Plants do feel, they are alive. Animals feel, and any rationalization that they "don't have a sense of self" necessary to feel pain is just that - a rationalization.

Pain is pain.

I would be extremely suspicious of any scientific study that seeks to prove that animals do not feel pain the way we do. That sounds like a theory created with bias towards being able to kill without guilt. Is it necessary for an animal to feel the way a human does for it to be taken seriously? How can they feel the way humans do? They are not human! But they obviously feel pain and fear, and they make choices to avoid pain and fear, if they are free. Just as we do.

And even small animals have personalities. Hamsters have specific likes and dislikes, and I have not encouraged it. One of my hamsters likes to crawl through toilet paper rools, and the other used to hate it. When I got them, I assumed that hamsters would like toilet rolls, and I read that most hamsters do like them. I think it's fun playing with them and the rolls, and would rather that both of them liked it. It's definitely their choice, not mine, if they like it or not. They don't have personality? Hello!

Animal training is based on reward and punishment, right? You can train birds that way, dogs, horses, the list goes on... They are obviously responding to PLEASURE and PAIN in order to make DECISIONS.

However, plants and small animals go into a "sleep" state when they are about to die. Carnivores in nature, shake their prey to loosen the "soul" from the body before actually killing the thing.

Killing happens all the time in nature, but it is personal, not impersonal and therefore unnecessarily cruel. It is our choice of what life to take, so that we live. It is their choice to become that which is eaten, that their cells may live in another form. Then life goes on. It is a direct exchange, their life for mine. And there is an opportunity to feel grateful for that, rather than guilty.

Slaughterhouses are cruel and unnecessarily so. The animals cannot help but be aware in advance that something bad is going to happen. They smell it, they feel the fear of those around them, they are aware of the death of the one previous to them in line.

It is our guilt at taking their life that causes us to hide it away in slaughterhouses rather than honestly looking at the fact that our choice to live has deprived another being of their choice to live. It is our guilt at not being vegetarian that causes us to feel that anyone who is vegetarian is attacking us for eating meat, even when they are just stating that they can't eat meat for whatever reason.

That said, most people take me for a vegetarian because I was anemic for years, undiagnosed. I was vegetarian for a while, but wasn't doing it properly, because I hated green leafy vegetables, the ones full of iron. I found out recently that I was *very* allergic to iron, which is why I couldn't digest meat or green vegetables well at all. (I already knew I was severely allergic to dairy.) Since being treated for those, I am much better, but I still need to be treated for hormones and additives before being comfortable eating meat a lot. I like meat, though. My favorite dish is a stir-fry with organic hamburger crumbled in it, and I LOVE beef gravy! MMMMMMM!

So, if you are going to go vegetarian, be sure to do it properly. Eat seaweeds if you are going vegan, because most humans don't produce enough B12 for themselves. Get your blood tested fairly regularly if there is a concern about nutrition, and plan meals well.

Good luck!