Vegetarians.

[flobadob]

Does anyone know the main reason why people become vegetarian? If it is animal cruelty, why do most vegetarians eat fish, do they regard their deaths for human consumption as not cruel?

[flobadob]

keyplus makes a very decent point there. For example every time you drive a car, especially at night, see how many insects die because of your journey. I know it is an extreme thing to point out but actually it's got a lot of merit in the whole argument of the killing of living things for our benefit.

[ruby27]

flobadob,

The point keyplus makes is dragged out every time, as if vegetarians can be belittled because they kill germs.

Why does a vegetarian have to justify their way of life, its not exactly a threat to meat eaters and I have never met a vegetarian who was in a position to impose their viewpoint on the rest of society. Its not like some damned religion where those who don't adhere to it, are threatened with a terrible fate. Vegetarians are not some amorphous mass either, where the behaviour and actions of one, can be the explanation for another.
When I see this argument (sic) so cleverly dragged out finger pointing, I want to respond by well if my lifestyle choices are so flawed, that I kill insects so why bother not eating meat, lets go the whole way and start killing humans and starting with the pompous self opinionated meat eaters!!!!!!!!!!!!

[keyplus90]

Ruby � you have taken things other way. If you read my earlier post on 4th August at 10.07, I did say that there s nothing wrong in being a vegetarian if you just do not like meat. But when you say that you do not eat meat because you do not like taking a life then as a result that becomes a statement (knowingly or unknowingly) against the people who like eating meat. Then and only then the other points become valid about germs, and insects etc.

I do not want to change the subject of the question, however you may not be but majority people are vegetarian due to this misconception and on the basis of this mindset about killing a living thing. But unfortunately that becomes invalid when you look into it deeply.

[naomi24]

If we want to cure illness, then killing germs is a necessity; if we want to drive our cars, then killing insects along the road is unavoidable; treading on insects in the grass is unavoidable. We don't do that willinging, or because we want to eat their bodies. Becoming vegetarian because we don't wish to kill animals willingly, and eat their bodies is a different thing entirely. I don't see vegetarianism as invalid at all - and neither do I see it as a statement against people who eat meat. It's a personal choice that neither harms, nor interferes with anyone else. I'm not vegetarian, but I can understand why people choose that lifestyle. When I look at a chicken hanging in my butchers shop, I see the body of a dead animal that has been killed specifically for human consumption - and unlike insects that have been inadvertently killed, and whose remains serve no purpose to us, that's precisely what it is. If I thought deeply about it, I could very easily become vegetarian.