Vegetarianism
By Solomon Burgess Eisenber
By Solomon Burgess Eisenber
Three billion animals are slaughtered every twenty-four hours for humans to eat. This number is crazy at first glance, but if you think about it, it makes sense. There are seven billion humans, the majority of which eat meat. I am vegetarian, and have been pescetarian for most of my life. I firmly believe that the consumption of animals is wrong. Animals are sentient, and feel pain and emotion just as much as us humans. They love their families, have friends, and yet we brutally murder billions. In this essay, I will not argue the health benefits, nor the environmental benefits of vegetarianism, but instead I will explain why it is morally wrong. People shouldn’t eat animals.
Do you have a pet? If you don’t, still read this paragraph. Why do people who have pets eat animals? Your cat or dog isn’t any different from the turkey you eat on Thanksgiving. In China, they had a dog-meat festival this year, eating dogs and some cats. If you rationalize eating meat by not thinking of humans as animals, does that mean you also don’t think of your pet as an animal? Even though you have a personal connection to your pet and not the pig that was slaughtered, chopped, and fried, then put on your plate with eggs, that doesn’t mean the pig doesn’t feel emotion. My friend has pet chickens, and very soon after getting them he stopped eating fowl. The lack of emotion pet owners have when eating meat is disgusting, as it shows how selfish people are, only caring about what is theirs.
It is a very well known fact that pigs are very intelligent and have feelings. They have friends, live with their families, and feel pain and sadness to see their loved ones hurt. To keep them in cages away from their families, to make them watch their loved ones be taken away to their deaths, and to kill them is a horrible, horrible thing. I cannot believe that people so happily eat bacon, ignoring the horrible truth behind it. Mother cows have a strong bond with their children, one that lasts for years. If you have ever had veal, that is a cow’s child, taken from its mother, killed, and cut up. Chickens too have feelings. According to PETA, “Like all animals, chickens love their families and value their own lives.” These animals that are massacred every day are not numb to emotion, yet we let it happen.
Last year, I was writing an opinion piece for school on vegetarianism, and I researched “humane” farms. I found pictures of hundreds of chickens in a dark area, stuffed together in a tiny pen, with a single feeding station at the center. I assumed that it could call itself “humane”, since the chickens weren’t in cages, and I was horrified by the conditions that are considered “good”. Nearly all meat comes from factory farms, where thousands of animals stuck in cages must live lives of misery, not being able to move at all, being fed things they wouldn’t eat naturally, until they are murdered by the meat industry. This horrible practice happens every day, because of people eating meat.
One can easily say, “Oh, but the meat is already dead, so it is okay.”, but by buying the corpse of the creature that felt the pain of being killed, you are saying that it is okay for the big companies to keep killing animals. By buying one animal, you are funding them to kill more. You are not only the bystander, you are part of it. Remember that the next time you have your McDonalds hamburger, and remember that what looks like patty once was a cow. It is easy to ignore what the animals go through, but by stopping eating meat, or eating less, you can make a difference. It is wrong to eat animals.
PETA’s article on chickens:
https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/chickens/hidden-lives-chickens/#:~:text=Like%20all%20animals%2C%20chickens%20love,skills%2C%20just%20as%20we%20do.
Do you have a pet? If you don’t, still read this paragraph. Why do people who have pets eat animals? Your cat or dog isn’t any different from the turkey you eat on Thanksgiving. In China, they had a dog-meat festival this year, eating dogs and some cats. If you rationalize eating meat by not thinking of humans as animals, does that mean you also don’t think of your pet as an animal? Even though you have a personal connection to your pet and not the pig that was slaughtered, chopped, and fried, then put on your plate with eggs, that doesn’t mean the pig doesn’t feel emotion. My friend has pet chickens, and very soon after getting them he stopped eating fowl. The lack of emotion pet owners have when eating meat is disgusting, as it shows how selfish people are, only caring about what is theirs.
It is a very well known fact that pigs are very intelligent and have feelings. They have friends, live with their families, and feel pain and sadness to see their loved ones hurt. To keep them in cages away from their families, to make them watch their loved ones be taken away to their deaths, and to kill them is a horrible, horrible thing. I cannot believe that people so happily eat bacon, ignoring the horrible truth behind it. Mother cows have a strong bond with their children, one that lasts for years. If you have ever had veal, that is a cow’s child, taken from its mother, killed, and cut up. Chickens too have feelings. According to PETA, “Like all animals, chickens love their families and value their own lives.” These animals that are massacred every day are not numb to emotion, yet we let it happen.
Last year, I was writing an opinion piece for school on vegetarianism, and I researched “humane” farms. I found pictures of hundreds of chickens in a dark area, stuffed together in a tiny pen, with a single feeding station at the center. I assumed that it could call itself “humane”, since the chickens weren’t in cages, and I was horrified by the conditions that are considered “good”. Nearly all meat comes from factory farms, where thousands of animals stuck in cages must live lives of misery, not being able to move at all, being fed things they wouldn’t eat naturally, until they are murdered by the meat industry. This horrible practice happens every day, because of people eating meat.
One can easily say, “Oh, but the meat is already dead, so it is okay.”, but by buying the corpse of the creature that felt the pain of being killed, you are saying that it is okay for the big companies to keep killing animals. By buying one animal, you are funding them to kill more. You are not only the bystander, you are part of it. Remember that the next time you have your McDonalds hamburger, and remember that what looks like patty once was a cow. It is easy to ignore what the animals go through, but by stopping eating meat, or eating less, you can make a difference. It is wrong to eat animals.
PETA’s article on chickens:
https://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/factory-farming/chickens/hidden-lives-chickens/#:~:text=Like%20all%20animals%2C%20chickens%20love,skills%2C%20just%20as%20we%20do.