There's no denying that meat contains protein and iron... but not as much as soy. Meat also contains toxins, pesticides, growth hormones and cholesterol. Other sources of protein and iron are readily available, cheaper, much cleaner and don't hurt you or animals. The iron in meat can only be absorbed if eaten with food rich in Vitamin C. Meat protein is second hand, coming originally from the vegetables the animal ate. Our bodies are designed for vegetable protein not flesh, that's why we have a long digestive system and mainly flat teeth. We don't need as much protein as once thought and there’s a theory that too much iron is dangerous, maybe even cancer forming.
2.
Animals don't think or feel the way we do
Our compassion for another must not be limited by our estimation of their
intelligence, otherwise we might eat intellectually handicapped people. Not
all animals can think abstractly, most don't need to. Extensive tests have
proven, however, that with many species the only marked difference from human
thinking is language! All mammals have evolved with emotions. It's essential
to our survival. Without love and loyalty the young and sick would perish.
Pigs forced to live in an area the size of a double bed all their lives are
just as unhappy as you would be. All vertebrates feel pain by exactly the
same mechanism, the nervous system. To cut a lamb's throat hurts just as much
as it would hurt your baby. A hook in a fish's mouth hurts just as much as
it would in yours.
3.
Animals were 'put' here for our use
The Bible makes many references to the evil of animal slaughter. Spiritual
beliefs are a personal choice and our right, except when they encroach on
another's freedom. In other words: You may believe in an inhumane
God that ‘put’ animals were here for humans to abuse but many
believe that humans were ‘put’ here to protect the innocent...
and Creation. The species you eat were here millions of years before humans.
People have often used their god's will as an excuse for their own greed and
obscene behaviour. That's why we don’t all believe in the same god or
at least can’t agree on which ancient text or teacher was the real McCoy.
Any god who expects you to hurt animals can go to Hell.
4.
Animal testing prevents human suffering
It's true that without burning out the eyes of a squealing, terrified rabbit
with chemicals, some women may have suffered a little discomfort while putting
on make-up! The fact is: there is not one single disease that has been prevented
by animal testing. In fact the results have often been misleading and disastrous.
They tested Thalidomide on animals and found it was.. 'armless!
5.
Culling feral & native animals is necessary
Natural selection ensures the bigger, stronger, more intelligent animals survive.
Culling, although a temporary solution to overpopulation, speeds up natural
selection by killing off the stupid, slower, weaker ones. Mainly, feral animals
are just descendants of unwanted, un-de-sexed pets and no more evil than them.
Often the victims of human stupidity or neglect are blamed and punished. Sterilisation
practices actually work better. Culling is often just an excuse for a sadistic
sport. Cull hunters instead!
6.
Without animals the economy would crumble
That's what they said about the abolishment of black slavery and child slavery.
If the World turned vegetarian overnight it could destroy our economy and
many would cheer. It won't happen overnight although the meat industry is
already dying as people discover the benefits of less meat. Industries will
adapt. Cruelty-free meat made from soy, wheat or mushroom protein, is already
a big industry in Buddhist countries. It’s available here through Asian
supermarkets.
7.
Without killing 'pests' farms would go broke
Once again: human need (or greed) vs the rights of 'lesser’ animals.
Bill Mollison an eminent Australian scientist condemns our present farming
methods. Cash crops of one species only, irrigation, chemical fertilisers
and mass slaughter of birds and animals, eventually kills the land. If Mollison's
Permaculture method (growing food in 'rainforest'-style city/suburban gardens)
keeps increasing in it's worldwide popularity, farmers can become permaculturists
instead of murdering innocent creatures they call 'pests'.
8.
If we're not meat eaters why does it taste good?
Raw meat smells and tastes disgusting to most humans and putrefies in a long
digestive system (like ours) eventually causing death by toxemia. Accidentally
our ancestors discovered that burnt animals tasted better and didn't make
you sick. Heat breaks down and carbonises the protein, sugars and fat into
a digestible/palatable substance. There's a positive test to see if humans
are natural carnivores: Put a small child in a playpen with a rabbit and an
apple. If it kills the rabbit and eats it, then plays with the apple... it’s
a carnivore. If it plays with the rabbit and eats the apple...
9.
If not meat, what would we eat?
Only stupid vegetarians would just eat mashed potatoes and peas without the
chops. Actually, there can be more protein in the serve of peas than in a
chop! Cooking with meat can limit the imagination. When you have to create
nutritious meals without a separate piece of protein, the sky's the limit.
There are also many cholesterol-free meat, chicken and fish substitutes with
a great taste and texture. Cloned, non-sentient meat is a scientific reality,
too, grown, rather than cut from a murdered corpse.
10.
What would we do with all the cattle etc?
About ten million head of cattle die, terrified every day in the US alone.
That’s a lot of wasted life and wasted, trampled land, and wasted forests
that were cleared for those poor, doomed creatures, who actually prefer living
around shady trees! When the demand for meat disappears animals will stop
being bred. Those that are left will be able to return to a semi-wild state
like their ancestors. Their numbers can be controlled by fertility programs.
11.
How will we feed everybody without meat?
If 10% of Americans, alone, gave up eating meat, sixty million people, who
starve each year, could be saved. The food that is given to meat-producing
animals, could feed more than twenty times as many people as the meat from
those animals! In the same amount of land it takes to graze one cow sixty
thousand tonnes of potatoes per year can be grown, etc. Need I go on? Without
meat production everyone on Earth could eat.
12.
Meat eaters are healthier, vegos get sick
The biggest killers in western society are heart attack and cancer. The incidence
of heart attack and cancer is 10 to 35 times greater in meat eaters. Many
Olympic champions are vegetarian or vegan. Vegetarians who eat properly get
less colds, don't get as fat, live up to twenty five years longer, have better
sex and don't stink as much.
13.
Human rights should come first
Why are human rights important? Isn't it because we, as thinking beings, have
realised that other human beings, no matter what shape, colour or background,
need basically the same things and deserve the same considerations as ourselves?
Some of us, as thinking, feeling beings have recognised that not just human
animals but all animals, capable of feeling joy or pain, deserve those same
considerations. Human rights are important because we are mortal and vulnerable.
Because we are ANIMAL! Human rights are animal rights.
14.
It's natural to breed and farm animals
According to an American survey: every Macca's 'Quarter Pounder' cost the
Earth one hectare of rainforest and used three thousand litres of potential
drinking water. The court case involving two people who published facts about
damage caused by McDonalds, ended up proving most of those facts to be correct
(Watch the movie 'McLibel'). Everywhere animals have been grazed there has
been environmental damage. The Sahara Desert is an example of what was, a
long time ago, a lush plain, until humans grazed goats and sheep extensively
in the area. Deforestation, soil degradation, pollution, etc, etc. I'm sure
Mother Nature wouldn't think there was anything natural about farming.
15.
Plants suffer too. Should we stop eating them?
All living cells respond to stimulus. A plant is a colony of cells that are
interconnected. When a plant is attacked the whole colony responds before
it re-grows or withers and dies. Animals are also cell colonies. Because animals
are more mobile than plants they have evolved a nervous system to warn of
damage so that muscles can be used to move away from danger. If a tree can’t
move away from the bushfire or the logger why would it need to suffer? Fruit
and foliage has to be eaten to spread the seeds and fertilizer for those plants.
Only animals feel physical and emotional pain because plants don’t have
the physiology to create those feelings. Fortunately Nature isn’t as
stupid as the people who propose such silly arguments.
16.
I have the right to choose to eat meat
Do you also have the right to rape my daughter? No. Because the law prevents
it and because it’s immoral to hurt a defenseless being. If it was illegal
to kill or eat animals you would no longer have that right, either. Personal
rights can only be exercised freely when they don't infringe the rights of
others. When they do, history has proven, there are those who’ll fight
for those who can't.
Even if rape was legal, if you tried to hurt my children I would probably
kill you. Any parent would. It's an animal instinct. We’d stop you because
you have no right, legal or not, to hurt an innocent being. Animals are innocent
beings. If you hurt animals I have the 'right' to stop you. At present you
have the right to eat meat and I have the 'right' to discourage you. There’s
a growing number of good people who want to see an end to industries that
rape the land and murder enslaved animals. It may take time but it's natural
evolution for all humans to recognise equal rights for all sentient beings.
Black
slavery was abolished
Child slavery was abolished
Animal slavery will be abolished
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