Comment by theoutlander | Hacker News Reader

Comment by theoutlander | Hacker News Reader

I just completed 13 months of being a vegetarian. I wanted to convert since 10 years prior to that, but couldn't get myself to do it because I grew up eating meat as a treat once to twice a week. It got progressively worse after I moved to the states as I started eating it three times a day and expanded from Chicken to all other red meats.I loved it!

Fast forward to last year and we were having a baby and that's when it struck me - Animals often watch their family being slaughtered. The young ones before they're even allowed to walk. They scream all along. They're mistreated extremely inhumanely and the people handling them - let's just say there's a special place in hell for them! I NEVER watched a single video until I had converted and people kept asking me if I saw any videos....they're horrible!

We grow up being masked from how animals are killed. If you can't even watch your meat being slaughtered, you shouldn't be eating it! Luckily, we're raising our child a vegetarian. We've found great vegetarian alternatives and yes they don't taste anywhere as great as a steak or smoked ribs, but they're still very very close and I think I can make that sacrifice because I don't ever want to see another animal deliberately hurt because of me or my family. I truly hope our society can make the necessary changes to treat animals humanely. Granted, there's no humane way to kill anyone, but I'm sure there's a quick/painless way to do it.

I'm not trying to change anyone. I just wanted to share my story.

I'm in the same boat. I became vegan a few years ago for purely health reasons. Now in the last couple of months I'm starting to become more of a morally conscious vegetarian and think that the way factory farmed meat is slaughtered is just wrong. But there's where I stop. I still question the moral difference between killing plants or microscopic organisms and that of organisms in the animal kingdom. So basically if you kill and prepare the animal yourself that's fine, just so long as its done in a way to minimize suffering.

Yes, I contemplate about the same and it drives me nuts! Lol, speaking of which I keep wondering if we were meant to simply eat fruits and nuts. I keep wondering how many I kill every time I walk or when you dig for building a house for instance. Someday if I found roadkill, I might consider eating it.

I agree that if you can kill the animal humanely and eliminate (?) suffering, it might be a good alternative.

One of these days I'm hoping to experiment in our lab on a project growing meat from stem cells. Wonder if it would be ok to eat that?

An animals original genesis should have no impact on the value of its life. If you had a clone created of yourself would it be ok if you harvested it of its organs? What if someone else did? Now if you could just grow a loin or a liver or a breast in isolation from an animal that might be different...

That's right, I'm simply considering growing certain parts. It sounds quite gross the more I think about it, but I suppose there might be zero pain involved? It's certainly doable.

I became vegetarian as a child after I watched animals being slaughtered. Kids have a great sense for morality and usually love animals. I they see, how meat is actually produced, there is a chance that they never want to eat it again.

My sister did that, but only with sheep some reason after she saw it being slaughtered. She still ate poultry and sea food.

It was similar for me first, but later I stopped eating meat at all.

He might start eating meat eventually when he grow up. I don't always follow my parents rule or tradition when I grow up.

Yes, you are right. My wife keeps saying the same and I can't do anything about it. I can at least raise him vegetarian for as long as I can.

I became vegetarian when I was sixteen under the influence of punk rock music :) The funny thing is that even though I have a much more nuanced opinion on the topic sixteen years on, I have lost the ability to see meat as a something separate from the animal itself. When I see slabs of meat in the supermarket, I don't think about how great it will taste, I just see a part of a cow, pig, or chicken. In other words, my reaction is much the same as yours would be if someone would be selling say, cat meat.

There is a certain amount of cognitive dissonance that is necessary to eat meat without feelings of guilt or disgust, and at the same time feel compassionate when animals of other species are hurt or killed. Once people become vegetarian, whatever the reason, they often lose that ability.

I know a few people who grew up vegetarian and never had the choice as a child. Because they never learned the difference between 'pig' and 'pork', 'cow' and 'beef', 'calf' and 'veal', it's often harder for them to make a conscious decision to start eating meat.

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