Vegans-You don't advocate human use of dairy, honey, wool, silk, etc.-How do you decide?!
Answers: How does a vegan decide which living things they will and will not be killing within their chosen lifestyle?
How do we decide? Well, it's simple. Is the product the result of animal exploitation? If the answer is yes, then we avoid using it.
I cannot help breathing in microscopic insects. I cannot avoid stepping on bugs when I'm walking on a sidewalk. I cannot control the fact that there may be animal fat in the tires of the bus that takes me to work. As everyone who answers the multiple forms of this question will tell you, we do what is reasonably possible to avoid products that harm animals.
Once again, we're human, not perfect.
That's why I stay naked, eat raw vegetables, and never leave my house.
They only eat plants. And they don't use animal products. It's that simple. You pretty much already explained it.
Wool, honey, eggs, dairy are collected from living creatures, but the ethical question is raised of how are those things treated while we are gathering the product? Often very inhumanely. Meat, leather, and silk necessitate the creature dying for harvest to be complete...obviously that's unacceptable.
It's simple - they choose they will not consume or use any product that could have harmed or killed any creature in the gathering.
[Edit: oh, haha, I see the point you were trying to make. Yes there prolly are some ppl out there crying because they slapped a mosquito. I think it comes down to a question of whether or not they want to live life or just stand in the center of a sterile room until death. In a way, it's down to the circle of life. Dust mites feed on our dead skin cells. Mosquitoes feed on our blood. We do our best to kill those creatures because they are harmful to us. I don't think a vegan would have a problem with killing a cobra that was about to strike them. They don't believe in violence or harming other living creatures simply for our own convenience, ease, or pleasure. Our slightest action has the potential to cause harm somewhere down the line. A vegan's goal is to try to reduce that harm to the lowest possible level.]
A vegan is a person who does not consume animal products, or more accurately - the products of animal exploitation. Dairy, honey, wool, silk, meat and eggs all require the exploitation and commodification of a non-human sentient being and are thus not vegan.
Human milk is designed for human baby and does not require the exploitation of a sentient other and is therefore vegan.
As the saying goes, "We are all human, thus are not perfect". I suppose in a perfect vegan world, all suffering would cease to exist (think of heaven, nirvana, or utopia). But alias, we live in a dual reality, where there is no such thing as just one thing (for a thing to be, you have to have the opposite in this world), thus vegans will kill something alive (even if it is the dust mites of the world). I think you said it correctly when you said "chosen" lifestyle. Vegans do their choices based on what they have set as their own moral ethics. It is an individualized human choice.
The question is not, "Can they live?"
The question is not, "Can they die?"
The question is... "Can they suffer?"
Um, where did you get your definition of veganism? From someone in the hunting section?
Sorry but veganism isn't about saving the lives of living things, it is about abstaining from the use of ANIMAL products and a concern for the suffering and well-being of other people and animals.
Are yeasts animals?
Dust mites are animals. Am I supposed to care more about them than the people that are allergic to them?
I can tell you are already very biased against vegans from the tone of your question, but I'll answer you respectfully nevertheless. If you really want to have information and to see vegan reasoning behind it, I would suggest taking this next link (it's a link to another question).
Your question has been asked a couple of times, there have been a few good answers to it and I would like to share this particular post (I got the Best Answer):
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;...
It's not "picking and choosing" which animals are worth sparing and which aren't. It's about doing what is right and what is natural. I have no problem with lions killing antelopes in Africa, that's natural. I have no problem with Chinese farming and hunting communities that catch their own fish and live peacefully in a small-scale, local economy. I have no problem with the way Native Americans lived off the land - with respect and dignity for the animals that lived there.
It is when human profit rises above concern for the environment, what is ethical and right and what is natural. We have created an unhealthy and unsustainable ecosystem with the methods we use to mass-farm animals for slaughter.
Just read through the other responses in that link, it's really informative.
I think it is not neat if vegans don't advocate honey. Honey does not kill a living thing and it is neat. I like honey a lot, especially on my toast. Bee vomit is my fav.