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Why do some people buy, cook, and eat animals?

It seems like an obvious choice to not kill and eat other animals if you don't have to. In many countries this (not eating animals) is the norm, but in many other countries eating animals is the norm.

I'm living with someone now who eats animals, and I don't understand why. They seem to think it's "normal" to eat dead animals.

Why do some people choose to eat animals?

Michael Altfield
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  • Good question, but in which countries eating animals is not the norm? –  Dec 26 '22 at 21:34
  • To hint an answer, I guess it all has to do with imitating behavior e.g. kids doing what their parents do / tell them to do, which is passed on from generation to generation, as integrated also in the general culture / traditions / norms of a particular country (more or less animal friendly), rooted in ancient times when plant food was considered insufficient or harder to obtain. –  Dec 26 '22 at 21:38
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    Eating animals is not the norm in many cultures, especially those with high numbers of Buddhists, Hindus, Jain (or other religious/spiritual sects that teach empathy) like India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Bhutan, etc.. – Michael Altfield Dec 26 '22 at 21:55
  • I see in your comment a partial answer to the question, in line with my previous comment. –  Dec 26 '22 at 21:56
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    I have lived in Thailand and Sri Lanka which are both predominantly Buddhist yet meat is very common. It is easier to be vegetarian or vegan here in the UK. In India, it is easy to be vegetarian but vegan is still not easy. I have travelled a lot, especially Asia, but not yet found a vegetarian or vegan country. – badjohn Dec 27 '22 at 08:11
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    please ask the person that you live with ... their answer will be as good as anyone else's, since you are asking for opinions ... there is no wrong answer ... that is why opinion based questions, like yours are not allowed here – jsotola Dec 28 '22 at 06:31
  • @jsotola I'm not asking for an opinion, I'm asking a valid question whoose answer should be backed-up by psychological, sociological and/or other scientific explanation of human behaviour – Michael Altfield Dec 28 '22 at 23:10
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    @MichaelAltfield every person that eats animals has a personal reason ... that is equivalent to an opinion ... there is no one reason, so there is no "right" answer to your question ... a question such as why do some people choose to be vegan? would also be opinion based ... the only way for it to be not opinion based, is if you ask about a specific person – jsotola Dec 28 '22 at 23:13
  • @jsotola I highly recommend reading about the Scientific Method to understand how humans are able to separate opinions about groups of people from facts based on studies https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method – Michael Altfield Dec 28 '22 at 23:21
  • I thought Tibetans primarily ate meat and other animal products because of the lack of arable land there. One can say that vegetarianism is normative in India because we call meat and meat dishes "non-veg" :) but only a minority of Indians are full-time vegetarians. – Zanna Jan 04 '23 at 10:33
  • The question is wrong way. You admit that meat eating is predominantly the norm. Practically, there is no question why people keep the accepted norms (even though there are plenty of studies on this topic). If anything, this is what is "obvious". It's "normal" by definition. (Even cannibalism was "normal' for most of the human history). So, the question should always be: "why do some people become vegetarians?" – Zeus Feb 10 '23 at 01:12

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