What's the deal with Fish again???
I am having a hard time giving up the fish... why shouldn't I eat fish?? Please someone remind me!! I get the meat thing, the dairy thing.... I just can't put my arms around this one yet....
Re: What's the deal with Fish again???
at the very least because it can contain mercury and that is a poison!! :rolleyes:
Re: What's the deal with Fish again???
Okay, how about the fact that we are overfishing the oceans? We are destroying coral reefs? The new trawlers go farther and deeper into the ocean than ever before. Your consumption of fish adds to the destruction of the ocean and also depletes the food source of other fish. The only reason that some fish are now considered "endangered" is because of overfishing. And don't believe that farmed fish is a better choice. Those fish are cramped, diseased, fed so much food that their muscle mass gets too big for their frames (North Atlantic farmed salmon). Some southeast Asian countries have destroyed their shorelines in order to farm shrimp.
The ocean will not recover unless we stop fishing it for a number of years. Period. And if our population continues to grow as the fish population continues to shrink, where do you think the fish will come from to feed those people?
It takes months to grow plant protein. It takes years to grow fish protein. How much more convincing do you need?
Hope that helped.
Re: What's the deal with Fish again???
Fish are made of meat! :confused:
Re: What's the deal with Fish again???
Re: What's the deal with Fish again???
Dianecrna - Perfect! You said just what I was going to say.
Being vegan isn't just about avoiding this or that. Its about dynamic harmlessness. A fish is an animal just as a cow, chicken or pig is an animal. Somehow people seem to forget this. In my eyes to be vegan is to bring yourself to the level of all things (cow, fish, tree, paperclip ;) ) and realize that we are a part of all things just as they are a part of us. So Dianecrna is right, eating fish does come back to haunt us. By partaking in the eating of fish we are harming our oceans beyond repair.
Here are a few more tidbits on ocean awareness:
Farmed fish is a dreadful thing. Not only is the rivers down stream for the farms pretty much unlivable to increased nitrogen content but here on the Pacific Coast they bring in Atlantic Salmon (shorter growth period) for these farms. These fish can and do escape. They then out compete the Pacific Salmon in their own rivers, leading to even more declining numbers of native fish. They also breed with the native Pacific Salmon. This results in a weakened gene pool for the native fish. Ugh. Dreadful.
There is a wonderful study that everyone should take a look at...but I'm completely blanking on its name. I'll find it and let everyone know. But in my opinion it is one of the more complete studies done on the state of the pacific ocean.
Re: What's the deal with Fish again???
Re: What's the deal with Fish again???
Re: What's the deal with Fish again???
Thanks for all of you who had some helpful feedback... much appreciate it!! I realize that fish is meat...I realize that fish are animals....after all it's not rocket science. It is harder to make an emotional attachment with them for me...and for the same reasons some people watch horrible footage to remind themselves of why they don't eat meat, I needed this info to remind me of why not to eat seafood.
The info about what we are doing to the ocean was very helpful, as was the info about the fisheries...
Thanks to all who gave me the hard facts I was looking for.
Re: What's the deal with Fish again???
Posted by cinchybell:
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I realize that fish is meat...I realize that fish are animals....after all it's not rocket science.
Obviously.
To me the hardest fact of all is the fact that flesh is not food for human beings. Knowing that this simple fact is true makes torturing myself with videos on animal cruelty completely unecessary.
Re: What's the deal with Fish again???
To be honest, I am not into the whole thing whether humans are natural omnivores or not - the fact of the matter is, that humans exploit animals to the maximum capacity - we even sell their shit (manure for gardening)! Fish are fishnapped from their natural environment and virtually suffocated in cramped uncomfortable conditions, just so we can batter them and serve them with chips! I can understand the 'being unable to be emotional' about fish - coz I don't like fish much either - they are a bit alien from the mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibions (and insects) that we are used to. In fact I gave up fish last too.
Well done - you are obviously full of compassion. keep going and you will get there ;)
Re: What's the deal with Fish again???
To me the simple idea that animals are not food for humans hasn't got much to do with whether humans are omnivores or whether people are capable of making emotional connections to certain species. I am not emotionally connected to snails and slugs, and yet their lives are of as much value as any other's.
If a person never comes to the point of not being able to consider animals as a food source the potential for exploitation will always exist. To believe "fish is food, and I'm suffering terrible cravings from the dietary sacrifice I'm making, but I'm trying not to eat it because it is considered unhealthy, bad for the environment, etc." is not recognizing the fact that the fish is a living being with its own right to exist unmolested, regardless of whether it inspires a warm, fuzzy emotional feeling in humans or not. Yes, animal exploitation has many disastrous facets for the animals involved and the environment. If people recognized the fact that animals do not exist to provide humans with the opportunity to make dietary choices for or against using them, we wouldn't have all the environmental problems we have right now.
Posted by cinchybell:
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I have cut out red meat and chicken so far...next is seafood then dairy
it used to be all about the animals...know it is more about my health and my families health
The idea that animals do not exist to be viewed by humans as food is a very fundamental idea in the vegan ethic and should not be dismissed lightly, especially by someone who is not yet a vegan.
Re: What's the deal with Fish again???
Fish is a living breathing creature that has a face, a brain and lives their own lives without hurting us. Leave them alone to live their life and live yours cruelty free!!
Re: What's the deal with Fish again???
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cinchybell
Thanks for all of you who had some helpful feedback...I needed this info to remind me of why not to eat seafood.
I think a first step is to stop calling fishes "seafood". :(
I love to watch fishes swimming, they are the most amazing creatures with their complicated, underwater lives that I know so little about. I have no desire to harm them and therefore I could never eat them. :)
Re: What's the deal with Fish again???
Posted by tails4wagging:
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Leave them alone to live their life and live yours cruelty free!!
Thank you Tails! That's saying it all! :)
Posted by Cal:
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I think a first step is to stop calling fishes "seafood". :(
You have summed it up perfectly, Cal! :)
Re: What's the deal with Fish again???
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Seaside
To me the simple idea that animals are not food for humans hasn't got much to do with whether humans are omnivores or whether people are capable of making emotional connections to certain species.....
....is not recognizing the fact that the fish is a living being with its own right to exist unmolested, regardless of whether it inspires a warm, fuzzy emotional feeling in humans or not.
If people recognized the fact that animals do not exist to provide humans with the opportunity to make dietary choices for or against using them, we wouldn't have all the environmental problems we have right now......
The idea that animals do not exist to be viewed by humans as food is a very fundamental idea in the vegan ethic and should not be dismissed lightly, especially by someone who is not yet a vegan.
Thank you, Seaside, for putting the vegan ethic so well. I am not saying this lightly, but I think that these great and compassionate vegetarian thinkers would be pleased by what you said......
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"Nonviolence is not a garment to be put on and off at will. Its seat is in the heart, and it must be an inseparable part of our being."
-Mahatma Gandhi
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"The soul is the same in all living creatures, although the body of each is different."
---Hippocrates (Greek Physician & Philosopher)
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If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men.
---St. Francis of Assisi
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Even in the worm that crawls in the earth there glows a divine spark. When you slaughter a creature, you slaughter God.
---Isaac Bashevis Singer (Nobel Laureate 1978)
For my part, I did not become a vegan because of concern for my health, or concern that humans would suffer because of the destruction of the environment. I became a vegan because I recognized that all creatures are the same as me; and that I would not want done to me what my fellow humans are doing to my fellow creatures. The best way to stop this abuse of the earth's creatures is to practice compassion for them. Exploitation is not compassionate.
spo
Re: What's the deal with Fish again???
Thank you, spo! I always appreciate the trouble you must take to find these quotes in your wonderful library and share them with us. It is good to be reminded of the thoughts of so many highly respected people past and present. :)