say that it’s not about how many you save, it’s about how you feel and that you don’t feel happy eating meat
tha’ts what i say
so what if you don’t make a HUGE difference… you’re a) becoming healthier b)feeling better about your food choices and c) you might be inspiring people you meet to give up meat

i’ve inspired many people to become vegetarians in the past 2 years
and i’ve inspired my family to cut back on their meat intake as well
my family has never eaten healthier than we do right now and it’s all because of me =]

Posted by Becky S, on February 12th, 2010, at 7:27 pm. #.

I care about the animals, but the animals shouldn’t be your main reason for being a vegetarian. Read these and you will have stronger arguments for staying vegetarian.

Vegetarian Foods: Powerful for Health
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

101 Reasons Why I’m a Vegetarian
VivaVegie Society

Posted by Kim N, on February 13th, 2010, at 11:32 pm. #.

Tell them that it is your personal morals.
Tell them that just because animals are going to be killed anyway doesn’t mean that we should just give up vegetarianism. Just because there are thieves and murderers in the world doesn’t mean that we have to be thieves and murderers. (Btw, I consider murder as a kind of theft; basically stealing someone’s life. I think you agree with this.)
Tell your family about Gandhi’s quote: “You must be the change you wish to see in the world.”
I personally want to inspire other people and set a good example for them, to show them that being a vegan is not hard; as vegans/vegetarians, we must show others that it is not hard at all to live a compassionate way of life and respect and celebrate all forms of life, including our own personal lives (since animal products are not good for our health, and the karmic burden of killing, no matter indirectly, is not good for the soul either), including animal lives, and other human lives (the vast amount of grain used to feed livestock could be used to feed the starving populations of the wolrd), and the life of our planet.

You should ask your family, if your pet died, would they eat it? Ask them why not? Their answer will probably be because they loved that pet, even though in some rural parts of Asia, dogs are used as food. And then you will say “Exactly. That is why I don’t want to eat meat; I love animals, and even though they are being killed for other people to eat, I do not want to be a part of it.”
Your family will probably then pester you about how a dog/cat is “different” from chickens, cows, and pigs. Ask them, how are they different? They all have pulses, they have the capacity to feel pain. The only difference is the distinction that our society has made between the animals. People classify cats and dogs as friends, and pigs, cows, chickens, etc. as commodities, not fit to be friends, but to be consumed. Tell your family that you have decided to extend your sphere of compassion to species outside the human species. Yes, you understand that animals are killed anyway, but the main thing here is that you do not want to condone such a violent lifestyle! And you are setting an example for other people to do the same, educating others to practice a compassionate lifestyle, and perhaps some day in the future, society will actually have a conscience. Speciesism is basically like racism or sexism, but it is discrimination based on species, instead of discrimination based on race/sex. As vegetarians/vegans, we have overcome that form of discrimination, and we think that our animal friends should be subject to the same moral standards as humans; they are our friends, after all. Tell your family that. ;]

Ask your family how they feel about human trafficking (basically people are kidnapped and sold as *** slaved), and ask them if they would ever buy a *** slave.
Most likely they would be against it. Ask them, why, how does you being a decent person stop the other humans from being trafficked and used as *** slaves? Again, it is a moral issue and if more people oppose it and educate other people, hopefully it will not happen in the future.
Tell your family that consumers have power. If less and less people demand meat, the meat industry will produce less meat. It’s not going to happen overnight, but we are already seeing an increase in vegetarians/vegans in our own country.
Did you know that at least 10 million Americans have become vegan/vegetarian? Our numbers are growing. =)

Here are some good quotes:
“If you’re violent to yourself by putting harmful things into your body that violate its spirit, it will be difficult not to perpetuate that violence onto someone else.” Dexter Scott King (son of Martin Luther King Jr.)

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, comitted citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”-Margaret Mead

Good luck!! Email me if they pester you about health issues. =P

Posted by MissAnnMai, on February 14th, 2010, at 1:27 am. #.

Supply and demand. Certainly out of the thousands upon thousands of people who are vegetarians are lowering the demand of meat, thus lowering the production, thus lowering the kill rate. Thus saving animals

Posted by Flutter Bot, on February 16th, 2010, at 6:29 am. #.