luckies4me, I have not seen the show and I was just typing exactly what my friend told me happened. I didnt mean to say she was bad, I just wanted to make it clear that that story was an extreme one and isnt a good argument against feeding pets a vegan diet.
And as for your other post... okay, first of all, theres nothing regulating free range animals. theres no definition of free range. it usually just means the animals arent in cages, but they are jammed into a barn with hundreds of other chickens, they dont feel the grass, they dont live normal lives. so perhaps youre the one who needs to do more research. and besides theres more to being vegan than that. a lot of vegans, myself being one of them, feel it isnt right to use animals as products. They deserve to be treated with respect, and they arent here simply so humans can utilize them. And secondly, raising livestock creates enormous strain on our environment. I have already been through all of this in my posts, and please go to the links I posted earlier in this thread! There is tons of info at off of them, way better than I could ever repeat/rememeber.. Pretty much all those links talk about the ethics, the health and the environmental reasons. So please go read that before you start writing more uninformed replies. And here is a quote from a recent article on vegetarianism publish in Time magazine:
"Pimentel argues that vegetarianism is much more environment-friendly than diets revolving around meat. 'In terms of caloric content, the grain consumed by American livestock could feed 800 million people—and, if exported, would boost the U.S. trade balance by $80 billion a year.' Grain-fed livestock consume 100,000 liters of water for every kilogram of food they produce, compared with 2,000 liters for soybeans. Animal protein also demands tremendous expenditures of fossil-fuel energy—eight times as much as for a comparable amount of plant protein. Put another way, says Pimentel, the average omnivore diet burns the equivalent of a gallon of gas per day—twice what it takes to produce a vegan diet. And the U.S. livestock population—cattle, chickens, turkeys, lambs, pigs and the rest—consumes five times as much grain as the U.S. human population. But then there are 7 billion of them; they outnumber us 25 to 1."
And heres some links to info about free range myths:
http://www.upc-online.org/freerange.html
and:
“Most consumers believe "free-range" hens and cows live happily and peacefully until they are slaughtered. But no laws or standards regulate the use of terms like "free-range" and "free-roaming." Unfortunately, even these vague claims are rarely verified; the USDA relies "upon producer testimonials to support the accuracy of these claims," which are usually unsubstantiated. In fact, common cruel industry practices used in factory farms, such as debeaking, forced molting, and literally throwing away male chicks at birth, also take place at many "free-range" farms. Of course all the animals are slaughtered whenever it is deemed most profitable. According to The Washington Post Magazine, the term "free-range," especially in the case of birds, "doesn’t really tell you anything about the [animal’s] quality of life, nor does it even assure that the animal actually goes outdoors." From the "free-range" hen who smells fresh air for the first time on the way to the slaughterhouse to the "humanely raised" dairy cow whose male baby is taken away from her at birth and sold to veal farmers, all animals raised for food suffer and are exploited. Even small, family-run dairy farms often have no choice but to send their older cows to slaughter and their newborn males to veal farms.”
http://www.askcarla.com/ac/tempfaq/F...5&Category=Veg
Now I don’t know, maybe not all free-range farms are like this, but there really isnt anyway to know. And besides, the vast majority of meat & dairy & eggs etc in the world are raised on factory farms. They distribute all over the place. How do you know the meat or eggs or milk in the food you eat at a restaurant wants from a slaughterhouse? Or the milk and eggs in the baked goods, or other foods you buy from the store pre-made arent from a factory farm? See what I mean? AND there are lots of health issues involved in consuming animal products. There have been many studies that strongly link consuming meat, dairy, eggs, etc to many health problems, such as heart disease, some cancers, osteoporosis, etc. I know Kater knows a lot about this, more than I do! (Please speak up dude! lol) And I really dont think its fair to bring God into it because there are a lot of people who dont believe in God, people who believe god did different things than other people believe, etc etc. Its just opinion. But here is one site you might be interested in:
http://www.jesusveg.com/ -religion & vegetarianism
“Was Jesus really a vegetarian?
Many biblical scholars believe that Jesus was a vegetarian. Jesus’ message is one of love and compassion, and there is nothing loving or compassionate about factory farms and slaughterhouses, where billions of animals live miserable lives and die violent, bloody deaths. Jesus mandates kindness, mercy, compassion, and love for all God’s creation. He would be appalled by the suffering that we inflict on animals just to indulge our acquired taste for their flesh.
We all have a choice. When we sit down to eat, we can add to the level of violence, misery, and death in the world, or we can respect God’s creation with a vegetarian diet.”
http://www.askcarla.com/ac/tempfaq/F...5&Category=Veg
As for hunters.. not many people today hunt for their food. And I dont have any respect or tolerance for hunters. Native Americans however, I can respect. They treated the animals they killed with respect and they used every last bit of it. They didnt over kill, they didnt kill for "fun", they respect the earth.
"To me being Vegan is just weird, but that is my opinion. I can't see not doing something that is natural to us humans. We have eaten meat for so long and LIVED, why stop now?"
There are some people who dont think eating meat is natural, just so you know. And as I said, there have been lots of studies that strongly suggest eating animal products isnt very healthy. (Please visit the links I posted earlier in the thread..) And this is one reason why a lot of people dont think its natural, there are other reasons too, but Im just saying, thats one reason some people choose veganism.
"Q: People have always eaten animal products. Why should we stop now?
A: Never in human history have people eaten as many animal products as we do now. Today, rich and poor can afford to eat these products, largely as a result of the cost-cutting methods used to raise "food" animals. Present-day factory farms inflict massive, large-scale suffering of a magnitude never before seen in agricultural practices. In addition, the human population is larger today than ever before. Billions of people eating meat means that billions of tons of water and grain are being diverted from the world’s poor people and fed to the livestock of the rich; the resultant billions of pounds of manure are destroying our topsoil, drinking water, and ozone layer. In addition, today we not only have medical evidence of the health benefits of a plant-based diet, we also have many easily accessible products, such as tofu, tempeh, nondairy milk, yogurt, cheese, and ice cream, and many other healthful and delicious products that make the switch to a vegan diet easy and delicious"
http://www.askcarla.com/ac/tempfaq/F...5&Category=Veg
As for your milk comment... Okay, it is NOT NATURAL for cats or raccoons to drink milk after theyve been weaned, & especially not the milk of another animal. Your raccoon example is a rare one. There are NO DAIRY COWS in a raccoon's natural environment. And the only reason cats drink milk is because people feed it to them. It is not normal for animals to drink milk after birth. It may taste good, but it’s not necessary or natural.
And its not like cows always have milk in them. They are just like any other female mammal. They only produce milk when they have babies. People artificially inseminate them make them lactate. What is natural about that? And where do you think those babies go when they are born? Veal. And I really do not understand how it got started with cows.. Why not other animals? Maybe its easiest.. I dont know. But I personally feel it isnt natural. (That is just my opinion though, and there are many other reasons why not to drink milk as I have already stated).
And! its not good to feed your cats very much milk because most cats are lactose intolerant.:
"Feeding Milk
Milk is not an essential part of a kitten's diet once she has been weaned. Many cats enjoy consuming a saucerful of milk, but not all cats can tolerate this in their diet. Some adult cats (like some humans) have trouble digesting milk due to a lack of the enzyme, which is required for digestion of the milk sugar lactose, and may develop diarrhea. These cats are lactose-intolerant. If you are not sure whether your cat can tolerate milk, try it out by diluting the milk with water before you offer it to her for the first time."
http://www.waltham.com/index.html?co...s/kittens.html
"We see cats drinking milk in commercials, old tv shows and the like. But the fact of the matter is that most cats are lactose intolerant. That means that they can't digest the sugars in milk. Milk also has very little to no nutritional value for cats."
http://www.21cats.org/care/milk.html
"Myth: Cats Need Milk
It is a heart-warming image: It's cold outside, a warm fire is blazing in the fireplace and your cat is lapping up cream from a saucer. But milk products may cause digestive problems a few hours later. Milk is a good source of water and energy-producing carbohydrates, but it does not contain all the other nutrients a cat needs to stay healthy. Many cats are lactose-intolerant - they don't have the enzyme that digests lactose, a milk-sugar component of milk.
Drinking milk can cause loose stools and diarrhea, which strips liquids and nutrients from you cat's system. Milk does not have a place in a cat's diet and should be avoided."
http://www.ragdoll-cats.com/Myths.htm
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Okay, Im adding the links to make it more convenient. PLEASE VISIT:
http://veganaction.org/
http://www.veganoutreach.org
http://www3.mistral.co.uk/traub/faqvegan.html
http://www.emagazine.com/january-fe.../0102feat1.html
http://www.afa-online.org/vegan.html
http://www.vegansociety.com/html/
http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020715/story.html
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