Pause & Think
A few of my friends justified as to why it's alright for people to eat animals. I however think otherwise and have strong reservations about man killing animals and eating them.
I give my take on the point of why we humans should NOT eat animal food. I present this in the form of answers to widely held beliefs.
Man has being eating meat since the Stone Age or since known history, so we can eat meat too.
Well, just because the Stone Age man had been consuming meat, doesn't mean that we too should do so. The Stone Age man had limited means and resources. He dint know farming etc. Mankind has grown by leaps and bounds since then. We have so much food from plant origin. We need not kill animals anymore to eat.
Man is the Supreme Being and king of the animal world or rather the planet. So we can do as we please.
Yes, agreed man is the Supreme Being. That is precisely why we should be benevolent on other lesser life forms. We don't like tyrants as kings, do we? Similarly if we like to be called as a good people, we should rule earth responsibly and righteously.
Animals have been provided by god to us to have them as food.
Nothing can be farther from the truth than this. If we call this world gods creation, then surely both man and animals also are god's creation only. God wouldn't like it if we kill his creation. Would you like it that your kids kill each other? Of course not. Similarly god too would not like it either.
Animals kill other animals for food. Why cant we?
The structure and anatomy of carnivorous animals makes it a must for them to prey on other animals for their survival. They are condemned to live that way. Neither do they have the power to think as we humans have. Where as we can survive and lead a very healthy life by consuming only plant origin food.
Cereals and plants won't be sufficient to feed the whole population of the world.
Wrong again. The population of the world before 2000 years was hardly 2 Lacs. Even at that time people used to think that we won't have enough grains to eat. People used to hoard grains in granaries. The fear of insufficient food has been a constant in people's minds over these centuries. But look at the growth of all the major cereals produced all over the world. It is phenomenal. Even today people dying of hunger is not because there is less food to eat but because it is unevenly distributed.
Animals don't feel pain.
Animals feel pain as much as we do. Its only that they are not able to speak our language and tell us that please don't hurt us, please don't kill us and eat us. A deaf and dumb person can't talk. Does that mean he doesn't feel pain? Does that mean we can kill him? Of course not.
Plants too have life. We may as well kill either plants or animals. What difference does it make?
Well, all we need it to satisfy our hunger. Plants take sufficient care on that front. Plants are at the lower order of the hierarchy. Animals are higher and highest is Man. Imagine you are to climb the staircase of a 5 storey building. You wouldn't be hurt so much if kicked down from the 1st floor as you would if kicked down from the 5th floor. Killing an animal is like kicking someone who had climbed till the 4th storey. Life forms are given chance to come up in the hierarchy. So, eating plant origin is a much much lesser crime than killing and eating animals.
Animals are richer in energy, proteins, vitamins etc etc.
Totally false. In the natural food chain, every time energy is transferred from one point to another, it loses 90% in transition. For e.g. Plants absorb energy from the sun in the form of photosynthesis. They absorb only 10 joules out of 100. Now when we consume the plants/cereals we are able to absorb 10% of that. But if animals are in the food chain, then we get only 1%. And in addition, we acquire a host of diseases that reside in animals. Moreover our bodies can digest plant origin food more efficiently and faster than animal origin food.
Eggs are vegetarian and Milk is non-veg.
I have never heard a more quirkier myth in my life. Eggs are to hens what a foetus is to humans. Given a chance and time, it too can hatch. But alas, we kill it. Abortion what we call it in our language. Milk is not taken by killing a cow. Even after giving milk, a cow is alive and so is the calf. But yes, we have to remember and ensure that the calf is given sufficient milk first and then we can take the excess for our consumption.
Thus I feel that there is no need for us to kill and eat any kind of animal.
Not to forget .
A quote
We are all connected in this world. What we send into the life of others, comes back into our own.
a proverb
As you sow, so shall you reap. (in hindi too.. jaisi karni, waisi bharni.)
a scientific law
Every action has an equal an opposite reaction.
Over and above all the debate and question and logic, what is required is a deep sense of compassion towards all life forms, howsoever small or big. Killing animals takes out the 'kind'ness out of 'Man-kind'. Every living being wants to live and has the right to do so. Given a choice, everyone would like to live, not die. So do the animals.
Just put yourself in the shoes of the victim and think.
[It was by chance that I was born a vegetarian. And it is by choice that I am still one. I intend to live by the principles of non-violence and impart as much 'abhaydaan' (fearlessness ' as opposed to terror) as possible to all the living beings. Wouldn't you love to do so too?]
