Veganism is NOT about how easy or hard it is for YOU, it’s about every animal’s right not to be used as a slave.
Think, then Go Vegan!
Veganism is NOT about how easy or hard it is for YOU
Category Archives: Blog
Making it tougher
During the days of the Bush administration, I could be found at various protests wearing my Bush mask, a Guantanamo Bay orange colored jumpsuit, fake handcuffs, and a sign that read “War Criminal” on one side and “Impeach Me” on the other. My goal was to focus the public’s attention on the serious allegations being brought against then President George W. Bush and his cohorts. When I got someone’s attention I always tried to be clear about my goal of wanting to see Bush, Cheney, Rice, et al., investigated to the fullest extent of the law and, if found guilty, dealt with appropriately.
During that time I monitored what other folks were saying regarding the matter. Sadly, even though many would talk about the allegations held against Bush and his buddies, they would hardly ever say anything about taking them to court and almost 100 percent of the time concluded with they’ll never be held accountable.
Well, I think we all know what happened—absolutely nothing. That is, Bush, Cheney, et al. walked out of the White House as free as they came in. Why? My guess is that although there existed (and continues to exist) evidence to, at the very least, get them into a court of law, it was all the negative chatter that helped suppress what could have been a huge public outcry if only we had had a unified voice calling for justice.
“Why Veganism?”
There are several roads to veganism and many individual views of it, but veganism is one thing and one thing only—a way of living which avoids exploitation whether it be of our fellow men, the animal population, or the soil upon which we all rely for our very existence.
~ Eva Batt (1964)
One can only guess how many more vegans there would be in the world today if in 1964 the majority of vegans took Eva’s simple yet powerfully clear message of what it means to be vegan to the non-vegan masses and continued to do so up to current times. My guess is a lot more. Sadly, instead, the majority of vegans took a different route. A route that has cost the lives of billions upon billions of sentient beings by suggesting one can exploit “humanely” thereby enabling folks to guiltlessly remain non-vegan. Or by suggesting that being vegetarian, one who continues to use other animals for everything except their flesh, is somehow morally different than any other non-vegan.
The good news is that each of us can reevaluate what we are saying to the non-vegan public and if we find we’re not being as clear as Eva was, we can change our message for the betterment of all.
Think, then Go Vegan!
We enslave, torture, and then steal their lives from them
When one stops to think—the fact that none of us need to consume the flesh, secretions, skin, hair, etcetera of nonhuman animals in order to thrive—we mostly enslave, torture, and steal the lives away from others for pleasure alone.
Confined cows, pigs, birds, and so many other nonhuman animals are forced to serve us humans for their entire lives. And as Nathan E. Schneider states, “[e]ven the most doted upon slaves are still slaves.” Thus whether the nonhuman is “owned” by a small family-sized farmer who names and “loves” her and allows her to roam on a “free-range”, or a mega-factory conglomeration that coldly assigns the slave a number and never sees “it” in its cramped quarters, the fact remains that these poor beings are enslaved to satisfy our taste buds.
Torture comes in many ways to our slaves. Baby girl chickens have their beaks seared off with hot blades while their “useless” brothers are thrown into grinders alive. Many animals are castrated, branded, have their horns and tails cutoff, etc. Cows are forcibly impregnated once a year to keep their milk production in high order. And, nine months later, upon birth, their babies are usually stolen from them. I believe this kidnapping is one of the most heinous things someone can do to another and all of this is performed to quench our thirst for slave products.
Trying to prove the abolitionists wrong
Slaveholders, when pushed into a moral corner by abolitionists, create whatever arguments it takes to make consumers feel okay about purchasing the products of slaves. Back in the 1830s when American Abolitionists were hard at work educating the public about the evils of slavery and how slavery needed to be immediately abolished, slaveholders were also hard at work trying to prove the abolitionists wrong.
One proslavery argument used in the 1830s was that owners were like benevolent parents to their slaves. This was the “Happy Slave” argument and it was used to convince the public that Southern slaves were much better off then their Northern (non-slave) factory worker counterparts.
Another proslavery argument spoke to the supposed supremacy of the white race which suggested that the “intellectual capacity of Africans was abysmal“. This, of course, was racism and it too was used to keep the public’s growing concerns at bay.
“Why are you a vegetarian?”
The term vegetarian can be defined as:
a person who does not eat or does not believe in eating meat, fish, fowl, or, in some cases, any food derived from animals, as eggs or cheese, but subsists on vegetables, fruits, nuts, grain, etc.
Most people these days who call themselves vegetarians consume some kind of animal “product” such as milk, cheese, eggs, honey, leather, fur, silk, fish, and chickens.
When I meet a vegetarian my first question is “Why are you a vegetarian?” The answers most people give generally have something to do with their health, the planet’s health, and/or they are an “animal lover”. My next question is “Do you consume any kind of animal products?” This question usually generates a fairly long list.
Just because
Most folks know, when it comes to what other humans do, just because someone does something doesn’t automatically make it an okay thing to do. For example, just because there are people out there who discriminate, that doesn’t make the act of discrimination okay. Another example is rape. It doesn’t take too much of an imagination to see that rape has been around a very long time and yet, once again, most of us know that no matter how many acts of rape have been and will be perpetrated, the act of rape will always be morally bankrupt.
That being said, when it comes to other animals the above wisdom is generally tossed out the window. For example, when one is confronted with the idea that humans do not require the flesh nor bodily secretions of other animals in order to survive and thus consumption of any animal product is wrong, many of them inevitably will defend their actions by claiming something such as, “if lions can eat gazelles why can’t we eat cows”. Aside from the fact that lions are carnivores and thus eating another animal’s flesh is how they survive, there’s the wisdom that dictates just because lions eat gazelles doesn’t make the act, at least in our case where we clearly have a choice, morally acceptable.
Another defense commonly heard from the non-vegan crowd is, “we’ve been eating animals forever”. While this may be true, the same is true for rape and as previously discussed that doesn’t make the action okay.
Tools of the trade
Racism can be defined as “[t]he belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others.” Sexism can be defined as “[d]iscrimination based on gender, especially discrimination against women” and heterosexism can be defined as “a prejudiced attitude or discriminatory practices against homosexuals by heterosexuals.”
Racism, sexism and heterosexism—these are the discriminatory tools of the trade when it comes to debasing others so that injustices can be perpetrated against them and yet still be morally excepted by the masses.
Sadly, there are still many people out there that thoughtlessly prejudge others based on the color of their skin, their gender and/or their sexual orientation. But thankfully the world for the most part is at least aware of the terms racism, sexism, and heterosexism and thus these horrible tools of the trade are little by little being dismantled.
Why stop beating your spouse?
When someone beats their spouse they can end up harming themselves as well as the environment. The harm to themselves can include retribution from their spouse, bloody knuckles from all the slugging, neighbor complaints about the excess noise, fines and even possible jail time. Environmental harm can come from having to throw away lamps and other household items broken during the “fight” as well as the repeated washing of clothing, furniture and other landing spots of hard to remove blood and other such bodily fluids.
But, although the above mentioned reasons for stopping to beat one’s spouse are valid, the primary reason one should stop beating their spouse is because unnecessarily harming someone is wrong. In fact, one would hope the idea that it is wrong to beat one’s spouse would be the major topic of discussion with an abuser when trying to get them to stop their despicable actions.
That said, why is it that so many animal rights advocates seldom if ever mention that it is wrong to enslave, torture and steal the life away from other animals? Why is it that they talk up the health benefits of a vegan’s diet or the environmental savings a vegan’s diet creates all the while neglecting to mention the major reason folks should stop doing what they do to other animals—because it is wrong?
We animals
Believe it or not, we humans are just one of the many species of animals that occupy this planet. Moreover, many enlightened folks including the American Dietetic Association are rising above the propaganda and stating the fact that human animals can easily live on a 100 percent plant based diet. In fact, more and more scientists are presenting evidence that eating animals or their secretions is deadly for us.
Why is it then that we work so hard to prove we are either above other animals or even that we are not animals at all? I guess one reason is so we can justify the horrors we inflict upon them and still slumber easily at night.
Most folks know that it’s certainly not desirable to be “treated like an animal”. But why does this have to be this way? Why can’t being “treated like an animal” be a good thing? Why can’t we have respect for our fellow earthlings especially since we do not need to eat them or their secretions in order to survive?