Do you think you can be an animal activist...?

Question

or just someone who cares about animals but still eat meat? I'm just wondering if you can eat meat knowing what goes on in slaughter houses but still care about animals. I'm just looking for everyones opinion Thanks for your answers.

Answer 1

I care for animals but I do eat meat.

Answer 2

HA!      give it a rest.

animals can live with or without us, it's up to you if you can live with or without them.

otherwise if they can get to you first, i'll roll out the red carpet...  break out the cam and afterwards, if worthwhile, upload it to youtube.

Answer 3

Yes of course you can--I am all for treating animals humanely.  Which is why I do not buy my meat from corporate america--or even local stores.  I prefer to go to a butcher where I know the animals are treated with respect, allowed to roam and eat on their own, and are killed humanely.  I also believe the meat tastes so much better this way as well.

I also hunt every fall--this is the way of the world.  All animals hunt for their food and all animals have a fighting chance to get away.  Plus if you hunt for meat, you tend to only shoot what you can physically eat.

EDIT:  Just as an fyi, my ancestors were native american, and they knew how to treat animals with reverence and respect way before here were animal rights activists.  I also grew up on a farm and can tell you that our livestock and pets were living better, cleaner and ate healthier than most college students.  

Don't clump me and my family in with the rest of people who slaughter animals without regard.  I don't need to be judged by people who don't even know me.

Answer 4

You'd be a complete hypocrite to try and help farm animals without becoming vegetarian/vegan.

The average meat-eater causes the death of around 2000 animals in his or her lifetime.

If you go around campaigning against the abuse of farm animals, people will get a mixed message when they find out you pay for these animals to exploited and killed.

I'd strongly suggest you become vegan if you want to campaign, or you'll be giving a mixed message which could do more harm than good. If you do make this choice, you can:

1. Rescue animals

2. Write articles

3. Write a blog

4. Talk to people about vegetarianism/veganism

5. Write to companies/organisations/your MP about farm animals

6. Leaflet in the streets

7. Fund raise for charities campaigning against the exploitation and abuse of farm animals, such as Animal Aid

8. Provide a home for rescued animals

I'm sure there's even more than that.

Here's an example of the kind of work I do, it's an article I wrote after rescuing 320 hens from an 'organic' egg farm.

http://www.animalrightscommunity.com/blo...

They were cramped into a nearly pitch black barn, there were bars for floors, it reeked and they would have all been killed without our intervention. All the 'organic' label really means is that consumers don't have to feel guilty, that's the suffering they relieve... this is what welfare is.

But instead, 10,000 of them were saved that week and sent to caring homes and sanctuaries across the UK.

Answer 5

Of course you can. You can volunteer at your local animal shelter and help place cats and dogs in loving homes. Doing so would be a wonderful thing and certainly doesn't require you to be a vegetarian.

Answer 6

I think it's really hypocritical. I can't take an AR "activist" seriously if they aren't vegan.

Answer 7

Hey, someone asked a question much like this a few hours ago.  

I have never visited a slaughterhouse--they don't exactly want people to know what's going on--and I don't want to (just read Gail Eisnitz's "Slaughterhouse," and you'll see why).  I think anyone who has been informed about what goes on not only in slaughterhouses but on animal industrial facilities and still eats meat cannot possibly claim to care about animals.

Of course, you can say you care about cats and dogs, animals enslaved in circuses, etc., which means you care about some animals. But why care about some when you can care about them all?

Answer 8

Yes.  Look, humans are omnivores.  I've heard all the arguments for humans were never meant to eat meat, but from an evolutionary standpoint, I don't buy it.  How would we have survived the Ice Age?  I do eat some meat, but it doesn't mean I think it's okay to cram them into small cages, cut off beaks, pump them full of hormones and antibiotics or dump them on the side of the road because they got sick, and you don't want them on your farm anymore.  I don't like the way animals are treated, and I do my best to avoid the meat that comes from such places or avoid the meat altogether.  And I'm talking factory farms here.  I think a lot of people have no idea what a "family farm" is and just how different they are from the factories that are the focus of the slaughter house fights.

I wear makeup, but I don't think it's okay to pump a bunny full of red dye # whatever and then announce that the dye causes cancer.  Of course it did!  If you force fed me far too much of something everyday, it would make me sick too.  It doesn't prove anything, so I don't think it should be done, and I buy things that weren't tested on animals.

I believe in conservation, so I am against clear cutting rain forests for cattle grazing.  I believe urban sprawl is causing all sorts of horrible problems for animal habitats.  The koala is very threatened due to loss of forest.  I don't buy into the theory that deer are over-populating and need to be "controlled."  No, we cut down their forests and put houses up, so of course they are in your backyard.  It used to be their kitchen.

What it comes down to for me is that I believe I am nothing more than just another animal on the planet and therefore a part of the food chain.  My species of animal happens to be omnivores.  I don't believe eating animals and treating animals like $hit are the same thing.  Other animals manage to eat without abusing what they eat, and they are not considered evil.  So why are humans?  I think to say that it's okay for one animal to eat meat, but then to say that the human animal is evil for doing so is putting us above the other animals.  Isn't that what the animal right's movement is trying to avoid - putting humans above all other animals?