I dont mean to offend you or anything, i realise that forums are very impersonal, but i felt i should respond to your criticism. firstly, i dont see a problem with citing research. I dont know how the pigs were treated in this experiment, i guess since it was psychological testing it wasnt too bad, but they may have become bacon. But the point is that all research conducted on animals, suggests that we have no right to experiment on them at all. So i have no problem citing research since the vast majority reinforces my opinion, but i still move for the abolition of cruel and inhumane animal tests etc. For the record i dont feel it would be a problem to test animals when they are being treated well, we do this with children for developmental psychology, where we put them through tests very similar to the pig ones i am referring to. secondly, since the vitamins and minerals gained from eating animals, can also be gained from eating various vegetables etc, this is not a good argument for eating meat. The only argument i can see left is one of personal preference ie "it tastes good". thirdly, i really did answer your "is any death cruel" point. What i said above was that every animal, human and non-human (bar the suicidal) would rather be alive than dead. So even if you can have a completely painless and suffering-free death, which personally i dont believe happens, you are still being cruel in the sense that you are taking their life away from them. In the ideal situation, an animal would be treated exceptionally well, then killed in a painless and suffering free way; the animal would still die, which i have an issue with, but would not suffer in its entire life. This argument is a moot point, since this ideal situation does not exist anywhere - if you eat meat in our society you necessarily cause the suffering and the death of the animal concerned, it is unavoidable even with free range organic etc. certainly there are better or worse situations for animals, but unavoidably they suffer and die for our pleasure. So all i suggest is that you consider all the options and all the evidence, and make a decision for yourself whether you want to eat meat. But dont have some false consciousness that there is any reason, in our society, for eating meat other than because you enjoy it.