Like the author of the article says, to believe that death isn't such a bad thing, you really need to also believe that beyond our logical understanding of material reality is a spiritual existence. Western society is culturally atheist, and therefore the concept of death is terrifying to us. This is also why we tend towards materialism. It's not that we really like our SUVs, it's more that we honestly don't think there is anything else out there in life other than persuit of crafted material distractions.

Personally, I agree with the author. Life is a balance, and death is the weight on the other side of the scale. Death is an integral part of life, without death life cannot exist. Vegetarians think avoiding death is a moral and noble pursuit. This is false. As the author states, the true moral goal should not be to try to eliminate death as this would be fruitless, but to instead try to improve the quality of all lives lived. Death can never be eliminated, not without eliminating life.

Anyway, for me the answer to this ethical question all depends on whether or not meat consumption can be viewed as necessary for human health. If meat consumption is necessary for a human, then this means that the death of the animal by a human hand was not unnecessary. Spiritually speaking, it also would mean that there is nothing bad about it (assuming the animal lived a happy life and death wasn't unnecessarily drawn out). However, if humans can thrive on a completely vegan diet, then eating meat can be said to be wrong, as it is unnecessary purposeful death, and through extension, bringing more pain into the world.

I truly believe not only eating meat, but other predatory practices are necessary for humans to thrive. I do consider myself pro-animal rights (in that I don't support animal cruelty), but I think the ideas of Vegetarians and vegans are very short sighted and not in sync with reality.