Don't Be Vegetarian

By Feliz Moreno

I don't have a problem with vegetarians. I do have a problem with vegetarians who have a problem with omnivores, like me, and make it a point to tell me so.

While I have only met a few plant eaters who like to point out that I am an "animal killer," I would like to make a few points on behalf of us sadistic meat eaters.

While I might not take issue with vegetarians or vegans, I do sympathize with whoever cooks their food. If I was a chef at a restaurant and a vegan requested that I revamp a recipe in order to meet the needs of this particular customer, I would be a little annoyed. Likewise, if I was a mom whose kid decided to become a vegetarian, and thus implied that I should cook my meals accordingly, lets just say that my child would have to learn how to cook his or her own dinner. I personally feel that being a vegetarian by choice is just a huge inconvenience to others with more flexibility in their diets.

I also feel that choosing to be a vegetarian is something that only people who do not live their daily lives struggling to fill their stomachs have the privilege of making. If we were to take vegetarians and force them to live in third world conditions, you better believe they wouldn't last as vegetarians for very long. If forced to choose between killing an animal or starving, I think our human survival instinct would kick in and nix any vegetarian tendencies.

Human beings are naturally omnivorous, meaning we are supposed to eat plants and animals. That is why we have teeth that are structured to grind fibrous plants, but also sharp enough to puncture and chew meat.

I also have a problem with organizations like People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals advocating for vegetarianism via slinky advertisements of naked female celebrities. I mean, being nice to animals is all well and good, but lets remember to be nice and not objectify humans first.

I think we should advocate for ethical treatment of animals while they are alive. After they are dead though, I don't see any reason not to eat them. It is merely using the resources that the earth has provided us.

Raising livestock for consumption has been a tradition in cultures all over the world since practically the beginning of human existence. Yet all of a sudden, organizations like PETA want to make it seem like animal eaters are heartless and uncivilized. No PETA, it is only uncivilized if you don't cook them first.

I don't think it is heartless to eat an animal, it is only heartless if you mistreat it while it is alive and don't appreciate the fact that the animal gave it's life in order for you to continue living.

But people like me are just evil people who don't understand that animals are living, breathing beings with thoughts and feelings, right? Actually I'll tell you what I truly believe. I tend to agree with many indigenous groups who believe in the philosophy that all living things - plants and animals alike - have spirits.

I believe that taking the life of an animal in order to eat it is equivalent to taking the life of a plant in order to eat it. Either way, you are taking the life of something else that is living and growing and breathing (or photosynthesizing). With that ideology, I am screwed either way. I have to subsist on something.

The solution that I live by is trying to always recognize where my food came from. I always make an effort to recognize the plant, animal and human sacrifices that had to occur in order for my dinner to be prepared, and appreciate those that gave their lives, their time and their manual labor in order to help keep me alive.

But I guess the decision to become vegetarian is all about your priorities. Some people do it to save animals. While I personally think that there are bigger fish to fry (like preventing genocide, war and social injustice against humans) I do respect that these people are taking part in a cause, even if it is a cause that I personally do not believe in.

Feliz Moreno is a sophomore English major and editor of the Opinion section.