How many vegs do you know who eat fish?

[friesianrider]

I never cared for fish/seafood, even before becoming veg, but I know a heck of a lot of vegetarians who still eat fish and/or seafood. Can anyone explain the logic of this?

[smbolisnch]

1. My advisor-

The only other veggie I know personally, in real life.
I am pretty sure he eats fish occasionally. As far as I know, he feels that it is good for him. He eats absolutely no dairy either. Odd.
I never liked fish.... :puke:

[friesianrider]

2. Yuck, me either.

I always hated fish as well. It always tasted so undercooked and slimey. Nasty!

[smbolisnch]

3. I know. The smell alone makes me sort of gaggy

Yuck. I always hate fridays during lent at the hospital.
As soon as you get off the elevator it hits you in the face.

[Robeson]

4. I know vegetarians who ate fish as the last type of meat they consumed...

...before they became full fledged vegetarians. Also, I know some people who only eat seafood, but they don't consider themselves vegetarians, and I don't consider them vegetarians, either.

BTW, friesianrider, welcome to the veggie group, and I'm so glad you're posting over here now! :hi:

[Kenneth ken]

5. I did

when I first went veg; my "logic" was that at least fish got to live a normal life until the time they got caught; as opposed to farm animals who didn't live normal lives at all.

Mostly it was a stepping stone for me, and kind of a " holding onto/staying closer to 'normal' " sort of tactic. I rarely ate fish as an omnivore, and I didn't eat much more when I went veg, but it was a psychological comfort that I could eat fish if I was in a restaurant and didn't have any good options in terms of veg food.

It can be a scary decision to go veg, and dive into a very different way of eating.

As far as long-term veg*ns who still eat fish/seafood, I don't have any idea why that would be.

:hi:

[peacebuzzard]

Well I fit the profile, limited amounts of fish, but will let it go

one day ......I still have lots of battles with milk chocolate too. And vanilla shakes. I slip alot on those items. Sometimes I can be very good for a long time....and then comes the binge. I wish I didn't have these addictions.

[peacebuzzard]

6. dupe post.

[livinginphotographs]

7. Fish was actually the thing I missed first.

I never ate seafood (and when I mean seafood I mean shrimp, oysters, etc. not fish) so that wasn't a problem. I'd disgraced my cajun ancestors long ago by deciding that crawfish was absolutely disgusting.

But sometimes, even now, when I see blackened tilapia on the menu, I get a quick craving.

[flamingyouth]

8. It's the only animal product I consume.

I have two other friends similar to me. We joke that it's because we're all of Scandinavian descent and we grew up in Seattle; maybe it's encoded in our DNA or something.

I don't know - it would be much harder than any other meat for me to give up, and I don't know for sure if I ever will be able to completely.

[RebelOne]

9. I still eat fish.

Mainly, because I feel that I do need the protein. But I am trying to wean myself off it.

[LisaLynne]

10. I never ate fish myself, but ...

I do have one veg friend who does still at fish. But, count me on the "Fish -- gross!!" bandwagon. :)

[4_Legs_Good]

11. I eat fish about once every other year and crustaceans about once a year

I'm not really sure why. I don't love fish or anything, though I have to admit a good crab louie is hard to beat.

Hmmmmm...

david

[shockra]

12. I think on the cruelty scale, fish is considered at the bottom.

So to speak. That it's by far the least cruel flesh to eat. So much less cruel that it almost doesn't count.

When PETA had their anti-fishing campaign I was almost horrified thinking of the mocking it would bring. Because if you can't get people to care about the torture done to pigs, cows and chickens, how are you going to get them to care about fish?

But even though it's less cruel, that doesn't mean that it isn't cruel. PETA is thinking of the welfare of the creatures first, and the public perception of their campaign second. Which is actually as it should be.

[friesianrider]

13. Really? I always thought fishing was extremely cruel.

Actually, I always thought it was almost worse than mass slaughter. I mean, a fish either died from the traume caused by having a hook lodged in the roof of its mouth, or it suffocates to death - both very slow and torturous deaths.

And, lobsters are on a whole other scale of cruel...

[4_Legs_Good]

15. Ocean and stream fish

that aren't stocked at least live a free life before they're caught and slaughtered.

I'm not pro-fish or anything, and the death is pretty bad, but at least non-farmed fish don't suffer their *entire* lives. Ditto for other seafood, though, I agree about being dropped into a pot of boiling water.

And granted also that most fish these days are farmed, and that non-farmed fish deplete the ocean's/rivers' supplies which are more needed for sealife than human consumption.

david

[shockra]

17. And hey, needed for factory farmed animals...!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1662155

[4_Legs_Good]

20. Gawd, is there anything we *don't* feed "for human consumption" animals???

Freaking rediculous.

david

[flvegan]

22. Human remains. Think about it...

I smell the makings of a GREAT zombie movie, involving a crazy string of prions that cause Mad Human Disease. It occurs when human remains are fed to farm animals, that are then fed to people.

Seriously...where's Rob Zombie? I have a screenplay to sell!!

[shockra]

24. Ah heck.

I was gonna say Soylent Green. :D

Humans are already Mad, eh?

I forgot to add sawdust to that list of cow "food." Yummy sawdust. I hope they get lots of water to go with that. Yeah, right. :(

[flamingyouth]

21. Oh barf...

That is just disgusting. Not surprising, but disgusting.

I eat fish maybe twice a month, and always with my parents, who eat fish at least twice a day, believe it or not. None of us would touch farm-raised fish with a ten-foot pole, but frankly it's all starting to gross me out the more I think about it.

I know that they use the "gut barrel" fish (rotten, maggot-infested, you name it) to make pet food. And I'll stop now before I :puke: all over my keyboard...

[Catchawave]

14. My *veg* rule...eat nothing that has a face....

..rules out fish :)

I agree with the cruelty factor, and why I support anyone who chooses least harm for their diets. Which excludes any type of factory/beef/chicken/fish farming.

But it's not the definition of vegetarian.

[friesianrider]

16. I can't eat anything that I know feels pain...

And fish are in that group, I am certain. And I realize there's a whole cult out there that feels the same about plants, but I think the scientific data supports actual animal life a bit more...fish are in that group, IMHO.

[shockra]

18. Yeah.

There was a PETA article on this in USA today a few days ago. I posted it in a fish poll in the Lounge.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=3743989#3744267

[RebelOne]

19. My rule is that I don't eat anything with hair, fur or feathers. n/t

[flvegan]

23. My veg rule: don't eat anything that doesn't/wouldn't want me to.

Sorta fits together quite nicely.