Why do some people think that you're not a true animal lover unless you're vegetarian/vegan?

Question

I love animals, but I eat meat. And a lot of people tell me that I can't be a true animal lover unless I stop eating meat.

But it doesn't make sense, it's not like I go out and brutually slaughter animals.....So why should someone have to stop eating meat just to prove that they actually do love animals?

Answer 1

You can be...people shouldn't be that exclusive. There's no rule saying that you can't. Although i am a vegan i don't have a problem with people who eat meat and love animals. and they don't have to, it's just a choice that some people make. I personally just hate the thought of eating meat, even though some people love to eat meat.

Answer 2

Because you are funding the cruel slaughter of innocent animals everytime you buy a meat product. You are paying for the animals to be slaughtered. It is for the same reason that people are charged with homicide when they contract a killer to murder their spouse, while they may not be "actually" performing the killing themselves they are supporting and funding it.

Answer 3

animal love is if they are killed with a gun. they still let animals bleed to death as a form of slaughter. its quicker with guns. not regular guns, its a special type of guns for animal slaughter.

Answer 4

Some people are closed minded.

I saw no one is a TRUE animal lover unless they are sleeping with them. (Just joking).

Answer 5

I'm not going to push you to be a vegetarian...just so you know because it might sound like that...but I'm not.

Well it makes perfect sense actually you see, you love animals, and that's good, but by eating meat you are giving people a reason to kill more animals for food.

It partially comes down to money. People want money. I mean think about it. If people like something, like an ipod for example...people will buy it, so they make more, so more people buy it and they make more money.

Same thing with meat, if people like it, they will keep killing animals to make it, so they make money. So basically by eating meat your are supporting the process to kill animals to get meat. Which really doesn't make sense...it's kind of a contradiction. Actiaully in a sense by eating meat...doesn't that kind of make you indirectly slaughter an animal?

I suppose you can love animals...while eating meat...but that really doesn't make sense to me. You've basically contradicted yourself.

But you have your life and I have mine.

Answer 6

Because thats like saying you love your dog, then after shes slaughtered you cook her & eat her.

Answer 7

well i understand where your coming from, i've always loved animals but wasn't always a vegetarian. but it is also understandable that people think you don't love animals if you eat them, because its sort of like saying you don't have a problem with them being slaughtered.

Answer 8

You may not personally slaughter the animal, but it's done for you so you can eat the meat.  If you stop eating meat it won't be done for you anymore.

Think of supply and demand.  If no one wants something they won't produce it.  There may never be a day when everyone goes vegetarian and every animal is safe, but you my dear are a consumer- therefore completing the circle...the circle of animal cruelty.  Just because you are at the end doesn't make you innocent.  The animals are the only ones who are innocent.

Obviously you think there is something to what people say when hey say you can't be a true animal lover unless you give up meat.  If you weren't bothered by it at all you wouldn't be asking this question.

I am an animal lover and I want to help animals...not kill them and eat them.  I boycott companies that are cruel to animals.  I don't buy animal products, and I spread the word about animal cruelty.

Answer 9

Those people are too opinonated; they use the whole "you're not a true animal lover if you eat meat" idea to try to play on your dieting habits in order to get you to be more like them.

i like animals just as much as the next person, but i also eat meat because it is a staple of the American food industy, and because steak is delicious.

Answer 10

First of all, there are different degrees of animal lovers.

The way I see it, there are animal lovers that love animals because they love petting them, playing with them...etc.

Then there are animal lovers who love animals but who also have deep compassion and respect for their lives. They are informed about what happens in slaughterhouses and how animals are treated inhumanely and suffer, and because of their compassion for animals, they stop eating meat because they don't support the meat industry.

The second group, I believe, tend to view the first group as a little hypocritical. But I don't feel that way all the time. I just feel like a lot of people who say they love animals but still eat meat are uninformed. However, I believe that if you know what is happening to millions of animals every day in slaughterhouses, continue to eat meat, and you claim that you love animals, then you are not really as passionate as you say you are....and even a little hypocritical.

Sure, you aren't the one actually slaughtering the animal. But who is creating the demand for a dead animal when you order meat at a resturant or but it at a supermarket? And what happens because of this demand? The animal dies. Therefore, even though you are not killing the animal with your hands, you still are sending it to the slaughterhouse. See what I mean?

Answer 11

My family is a farms and we raise steers, and "slaughter" a steer every year, to feed my family, we don't have as much money as others.  I think that you can be a animal lover even if you eat meat.  A good question to ask those who say otherwise is. "Is it wrong for a (wolf or other predetor) to eat?"  We do not do the slaughtering, and the way they kill the animal is quick and the animal doesn't feel any pain.

     To talk about eating animals, we should talk about slaughterhouses, Because of animal rights activists, there is one or none saughter houses in the USA.  I used to think that was great, no more horses dieing or anything.

    unfortunatly there is not a market for horses, and people cannot afford the price to put them down "humanely" and get someone to take the body.  There is thousands of horses that are dieing of starvation and hunger.  

    i had a horse that was colicing (twisted gut) we had to put it down, they way they put it down is give it a shot, the poor horse struggled and had a painfull death, not from the colic, but from the shot the VET gave her.  The horse was gasping for air and struggling.   this is what others say is humane?

         It is life, I don't we should accuse others of not being true animal lovers because of what we eat.  it is not like we are eating pets, you don't go into a grocery store and pick up dog meat.

Answer 12

let me just tell you , i would never eat my dog, or my pet cow.

Answer 13

Because vegetarians have one way of looking at things and it is their way or no way.

Answer 14

im not saying they are right but...their logic is...how can u eat something you love...would you slaughter and eat your pet dog when he is old and close to the age of dying...prob not. personally, im a veg, and i dont judge people on what they eat :)

Answer 15

Well you may "love" them, but apperantly, you don't care for them that much if you eat them.

Try taking a bite out of your boyfriend and see how he reacts. I'm willing to bet he'll think you hate him or something.

Sorry, but it's just logic.

Answer 16

In response to Been There~Done That!

Our way is the right way, eh?

If OUR way is the right way, then why is it that vegetarians are the ones going against what society tells us to (eat meat, eat meat!). We are the ones that think for ourselves. People like you are drones, just repeating what the meat industry has brainwashed them to say. If you ask me, people like you are the ones who think that THEIR way is the right way, and refuse to accept that there just MAY be a better alternative to a meat-eating diet. You are the narrow minded one.