How I see it is...

a) Humans are omnivores;
b) Animals eat other animals on a daily basis.

We're all just part of the food chain. I'm pretty sure that if I went through the African savannah for instance, a pride of lions wouldn't hesitate to eat me :P

It's got nothing to do with loving animals or not. As long as the animal is killed humanely then I see no problem with eating them. I think it's a fallacy to paint meat-eaters as cruel.

I respect those who are vegetarian, but I'm not going to push my meat-eater agenda on them and vice versa.