> I'll regret this because educating cultish vegans mired in nutrient deficient brain-fog is a no win situation

Whatever you need to feel good about your choices ...

> Non-human animals do many things we find unethical; they steal, rape, eat their children and engage in other activities

... things we find unethical (in people); they steal ...

>> This means it is illogical to claim that we should eat the same diet certain non-human animals do.

> Animals eat plants. So it's illogical to claim we should eat plants. So silly.

The point is not about the type of food, but rather, not using animal behavior as a basis for human dietary choices. After all, many animals also eat things that are harmful to humans. It's important to make diet decisions based on nutritional science and their environmental impact, not solely on what animals do.

>> And while we are capable of killing and eating them, it isn't necessary for our survival.

> It's necessary for our optimal living.

The only reasons are habit, tradition, convenience, taste. Necessity it isn't.

"It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes." (American Dietetic Association)

"A vegetarian or vegan diet can be suitable for everyone, regardless of their age." (NHS UK)

"It is possible to follow a well-planned, plant-based, vegan friendly diet that supports healthy living in people of all ages, and during pregnancy and breastfeeding." (British Dietetic Association.)

"For adults, protein from two or more plant groups daily is like to be adequate." (WHO)

> We'd have to arrest all lions and give them meat supplements for the rest of their lives.

Nature is guided by survival, but as humans, we have the capacity to make ethical choices about our food. The point is that, given the alternatives available, we don't need to cause harm to sentient beings for our nutrition. It's less about controlling natural predatory behaviors and more about considering our own actions and their implications.

> Without sentience, eating an animal is no different than eating plants

The core principle of veganism is to minimize harm as much as possible. Given that all life forms consume other life forms to survive, the goal becomes reducing the harm caused by our choices.

Even if we were to assume plant sentience, it's still less harmful to consume plants directly rather than raising animals for food, which requires significantly more plant life to sustain itself.

And few quotes from your favourite web:

https://yourveganfallacyis.com/en/vegans-kill-animals-too

Crop fields do indeed disrupt the habitats of wild animals, and wild animals are also killed when harvesting plants. However, this point makes the case for a plant-based diet and not against it, since many more plants are required to produce a measure of animal flesh for food (often as high as 12:1) than are required to produce an equal measure of plants for food (which is obviously 1:1). Because of this, a plant-based diet causes less suffering and death than one that includes animals.

https://yourveganfallacyis.com/en/plants-are-alive

Vegans draw the line at hurting sentient individuals. Plants lack nerves, let alone a central nervous system, and cannot feel pain or respond to circumstances in any deliberate way (not to be confused with the non-conscious reactions they do have). Unlike animals, plants lack the ability or potential to experience pain or have sentient thoughts, so there isn't an ethical issue with eating them.

Regardless, each pound of animal flesh requires between four and thirteen pounds of plant matter to produce, depending upon species and conditions. Given that amount of plant death, a belief in the sentience of plants makes a strong pro-vegan argument.