My friends are typical meat eaters (as I once was) and very unsupportive about my decision to not eat or purchase anything derived from animals. They try to make fun about my choice and it doesn't really bother me, deep down I think everybody knows it is wrong to consume animals and most people are just afraid to admit it to themselves and others. When someone starts the protein argument I like to say,
"If a scientific report came out that said dog meat had 5 times the amount of protein than pig or cow meat, would you eat a dog?"
Obviously they are going to say "No, dogs are like people" or something along these lines.
Then I will rant about how inconsistent and hypocritical that is, and then they will ask "But you eat chicken right?"
"F%#K"
I agree. I think a lot of it just comes from their ignorance and lack of understanding. Plus, in my opinion, most people are just unwilling to go out of their way to see for themselves how animals are treated and slaughtered and so in doing that, never really understand what veg*ans are opposed to. For example, my friends know well that I'm vegan, yet, they've never really asked me what exactly is wrong with eating animal products. They've never asked me to explain how the animals are treated. I have a feeling they know it's not good, and like you said, they know deep down if they knew of this horrendous cruelty, they'd feel bad about it and not want to admit that they're supporting such disgusting behaviour.
I mean, you just have to stick by your morals. You know that you're doing the right thing by not eating meat or whatever, and they probably do too. And unfortunately, sometimes, you just have to stand alone until people around you come to a realisation
As for advice, I'd just tell them plain and simply: you don't like to support the slaughter of animals purely for taste and they're more than welcome to see for themselves what eating animals requires. If they want to support it, okay, but just ask that they support or respect your decision to not support suffering like that.
