"The effects of a flesh diet may not be immediately realized; but this is no evidence that it is not harmful. Few can be made to believe that it is the meat they have eaten which has poisoned their blood and caused their suffering. Many die of diseases wholly due to meat eating, while the real cause is not suspected by themselves or by others. MH 315.1"
"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."
EGW's statement about the delayed and often unrecognized harmful effects of meat consumption aligns with the proverb's warning about paths that seem right but lead to death. Both highlight the danger of choices with unseen consequences.
"The moral evils of a flesh diet are not less marked than are the physical ills. Flesh food is injurious to health, and whatever affects the body has a corresponding effect on the mind and the soul. Think of the cruelty to animals that meat eating involves, and its effect on those who inflict and those who behold it. How it destroys the tenderness with which we should regard these creatures of God! MH 315.2"
"A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel."
Both passages connect the treatment of animals with moral character. The EGW passage argues that meat eating involves cruelty and diminishes compassion, while Proverbs 12:10 contrasts the righteous person's care for animals with the cruelty of the wicked. This is a strong thematic parallel.
"The intelligence displayed by many dumb animals approaches so closely to human intelligence that it is a mystery. The animals see and hear and love and fear and suffer. They use their organs far more faithfully than many human beings use theirs. They manifest sympathy and tenderness toward their companions in suffering. Many animals show an affection for those who have charge of them, far superior to the affection shown by some of the human race. They form attachments for man which are not broken without great suffering to them. MH 315.3"
"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth."
This verse speaks of God giving humans dominion over animals, implying a responsibility to care for them, which contrasts with the idea of disregarding their suffering.