DUIN: Tortured animals need compassion

and we have a vp candidate who kills animals for fun..even pays for their slaughter in some cases. She seems very proud of it too. Please remember this when you cast your vote this fall. I am a vegan For me it seems right. We are all God's creatures and we need to respect life or someday we may beoome food on a plate ourselves.

Please, Julia, do not fall for PETA's and HSUS' emotional manipulations. Yes, there are factory farms that mistreat animals and unfortunately, they are becoming the norm rather than the exception. However, that abuse does not mean we should stop eating meat altogether. It should not give anyone any sort of guilt about the mere idea of eating meat. We cannot buy into the claptrap and manipulations these people are putting out, especially toward the religious community. Jesus Himself ate meat. That's what happened at the Last Supper, which was a Passover meal, complete with year-old lamb. Joseph and Mary offered two doves for sacrifice at His birth. I could go on and on, but you get the point. What PETA and HSUS are pushing for is what Ecuador did last week when they voted to give rights to nature. See this: http://amspec.org/dsp_article.asp?art_id=13972 Yes, we need to care for animals in a proper and humane way. That doesn't mean, though, that we don't or can't eat meat or any other animal product.

If the Christian churches were to take one Sunday per year to consider the plight of our food animals, there would be profound repercussions in the industry that supplies our food. It is indeed as significant an issue as abortion. I would never be a member of a church that condones abortion. I do recall the cries of a cow when her calf was taken from her, and this after the calf was almost weaned. Though I was quite young myself, I cried with her, silently.