Veganites

The fire crackled with a malevolent snap, and pop, as Tristen stood before his father.
The elder beckoned him with a flick of his wrist.
"Sit my son. It's time you learn of the Canabolds."
He stepped forward, and sat cross-legged near the fire. 
"Canabolds Father? The ghost story I used to tell my younger siblings?"
"Yes boy, but they are not ghosts, but savages, barely men at all."
"They're real?"
"Oh yes. Very much so; dangerous, and deadly."
Tiny hairs on the back on his neck stood up as the boy shivered with a fear he had yet to understand.
"Who are they Father?"
"They were men once, like you and I, except they eat meat." Disgust showed plainly on the older mans face.
"Meat? What's meat?"
"Meat my son is what makes you walk upright. Meat is what allows the fawn to frolic in the meadow. Meat is what give the hare it's ability to run so quickly."
"Well, how does one eat "meat"? Surely the animals can't regrow what the Canabolds take from them."
"In order to eat the meat of an animal you have to first kill it." His father said quietly.
"Kill it?!" Tristen stood up. "Why would anyone do such a thing?! How could they?!"
"Noone truly knows the real reason why my son; I have heard many theories, and hearsay. The most common is that they like the taste."
"I.. can.. take no.. more." Tristens stomach turned; abruptly he moved away from the fire and emptied it's contents.
A few minutes later, he turned back and sat down again, determined to keep his insides where they belonged.
"Father why has no one tried to talk to them; tried to convince them that what they're doing is wrong?"
"Oh my son, many over the years, have gone in search of the Canabolds, and found them not only unresponsive to our attempts to educate them, but aggressive when we would try to convert them to our ways.
"Is nothing we can do to stop them?"
"All we can do is live our lives, and hope that through our example, they might see the error of their way."