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Puṣṭa Kṛṣṇa: ... Would a Vedic king try to prohibit the fifth-class men from eating the animals?
Prabhupāda: No. Animals, you can eat if you like. But there was no slaughterhouse. If you like, you can kill your own animal and eat. That was open. But the state did not maintain any slaughterhouse. And the third-class, fourth-class men, they would eat. So simply by saying that "You don't eat," they will not accept that. They're free, but the state would not maintain the slaughterhouse. At the present moment also, if the slaughterhouse are closed, then immediately seventy-five-percent meat-eating will be stopped. They maintain slaughterhouse. That is the most sinful activity.

Hare Krishna!

Many arguments are made in this respect, that as long as we don't cut the animal we do not incur sin.

In the Mahabharata, there is a verse which states that one who sells the animal, one who buys the animal, one cuts the animal,one who cooks the animal, one who serves the animal and one who eats the animal, all are bound equally by the chain of Karma.

But leaving the spiritual aspect of it, anatomically, the human body is not structured to eat animal flesh. Studies have shown the length of the intestine of a tiger is 4 times the length of it's torso so when it eats flesh the toxins in the flesh are not kept for long in the intestine and are expelled at the earliest. Also the concentration of acid secreted in the stomach is so strong that it burns the bacteria in the flesh. While in the cow, the length of the intestine is 12 times it's torso and so the food takes longer time to be expelled from the body. We have seen that the incidence of the Mad Cow disease (bovine spongi

On a morning walk in New Vrindavan, we had some kshatriyas who were supposed to be the protector of the devotees, and one of them asked Srila Prabhupada if it was alright to kill some of the rabbits and groundhogs because they were eating the produce in Krishna's Garden. "They are stealing from the Deities and the devotees. Is it alright if we kill them?"
Prabhupada was disturbed. He said, "No, You should grow enough so that they can eat too." He was visibly very concerned that they should not be killed.

This refers to the front page article in yesterday's Sunday Speaking Tree supplement. (April 26, 2015)