"I do feel that spiritual progress does demand at some stage that we should cease to kill our fellow creatures for the satisfaction of our bodily wants."

-Ghandi

"I have no doubt that it is part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals."

-Thoreau


An estimated 134 million mammals and 3 billion birds are killed for food in America alone, and this is an outdated summery. Commercial slaughterhouses are akin to visions of hell. Screaming animals are stunned by hammer blows, electric shock, or concussion guns. They are then hoisted into the air by their feet while generally still alive, moving through the factories of death on mechanized conveyor systems. And then their throats are sliced and their flesh cut off...sometimes not even afforded the mercy of death before their flesh is sliced off. Cruel? Necessary? You decide... Chicken are kept in the most minute contraptions, their beaks permanently attached to a feeding tube, they are constantly being artificially impregnated to keep laying eggs, KFC are not allowed to be called "Kentucky Fried Chicken" anymore, because legally what they sell cannot be classified as chicken because of the constant enforced imprisonment and continuous artificially induced pregnancies resulting in, well mutant chicken. Cows are pumped with an overdose of artificial hormones to make their bodies believe they are in a constant state of pregnancy, udders swelling to bursting point. And if they do have babies, these are immediately taken away so that she may become pregnant again.

Now onto the constant argument that meat eaters throw at vegetarians... "but what about vegetables, you're killing them too"....

First of all, realize that grains, nuts and fruit require no killing, Mother Nature offers these to us, when a fruit has ripened it falls to the ground for instance. One cannot even begin to compare the nervous systems of those between animals and plants, clearly there is a difference between pulling a carrot from the ground and the slicing of a lamb's neck while it doesn't die immediately but lies there drowning in its own blood. But of course there are karmic implications for taking ALL life, those intended or not, as in stepping on small insects etc. That is why giving thanks for that which we are able to use to nurture and sustain ourselves with the least possible violence is so important.

Do you have a pet? A cat? A dog? Fish? Why not cook them up for dinner tonight!?