Occasionally, I have run into people who are give me the attitude of "you support animal cruelty" all because I am a meat eater, I've been told it once or twice as well. Truth is, I am very solidly against animal cruelty. I am one of those people who will jump fences and risk dangerous encounters all to save an animal from a bad situation. I scream every time a squirrel or chipmunk crosses the road, praying I don't hit it. I do not have to cut meat out of my diet to be against animal cruelty. I am already against it.

How do I avoid animal cruelty? I buy local meats. Living in a rural area, this is a lot easier for me than for others. My family buys our chickens, turkey, beef, etc. from the farm in town. We also go hunting for our food. That's another big issue of "animal cruelty" that causes people to go nuts.

Poachers and those who hunt just for the trophies are a lot different than the people I know. I recently just talked to someone who didn't get a deer this year, not because he didn't see any, he just didn't want to shoot the ones he saw. This same person one year had a chance to shoot a pretty good sized deer, but didn't because he was too entertained by the deer playing with another deer. Hunters aren't heartless. They care about animals.

There is a lot that needs to be fixed dealing with animal products. Huge farms that treat their animals horribly have to be fixed. Animals should not be confined to spaces where they can't turn their heads, they shouldn't have to suffer while being slaughtered, they shouldn't have to be mistreated.

I am 200% against all of this. It is time to make a change. It is time to stop treating animals badly.

And yet I still eat meat.

I completely respect people's life choices. If you are vegan, that's awesome, go you. This is not a hate on vegans campaign and I do not want anyone thinking that way. This is simply a statement that someone can be against animal cruelty and still have steak for dinner. It is not impossible.