There are other cases in Judaism where actions
that some people consider pleasurable are forbidden
or discouraged, such as the use of tobacco, drinking
liquor to excess, sexual relations out of wedlock,
and recreational hunting.
Can eating meat be pleasurable to a religious person
when he or she knows that as a result animals are
being cruelly treated, his or her health is endangered,
the environment is polluted, and grain is wasted?
There are many other ways to gain pleasure without
harming living creatures. The prohibition against
abstaining from pleasurable things only applies
when there is no plausible basis for the abstention.
Vegetarians abstain because eating meat is injurious
to health, because their soul rebels against eating
a living creature, and/or because they wish to have
a diet that minimizes threats to the environment
and that best shares resources with hungry people.
