about vegetarians?

[iwastooearlytobeayummymummy]

Now if you a vegan, respect to you and your choice. You have obviously considered the whole food chain as it works in the UK and set out your stall.

If you don't like the taste and texture of meat, or can't afford it, well, fair enough.

If for religious reasons your diet is a manifestation of your belief, I understand.

But if you don't eat meat because you don't like the idea of eating baby animals,but you continue to use dairy products then I just need to know why? Are you ignorant or just sentimental?

But eating baby animals to veggies is not the same as eating their products such as milk?

The ickle baby animals don't have to die to produce milk, cheese and eggs?

maybe it;s that there is a huge difference between killing something and just using its milk?

I think you may find people here getting upset by your last statement, OP. I'm not a vegetarian but it seems rather ignorant to generalise in that way.

Are you a vegan who considers herself superior to mere vegetarians - especially those of whose motivation you disapprove? Or are you just stirring up trouble?

Either seems rather unneccessary and unpleasant to me.

I don't think cows are usually milked in a slaughterhouse, are they?

It's about many different things to different vegetarians - my personal take is as to whether one has the right to take the life of a living thing. Simple.

DH is vegetarian as he is a health freak and concerned about the increased risk of cancer, etc that eating meat brings.

Ooooh, someone wants an argument!

Yes, I am a vegetarian. And yes, I drink/eat dairy (though I take soya products as preference) and eat eggs. And yes, I know that male calves produced in dairy farming go to the veal industry. And yes, I know that male chicks produced in the egg industry are crushed to death.

I tried to be vegan, I really did, but it was too bloody hard. So I do what I can, which I figure is better than doing nothing at all.

So, to answer your question, I am neither ignorant nor sentimental, but merely an imperfect human.

I think that you have a very black and white view OP.

I'm vegetarian because I don't like the idea of eating a dead animal, don't particularly like meat or fish in terms of taste and texture and I think that my personal diet is healthier because of it.

With drinking milk, it's about the fact that all bull calves are killed straight after birth so that their mothers can be milked for us.
Life just isn't straightforward. How many of us know that, when we buy free range eggs from the supermarkets, they won't buy eggs from hens that are over a year old? Therefore all the free range hens are slaughtered at a year old.
I respect vegans, vegetarians and meat eaters for the choices they have made.

So what happens to the calves that are taken from their mothers so we can drink the milk?

Oh yes, the slaughterhouse.

And what would happen if we all stopped eating beef but carried on drinking milk?

Milk production does involve the early death of surplus male calves though...hence all the protests a few years ago about the transportation conditions of veal calves to the continent. I may be wrong (and flamed) but I think a lot of the males calves produced by the need to keep cows on a regular cycle of pregnancy/calving and thus producing milk end up being shipped off to produce veal.
Ditto egg production - I don't think the surplus male chicks live long and happy lives either.

what a bloody good answer annielobeseder

I am imperfect too. But I have to draw the line somewhere and I have imperfectly drawn it before I become a vegan.

So YANBU but I am stubborn. Tis better to cause less suffering when possible (and I used to bite the heads off ickle baby cows )

I was veggie for 20 yrs, now I eat organic meat (really just deer a farmer hunts in the mountains, he has so few customers it only adds up to a few deer per yr) I also eat free ranger organic chicken, fish. When I was veggie I ate dairy, now I only use organic goat products. My aims where both health and ethics, but my body is just not suited to a veggie diet.

I think you're being too hard on people, when I didn't eat meat I was so tired of always having to explain myself. Doesn't sound like you really care what anyone eats from your post. And I used to find it really tiresome when the whole milk thing was brought up, why should I have had to explain myself for drinking milk to folk who ate hamburgers?

I'm soooo over it all now

Im veggie and i know all about the repercussions of eating dairy and eggs. I was vegan for a year at uni, when i was incredibly moral and analysed the consequences of all my actions way too much. I ended up plunging into deep depression as i thought it was all futile. Now i just do as much as i can and try not to think about my shortcomings in this area.

Now would you like to rephrase your OP - it's insulting. Is that because you are ignorant or just plain nasty?

I no more want to eat meat than I would rubber or cardboard. To me it just isn't food.

I don't know why. I am what I am.

You seem a little hung up OP. Or are you some kind of self-styled hypocrisy hunter barking up the wrong tree with such blatant ignorance?

I'm not a vegan, but am concerned that most non vegan vegetarians do not understand that male calves seldom make it to veal but head straight for the knackers yard.

Similarly chickens are culled ie killed at end of their laying life.

Is the OP just looking to stir things up a bit?

Do they get eaten after being killed?

Ah, OP is back, with no obvious apology for being so very rude.

I think we've answered your question. Most of us have explained we're well aware of the shortcomings of the dairy and egg industries.

Still not sure what you're trying to achieve with this discussion.

The chickens are not culled or killed at the end of their laying life. Most are laying for the supermarket trade, and are killed at one year old. At that age they have plenty of laying left in them. Several friends of mine have taken in some hens due to be slaughtered, and the chooks continued to produce lovely eggs, year round, for years after. Production eventually drops off, the eggs eventually get a bit smaller, but they still give good eggs.
I agree re the bull calves. Most are killed quickly after birth. They don't go for veal production.
Oh yes, and we do eat a lot of "baby" animals, because baby animals are more tender. That's why we eat lamb much more than we eat mutton.

Spidermama, no, the chickens do not get eaten after being slaughtered.

Without the meat and dairy trades none of these animals would exist in the first place. If you like ickle baby animals you'd damn well better keep buying the products made from them.