The other day I came across an internet post written about Cecil the Lion being killed and it involved the standpoint of “It’s hard for me to empathize with those of you who are upset about the recent killing of an innocent lion, yet choose to eat animals.” The post went on about how there’s no difference between his death and the animals killed for meat.
Personally I don’t care if you’re vegan, vegetarian, pescetarian, or a traditional meat and potatoes kind of person. In fact I have friends of these varieties and we simply all respect each other. In fact one friend was also a roommate in university and we discussed her choice to become a vegan. The only thing I did differently for her than other friends was instead of baking a birthday cake I made a tofu pie for her, which is absolutely delicious. Everyone is entitled to their own opinions and ways of doing things, however, I had to shake my head at many of the responses this post elicited.
The person that posted this is a public figure, so I found it odd that the original post seemed to say that because I eat meat I’m not allowed to care for animals, which likely offended the majority of her followers.
However, in my humble opinion there is most definitely a difference between killing a protected species for sport and eating meat. Although the original post said that health benefits of eating meat have been proven to be non-existent, which fine maybe meat isn’t the best for you, but those that eat meat are eating it for sustenance which is a huge difference.
There’s a huge difference between regular hunters and someone who hunts protected or endangered animals. Hunters who go after deer, elk, moose, etc… are actually a part of today’s ecosystem. Overpopulation of certain animals actually means that this needs to be controlled, which nature will do through disease, but is something that hunters help with. Humans are part of the ecosystem they are within and oftentimes they work against it, but hunting would seem to me to be a way that humans are actually working with nature.
But everyone is entitled to their own opinions and the person who made the post has theirs, which she clarified with a 30-minute video with the gist of it explaining her wording maybe didn’t come across the way she wanted it to, which had offended people.
The person who posted this seems to be very well educated about why she decided to become a vegan, but many of those commenting under her post were not as well inclined on either side of the argument.
In the end though we have to remember there are life choices in this world and what we eat is one of them. So, regardless of what we put in, whether it’s beetles, pork, vegetables, beef, seaweed, etc… we have to respect each other and support these decisions. Many people, myself included, grow up to feel a certain way about animals, for example I love steak and don’t see a problem with eating it, I was raised not seeing the problem.
However, the same goes for people in different places of the world. While on Air China flying through Beijing to Australia, we were offered beef or dog for our meal, after an “excuse me, what were the choices?” I asked for beef because I cannot even fathom eating a dog. In fact, I opened my meal and I only ate the rice because I started worrying that they gave me the wrong one.
Everybody has different beliefs and practices whether it’s dietary or religious practices, and so to be a decent human being we have to accept these differences in each other.
