Is vegetarianism in Buddhism optional?

I met a Buddhist from Thailand that ate meat, and somehow I got the impression that it was required in their religion.. Do some Buddhists just interpret harming animals differently than others?

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You could become a Jain if you don't want to eat animals but better still just go vegetarian!

For laypeople it's optional. For monks it's a little stricter.

Vegetarianism is optional in Buddhism.In fact Lord Buddha refused to make it a requirement when it was suggested to him.
Many Buddhists are vegetarian by choice as they feel to eat meat supports wrong living and feel that animals suffer as a result of people wishing to eat meat products.
As a monk my food is collected by going on alms rounds and accepting whatever the devotees place in my alms bowl.

Vegetarianism is optional.
Refraining from killing animals is not optional.

Buddhism is ever-attuned to practical realities. Tibetan monks are allowed to eat meat, but there is not much variety of food in the Himalayan mountains ... they eat what's available. But the monks can't kill animals for food.

Mahayana Buddhists generally accept different scriptures to Theravada Buddhism, and hence there are a range of opinions regarding meat, although it is generally accepted that the Buddha did not prohibit the consumption of meat.

For example, it says in the Mahayana straws:

?For fear of causing terror to living beings, Mahamati, let the Bodhisattva who is
disciplining himself to attain compassion, refrain from eating flesh.?
The Buddha, Lankavatara Sutra

?The eating of meat extinguishes the seed of great compassion.?
The Buddha, Mahaparinirvana Sutra

In the Lankavatara Sutra, the Buddha lists several reasons for not eating meat:
1. Present-day animals may have been ones kin in the past.
2. One's own parents and relatives may in a future life be born as an animal.
3. There is no logic in exempting the meat of some animals on customary grounds while
not exempting all meat.
4. Meat is impure as it is always contaminated by body wastes.
5. The prospect of being killed spreads terror amongst animals.
6. All meat is nothing other than carrion (decaying flesh or like ?road kill? in modern
terms).
7. Meat eating makes the consumer to be cruel and sensual.
8. Man is not a carnivore by nature.

In this Sudra the Buddha states: ?There is no meat that is pure in three ways: not premeditated, not
asked for, and not impelled; therefore refrain from eating meat.?

The Mahayanists generally deny that the Buddha ate meat, interpreting the name of Buddha's last meal, 'Pig's delight' to be a kind of mushroom liked by pigs.

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However, Theravada Buddhists do not accept these sutra as authentic, and the majority historical consensus is that they are later additions. (Although there are many Mahayana Buddhists who are willing to argue their historicity.)

In Theravada Buddhism, eating meat is permitted because there is no clear causal link between the consumption of flesh and the killing of an animal -there is no moral harm in simply eating a food! However, if one asks for the animal to be killed, or kills it oneself, there is a causal link, so eating meat is prohibited in those circumstances. Monks and nuns must eat whatever they are given except in a few special circumstances: as the adage does, 'beggars can't be choosers'. It's said that Buddha's troublesome cousin, Devadatta, requested that Buddha make the monks only eat vegetarian food, and Buddha refused.

Thai people, being nearly entirely Theravada Buddhists, generally eat meat, although there are also a significant number of Thai vegetarians Theravada Buddhists.

In conclusion, it's not that Buddhists interpret harming animals differently. Harming animals is harming animals. It's whether digesting their dead flesh harms animals that's up for debate.