Question:
Is it ok to be a vegetarian if I just don’t like the fact the animal I’m eating was slaughtered and that idea disgusts me?
Answer:
Being a vegetarian is halchically acceptable. There is no time when there is a strict obligation to eat meat [in our times]. The Torah view on shechita – ritual slaughter is that this is one of the many ways we are intended to uplift and sanctify the physical world. Shechita is humane and moral and when there was and will be a Bais Hamikdash [Temple] there were in fact obligatory times to eat meat.
On the Website halacha2go it says as follows:
On the subject of eating meat, the Torah is clear that it’s not only permitted, but preferred. There are a number of mitzvos associated with its consumption: it’s a mitzvah to eat meat on Yom Tov; meat (and alternatively chicken) is recommended as a standard Shabbos food; and it was a mitzvah to eat most karbanos (ritual sacrifices) in the Mikdash (Holy Temple). There are other times when eating meat takes on halachic significance [Purim].
Whereas avoiding meat for health reasons is acceptable, abstaining with an idealogical basis is not in sync with Torah. Although there were yechidei segulah (individual Jews of high caliber) who abstained from eating meat based on certain ideologies, their path is not a derech l’rabim (an example for the masses); therefore most of us should not refrain from eating meat as a matter of principle.
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