In response to your article Vegetarians find love at first bite (10/18/07), it was wonderful to read about Ohio vegetarians finding romance in Athens. While nobody likes the idea of limiting their dating pool, it's understandable why vegetarians would prefer to date each other over their meat-eating counterparts. Across the board, vegetarians benefit from lower levels of cancer, stroke, heart disease, impotence (that's right, cholesterol stops the flow of blood to all vital organs) and recent studies even show that they smell better! It's true. According to the National Institute of Health, results of repeated measures analysis of variance showed that the odor of donors when on the non-meat diet was judged as significantly more attractive
more pleasant and less intense.
Of course, while this is a perfectly logical reason to adopt a meat-free diet, there are more significant factors at play. Animals killed for food often suffer in unimaginable ways, including being skinned and dismembered while still fully conscious. If these kinds of abuses were inflicted upon cats or dogs, it would result in felony cruelty to animals charges. This is the product of an industry that views animals as property and items to be butchered and sold, rather than living, breathing creatures.
Fortunately, with so many delicious vegetarian dishes available these days (especially in Athens), including vegetarian barbecue riblets and vegan pizzas, there is really no excuse for continuing to support this kind of cruelty. For more information about vegetarianism, visit [url=http://www.peta2.com]peta2.com[/url] to request a free vegetarian starter kit, as well as stickers and a DVD.
Ryan Huling is the college campaign coordinator for peta2.com.
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