Animal lovers that eat meat - hypocrites or not?

a combination of the two Animal rights activists brought it to peoples attention and consumer patterns changes accordingly.

I'd say that in one sense I am being hypocritical by supporting animal rights - ie I'm against Whaling, killing of elephants for ivory, killing of dolphins and I support animal conservation, yet at the same time I eat meat.

Humans have been omnivores for centuries and there isn't anything intrinsically wrong with it, but what is wrong is the bad conditions that animals are kept in on battery farms and the sheer scale of it. We're influencing the direction of several species' evolution because we are breeding them for more meat, milk and eggs.

But the law would have majority impact since you could probably assume that there would still be a lot of sustainable fishing now if there were no actual laws in place?

I eat meat responsibly, as far as is possible. We are evolved to eat meat whether people like it or not, so 'loving' animals is really a bonus anyway.

I'm not responsible for how you interpret my post. The points i was making were quite clear.

You were directly contradicting yourself by saying 'I would never be involved in cruel acts to animals' yet then admitted you do indeed buy meat because if you didn't 'it wouldn't make much difference anyway'. That's awful logic.

You are infact directly involved in cruel acts to animals when you buy cheap meat. By paying for it you are essentially saying "I support this and i wish for it to continue."

I despise the attitude of "There's no point giving this thing up because it won't make much difference." It's a **** excuse and the exact way i used to think before i gave up meat.

How is that directly? He/she hasn't gone out and slaughtered an animal. Indirectly, maybe, but definitely not directly.

A bit hypocritical of you to call Animal lovers who eat meat hypocrites when you used to eat meat yourself? According to your logic, doing a bit of "good" and a bit of "bad" against animals is hypocritical. That logic means you are a hypocrite yourself.

Eating animals that are evidently in great numbers and are of no risk of going extinct while still trying to save the endangered species or reducing sport hunting is still better than not caring about animals at all. Sure the way farm animals are kept and treated could be further improved but given how many people in the world that are starving every day, I would rather we fixed more urgent problems first.

Why do people always use the argument of 'humans are omnivores' 'we've evolved this way'. It's the naturalistic fallacy and therefore irrelevant. There are plenty of natural things we no longer do and plenty of unnatural things we do that are beneficial to us.

Even if it is entirely natural, that still doesn't make it right.

I love animals don't get me wrong, but eating meat is a natural part of (most) human's diets.

The people that get me are the animal "obsessives" who DON'T eat meat, not because they don't like it, but because its "hurting all the animals" if they eat it. 1.It's a natural thing, if the first humans turned around and said "NO MATE, I DONT EAT MEAT" then they probably would have all died at some point. Animals are cute, but they eat each other, why shouldn't we?

Hunting and killing/harming with the intent of not eating, or for no good reason (such as people who buy pets and beat them etc) are wrong in my eyes, but eating animals, no. At least they then go to good use, i.e. energy. I think eating endangered animals is sad, but theres not gonna be any way to stop that ultimately, so I don't bother with the whole campaigning thing. I care, but humans are causing the next mass extinction, so there's no going back now we've already ****ed up this planet.

It's ridiculous to suggest someone is being a hypocrite because of something they used to do. I used to eat meat, i no longer do. There's a difference between someone being hypocritical by holding contradictory beliefs and someone's moral beliefs simply changing over time.

Oh ok so you used to be a hypocrite but because you now changed, you are no longer a hypocrite. You know, "all those poor chickens and cows that must of died because of your "direct" actions are now peacefully at rest, you will no longer eat their brothers and sisters."
Small actions can change the world but only when change is actually needed. In this case, I think that eating meat responsibly is better than the whole world turning vegetarian. If that makes me a hypocrite then so be it.

Please explain how the whole world going vegetarian is worse than people eating meat, albeit responsibly sourced?

Funny how you only pick small bits out of whole posts.

You know those people on Facebook that often post photos of cute animals and share links to do with saving elephants/dolphins from harm etc. Can someone fairly call themselves an 'animal lover' but still buy into the barbaric, intensively reared, mass-produced factory farmed pigs, cows and chickens?

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First of all, you've missed the point slightly. I never stated that all farms treated animals as terribly as one another. And by referring to it as barbaric, i didn't necessarily only mean the farming process, or every animal on every farm as you seem to think. I believe that simply slaughtering huge numbers of sentient animals that feel pain and emotion is barbaric, regardless of the farm process.

Out of interest, the animals on the farm that you're referring to, where does their meat end up? Are you supplying supermarkets or large chain restaurants?

The point of my post was aimed at the people who do buy the cheapest meat available and take no regard for where it comes from.

Because that was the only relevant point. The first part of your post was sarcasm. Which other part of the post would you like me to answer? I fully admit i used to hold contradictary views, which is why i now no longer eat meat.

Naturalistic falacy.

Strawman argument. I've never called someone a hypocrite for simply 'preferring a different type of meal to me'. The original post was aimed at people who explicitly identify themselves as 'animal lovers' and go out of their way to make it seem like they are compassionate to multiple different animal rights issues, and then go and eat the cheapest and most intensively reared meat that's available.