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Being a vegetarian
Peppers with Polenta
What does being a vegetarian mean?
What does being
a vegetarian mean?
Being a vegetarian means living on a diet consisting of grains, vegetables, fruits and dairy products. A vegetarian condemns meat eating due to the nature of the way animals are killed for food and for the fact that humans do not need meat in order to be healthy or to survive. Vegetarians believe that animals have as much as a right to live as humans do.
A vegan also supports the same ideals and beliefs as a vegetarian but they do not consume any products derived from animals nor do they wear any animal products such as fur, leather, or wool.
Chicken (The flesh of the common domestic fowl.) Chickens are raised in crowded, unnatural environments. There are usually 3,000 or more in one pen. The birds are not able to move about freely or even spread their wings due to the overcrowding. They use "nests" made out of metal and they are bred by unnatural means.
In order for hens to lay mass amounts of eggs, artificial light is on 17 hours a day. Each hen averages about 300 eggs per year. Once a hen's egg production declines they are slaughtered. Most hens live an average of 5 to 6 years.
Veal (A calf raised to be slaughtered for food.) Calves are raised in cages on an anemic diet. The cages are so small that the calves cannot stand or even move in order to clean themselves. The veal calves are kept in the dark most of their lives within the cages. They are subjected to a cruel and horrid death.
Most food animals are killed by the process of Kosher slaughter. Kosher slaughter involves hanging an animal - particularly a cow or pig by its hooves. The animal's neck is cut without any kind of anesthesia. The animal hangs and bleeds to death.
More interesting facts
Beef (The flesh of a slaughtered full-grown steer, bull, ox, or cow.) Cows are slaughtered by cruel, and disgusting means. On some farms they are shot in the head with a 22 that does not always kill on the first bullet. The farmers then continue shooting the cow until it falls.
On other farms the cows are electronically stunned. Their throats are cut and they bleed to death while hanging upside down by their hooves.
There are still other farms that use sledgehammers to put down a cow. Imagine being beaten over the head with a 16 pound sledgehammer.
Cows are subjected to much stress being on a farm. For example: dogs, shots, weaning, lip tattoos and other forms of tagging.
Pork (A pig raised to be slaughtered for food.) Pigs are raised primarily for sausage, bacon, pork and ham. The average age of a slaughtered pig for bacon is 4-7 months. The average age of a pig slaughtered for pork is 3-6 months old. There are some that are kept for breeding and killed later.
Pigs are killed by having their throats cut similar to cows. However, when the throat of a pig is sliced it is called "sticking". Though most pigs are electronically stunned before having their necks cut open, most of the time the stun wears off as they are bleeding to death.
Nowadays, farmers are trying new methods of stunning such as carbon dioxide gas. The gas causes the pigs to suffocate slowly and painfully.
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