Saving cows?

[leyley904]

Hey everyone! I was just thinking about animals and stuff today. I was wondering, how many cows do you think a vegetarian can save. You have to take into consideration how much meat a non-veg consumes, and how much of the actual cow they eat. I've heard that most people eat too much eat to be healthy for them, well, I would like to base this of of what is normal, not necessarily healthy. So, any ideas? Let's calculate for a completely meatless diet for, say... 10 years. Or you could do one year, whichever. I just have no clue how much meat is normally consumed.

You might wonder what got me thinking about this. Well, I had a terrible day. It started well, but my last class was a disaster. It got brought up that I was a vegetarian (I haven't told many people at school). People said the rudest things to me. INCLUDING TWO teachers! Ugh, I started crying over the wood I was burning a design into (project). I don't know if anyone noticed. What pushed me over? People kept saying "Well, why do you think cows were put on the earth?" THEY WERE PUT HERE TO LIVE YOU DUMB !!!!!! "Well, I LOVE me some MEAT!"

[frillint]

I am sorry you had a bad day. I do not know the answer to your question, I would be interested to know the answer. I will ask my friend she is a vegetarian and she knows all kind of statistical things about everything. She got made fun of a lot to and she is SUPER skinny and that didn't help, she just can't gain weight no matter what. She would just usually ignore them or hit them with some outrageous satistic about animals or something and they would be like "wow" and shut up. Don't listen to what they have to say. People alwsy freak out about something thats different.

[Paula]

There are a number of answers to this question all over the internet, but in the US alone there's something along the order of 8 billion animals slaughtered each year, which is a number larger than the worldwide human population.

I think the specific number is thought to be something like 100 animals per year are saved by one person refusing to eat them.

Not to mention the enormous impact on the environment, as livestock production requires enormous amounts of energy compared to plant crops.

It's good to hear you are trying to be a vegetarian now, too.

Here are some sites you might be interested in checking out.

The University of Chicago Vegan Society
GoVeg.com // Cruelty to Animals: Mechanized Madness
http://www.voiceless.org.au/Get_Info...y_Farming.html
Want to save the environment? Go vegetarian.

[PiggyKat]

Hmm this is interesting because a lot of times we only eat certain parts of cows such as steak ect. These are cuts of meat and I know only a few steaks come out of a cow.
Hamburger is less picky. If you assume that everyone eats a 1/4 lbs. hamburger a day, times 10 years, you could kinda figure it out...its not a perfect solution but it is a start.
I'm sorry people are rude. I try really hard not to be. It's what you believe and I respect you for that even if it is not what I, myself, believe.

[leyley904]

Don't worry Piggykat, that class was full of immature boys with raging hormones, you are definitely very nice! The teachers didn't mean harm, but it still struck a cord.

Paula, WOAH! That includes all animals? Chickens, pigs, ect? That's still an insanely huge amount, for both the amount of animals slaughtered and for how many animals can be saved in a year by something so simple! I've only eaten meat in the once or twice in the last month. My mom wants me to do some research on good ways to keep up your protein and stay healthy while vegetarian. She knows it's totally possible, but she just wants me to work towards being healthy, too, I guess. I will definitely look at those websites!

Frill, yeah, I try to say something back to them that is fact, not opinion. But, then they make up some bull about anything that makes them feel right. Even though most of the time, I know I'm the one that's right. Oh well, what they think about me won't effect my diet.

Thanks guys!

ETA: When I said "they were put here to live" or whatever about the cows, I did not imply that what meat-eaters eat is wrong. But saying that cows were only put on earth to be eaten got me mad. I just realized that I didn't make that clear. Sorry!