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An ethical vegan is a person who does not support animals being used as food, entertainment
or clothing, as pets, or for experimentation. Food includes products such as meat, seafood,
dairy, eggs, honey and gelatin. Entertainment includes zoos, circuses, aquariums, rodeos,
bull fights, and racing. Clothing includes products such as leather, fur, wool, silk
and feathers. Pets includes breeding companion animals for sale and the various mutilations
we inflict on them such as ear cropping, tail docking, declawing and devocalization. Experimentation
includes drug, food and cosmetics testing, disease and military research and dissection.
The way vegans avoid supporting these industries is by boycotting them, which means not buying
the products and services they sell. This reduces the demand for them, which means that
over time, less animals are harmed. Some vegans choose to take this a step further by writing
letters, singing petitions or protesting against industries that use animals as commodities.
A dietary vegan is a person who chooses not to consume animal products for the health
benefits, but still may support other animal-abusing industries. Dietary vegans are the ones who
most often revert back to eating animal products because they never believed in the ethical
reasons. For them it was simply just failing on a diet, which is a lot easier to do than
abandoning your morals. A vegetarian is a person who chooses not to
consume products that came from a killed animal, but still consumes their by-products and may
support other animal-abusing industries. Most vegans agree that vegetarianism is a step
in the right direction, but cannot be the final step if ethics are being taken into
consideration rather than just health. Animals raised for their meat, milk or eggs
endure many mutilations such as castration, de-horning, beak searing, ear clipping and
tail docking. Their living conditions are cramped, dark, unsanitary and frenzied; their
infections and injuries go untreated; and they are often unable to do anything natural
such as spread their wings or turn around. They experience psychological trauma such
as depression, anxiety, and insanity, and mothers grieve after their babies are taken
away from them hours after birth. And of course death comes to all, usually with a bolt to
the head or electrocution that often fails to render them unconscious before having their
throats slit which often fails to drain the life out of them before they may be boiled
alive. Animals raised, worked and often killed in
the entertainment, clothing, pet and experimentation industries experience many of the same things.
I won't list their individual plights to keep it short, but know that these animals suffer
greatly in the name of "fashion," in the name of "science," "education" and "amusement."
So we've learned that animals are exploited in many ways, and that they suffer from it,
but it is wrong? The moral ambiguities and debate surrounding this question became irrelevant
when I accepted that animals are here with us not for us; they are not property to do
with what we please; to see sentient, thinking, feeling creatures as mere commodities is wrong;
and this exploitation will not happen through me anymore.
Health. The consumption of meat, dairy and eggs has shown an extremely strong link between
increased risk and cases of heart disease, cancer, diabetes and osteoporosis. North Americans
consume well over the recommended daily calories from protein and it's killing us. The way
meat is processed also leads to antibiotic resistance in humans, E.coli and Mad Cow Disease.
The production of animals for food takes an enormous toll on the environment: Climate
change: Raising animals for food produces more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire
transportation industry. Land-degradation: Nearly 80% of deforested land in the Amazon
is used as cattle pasture. Water: It takes 15x as much water to produce 1 lb of beef
as it does 1 lb of soy. Pollution: run-off containing high amounts of hormones, antibiotics
and pesticides pose great risk to aquatic ecosystems and humans.
So now that you may be interested in learning more about a vegan lifestyle...
The same things that you eat: pasta, pizza, burritos, burgers, stir-fry, sushi; cake,
pie, cookies, ice cream... just without the animal products. Yes, all of those pictures
were of vegan food. And of course we eat the healthy things that you eat also: fruits,
vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. I've included some resources down below if
you'd like to find out more about living cruelty-free. Thanks for watching!