i can add my own experience since i'm an herbivore now, but LOVED meat...
i've been an herbivore for 15 years this thanksgiving (what a day to decide to stop eating meat!)
up until then, my high point of the week was my t-bone steak on friday nights... done rare! yummm!
i too couldn't ever see myself giving up meat.
but then that particular year, i just started becoming more involved in animal rights. i read some books that talked abt the suffering animals endure just to wind up on a plate (for example, baby chicks are immediately de-beaked without anesthesia,
to prevent them pecking the other chickens they're crammed into a tiny cage with).
it was self-reflection after this. i asked myself, how could i say i loved animals but then close my eyes to satisfy my appetite? logically, it didn't make sense.
if you feel strongly abt this, my advice is to read as much as you can regarding animals in factory farms and slaughterhouses to educate yourself abt the reality of meat. find books that really appeal to you. some are very intellectual and might be hard to get through ( i read one book at the time that compared the women's rights movement to animal rights; the author for example showed how the english language is full of words that objectify both animals and women. for example, how men will talk abt a woman's body parts to reduce her importance as a person; and how we do the same with animals to remove their rights as individual creatures. this is done by referring to meat animals by their butchered body parts only, and their remains are called "hamburger" "hot dog" etc., when you're really talking abt the body part of a living creature.)
this book is right now my favorite animal-rights book... it discusses all aspects of the topic, but a lot of the book is focused on factory farms, slaughterhouses and meateating. it's a very persuasive book, it's called "Dominion."
dominion: the power of man, the suffering of animals, and the call to mercyanother way to feel that you have more options is to find some vegetarian cookbooks. i think in the U.S. especially, ppl are raised to think every meal must contain meat, and your choice become limited. once you explore other food choices (and i'm not talking about sprouts, or other micro-biotic food!) you see all the food you're actually missing out on.
here's one of my favorite herbivore cookbooks, it's called "Verdura" and it's italian cooking... but look in any cookbook section of the bookstore, you'll find so many great books:
verdurato be honest, the smell of meat (esp. in the summertime when ppl are having bbQs) is very appealing to me. but that doesn't mean i want to eat it. i came to my decision through personal research, reflection and desire.
some ppl try by just giving up one thing, like red meat. then they might move on to pork, or chicken. then fish (no, i don't eat fish either). you might want to see if you can try this first, by giving up one type of meat for a few weeks.
good luck with your decision! it was easy for me because i was living on my own when i decided to become an herbivore, so i cooked my own food~~
another way to look at it is to think abt how you'd feel if somebody came into your house, grabbed one of your pets, slit his or her throat or broke his or her neck... (as you listened to your little one crying out) then skinned them, chopped them up into pieces (thighs, paws) and then put those body parts into a pan and cooked it up for you... this freaks you out obviously because you KNOW your pet, you love them and see their sweet personality.
but with factory farm animals, their personalities, emotions and very being are invisible to you~~ they're faceless. but apart from this, they feel the same horror and pain. anybody who's ever been close to any animal doesn't need a panel of biologists or scientists to tell them animals feel pain, experience fear, and don't want to die.
i think that if ppl had to kill animals themselves (including the skinning, butchering of parts, etc) 98% of ppl would give up meat!!
Edited by missPixy, 19 September 2004 - 12:00 AM.
