Q and A

Q: Instead of GO VEG should we be saying GO HUMANE?
The world will never be totally vegetarian so why not rally meat eaters to be more concerned with where their meat comes from and what kind of inhumane conditions the animals live in? If we can't change the meat eaters, why cant we change the animal raisers?

A: If you tell people that all they have to do is buy happy meat ("humanly" killed dead animals) that's all they will do, at most.

However I like many other people believe that non-human animals do not deserve to be the property of humans. Or if you prefer, we have the responsibility to treat sentient beings (animals capable of awareness, which is the vast majority of them by the way.) in a way that respects their interests in not being treated as property. To properly respect this interest one must be vegan. Indeed veganism must be the moral baseline of the animal rights movement if this movement is to mean anything. *key point* If animal rights means dead animals, animal rights means nothing.

No matter how "nicely" an animal is treated before he or she goes to slaughter they all go to the same slaughterhouse. All food animals, "happy meat approved", or conventionally produced end up in the same condition, dead.

Simply put, if you take animal interests seriously you become vegan and you respect those interests. Killing animals, no matter how "nicely" is not respecting their interest in continued existence. The campaigning you speak of is the business of meat eaters. Vegans such as myself will stick to reducing demand by creating more vegans.

Q & A

Question: I am vegetarian, but I still eat cheese. I have been trying to research the treatment of organic or biodynamic dairy animals. I want to know if they are only milked when they have had calves naturally, or if they treat them the same as intensive dairy farming where they keep impregnating them. I can't seem to find the right information.



Answer: Their is a pervasive misconception among many that organic is synonymous with "cruelty-free". This could not be further from the truth. The practices engaged in by organic dairy farmers are identical to the handling practices of conventional farmers in all important ways. All the organic label is signifying is that the milk is supposed to be hormone and antibiotic free, and that the animal was fed on organic feed. Even the so called "cruelty-free" products are hardly what they claim to be. for dairy and egg products to be produced animals must die. Unfortunately their is no way around the reality of this situation. For this reason vegetarianism is incompatible with the animal rights position, because vegetarians still engage in easily avoidable exploitation and by consuming dairy and eggs condone the killing of the animals they claim to want to accord basic rights to. It is important that we make every attempt to be ethically consistent in our positions and therefore we must become vegan and quit using animal products all together. To fight for the rights of animals wile still willingly participating in the exploitation of animals or condoning their use in any way is effectively shooting yourself and this movement in the foot.

More Questions and Answers

Question:
When someone asks you for a donation to support cancer research...?
Do you point out to them that the money they are collecting is being used to torture animals? Do you inform them that there are ethical and humane charities who are funding research into cancer and other medical conditions without harming animals? Or do you just donate without thinking?

Answer:
No, I just don't donate to groups that support animal testing. I've never been asked why and have never given a reason. I'm 100% opposed to animal testing so if I know the charity supports it I will not donate to them. Like it or not but prevention is still the best option we have when it comes to cancer .We must keep this in prospective, animal testing will not cure cancer. They have been testing on animals for close to 30 years now to find a cure for cancer and they are not a bit closer than they were 29 years ago in regards to their animal tests. The "improvements" in cancer treatment that have been made by western medicine have been made though human research. If you think it is wrong to eat animals how can you think it's ok to test on them? It's wrong of humans to use animals in any way just as it is wrong for humans to use other humans no matter the benefit.

Q: Why are more Americans not vegetarians?

A: Because they prefer to live the last 1/3 of their life's with preventable diseases. It's an American past time. If you break this tradition your probably just a terrorist. Or intelligent. You know... Whatever.

Question: What's the silliest question you've been asked by an omnivore?

Answer: I think my favorite silly omnivore question would either be the "don't plants have feeling too?" question because it's so ridiculous and easy to disprove. A close second would have to be the "but agricultural farming kills millions of little animals too" question because on the surface it seems plausible but when you really think about it, it seems very unlikely that many animals at all die when a field is harvested.


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