When did man start eating meat?

I have read with interest the letters in "The Island" on the subject of vegetarianism. The Biblical narrative would seem to suggest that the first man was a vegetarian. Gen.1:29.
Then, when did man start eating meat? Paleoanthropologists say that the first hominid, known as Australopithecus, who appeared 3.5 million years ago, "was a peaceful vegetarian with thick enamelled teeth needed for eating tubers, roots and hard shelled fruits." However, after the Flood, man was permitted to eat meat. Gen 9:3.
Though stone tools were discovered about two million years ago, anthropologists say they were used to tear off meat from carcasses rather than for hunting. The first signs of systematic hunting appear around 50,000 years ago.
In the early Christian church of the first century, there was a group of Christian vegetarians. Rom. 14: 1-4 St. Paul considered them "weak in faith" but treated them with due respect.
John Wesley, the human founder of the Methodist Church, was a vegetarian. He once wrote to the Bishop of London: "Thanks be to God since the time I gave up the use of flesh meals and wine, I have been delivered from all physical ills."
The Rev. William Booth, one of the greatest followers of Wesley, who later became the Founder and first General of the Salvation Army, was a strict vegetarian.
However, Hitler and Rasputin were also vegetarians.(The Island)