There are two paradigm shifts people experience, each one reducing speciesism: first, embracing personal veganism; second, embracing abolitionist principles. Embracing veganism means rejecting speciesism in attitude, thoughts, speech, and behavior. At a minimum, it is avoiding the exploitation of animals and use of animal products in one’s life. Embracing abolitionist principles means rejecting single issue campaigns and welfarism and engaging in vegan education instead. Veganism is the personal manifestation of a commitment to eliminate speciesist prejudice and take animals’ interests seriously. Abolitionism is the public and political manifestation of a commitment to eliminate speciesist prejudice and take animals’ interests seriously.
~ Dan Cudahy (February 5, 2010)

Source: Single Issue Campaigns, Speciesism, and Compartmentalization

Even if we did find some way to eliminate every single practice involving physical mutilation, it’s impossible to make slavery and murder anything other than slavery and murder. We can slap fancy labels on the products of animal misery and market them as “humanely-raised”, “animal compassionate”, “ethically-produced” or “guilt-free”, but needless killing is needless killing, and no amount of regulation can change that.
~ Dan Cudahy, Angel Flinn (September 23, 2011)

Source: Animal Cruelty: Who is to Blame?

My mother was a bit worried about me being vegan, and made me research first to show her that I could get all my nutrients on a vegan diet. After that I was allowed to go vegan. By that time, my family was mostly vegetarian after gradually cutting meat out of their diet (thanks to me). My sister, the second oldest (I’m the oldest), went vegan at the same time I did in March 2007. Then, my next sister followed a few months after. About two years later, my parents decided to go vegan. The last two to become vegan were my two youngest siblings. They were forced to drink milk because my parents believed they needed it for healthy growing bones. But that changed after my parents read The China Study: Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss, and Long-term Health, and they were taken off milk straight away. So I influenced my whole family to go vegan. I never tried to change them—each person made the decision to go vegan themself. I am truly grateful to have a family like them!
~ Emmy James (November 25, 2011)

Source: Interview with Emmy James of Vegan for Life and Peaceful Abolitionist

The biggest obstacles to reaching our goals are the ignorance of people unwilling to see the truth and the counter-productiveness of groups promoting a message of “humane farming.” Even when we educate people with reality there is always a group out there that undermines the animals with the message—”humane slavery is okay!” This not only steps us back in our work but more importantly increases the demand for more animals born into chattel slavery.
~ James O’Flaherty (November 23, 2011)

Source: Interview with Animal Freedom

I’m a Brazilian writer living in Florida since 1999. I became a vegan when I was 43 years old after I saw an explanation on the internet about all the suffering and injustice that animals are subjected to in the industry from the moment they are born to the moment they are slaughtered. I was shocked and cried for hours. I swore that I’d never again consume anything that had been produced at the expense of animals. That very evening my meal (and my husband’s) was completely plant-based and I never went back to animal products. My only regret is not having been a vegan much earlier in my life.
~ Regina Rheda (November 22, 2011)

Source: Interview with Regina Rheda, abolitionist author and translator

[T]he educative focus of the animal rights movement should be “veganism or bust”. No confusing, inconsistent messages. Instead, only a firm statement that all animal use, irregardless of the measure of suffering, is unacceptable. As such, all available resources should be put towards achieving the goal of abolishing animal use through creative, non-violent vegan advocacy.
~ Ruth Sanderson (November 17, 2011)

Source: Interview with Vegan Outreach Lincoln and East Midlands

There is little that separates humans from other sentient beings—we all feel pain, we all feel joy, we all deeply crave to be alive and to live freely, and we all share this planet together. The water, air, earth, and plants belong to no one except the community of life which connects us all.

If there is anything that differentiates humans from other living beings it may simply be the factor of choice. We have the option to heal or harm, nurture or destroy, respect or rape, protect or kill. The ability to choose does not necessarily elevate the human species, nor should one infer that it is a trait unique to humans. The capacity to choose should perhaps oblige us to be more responsible for our actions toward others. It is our duty to choose wisely, both collectively and individually, if we are ever again to find peace at any level.

Veganism advocates harmony, justice, and empathic living by acknowledging and respecting the interconnectedness of all life. It is an ethical beacon which can illuminate our moral path and steer us back toward reuniting with our global family. Its tenets can teach us how to live at peace with our world by becoming an integral part and defender of it.
~ Jo Stepaniak (1998)

Source: The Vegan Sourcebook, p. x