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Quote by: Michael1695  If you are against killing animals for food, is it hypocritical to eat plants as well since they are living organisms? |
The problem is that the vast majority of people that are "for" killing animals for food never kill animals for food. They go to the grocer and pick up packaged and processed goods that are indistinguishable from their sources.
If people were required to end the life of an animal in order to eat meat then the number of vegetarians would increase ten-thousand-fold. My respect of hunters, even ones that hunt for sport, is so much higher than my respect for people that eat lots of meat because it tastes good but could never kill anything themselves.
Why do you think they don't take grade-schoolers on tours of slaughterhouses? Why do you think children are inundated with images of happy animals and are never told that their Chicken McNuggets require the miserable life and brutal death of Big Bird? It's to make is so that people don't ask questions that they won't want to know the answers to. It's no different than a cheapskate buying a stereo out of the trunk of someone's car. It could have come from the murder/robbery down the block but if they found that out then they may not want to buy it and get the great savings. So they don't bother inquiring.
To answer your question - scientifically speaking, plants are incapable of feeling pain. They do not have a central nervous system or a brain to process the pain data from nerves.
The majority of people who eat meat don't want to know what it is or where it came from. The ignorance of the process, the high availability, and the indoctrination from childhood are the only things that keep them eating it.
I will only eat meat when I can look that creature in the face and bash its brains out with a clear conscience. Needless to say, I won't go to that extreme just to have something that "tastes good."