fish dont have feelings....people at PETA need to read our thread on "do fishes have feelings"....
here comes the rant :rant::
Im all fine with people believing in different things; if you dont want to follow the food chain, if you dont want to eat meat, whatever, i dont care. The instant that i get harassed by some vegetarian yelling at me for eating meat, well, it becomes personal. Its one thing to believe in what you stand for, but to harass other people and consider yourself morally superior to others is just plain stupid. I dont stand at the street corner yelling at people to eat meat, why are they so compelled to do so? Im sick an tired of getting yelled at by vegetarian saying "I won't eat meat because killing animals is cruel, and they don't deserve to suffer blah blah blah.." yet they wear leather belts, drive cars, and dont grow their own food. What most people dont realize (because people seem to have this aversion to reading) is that millions of animals are killed during wheat/bean harvest each year (TIME Magazine, July 15 2002, Pg. 56). People are quick to yell at you for eating a cow, but they dont seem to care about the rabbits, mice, voles, chipmunks, snakes, birds.... Where do we draw the line at what deserves to be saved? should we save every animal, should we save all the plants and micro-organisms, how about all the dirt clods destroyed when we dig in our garden? We should just launch ourselves into space and eat tofu and everyone can be hippies again.
edit*
can someone please explain meat tasting soy products? Or veggie burgers? I thought half the arguement was that meat was "gross"...
As a vegetarian... I don't eat meat because it looks gross, and I don't like the taste of some meat (actually, all meat, now that I've been a veg awhile). Even the smell is gross now. But garden burgers do not taste like hamburgers, and fake chicken does not taste like chicken, really. lol I know I sound silly, but I have a ridiculously weak stomach, and even the texture of meat (just looking at the texture!) is gross to me. I think the purpose of meatless products similar to meat is just for the ease of eating them. What better way to eat misc. veggies than burger style? And in what other form are you going to eat fake chicken? Hehe. So I don't think it's really for the taste at all. And some people go veg for other reasons, too. Like trying to eat healthier or 'save animals'. Those reasons don't require disliking meat.
Besides, when it comes right down to it, if you'll buy it, they'll make it!
Actually that's 'vegans' that avoid all animal products. Vegetarians range from no red meat to no meat at all. Vegans usually avoid all meat, as well as eggs and dairy products, and anything else containing ingredients derived from animals. It depends on the individual too, though. I'm not that picky. Thank you for mentioning it though! I now claim pizzaphobia.
Just kidding! Could you PM the name of the chain to me just so I know, please?
Um... MY fish don't seem to live complex lives... The little guys seem happy enough, but I have to say, there's nothing complex about investigating the same leaf over and over again to see if there might just be a bit of algae on it, or pecking at the gravel, or checking in with the rest of the group to see if they want to swim over to the other side of the tank!
There are some types of fish that do seem very intelligent, like the grouper mentioned in the article, but I'm not sure that's a reason not to eat them - cows feel pain, have long-term memories, and are actually pretty smart. They have distinct individual personalities, and we eat them every day - I think we have an obligation to raise them well, treat them kindly, and kill them humanely, but we're omnivores, and I have no problem eating meat (or fish).
When it comes to PETA, I've got a personal sore spot there - while I don't agree with most animal testing, I think medical research is important and some animal testing is unavoidable (though I don't like it, I'm not going to complain until I come up with an alternative!). I'm epileptic, and the medications I take to prevent my seizures were tested on animals. Without that testing, I wouldn't have the medicines, and my life would be a lot less happy than it is. Organizations like PETA believe that this testing is wrong, period, but there are so many medications that prevent illness and even death - what's PETA's stand on human suffering?
I'm a big fan of animal testing, at least when it comes to medical research. There's enough similarity between rats and humans that they can figure out all sorts of stuff from cancer treatments, what causes cancer, and right down to Blinky's epilepsy meds. However, what the popular media often forgets when it comes to some of these trials is that they are conducted on rats which for all their similarities are still a different species and, perhaps more importantly, for the sake of expediency the doses are often rediculously high which often makes any claims tenuous. Nonetheless, until computer models can satisfactorily simulate our complete complex physiology, there's really no alternative.
On the other hand, I'm dead against animal testing for cosmetics. I think that the arguments are well known.
Some pigs are smarter than dogs, but it won't stop me from having a pork chop. Raise and kill them humanely and in the end there's no arguable difference between that and keeping a pet.
I'm with you Blinky, I don't think that my fish lead terribly complex lives. I once spend about 45 minutes watching my betta chase the male swordtale in circles around a cluster of Blehery sword leaves. Hmmmm, or maybe that just means that I don't live a very complex life?
Could you PM the name of the chain to me just so I know, please? 
