Being vegetarian has been a massive part of my life for the past 10 years. Since I was 7 years old I haven't eaten meat. Now whenever this topic comes up in conversation it always strikes a debate (not that I mind a good debate) it seems that people have this really uninformed and one-sided view of vegetarians and vegans. I was having a debate one day where it got so out of hand the person started accusing us of lying because we eat bananas which have similar DNA to humans, idiotic, I know but these people seem unable to comprehend that people can choose a lifestyle away from meat. It seems to me that people who have such a bad view on vegetarians are those which associate us with the massive animal rights people who believe any killing of animals is wrong and you are immoral if you eat meat, when the majority of vegetarians say 'live and let live' pun not intended. What I am trying to get across is that not all vegetarians have such a drastic view of what others choose which is why I believe people get so angry when they meet us.
My reason for turning vegetarian has definitely evolved since I was 7 years old, when I was 7 I believed eating meat was cruel and should never ever be done. I thought this way as I had seen slaughter on TV and it suddenly become very real to me, now a lot of you are probably thinking 'Why would her parents let her see that?' well the truth is why should they hide it from me? My parents eat meat and I think like many parents they didn't want to tell me the food I used to eat was derived from the killing of animals, but what I don't understand is why are we hiding it from children? are we really that ashamed of it? Has it become such a taboo thing to know where the food you are eating really comes from. (food for thought there) But back to my point when I was about 13/14 ish I had kind of grown a hatred for people bringing it up and arguing with me over it, at this stage I didn't believe the consumption of animals was wrong but that was very hard to get across to people especially when they cant see that its possible for vegetarians to not want to force there lifestyle on others.
Then there is now where I believe and I will quote 'I do not eat animals because I believe, by my own personal morals that has grown through doing research, that the consumption of animals has gotten to a level where it is way too large and over reaches demand and I also disagree with the way animals are being slaughtered at slaughter houses and I believe the public are very unaware of were food actually comes from'
The reasoning behind my beliefs are that 7 BILLION chickens JUST in the US are being killed every year for human consumption. To me that is WAY more than there should be. The other point of disagreeing with slaughter method I think is completely up to you but I do think everyone should be aware of the way animals, especially cattle, are slaughtered so you can make your own decision as to whether you want to continue consuming or not, I think it is completely personal to you, and that ties in to why I think people are unaware of were food comes from, if anyone reads this I ask you to PLEASE do research into how your meat gets on your table to just settle 'but it tastes good', 'i don't want to see that' these aren't reasons and you are just afraid of what is really happening! If you are fine with still eating meat with the knowledge behind you GO AHEAD EAT IT , I'm not hear to abolish animal consumption just make people more aware.
There is sooooo much more for me to say on this but this is why its called part 1.
Holly Tree
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