Part 2 (post was split because the crappy terminal comp seems to want to crash any second).
me: but shouldn't you try to convince me that I should be a vegan?
Vegan 2: no. I'm sorry. You're just an immoral person. If you want to kill animals just to staisfy your greed, please feel free to do so. goodbye.
Vegan 3: Here is a vegan starter kit. Read it if you have any questions.
Me: Why would I become a vegetarian?
Vegan 3: Becuase it is the the right thing to do.
Me: how?
Vegan 3: it saves animals.
Me: but if everyone would stop eating meat, then wouldn't all the animals be slaughtered?
Vegan 3: yes, but it's better to have millions of animals die now, then have animals die for all eternity.
Me: but there are other ways of combating animal cruelty than becoming a vegan.
Vegan 3:Erm...that's true. However, it's a choice one has to make for oneself. I used to eat meat like you, but I've made the choice to stop.
Me: what made you make that choice?
Vegan3 : well, I've saw this tape (shows me some PETA tape) and decided that eating meat is wrong.
Me: so, you're saying that a material from PETA made you make that choice?
Vegan 3: Yes.
Me: i've been to the PETA website recently. There was a letter to PETA from a woman who's boyfriend refused to become a vegan. She was asking what to do. PETA advised her to dump the boyfriend and have no further contact with him. What do you think about that?
Vegan: Erm.. I don't understand your question. Do you mean do I support that?
Me: i'm asking your opinion about that.
Vegan: oviously, thats' bad.
Me: But you are still a part of PETA.
Vegan 3: erm....yes.
Me: *points to a What Would Jesus Eat brohure* Are you saying that Jesus would be a vegetarian?
Vegan 3: yes.
Me: why?
Vegan 3: well, first of all, eating meat is selfish.
me: how is it selfish?
Vegan 3: when you eat meat, the land used to feed the cow could have produced vegetables to feed everybody.
me: no it wouldn't. You would still need fertilizer to produce an efficient amount of crops. Besides, a lot of land being used as pasture is unsuitable for farming.
Vegan 3: No, that's not true.
Me: Yes, it is. Why do you think farming is limited to certain areas of the world?
Vegan 3: but all those animals pooping and farting pollute the water. Do you even realize how many animals there are?
Me: yes. That's why I support killing them. Besides, what evidence do you have that "poop pollution" has a nocticeable effect on water pollution?
Vegan 3: But all those animals grazing stomp out the land and destroy beautiful scenery. Wouldn't you want to preserve it?
Me: excessive farming destroys the soil, making the land unsuitable for farming.
Vegan 3: you make a very good point. Let me have your e-mail and I'll send you the data once I've researched it.
*While I was still thinking it over, another vegan joined the fun*
Vegan 4: Excuse me. I grew up on a farm, and I know for sure that cow manure is not the best manure. Horse manure is the best.
Me: Even if that's true, it doesn't change the fact that not all land that is used as pasture is suitable for farming.
Vegan 4: But if you convert it to farmland, you will eliminate world famine. If you eat a hamburger, only you and I can share that hamburger. But you can produce grain to feed 12 people on the same land. Besides, animlas eat the same grain humans do.
Me: Besides the fact that you're ignoring my point, meat eating is not going to solve world famine. It is caused by poverty, not meat-eating.
Vegan 4: But in Ethiopia, the grain was going to feed cows in London, while people were starving to death!
Me: That proves my point exactly. If the Ethiopians could afford the grain, they would be the ones eating it, not the cows in England. Poverty is the cause of famine.
Vegan 3: You raise some interesting points about the environment. Go to this site and it will answer all your questions.
Vegan 4: yes, it is a very good site.
Me: *taking the address*. *Point to vegan 3's T-Shirt, condmening Canada for killing whatever animal they're killing for fur* You oppose hunting, then?
Vegan 3: yes.
Me: But it keeps the animal population in check.
Vegan 3: Actually, deer are breeding much faster now, then they were before being hunted.
Me: what's your point?
Vegan 3: There are more deer now, then when they weren't hunted.
me: So, what's the problem?
Vegan 3: What do you mean?
Me: Doesn't it keep the hunters happy and the deer population within limits?
Vegan 3: You are a very evil person. *She physically draged me by the hand away from the table in front of the TV screen.* Feel free to watch the tape, but I can't talk to you anymore.
After standing in front of the TV for a few seconds, looking at a cow being slaughtered, I left to find a free copmputer and posted all this stuff.
Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin