Some of the arguments on this thread are ridiculous on so many levels.
They're also very reactive and defensive.
The reverence some hunters feel for the animals is the gratitude for them that their life was given so other lives could be nourished. There are a number of native Americans out east here who feel that way. Wasting parts of an animal you kill is sacrilegious to them: basically if you aren't going to use it all, don't kill it.
Most true believer vegans/vegetarians ignore the science and prefer to spout the party line, clearly the human species is an omnivore, anyone who says different is simply wrong. The louder they spout it, in my experience, the more ignorant and sort of stupid they are. You can choose to ignore the biology and live fairly well as a vegan, but like any religion, keep that shit to yourself.
Right, science. OK then
let's talk science and facts.
Whether our ancestors were omnivores or not is irrelevant to whether or not we
choose to be now
based on the knowledge and the SCIENCE we have now. That's what that big brain of ours is supposed to be for. But even if it were relevant, omnivores certainly doesn't mean eating meat 3 times a day (or more) with a couple vegetables as side dish.
There's nothing scientific about representing the modern diet as some natural human thing, it is definitely not. Nor is it exactly healthy - as some other poster insisted on. Not only did meat consist of a small part of their entire diet, unlike modern humans do, they also were not nearly as many of them as there are of us now. Nor did they keep animals solely for their consumption - they hunted game which meant sometimes they were successful and others they were not. They didn't kill off wildlife so they could replace the diversity of plants and animals with one or two types of crop or animal They were hunter gatherers and to even attempt to use the fact that they were omnivores to justify the disgusting modern industry is dishonest and completely inaccurate. Please. The two bear absolutely no resemblance, they have nothing in common whatsoever.
Same goes for that reverence bullshit. We don't know shit about reverence. Bring up traditional aboriginal cultures and do you honestly think our disfunctional, schizophrenic, ADHD culture and the ways in which we view nature, animals and the world around us in a remotely comparable way that traditional indigenous cultures do? Not even close. Yeah, anyone can say they feel reverence doing just about anything but whether or not they even understand what that truly means or are even capable of it is pretty dubious. I think that's just another dishonest attempt at justifying the belief we humans have that we are unquestionable superior and more important than everything else around us. There is no question that the way we behave leaves no doubt as to our belief that our needs, wants and interests are what matters beyond all else.
Also, not a chance about keeping that shit to oneself - sorry. Comparing it to religion is typical and it's also beyond absurd. I find it very, very interesting that conviction supposedly translates to ignorance, according to you. The fact is that even if you have
zero empathy for animals or you're just holding on tight to the denial and cognitive dissonance that allows you to block out the brutality and inhumane nature of the meat industry, you can't possibly find any reasonable scientific justification for the destruction it inflicts on the entire environment by its existence and by the ever increasing demand. There are 7 billion humans infesting this planet and if we think that meeting the current demand is destructive, just take a moment to imagine the magnitude of this over the coming decades.
As billions more who will have the means and are eager to emulate our western standards of living by (among other things) adding as much meat to their diets as we enjoy. The population will of course not stop growing. Animal agriculture uses an extreme amount of water and it also contaminates more water that we drink. We don't acknowledge it yet but you do realize the drinking water supply isn't infinite and we are heading towards a crisis - some parts of the world already have? Aside from humane treatment of animals, human perception of superiority, growing population, pollution and contamination, animal agriculture requires more and more land, which we steal from other species and entire ecosystems, cutting down trees and evicting all wildlife to make room for animal agriculture.
There are consequences to all of this. They may not be immediate or obvious to identify but they all have consequences that accumulate.
Before you start calling anyone ignorant, I'd strongly suggest having a clue what the science
actually does tell us. If you choose not to, you don't get to call anyone ignorant because you want to stay happy in your little fantasy bubble. I doubt I'll have any kids - specifically because personally I'd feel sorry as hell for them being screwed with the consequences of human stupidity. It's one thing to justify decisions and actions made 50 or 100 years ago because people simply did not have the knowledge to know the damage they were doing but in 2011, the fact that the information is there and being ignored is unconscionable. I would be deeply ashamed to have to tell any future kids that we
did have the knowledge but people still refused the see how they were compromising their children and grand children's future because, well, it was just
easier to pretend so that they could continue enjoying the things they had convinced themselves they
deserved.
Afterall, we are humans and everything on this planet belongs to us - no, everything exists for us....right?
So you want to eat meat, obviously I can't stop you - so eat meat. But don't tell me about religion, ignorance or science. You don't get to be mad about being told the truth. Don't inform yourself or change anything about your lifestyle if you don't want to - but you don't get to tell people who are looking at reality for what it is and not caught up in the cozy state of denial some of you are depending on, that they should keep that shit to themselves. With all due respect, you just need to work on your denial strategies if you can't handle hearing about reality - you don't get to make it disappear or to censor it. You can lash out at the mention of it all you want, but you don't get to change the actual truth.
If you were all truly convinced of what you're claiming, all of what is said would go right over your head. The defensive and reactive kind of comments that never fail to come out when this topic comes up, only makes it clear how much you want to hold on to the denial and how hard you'll protect the cognitive dissonance that keeps you from recognizing the unspeakable misery and torture of feeling animals and the steady and serious destruction of the planet. Lash out all you want but you still have to look your kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews or whomever, now or 10-20 years from now and explain why their inheritance is toxic planet that's falling apart for them to deal with. I doubt your "
but we're omnivores" crap is going to quite cut it.
But I'm not about to shut up just to protect your warm and cozy status quo - even if I have no children. If you get irate when you're confronted with your responsibility in all of this, that's your problem and not mine. I'd like to be able to at least say I did something, anything about it and not that I was blissfully ignorant because I just like the taste of meat and couldn't imagine having (or be bothered) to make some sacrifices or responsible changes and try to do my part.
http://www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/eij/article/its_wrong_to_wreck_the_world
) & produces an unhealthy disease promoting acid environment. Plants keep your body alkaline and are terrific packages of fat/protein/carbs, micro & phyto-nutrients and contrary to popular belief, supply a veritable custom-made superior suit of aminoes compared to one-size-fits-all/off-the-rack animal protein but whadda i know..i'm just a dumb hooker..lets hear from some 'stupid vegetarian' scientists.. 
