Personally I couldn't kill an animal for food and I often desire to become a vegetarian, but I still eat meat occasionally since it's not me killing the animal and I only buy non-factory-farmed meat.
Factory farming only one aspect. Maybe look into the health and environmental benefits of vegetarianism, it might be enough to push you over the edge. Maybe your local library has a copy of
The China Study.
The book examines the relationship between the consumption of animal products and illness such as cancers of the breast, prostate, and large bowel, diabetes, coronary heart disease, obesity, autoimmune disease, osteoporosis, degenerative brain disease, and macular degeneration. The "China study" referred to in the title is the China Project, a "survey of death rates for twelve different kinds of cancer for more than 2,400 counties and 880 million (96% ) of their citizens" conducted jointly by Cornell University, Oxford University, and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine over the course of twenty years.
Also:
Personally, I've found since becoming a vegetarian and taking an attitude of non-harm towards animals, they seem mess afraid of me for the most part. Diet could have a significant role in pheromone production and scent. Celibacy could also alter pheromone and androgen levels.
I think I'm finally going to read all of "The Scent of Eros", I've had the book for about 6 years but never got around to it. This topic has really rekindled my interest...
I've got some human pheromone research chemicals, maybe I'll dig around and see if anything new has been discovered.
Wyart C, Webster WW, Chen JH, Wilson SR, McClary A, Khan RM, Sobel N. 2007.
Smelling a single component of male sweat alters levels of cortisol in women. J Neurosci. 27(6):1261-5.
So if sweat components related to the hunter-type, alpha male can alter levels of the "stress hormone" cortisol in women, I'm sure the same scent components could modulate animal stress response.
In humans the vomeronasal organs (VNO) and olfactory are directly connected the amygdala which controls emotional and fight or flight responses. The amygdala also acts as a "switch" between the mammalian brain and the vastly underutilized most advanced parts of our brains, the frontal lobes. Only when fear has been "conquered" can the energy that is normally trapped in reptilian competitive consciousness be used for higher brain function...