Treat others the way you would like to be treated. Why would we not try to extend this principle to (other) animals as well?
Why go (more) vegan?
- Animal suffering; For more information see http://www.ciwf.org.uk/farm_animals/default.aspx
- The environmental damage that is caused by lifestock farming.
- The fact that an animal has to consume, on average, seven grams of vegetables to ‘produce’ one gram of meat. Very inefficient. That vegetables could have been used to feed the hungry! The less meat we eat, the less animals we have to breed, the more food is available for humans. So if you want to help solve The World Hunger Problem, go vegan! See Oxfam Novib and Humane Society for more information.
- Animal diseases spreading to humans.
- How would it be to work in a slaugterhause? It would be horrible of course! The sight of blood, the smell of blood, the animals’ fear... In the United States the average slaughter house employee quits after only eight months! Is it OK then to have other people do that work for you? I guess it just isn’t. Why do people take up such a job anyway you may ask? Perhaps because they don’t have a lot of choice, and a family to feed? The less animal products we eat, the less people have to do such horrible work.
A vegan diet has soo many advantages! Watch this short inspiring video.
Some quotes
I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.
- Mahatma Gandhi
I know, in my soul, that to eat a creature who is raised to be eaten, and who never had a chance to be a real thing, is unhealthy. It's like... you're just eating misery. You're eating a bitter life.
- Alice Walker
The question is not, Can they reason?, nor Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?
- Jeremy Bentham, 1789
To be a vegetarian[1] is to disagree... To disagree with the course of things today. Starvation, world hunger, cruelty, waste and wars. We must make a statement against these things. Vegetarianism is my statement.
- Isaac Bashevis Singer
[1] What was called vegetarian back then is now called vegan.
Nothing will benefit human health and increase chances of survival for life on earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.
- Albert Einstein.
Why should man expect his prayer for mercy to be heard by What is above him when he shows no mercy to what is under him?
- Pierre Troubetzkoy.
There is a lot of excellent literature available on the subject. Two books that stand out:
- Eating Animals, written by Jonathan Safran Foer. On Youtube one can find several interviews with the author.
- Animal liberation, written by Peter Singer.
Lots of information can be found at:
Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach.
If slaughterhouses had glass walls everyone would be vegetarian. A documentory by Paul McCartney. Warning: Contains shocking material.
If you have any questions feel free to contact me.
