Should Animals Be Off the Menu?

Should Animals Be Off the Menu?

Alyssa Mathewson, Staff Writer

Vegetarian diets aren’t for everyone. This topic always leads to some very heated and dynamic debates. It’s the biggest social injustice issue. Many against the idea say, “No. I love meat” or “I love the taste of burgers” or “I could never give it up”. For many people, it comes down to habit and taste. For me, I wanted a healthier diet, realizing later on that it wasn’t healthy at all. Since I wasn’t really sure what it was all about, I began only eating anything that didn’t contain meat or dairy, thinking it was ALL healthy. However, studies have shown that a vegetarian diet is no healthier than the diet of a person who eats burgers, fries, and a milkshake regularly. Many people make this the reason for them to convert and forget the way that we mistreat animals. With that being said, the question is – should animals be off the menu?

Society thinks that some lives matter more than others. If you’re splitting it between humans and animals, it makes sense, but I beg to differ. Vegans/vegetarians will argue that killing animals is cruel, which is a sentiment I do agree with. We are the dominant species on our planet, and we have control over our lives and the world. However, for animals, their lives are almost exclusively controlled by humans. We’re in charge of ours as well as theirs and what we choose to do to them is up to us. Species are being wiped out one by one, by us, humankind.

It can also be argued that killing and eating meat is a natural part of the cycle of life. “Research shows that plants respond electrochemically to threats and may feel fear, so vegetarians are also causing harm every time they kill and eat a plant. Every organism on earth dies or is killed, at some point, so others organisms can live.” (procon.org). If you look at an ecological food chain, you would probably notice that it all starts off with plants. The grasshopper then eats the plants, the frog eats the grasshopper, the snake eats the frog, and the hawk eats the snake. This is how they survive and carry on throughout their lives. It’s the basic laws of nature. Many animals, used in and as our food, are already at risk of extinction, and causing more harm to them would cause them to become extinct, meaning they’re gone forever.

Of course, being an omnivore is a lot cheaper than sticking to a plant-based diet; however, meat costs more to make in time than it’s worth. Is having a plant-based diet worth the money? I’m saying yes, since I’ve transitioned into a vegan diet twice, and stopped after realizing how costly it is. And since it wasn’t me paying for what I was eating, it was my parents, I decided that I didn’t want to put them through having to pay for their own food and a whole separate meal plan for me. They still struggle with finding me something to eat sometimes when I don’t want to eat the meat they barbecue/cook for dinner. People complain that eating organic is too expensive, but sometimes it’s worth the money to be free from the chemicals and pesticides being ingested into our fruits and vegetables. This raises red flags because it not only harms the insects that it was created to, but it also harms us and our environment.

It’s really more of an individual preference. There’s no way that you can stop the entire world from eating meat. However, there is a way to stop them from consuming the massive amounts that they do. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and shouldn’t be ridiculed for their choices or forced into a different lifestyle. Personally, I really can’t choose between the two options. I agree that watching videos of what happens to them in slaughterhouses is scarring. If slaughterhouses had glass walls, debates like this wouldn’t happen. If we saw the way these industries treat animals and how our food is actually made, all of this would stop. There’d be no reason for it because we wouldn’t see any good in the situation. This is why I choose substitutes for meat when I eat out or even at home. It’s the way I’m deciding to live because I can’t look at meat the same as I did before I watched documentaries. Ultimately, I will forever try my best to avoid meat when I can because I know what’s being put into it, and I know that it’s not right for us to consume it. So the question still remains, for me and others, should animals be off the menu?