Yes, I don't eat meat because I don't feel the need to cause their death when it's not necessary for us to survive. Yes, I know it gives some people health problems, but I'm not one of those people, so I can still be vegetarian without worrying. I believe it's a personal choice, though, so I don't try to stop others from eating meat. Even if I did, though, animals are different. The difference isn't intelligence, either. (Er, I'm not saying we aren't smarter than animals; I'm saying that's not why we don't have to eat meat. It's why we even question eating meat, but not why we don't need to.) It's our physiology that's relevant here, not our neurology. Different animals need different foods to survive. Rabbits don't eat meat, but they're not as smart as us. That's irrelevant, though. Well, sort of. Anyway, my point is that cheetahs and spiders literally need meat to survive, so that's different. If a well-fed domestic animal like a cat was harming wildlife, I'd do everything I could to stop that animal because they wouldn't need to kill wildlife to survive and aren't qualified to decide whether it's worth it from an ethical viewpoint. But that's different.

I'd like to repeat that I do think it's a personal choice and would never actively try to prevent someone else from eating meat, though I wouldn't hand it to them. To quote you, "I don't mean to try to make you stop, I'm just giving my opinion."

Also, the reason pigs can't kill humans isn't so much about intelligence as strength, I think. If a pig were gigantic but no more intelligent than now, it could kill us, and if we were healthy for them--which we're not, but I'm speaking hypothetically: Yes, they'd certainly kill us (well, if they were suddenly made bigger, they wouldn't, because food has to be learned; you're not born knowing what's edible, but I mean if they were already bigger) and eat us, but do you know what? I think we'd mind. Humans would probably drive pigs to extinction. It's sad but true. We don't often think how we'd react if we had natural predators.

I'm not saying animals are perfect or better than us or that our eating meat is worse than their's. I don't believe that at all. They don't have to be perfect for me to give up doing things that kill them. I know that some animals eat meat even though they don't have to to survive, and it doesn't make a difference to me. Neither does a human eating meat make a difference to me. After all, it's for a reason. If I see someone killing any animal--any animal, even an insect--I get really, really angry, because it's unnecessary and often won't even benefit them. But eating meat is something I can understand. I used to do it; actually, the first time I tried to become vegetarian, I had to stop because I just couldn't do it (I was 7). I started again a year later, and now it's easy for me, but I remember what it was like when it wasn't.

It's nice to be able to have a civilized discussion about this. Vegetarians don't really exist in my area as far as I know, and a lot of immature people seem to hold it against me for some reason (I know I'm not imagining things; one person was trying to make friends with me and immediately stopped when I told her. No, I don't know why, either. Xenophobia?), which can get annoying.

Detc says... Tofd! Toft! Can you believe it! That's so strange, his saying tofu on a vegetarianism thread. I don't like it, myself (tofu, that is).