Unfortunately, it’s almost impossible to find animals that have been both raised and killed humanely (if one is of the belief that killing an animal “humanely” is really possible at all). The labels of “organic,” “free range,” “grass fed,” etc. are absolutely meaningless and give no insight whatsoever into the lives the animals have lived up to the point they were “humanely killed.” While there may be a few very small farms that can make this type of claim, it just doesn’t exist on any sort of large scale. It’s unfortunate.

Personally, I would never eat any animal ever again, but I would very much like to see the lives of those animals that are raised for meat improved since there will always be people that continue to eat meat.

In any case, some people tend to think it’s their right to lecture you about how the way you eat is bad and how their philosophy is the right one, although if you were to actually sit down and eat with them on a regular basis I’m sure many of them eat total crap.

I think it’s important to respect others food choices even if we disagree with them. Often people view how they eat as such a huge part of their identity that they feel they have to defend it to the death. I’ve decided that you have to pick your battles. If someone wants to have an intelligent conversation with you that doesn’t rely on cliched but unsubstantiated “common wisdom,” then great, but often people don’t want to have a discussion, they want to enlighten someone who has chosen the “wrong path.”

Otherwise, I do have another question for you and other vegetarians out there. Other than non-veggie folks who are respectful of how you eat, what about those who are not vegetarian, but srtive only to eat animals who have been killed humanely? I realize there is a large segment of the veggie population (or at least ethical veggies) who have an all or nothing view - any killing of an animal is inhumane. I just wonder if there are those who take into consideration that there could be a couple shades of grey and might just think better of those who are interested in animal welfare but still believe that it’s ok to eat them, as long as measures have been taken to make their lives livable and deaths as humane as possible?