Ugh, still freaks me out. I realized I was a hippie when a kid stomped and smeared a beautiful praying mantis one day for no reason other than 'it was a bug'. I cried. Ever since then, people who are unnecessarily cruel to insects may find a trip rope made of pure natural hemp fibre in their doorways unexpectedly*
Really, though, I have a sort of Greenpeace mentality of wrecking havoc on the un-empathic, and if for some reason I wanted to flee civilization it'd be a toss up between joining them or a monastery. I like cold and ship life, personally, So I think I'd be up for some fun-spirited whaler-paintballin'.
Like Swords, however, I was a vegetarian, but I eat animal products, but I can't ever eat a steak anymore. If I can identify any sort of musculature, I'm the kind of guy who will announce at the dinner table that 'this used to power legs that loved to romp in a field' or, 'these muscles drew in fresh air from a warm spring day once, I bet it was wonderful'. I try to limit my non-vegetarian foods to dairy, with occasional eggs, but meat only when other options are severely limited, or when I really don't feel like bugging waitstaff with peculiar orders given me and the GF's already lengthy list of dietary restrictions.
But that's my middle ground, I really don't think any whales should be killed personally, It's a bit excessive, especially with the dead zones in the ocean we've been discovering, we should probably put the ocean off-limits for a decade or two and stick to farm fishing for a bit.
Although, damn, I love my sea-bugs. I wonder if grasshoppers are anything like shrimp*?
*Unnecessarily, as in, killing them for the sake of killing them
Aside from pest species, of course