More than 27 billion animals are killed for food each year in the U.S. alone. Their entire lives are miserable, from the moment they are torn away from their mothers and shoved into filthy sheds and cages to the day when they are shipped off to the slaughterhouse where their throats are slit. By going vegetarian, each of us can save more than 100 animals per year. If that's not enough to convince you, here are a few more reasons to leave meat off your plate:

1. Because eating meat and dairy products makes you fat. As a nation, we're getting fatter, but only 2 percent of vegetarians and vegans are obese, compared to 18 percent of meat-eating Americans.

2. Because in every package of chicken, there's a little poop. A USDA study found that 98 percent of broiler chicken carcasses had noticeable levels of E. coli, indicating fecal contamination. There are more than 50 million cases of meat-related foodborne illness every year in the U.S., thousands of which lead to death.

3. Because no living creature wants to see her family slaughtered. Cows love their calves, sows love their piglets, and chickens love their chicks. Farmed animals love their families and mourn their loss.

4. Because you wouldn't eat your dog. Most people are horrified that some cultures eat dogs or whales, but these animals suffer no more than animals commonly eaten in the U.S. The difference is only cultural, not moral.

5. Because it's violence that you can stop. We may feel powerless to stop war and other forms of violence, but we can choose not to support slaughterhouses by rejecting flesh foods.

6. Because you can't eat meat and call yourself an environmentalist. Factory farms produce 130 times as much waste as the entire human population of the U.S. Raising animals for food also requires more than one-third of all greenhouse-gas-emitting fossil fuels used in the U.S. Factory farming is responsible for our rapidly disappearing forests and has destroyed three-fourths of our topsoil, a permanent environmental catastrophe that can't be corrected. A totally vegetarian diet requires 300 gallons of water per day, while a meat-eating diet requires more than 4,000 gallons of water per day.

7. Because when animals feel pain, they scream too. If you burn them, they feel it. If you give them electric shocks, they feel it. Animals feel pain in the same way and to the same degree that we do.

8. Because no matter how you slice it, it's still flesh. Other animals are made of flesh, bone, and blood, just as we are, so "meat" is just a euphemism for a rotting corpse used as food.

9. Because even prisons aren't as crowded as factory farms. Animals in factory farms are crammed into so little space that many of them are unable to do anything that's natural or important to them for their entire lives.

10. Because no one deserves to die for your taste buds. A human being's desire for a momentary taste of flesh is not as important as another animal's desire not to be tortured and violently killed. It's just common sense: Our fellow animals have the same kinds of feelings and desires that we do and we should not abuse and kill them merely for a meal.

Going vegetarian is the best thing you can do for animals, for your health, and for the planet. Take the Veg Pledge and make a change today! Go here to order free stickers and "What They Never Told You," a booklet full of tips and recipes that makes it easy to go vegetarian. Also, be sure to sign up for the peta2 Street Team to earn free stuff for the things you do to help animals.