My favorite responses to rabidly idealistic vegetarians.
1. If humans were intended to be vegetarian, our teeth would be large, flat, and have much more enamel.
2. \"See these?\" *points to canine teeth and incisors* \"They have a purpose and it isn\'t for chewing plant matter\"
3. Man is an omnivore and an opportunist. Without these traits, he would have died out long before.
4. Go ahead and turn down those evil animal products. There are people in other parts of the world without the luxury of picking their meals. More for them.
Vegetarianism for health reasons is one thing. Veganism, or if someone does it out of idealism I want those people to do me a favor. First, go find every single piece of leather in your house, and bury it. Then, don\'t use glue, wear wool or own any furniture that uses it, own any type of carnivorous/omnivorous animal, get vaccinated, eat most major brand names of bread, use anything containing gelatin, or toothpaste (some brands contain fish scales), and vitamin supplements (gelcaps are made from, you guessed it, gelatin), some enzyme supplements are taken from bacteria grown in petri that is cultered from boiled animal blood and gelatin. Oh yeah, and most soap is made from animal fat. There is a larger list here:
http://www.vnv.org.au/AnimalProducts.htmThe fact that animals and possibly some plants feel pain is basically irrelavant. If they didn\'t have some way of sensing danger or damage to themselves, they wouldn\'t have survived this long. Read: Extinction.
I\'m proud of being at the top of the food chain, and I am not going to sacrifice my physical well being for something too stupid and complacent to save itself. I will, however try to make some allowances. If I don\'t have a use for an animal or plant, and it isn\'t being offensive or noxious in some way, I\'m not going to destroy it. The whole \"eat what you kill\" and \"everything in moderation\" concepts at work.