Devotee: They would lose too much money if they closed the slaughterhouses.
Prabhupāda: Huh?
Devotee: They would lose too much money. Many of the senators and congressmen have much money from the slaughterhouses and intoxication. They own big ranches of cows and bulls.
Prabhupāda: Just see. Just see. And they are leaders. The most sinful man is the leader. So how you can be happy?
Prajāpati: We would get support from the people who make imitation meat made of soybeans and vegetables that taste like meat. They would be in favor.
Girirāja: No, they will say that, "It is not against our religion to eat meat."
Prabhupāda: It is not religion. It is a question of becoming sinless. Every religion will say that you become sinless. Every religion.
Girirāja: But in my religion, eating meat is not a sin.
Prabhupāda: No, no. "My religion is . . . cut throat of another man is religion." Would it be accepted?
Devotees: No.
Prabhupāda: If somebody says: "My religion is to cut throat of others, to pickpocket others. That is my religion," would it be accepted? Why sometimes you are arrested? You say: "My religion is to chant." They will say: "No, you cannot do this. It is disturbance." So "Because it is my religion, it will be accepted," that is not a fact. You must come to philosophy and reasoning: "Why don't you cut throat your . . . why don't you send your . . . you say complain, over-population. Why don't you send the over-population to the slaughterhouse? Why? Why?"
Girirāja: Well, it would be inhuman.
Prabhupāda: Inhuman. And then cutting throat of the cows, that is not human. Is that very good reasoning?
Devotee: They don't think that the cows have souls, many of them. Many of them don't even think that the cows have souls.
Prabhupāda: That is their rascaldom. They are . . . rascals. Why no soul? What is the symptom of having soul?
Devotee: Consciousness.