I 'don't love animals'. That's just the way the world works. No animal would give a second thought to eating something lesser to survive, and I see no reason why we should be the exception.

 

Thanks. I’m aware of the differences in how food was obtained in their culture vs now. The main factor remains that they respected nature and animals and also ate meat. People nowadays can do the same provided they’re not attributing to overconsumption and waste.

 

What I think...

No mf in the world can label me for what they think I actually love. Their opinion doesn't matter.

If I say I love animals and yet I eat meat. It simply means I love animals and I also eat meat. Anything, anyone else says is just their own opinion, and guess what opinions of other people are worth to you? Nothing! (Or you can value them and never be happy with your own unique self! Choice is in your hands as always.)

 

We aren't talking about respect. We're talking about love. And guess what? We ARE contributing to overconsumption and waste. The animal agriculture industry is one of the most wasteful industries in the world. They are among the top in air and water pollution. 90% of grain in the USA goes to producing animal feed. It is way more costly to produce a pound of meat than it is to produce a pound of plant foods. The Native American tribes believed in reducing their waste as much as possible. We can do that by going vegan - it is obviously the single best choice. And here's the fun part - you don't even have to care about animals to acknowledge that a worldwide conversion to veganism would be the optimal choice.

 

That's fine, it just means that you only love some animals. I'm guessing it's mostly dogs and cats

 

Depends on the meat.

If the meat you eat comes from animals who have been treated like shit and brutally killed in slaughterhouses, then don't claim to be an animal lover if you are perfectly conscious of that. Or at least just say you love your cat, that's all.

Otherwise, if it's quality meat coming from animals who have been treated with respect, then I don't see anything wrong.

No need to go vegan though.

 

Exactly. We don't need to go vegan. A lot of us can live happily without it. That is what makes it hard to understand that it is the right thing to do. It is a choice. A choice between having a slightly less enjoyable life for yourself or ruining the lives of thousands of others for a small amount of satisfaction. When you really start to think about what you're choosing between, then it becomes a bit easier.

 

I love my pets, but I still eat meat. I don't think people who eat things like chicken, beef, etc are bad, and rather this comes down to more of a personal morality thing. Because honestly at the end of the day an animal is an animal regardless of the status you give it.

 

But that's kind of a weird thing to say because we are animals too. We give ourselves an elevated status even though we are similar to other animals in a multitude of ways. It makes no sense.

 

Why? Should we feel sorry for literally everything we eat? If there was a being that was as smart as us, don't you think we'd be on the food chain as well?