Meat eater, vegetarian or vegan?? Which are you?

I am vegan - first for ethical reasons - I won't participate in any form of animal cruelty. I believe they are all sentient beings - especially the babies. The health benefits are secondary to me but they are enormously important. Thirdly, my concern for our planet motivates me if the other two motivations fail me (which they never do). The proof is in the pudding. I've lost weight and my blood work is perfect.

Animals are NOT sentient, with the possible exception of great apes. They have feelings ( I doubt fish and shellfish do, but mammals and maybe birds do), but self-aware, abstract -thinking sentience, no. There is no scientific evidence to support that. As for health, I seldom have any meal without meat, I'm strong, healthy and have steadily lost weight. Meat animals are domesticated for that purpose.

I eat everything, so a meatavegetariancakepizzabaconist.

I'm changing my answer to this.. LOL

I eat everything, so a meatavegetariancakepizzabaconist.

I'm changing my answer to this.. LOL

ME TOO!!!!

My animal-nomming has unintentionally taken a dive since starting this diet, as in dipped low enough that reworking things is probably about to become a necessity. I find value in learning how vegetarians' nutrition works.

I am vegan - first for ethical reasons - I won't participate in any form of animal cruelty. I believe they are all sentient beings - especially the babies. The health benefits are secondary to me but they are enormously important. Thirdly, my concern for our planet motivates me if the other two motivations fail me (which they never do). The proof is in the pudding. I've lost weight and my blood work is perfect.

Animals are NOT sentient, with the possible exception of great apes. They have feelings ( I doubt fish and shellfish do, but mammals and maybe birds do), but self-aware, abstract -thinking sentience, no. There is no scientific evidence to support that. As for health, I seldom have any meal without meat, I'm strong, healthy and have steadily lost weight. Meat animals are domesticated for that purpose.

I guess you don't know what "sentient" means...

Meat makes me happy.
So do fruits and veggies.
I like food.

I'm a vegetarian headed toward lax vegan.

Lax vegan! Thank you for my new phrase, this describes me perfectly.

I'm not a vegan or anything strict like that, but I do tend to avoid eating meat. I just have never been that fond of it, kind of picky. I'm a secret Italian, I like the pastas...

I am vegan - first for ethical reasons - I won't participate in any form of animal cruelty. I believe they are all sentient beings - especially the babies. The health benefits are secondary to me but they are enormously important. Thirdly, my concern for our planet motivates me if the other two motivations fail me (which they never do). The proof is in the pudding. I've lost weight and my blood work is perfect.

Animals are NOT sentient, with the possible exception of great apes. They have feelings ( I doubt fish and shellfish do, but mammals and maybe birds do), but self-aware, abstract -thinking sentience, no. There is no scientific evidence to support that. As for health, I seldom have any meal without meat, I'm strong, healthy and have steadily lost weight. Meat animals are domesticated for that purpose.

I guess you don't know what "sentient" means...

Thanks for your polite comment
Sentience is the ability to experience sensations which animals and humans all have... Humans have perceived consciousness which many animals perhaps don't but we all feel....According to wiki..."The concept is central to the philosophy of animal rights, because sentience is necessary for the ability to suffer, which is held to entail certain rights".
Cows, pigs, sheep etc..feel pain when they are killed unnecessarily for food simply because people like the taste....
Eat meat if you want but don't make things up to make yourself feel better about it.... Pain and suffering is pain and suffering...just because you like bacon doesn't mean than it is a harmless thing to partake of...

Do your research. Sentient doesn't mean able to feel. It means capable of self-awareness, abstract thinking, the ability to REASON, not just learn. VERY few animals ( maybe cetaceans) outside of the great apes. Biology/Science 101. And I'm not trying to "make myself feel better about it", because I'm a firm believer in using/raising/killing animals for food. I've killed and cleaned my share of meat for the table, and I feel just fine about it.

Awareness of oneself is not the sole definition of sentient. It comes down to 'the conscious mind' which, while it certain could imply abstract thought, etc., also has to do with being completely aware of one's surroundings, and at the very least, having mental faculties be fully active. A cow who is being slaughtered, generally, is fully awake and aware of what is happening. It has the ability to feel pain, and to suffer - whether it can think abstractly isn't really the issue (though, interestingly, bees are capable of abstract thought - at least the ability to think about and communicate things that aren't directly in front of them).

In your earlier posts, you note that "meat animals are domesticated for that purpose", but then that brings into question something completely different - what right does man have over the life of that animal? There are lots of things man does for certain purposes, but that doesn't make them ethical.

" what right does man have over the life of that animal"

The fact that we domesticated them for that purpose, that we spend the money, time and effort to raise them for that purpose. The fact that humans are the dominant species, and because we can and we want to. There's no other answer needed. We are talking about MEAT animals, which we own, over which we have the power of life and death. NOT wildlife. .I don't see any "ethical" problem here. Enough of this pointless argument, I have to go feed my ducklings, so they'll grow up strong, healthy, and be ready for roast duck in the fall.