Why I Am a Vegetarian

Why I Am a Vegetarian
First edition cover
AuthorJ. Howard Moore
LanguageEnglish
SubjectVegetarianism, animal ethics
PublisherPurdy Publishing Company
Publication date
1895
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint (pamphlet)
Pages44
OCLC39674424
TextWhy I Am a Vegetarian at Wikisource

Why I Am a Vegetarian is an 1895 pamphlet by American zoologist and philosopher J. Howard Moore. Originating in a lecture to the Chicago Vegetarian Society, it sets out ethical, scientific, and humanitarian reasons for a vegetarian diet. Moore presents vegetarianism as an application of the Golden Rule and as consistent with evolutionary theory, and he critiques anthropocentrism. The work was issued by the Purdy Publishing Company and reissued in several formats and editions in the late 1890s, with extracts printed in contemporary periodicals.

Contemporary response included favorable notices in vegetarian and health-reform publications and a mixed review in the Journal of the American Medical Association; it also prompted a published rebuttal by Laurence Gronlund, to which Moore replied.