Everybody has a favorite animal. Whether it's a horse, fish, dog, or pig, how do you feel knowing that hundreds of these animals are being killed everyday for people to eat? Do you feel strongly about it, and want to make a difference, or do you only care about how good the meat tastes? It's hard to give up something you've been eating your whole life, but if you take baby steps to your final conclusion- becoming a vegetarian- it will make a huge difference.


The reason that probably applies the most to you is that, contrary to popular belief, vegetarians are actually a lot healthier than carnivores. The amounts of meat products that have been recalled in just the past year are vast. Add that to the list of meats that are contaminated, but are still sold in restaurants and stores- either without knowing, or just to earn more money. Diabetes, arthritis, strokes, breast cancer and appendicitis are only a few examples of known diseases that people have gotten by eating contaminated meat. E. coli has also been found in chicken meat. Chickens are killed in filthy slaughterhouses that are coated in animal droppings, and meat that is contaminated with animal waste carries E. coli. A former farm-agency worker has said that “the final result is no different than if you stuck it into the toilet and ate it. Also, many people still believe that by not eating meat, you are not getting all the nutrients that you need to stay healthy. It is now known that that is not true. Meat does not provide any nutrients that vegetarians cannot obtain from other sources. In order to live normally, your body needs to be healthy. Would you rather continue eating meat, and live an unhealthy life, or become vegetarian and not worry about all the diseases you could get from your daily meals?


If you have a soft spot for animals, I think you might think twice about eating them after you hear how they are treated on large farms. First of all, farmers cut off baby chickens beaks so that when they are placed into their tiny, cell like cages, they wont peck the other seven or eight chicks that they have to share their cage with. Chickens on large farms don't even have enough room to stretch their wings, and hen's cages are built so that every egg they lay rolls away from them, and onto a conveyor belt to be collected and sold. When the hens cannot produce anymore eggs, the farmer first stops feeding them. Farmers have discovered that starving the hens makes them produce more eggs for a little while. Then, when the hens are finally run dry, and cannot produce any more eggs, they are driven to a slaughterhouse and are killed for meat. On meat farms, chickens are given drugs so that they grow faster and bigger, until they grow so large that they can barely stand. Hens that are raised naturally can live up to 20 years, but on large egg farms, they only live up to 2 years. Similar to chickens, cows get their horns cut off so that they don't attack the other cows that they share their cramped space with. They also get branded, which cause third-degree burns. If we all become vegetarians, farmers won't raise as many animals, because no one will be buying their products. And so animals won't be tortured like this anymore. All you need to do is stop eating meat and eggs. It shouldn't be a hard thing to do after just hearing how the animals are treated, all so that we can take their products.


People have hard times giving up eating meat, but there are some ways you can make it easier. Now stores sell meat alternatives, or imitation meats. Most people think fake meat doesn't taste like real meat, but some come very close. Plus, imitation meat is also made to look the same as real meat- the texture and color are very similar to the real thing. There are so many alternatives to meat that can help you if you ever transition from being a carnivore to becoming a vegetarian.


If you really care about animals, you can even go a step further than vegetarianism. You can become a vegan. A vegan doesn't eat any meat or any dairy. Lots of people think that cows need to be milked, but cows only produce milk for their babies. Farmers will allow cows to have calves, because they need the cow to continue producing milk, but only a day or two after the calf is born the farmer takes it away so that we can have the milk. If farmers didn't take the calves away, then the calves would drink the milk, and there would be no need for us to milk the cow! People also don't realize that animals aren't only treated horribly for meat, but also for dairy products. On dairy farms, female cows are hooked up to milking machines several times a day, and are forced to produce about 10 times the amount of milk that they would naturally.
Many people have become vegans to stop this atrocity. If you care enough, you easily can too.


You hear about World Hunger all the time. On TV, in the newspaper, online- everywhere. You feel pity for those starving people but yet you still go on eating meat. You're probably wondering why this is relevant to everything I've been talking about. Well, presently 70% of all the grain we grow is fed to farm animals so that wealthy people can eat meat. Meanwhile, millions of poor people are starving to death. If we stop eating so much meat, less livestock will be raised, and less food will need to be grown for them. Stopping eating meat could be the answer to the end of World Hunger.


Hopefully this makes you stop and think twice about eating meat. Vegetarians each save 100 animals a year. Each person counts. By becoming a vegetarian, you are making the world a better place for everyone- both animals and people alike.