Reading Will Coggin’s op-ed, “The perplexing paradox of the veggie burger,” (June 4), it did truly give me pause. He hopes that we will see the virtue of meat consumption over its alternatives. This is very misleading.

Meat is anything but unprocessed! Meat animals are fed as cheaply as can sustain their short, miserable lives. They are administered antibiotics and hormones to enhance and expedite what we want from them: their fat, skins, muscle, milk, and organs.

If you are not too faint of heart, google surreptitiously taken “farm” and slaughterhouse images. The ethics of raising food animals are adequately horrifying, even if health is not our primary motive for reconsidering. These sites are anything but wholesome, rather they pollute local environments and have become major contributors to the greenhouse gases that threaten all of us.

Many of us were raised to believe that we require meat to maintain our health. Please consider the research to the contrary. Homo sapiens evolved to be opportunistic omnivores. I’ve been able to enact compassion for animals and enjoy 60-plus years of health.

When the smell of roasting ham calls to me, I imagine a pig having a bolt shot through its head to limit its defenses as it is killed.

Can we love our pets, but torture their kin?

Stephanie Lombardo, RN

Lyme