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Viva las groundhogs!

It's so clear that most people don't care about animals beyond pets.  God forbid they control what they eat, if they did, then we might cease to be a nation where most of the citizens are overweight.  When you eat meat, in many cases, not only do you not care about the animals you're eating, you also don't care about your own health.  Things are completely backward.  People would rather be fat and unhealthy than stop eating meat and improve their health.
As one of the minority of people that loves all the animals, including mice and rats, I feel the need to voice my opinion.  I believe that animals should have the same rights as we do when it comes to freedom and protection from being beaten and killed.  People like me will never be content until it's a crime to attack any animal.
If you can't quit eating meat, first of all, you're weak.  Second of all, if you eat meat and you're fat, then you deserve to be fat.  Thirdly, if you eat meat, and you've gotten heart disease or cancer, then it's possible that you deserve it.  There are exceptions.  I would not say such things about disabled people and children.  But if you eat meat, then you are actively supporting cruelty to animals, and you deserve whatever bad karma is coming to you.
Here are examples of places of evil: butcher shops, steakhouses, and fur shops.  I hope that all businesses that profit off the exploitation of animals will go out of business as soon as possible.
I'm anti-violence.  As long as murder is against the law, it would \make sense that war is illegal as well.  Killing is killing.  We'll give Johnny a medal because he killed a bunch of Arabs in the Middle East.  But when Johnny comes home with PTSD and kills his family, that's where we draw the line.  I've never owned a gun, and I plan to never own one.  I bet the odds of getting a chance to successfully use a gun to shoot an intruder in your home are astronomical.  But people say this is why they need guns.  People who own guns are much more likely to shoot themselves: either accidentally or on purpose.
Every single day, an incredible amount of violence and cruelty is inflicted upon countless animals by people.  It's gotten to the point where I don't bother bugs in my home.  If you feel the need to kill every bug you see in your home, then you may be a real coward.  I'm not afraid of bugs.  Why are you?  There are exceptions.  I have seen spiders, then gone online to see if they were dangerous.  I knew a guy who was badly hurt by a brown recluse spider bite.  So as long as the bugs aren't potentially dangerous, I will not hurt them.

Forks Over Knives

I love groundhogs: especially juveniles.

That's the title of the documentary I watched last night.  I'm not claiming it's the best movie I've ever seen, nor the most compelling, but the basic message is what's most important.  Eating meat and dairy products is bad for your health.  It can lead to the development of diseases like heart disease and cancer.  Eating a whole foods, plant-based (vegan) diet is good for your health.  The movie is similar to Super Size Me (except in reverse), in that several people switch from a typical American diet to this whole foods, plant-based one.  All of them lost weight, felt better, and had more energy.  One of them was a man who was overweight and taking several different prescribed medications.  He was able to stop taking all of the medications and he felt better than when he was on them.  He also underwent a very impressive bodily transformation.  On meat and dairy, he had a typical pudgy, out-of-shape physique.  After switching to the vegan diet, it looked like he was in better shape than a lot of men who are half his age.  It certainly seemed like he was much happier as a result of ditching the meat, dairy and medications for fresh vegetables.
I had suspected this myself for a while.  Be good to animals (by not eating them), and as a result, you'll have good health and you'll be more likely to have a slim body.  Don't care about animals and contribute to their suffering (by eating them), and you're more likely to be overweight and have poor health.  Pigs, chickens, and cows are closely controlled by people.  They don't have much of a chance to strike back at their tormentors (humans).  However, they often end up doing it posthumously by negatively affecting the health of those who eat their flesh.
This isn't about my opinions though.  As this movie shows, several studies support the film's message about the importance of the right diet.  Also, several doctors have found this to be true.  One of these doctors, a firm believer in the evils of a diet which includes animal products, estimated that health care costs, which dwarf the defense budget in America, could be reduced by as much as 70-80% if everyone switched to the whole foods, plant-based diet.  That's not all though.  Switching to this diet is better for the environment.  The meat industry contributes to global warming more than the transportation industry does.  And I've mentioned it before, but it was included in this movie, and it's worth stating again.  Do you consider yourself a compassionate person?  Do you care about people, especially children, who are starving to death?  If so, become a vegan: or at least a vegetarian.  If enough people became vegetarians, then it would reduce the demand for meat, so less livestock would be intentionally brought into the world (for human consumption).  Currently, massive amounts of (vegan) food is grown for livestock.  If we reduce the amount of pigs, cows, and chickens brought into the world (for the purpose of being eaten), then more of the corn, soy, etc. that had been allocated for these animals would now be available for human consumption and could be sent to hungry people around the world.  In short, if enough people became vegetarians or vegans, we could end world hunger.