Ms. Epley
01-29-2008, 01:54 AM
I hope that I don't sound too proud when I say that I do not feel that I force my opinions on others, but it is true. I think that it is so important to stay vocal about the things you care about, but I think it is equally important to be respectful of the beliefs of others, and I hate when people try to force their beliefs on me. It is for this reason that I often keep my mouth shut about certain things unless provoked, i.e someone else starts a discussion on the matter or asks my opinion. However, since you navigated here on your own, and can just as easily navigate away with the click of your mouse, I've got some things to say.
Is it ever acceptable to kill for personal gain? In other words, is it ever humane to murder something, to end its life, just because it tastes good? The animal loses its life and you gain a tasty meal. Is that a fair trade? Is that right? For me, no. That is never right.
I can see why people feel it is ok to eat meat, and although I don't agree, I can still respect their decision because it is not mine to make. However, I can never agree with thinking that the way animals live and die on factory farms is in any way acceptable. If you don't know what a factory farm is, or what happens on them, I strongly urge you to go here-->http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=meet_your_meat&Player=wm and educate yourself instead of closing your eyes and looking away. This is real suffering, as real as human suffering, and I must ask you, will you really be suffering if you stop eating fried chicken and hamburgers, or at least choose the vegetarian option from time to time? The life of an animal is not worth any less, or any less of a life, just because it doesn't belong to a human.
Eating meat is not only cruel to the animals whose lives are cut short, but it is also cruel to the planet. In the article, "Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler" from the January 27th issue of The New York Times, author Mark Bittman reveals "an estimated 30 percent of the earth's ice-free land is directly or indirectly involved in livestock production, according to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization, which also estimates that livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world's greenhouse gases — more than transportation." Imagine all the other possibilities for that land! It is unfair to the planet, and unfair to the people of the exploited parts of the world. The article goes on to explain, "Though some 800 million people on the planet now suffer from hunger or malnutrition, the majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds cattle, pigs and chickens. This despite the inherent inefficiencies: about two to five times more grain is required to produce the same amount of calories through livestock as through direct grain consumption, according to Rosamond Naylor, an associate professor of economics at Stanford University. It is as much as 10 times more in the case of grain-fed beef in the United States." Don't even get me started on what all the antibiotics and chemicals pumped into those poor animals does to our bodies! This is a bad industry doing bad things to animals, to people, and to the planet.
It is not my goal to make you feel guilty, or to make you feel angry, or to hurt your feelings, and if you've read all I've said so far, then I'm just grateful you listened! I just wanted to tell you about something that I care about, and hope that you'll care about it too, and that the decisions you make in your life will be based on something real so that when you choose, you know you are choosing what is right for you, and not just what is easy.
An excerpt from The Hunting of the Hare
As if that God made creatures for man's meat,
To give them life, and sense, for man to eat;
Or else for sport, or recreation's sake,
Destroy those lives that God saw good to make:
Making their stomachs graves, which full they fill
With murdered bodies that in sport they kill.
Yet man doth think himself so gentle, mild,
When he of creatures is most cruel wild.
And is so proud, thinks only he shall live,
That God a God-like nature did him give.
And that all creatures for his sake alone,
Was made for him, to tyrannize upon.
-Margaret Cavendish, 1653
Here's the link to the article "Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler" from The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.html?pagewanted=print
Is it ever acceptable to kill for personal gain? In other words, is it ever humane to murder something, to end its life, just because it tastes good? The animal loses its life and you gain a tasty meal. Is that a fair trade? Is that right? For me, no. That is never right.
I can see why people feel it is ok to eat meat, and although I don't agree, I can still respect their decision because it is not mine to make. However, I can never agree with thinking that the way animals live and die on factory farms is in any way acceptable. If you don't know what a factory farm is, or what happens on them, I strongly urge you to go here-->http://www.petatv.com/tvpopup/video.asp?video=meet_your_meat&Player=wm and educate yourself instead of closing your eyes and looking away. This is real suffering, as real as human suffering, and I must ask you, will you really be suffering if you stop eating fried chicken and hamburgers, or at least choose the vegetarian option from time to time? The life of an animal is not worth any less, or any less of a life, just because it doesn't belong to a human.
Eating meat is not only cruel to the animals whose lives are cut short, but it is also cruel to the planet. In the article, "Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler" from the January 27th issue of The New York Times, author Mark Bittman reveals "an estimated 30 percent of the earth's ice-free land is directly or indirectly involved in livestock production, according to the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization, which also estimates that livestock production generates nearly a fifth of the world's greenhouse gases — more than transportation." Imagine all the other possibilities for that land! It is unfair to the planet, and unfair to the people of the exploited parts of the world. The article goes on to explain, "Though some 800 million people on the planet now suffer from hunger or malnutrition, the majority of corn and soy grown in the world feeds cattle, pigs and chickens. This despite the inherent inefficiencies: about two to five times more grain is required to produce the same amount of calories through livestock as through direct grain consumption, according to Rosamond Naylor, an associate professor of economics at Stanford University. It is as much as 10 times more in the case of grain-fed beef in the United States." Don't even get me started on what all the antibiotics and chemicals pumped into those poor animals does to our bodies! This is a bad industry doing bad things to animals, to people, and to the planet.
It is not my goal to make you feel guilty, or to make you feel angry, or to hurt your feelings, and if you've read all I've said so far, then I'm just grateful you listened! I just wanted to tell you about something that I care about, and hope that you'll care about it too, and that the decisions you make in your life will be based on something real so that when you choose, you know you are choosing what is right for you, and not just what is easy.
An excerpt from The Hunting of the Hare
As if that God made creatures for man's meat,
To give them life, and sense, for man to eat;
Or else for sport, or recreation's sake,
Destroy those lives that God saw good to make:
Making their stomachs graves, which full they fill
With murdered bodies that in sport they kill.
Yet man doth think himself so gentle, mild,
When he of creatures is most cruel wild.
And is so proud, thinks only he shall live,
That God a God-like nature did him give.
And that all creatures for his sake alone,
Was made for him, to tyrannize upon.
-Margaret Cavendish, 1653
Here's the link to the article "Rethinking the Meat-Guzzler" from The New York Times:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/weekinreview/27bittman.html?pagewanted=print