bainbrig -I'll try again you are hard work
//My only real question is: "How, having seen programmes like this, can people STILL eat animals, knowing that they are sensitive, caring, sentient beings//
Because most people, I guess, realise in the back of their mind it is wrong, but like the taste, and can disengage from the fact the meat they see on their plate is dead flesh from an animal that gives birth and suckles their offspring the same as we do ( mammals obviously)
//- and not, as most meat-eaters would like to believe, just a special sort of plant that moves around?" //
You are merely presuming what 'most meat eaters' would like to believe. I struggle to comprehend that any intelligent person would think an animal was a sort of plant that moves around. What I would hope is they make informed choices about where their food comes from and how its been treated before slaughter. Unfortunately this privilege is often only given to those who can afford to choose, and for many a full stomach on factory farmed meat is the only way to feed their family.
On a personal level I occasionally eat red meat from a farm I know where its been reared and is slaughtered on the premises. Same with pork and lamb. I would rather starve than eat a factory farmed chicken or egg, though I don't need to buy eggs as I have some lovely free range hens that have acres of land and a wood to roam in and lay me an egg each every day.
I love vegetarian food and will probably one day just sop eating meat altogether but would never criticize those who decide on an omnivorous lifestyle.