Any Vegetarians/Vegans here?

[bennyboy]

. . . unless you start eating other people against their wishes, what you eat has absolutely no impact on the well being of others, so butt out.

That's a strange analogy to introduce, since it introduces a clear double standard: we have to get permission from humans to eat them, but not animals. Why is this? What is intrinsically more important or valuable about a human life than another animal's life, that one requires approval from the victim and one does not?

Where's your "sense of compassion and duty" toward other human people? Food is a basic right, and animals are food for most people. Killing for food isn't like killing for sport or pleasure. It's natural, and for people in poorer parts of the world, it's absolutely essential.

Food is a right, but unrestrained pleasure is not. Why should food be privileged over other desires, which we mediate and moderate? Sex is a right-- but I can't do it anywhere or with anyone/thing I want just because that maximizes my pleasure.

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If I was not human but rather a game animal or one that was raised for consumption yes.

What is the logical foundation of anthropocentrism? What makes us morally more valuable than other species? What makes animals morally deserving of being caused to exist, to suffer, and to be eaten, when we expect for humans a life of opportunity and liberty?