I am much better at keeping my head in written conversation; if I had been debating ftf with Alex, I think that i might not have been quite so polite.

And here’s to teaching our kids the values of ethical eating!

As one who was raised around farms and hunts I appreciate the lessons your teaching your daughter. The same one’s I’ve tried to instill in my 17 y/o daughter.

Kudos to Morganna. I’d like to participate in a butchering someday. I hope that if I couldn’t deal with it, I’d be honest enough to turn fully vegetarian. (Minus the attitude problem, that is.)

I am not those people. I am not Gordon Ramsay (who, for the record, I think is a pompous ass, and his nastiness is not only unethical, but something that I would not put up with if I knew him), and I do not engage in culinary trickery in order to humiliate vegetarians, vegans or anyone else with a legitimate dietary restriction. (I have friends who are Muslim–do you think I serve them pork? No.)

You have a chip on your shoulder. You are making claims about my post that do not exist. You talk about how disturbed you are at my excitement over killing.

Where in the post is that?

It isn’t there. It is in -your- head, along with Gordon Ramsay and all the other people who have made fun of vegetarians who ARE NOT ME.

I have always said and will continue to say that vegetarianism is a legitimate, ethical option for those who are disturbed by killing animals. What I find to be an unethical position are omnivores who want to eat meat, but do not want it to look like it came from an animal, and who want to know as little as possible about the slaughtering process. THAT is an unethical position, not vegetarianism or veganism. Such a position, of being an omnivore who doesn’t want to look animals in the eye and admit that they are eating them, is what allows the horrors of factory farming and unsafe, painful slaughterhouse practices to flourish. If more people looked meat in the eye, they would demand decent treatment for animals–AS I DO–or they would become vegetarian–AS YOU HAVE.

I am not you, you are not me–we have differing opinions and life experiences. I can accept that. I can accept that you find eating meat disturbing, but what I absolutely, positively will not accept is your inability to carry on a dialog with me that is actually with me–not with your preconceived notions of omnivores as terrible, cruel, evil people. You cannot separate myself and my daughter from Gordon Ramsay or any other obnoxious person who has ridiculed vegetarians and who are hateful people.

Therefore, this conversation is over.

If my post disturbed you so much, do me a favor, and walk away, shaking your head about what a terrible person I am. At this point, that is fine with me–you have already decided that I am evil, and you have constructed an evil person with my name and face in your head, so just walk away and take that person with you.

It isn’t me. It is you.

I will only say one more thing. This conversation has highlighted to me -why- so many omnivores think that vegetarians are not very nice people. My experiences, up until now have been the opposite–every vegetarian and vegan I have known has been sensible, rational, ethical and able to carry on a conversation without pointing fingers and calling names.

I guess I have just been lucky.

And I’ve seen a massive number of chefs and others insult vegetarians and write off anyone that chooses to not consume animal flesh as a wacko. Look at Gordon Ramsey taking such joy in lying to a vegetarian visitor to his restaurant that a dish was vegetarian when it wasn’t. Or his nasty stunt sending his sidekick to give out horsemeat at a racetrack. People such as this think it’s funny to humiliate those of us who are animal lovers.

What I find disturbing is your excitement over killing. If you do need to kill for food, why not just do it? Sure, there are plenty of hunters and fisherman in the world who kill and eat what they kill. Why would you want or need to highlight the ethics involved? If you slaughter a farm animal to eat, why not just do it? Whyever would you need to engage in discussion of ethics? Candidly I’d find it far more ethical if the farmer were more distant from an animal who he intended to kill. It’s downright creepy to brag about how much the calf trusted you while you were planning it’s slaughter. Yes, I do find it bizarre to brag about how the calf trusted you while you were leading it to slaughter. If one could anthropomorphize, we’d say the calf had no idea that the farmer who’d raised him, petted him, loved him and given him treats was planning all along to kill him. Sorry, but that is odd.