A Friendly Conversation: Exploring Omnivorous vs. Vegetarian Diet

[Steppingfeet]

Since I am one of those 'avowed vegetarians' you are speaking for, I will respond and tell you it's not accurate.

Most vegetarians I know all agree that such a slaughter as you just described, when done out of absolute necessity, is acceptable.

The key here is necessity.

Ah, I see. A finer point I hadn't considered. Thank you for the clarification.

Edit: The Tuvans quoted in the NatGeo article are not primitive, though. By your parameters, they eat meat not out of necessity, but choice. (Or, due to limitations of resources and money, perhaps both necessity and choice, I'm not sure.)

At any rate, I understood that no form of animal slaughter is acceptable to the vegetarian, no matter how painless for the animal; and acknowledged such in my post. What I didn't think about was that the vegetarian would add an asterisk saying, "unless it is necessary for survival".

However, I don't know of a single vegetarian who would approve of any killing of any animal, no matter how it's done, when it's not necessary.

Will henceforth be amended to include that caveat in my thinking.

One cannot expect the employees of any farm, or even the farmer himself, to extend love to the animal they are killing for profit. Our own Austin does so, and there are undoubtedly others, but not on a wide scale. The idea of replacing factory farms with such 'conscious' killing, while maintaining the current rate of meat consumption, isn't practical. Not by a long shot.

I wouldn't argue that it's in our best interest to continue consuming meat at our current meat-crazy levels.

Choosing to eat meat from sources that humanely raise and slaughter the animals has significantly reduced my meat consumption.

If you are truly comfortable with such killing, then the only way to ensure it's done like that is to do it yourself.

No thank you. I'm comfortable with using the toilet but have no desire to be a plumber.

Doing the killing yourself would ensure full responsibility for the death of the entity.

Indeed. A lot of things done by myself would ensure that they were done to my particular standard on the matter. But in an interdependent complex society, we rely on sources we trust to produce that which we need or desire. Whether it's my kitchen table, or the seatbelts in my car, or the clothing I wear, or the foodstuffs I consume.

I have a question for you: If it were feasible (which I don't think it is, but just IF), then why is this method preferable to just avoiding meat?

Why are you interested in knowing my reasons for retaining meat as a part of my diet?

GLB