I'm not a vegetarian and I never have been but recently I have been considering it. I reckon I could live without meat pretty easily, though I would have to start eating more vegetables lol But so long as I live in my mum's house there's really no practical way to do it as I wouldn't want to cause any inconvenience - plus she thinks veggies are silly. I might consider it more once I leave home.

I was vegetarian for about a month just to try it out, and lost 10 pounds in the first week. I felt fabulous, both physically and mentally.

After reading most of the posts in this thread, I'm really going to try to commit to it.

I am now Pure Vegan

*Waves hands furiously* I'm a vegan raw foodist!!!!!! I became a vegetarian one year ago, slowly eased into veganism and now I only eat raw food. My mom thinks i'm absolutely crazy (shes a country cookin' steak eatin' slab everything in butter kinda woman) And I find it funny but its cool cause sometimes I can make her a nice meal or a juice (I have a juicer and I kinda just throw a hodge podge of veggies and fruits in it). Sorry I use so many of () those guys hahahaha. I feel so much better though, i've lost some weight, my skin is clear, my mind is much clearer, and I notice my eyes are brighter. I first started changing my eating habits when I worked at a organic grocery store and learned a lot, so my first intentions were for health reasons but as time went on it became more about animal rights!

I'm a vegetarian!

I'm a lacto-ovo vegetarian, grew up as such. Recently my grandparents turned vegan for health reasons. I would miss the cheese, i love cheese! but I like fortified rice milk as much as regular milk, and I can go without eggs.

Has anyone ever heard of the China study?

http://www.thechinastudy.com/about.html

i agree somewhat with you but peoples view on all of this is so skewed by the Disney channel and the easter bunny that I dont really care that much. Veganism and vegetarianism can be fine if practiced correctly. You need to learn how to eat properly before changing your lifestyle. I know people who try to become vegetarian to lose weight.. they skip meat and stick to bread and chips..horrid idea, meat can absolutely be part of a very healthy life style also. I hate the way animals are treated, I intentionally avoid eating at places like Kfc because of it. The whole living in the wild thing is bs though, if the animals are treated properly they arnt depressed and hoping for death..theyre only desire is to live and procreate. Animals in the wild deal with danger, weather,food shortage etc...not to mention that the hunter is becoming the worst person in the world! I once said in an english class that I would enjoy hunting and A riot broke out about how I was a Bambi killer and lions love cream spinach not zebra.

I feel no guilt for eating animals, I do not wish them to be tortured or mistreated prior to eating. The whole world not realizing where theyre food comes from kills me. A solution to stop hunting is not go buy meat at walmart..Ive actually been asked why would you want to hunt when you can buy it at walmart and save the animals

Exodus 12:6-9 (New International Version)

6 Take care of them until the fourteenth day of the month, when all the people of the community of Israel must slaughter them at twilight. 7 Then they are to take some of the blood and put it on the sides and tops of the doorframes of the houses where they eat the lambs. 8 That same night they are to eat the meat roasted over the fire, along with bitter herbs, and bread made without yeast. 9 Do not eat the meat raw or cooked in water, but roast it over the fire—head, legs and inner parts.



I am a dedicated hunter as well, and I hunt for food to support my family. We eat all of the deer that I and my family kills, and if there is more than we need, we give it away to people who need it.

Also, if there were no hunters or meat eaters, wild game would overpopulate and then starve because of lack of food for them??? Is that what you guys that want to protect animals would like to see?? I kill an animal as quickly and humanely as possible. If they starve, they have a long, slow death....

I am not a guy that just goes out and enjoys killing for the fun of it. If I make a bad shot on an animal, and I have, I feel terrible and do my best to end it's suffering as quickly as possible.

Hunting and meat eating has had it's place almost since time began, and it won't be going anywhere any time soon..


You will NEVER, EVER convince me that hunting/killing animals is wrong or un-biblical. The Bible mentions eating meat numerous times, and like I said, there has to be hunting or there will be over-population, which will lead to animal starvation.

"Doesn’t hunting control wildlife populations that would otherwise get out of hand?

Hunters often assert that their practices benefit their victims. A variation on the theme is their common assertion that their actions keep populations in check so that animals do not die of starvation (“a clean bullet in the brain is preferable to a slow death by starvation”). Following are some facts and questions about hunting and “wildlife management” that reveal what is really happening.

Game animals, such as deer, are physiologically adapted to cope with seasonal food shortages. It is the young that bear the brunt of starvation. Among adults, elderly and sick animals also starve. But the hunters do not seek out and kill only these animals at risk of starvation; rather, they seek the strongest and most beautiful animals (for maximum meat or trophy potential). The hunters thus recruit the forces of natural selection against the species that they claim to be defending.

The hunters restrict their activities to only those species that are attractive for their meat or trophy potential. If the hunters were truly concerned with protecting species from starvation, why do they not perform their “service” for the skunk, or the field mouse? And why is hunting not limited to times when starvation occurs, if hunting has as a goal the prevention of starvation? (The reason that deer aren’t hunted in early spring or late winter—when starvation occurs—is that the carcasses would contain less fat, and hence, be far less desirable to meat consumers. Also, hunting then would be unpopular to hunters due to the snow, mud, and insects.)

So-called “game management” policies are actually programs designed to eliminate predators of the game species and to artificially provide additional habitat and resources for the game species. Why are these predator species eliminated when they would provide a natural and ecologically sound mechanism for controlling the population of game species? Why are such activities as burning, clear-cutting, chemical defoliation, flooding, and bulldozing employed to increase the populations of game animals, if hunting has as its goal the reduction of populations to prevent starvation? The truth is that the management agencies actually try to attain a maximum sustainable yield, or harvest, of game animals.

The wildlife managers and hunters preferentially kill male animals, a policy designed to keep populations high. If overpopulation were really a concern, they would preferentially kill females.

Another common practice that belies the claim that wildlife management has as a goal the reduction of populations to prevent starvation is the practice of game stocking. For example, in the state of New York the Department of Environmental Conservation obtains pheasants raised in captivity and then releases them in areas frequented by hunters. For every animal killed by a hunter, two are seriously injured and left to die a slow death. Given these statistics, it is clear that hunting fails even in its proclaimed goal—the reduction of suffering.

The species targeted by hunters, both the game animals and their predators, have survived in balance for millions of years, yet now wildlife managers and hunters insist they need to be “managed.” The legitimate task of wildlife management should be to preserve viable, natural wildlife populations and ecosystems. In addition to the animal toll, hunters kill hundreds of human beings every year.

Finally, there is an ethical argument to consider. Thousands of human beings die from starvation each and every day. Should we assume that the reader will one day be one of them, and dispatch him straight away? Definitely not. Animal Rights ethics asserts that this same consideration should be accorded to the deer."

Source:
http://www.freepress.org/journal.php?strFu...p;strJournal=23

As humans we have the ability to choose - tradition is no excuse for cruelty. Nonetheless, I would rather see someone hunt for their meat than consume factory farmed meat. However, I still oppose any unnecessary hunting.

I cant state whether a few of your points are just plain wrong but I will say this about several others, I was curious about several points which you claim to be fact which are if not entirely, then mostly untrue. Many states issue ONE buck tag and TWO doe tags to each hunter, many require the filling of the doe tags before the buck tag. The killing of the most prominent, strongest deer is necessary because if they are not then they will breed with so many does that it becomes an issue of genetics.. variety of course is essential to all populations and I know for a fact many hunters do not judge a kill purely based on the buck's Size and are very sensitive to population health, many kill purely for meat. The natural predators of deer are extremely low BECAUSE OF EVERYONE not hunters, you could not imagine the uproar at the thought of wolves being introduced into almost any state, several attempts have resulted in the animals being shot by farmers to protect their cattle or moronic people for other reasons. The other animals that are predators of deer such as coyotes are considered extreme pests who kill family pets and are hated by anyone with a free roaming cat or chicken coup. Deer are a victim of ever shrinking territory and come under great stress when the population of males is to dense, not only that but the population we do have result in a BILLION dollars in damage and thousands of lives lost due to deer related car accidents. So who causes more problems.. stupid hunters who in no way represent the whole.. I personally know many hunters who are meticulous about safety.

Peter covered everything I was going to say.

However, this^^ is the reason that I buy 1 or 2 extra game tags per year and give the meat to the ones that need it if I am able to harvest an animal to fill the tag.

I honestly dont see how someone cannot eat meat. Ive tried, not easy.