vegetables

People sometimes ask vegetarians why people should give up eating rabbit when coyotes in the hills are eating rabbit.  I assume there are many reasonable responses. Vegetarians can talk about health benefits or about empathy for rabbits or for coyotes. 

A few centuries from now, people may read about us eating burgers with the unease we currently feel about cannibals (a term invented by Christopher Columbus, who was attempting to say "Caribbeans," a people he thought were ruled by the Great Khan of China or "Khannables"). 

In the field of philosophy and animal rights, a few have written that vegetarians can achieve consistency by phasing out all the predators on the planet. No more coyotes. 

What do environmentalists think about meat-eaters? Predators have a role in natural selection. What should be done, for example, about swallows who snatch gnats out of the air? Maybe gnats aren't sentient beings? Are tiny forms of life contemptible? (Not in some religions.)