Why vegetarian why vegan?!
Answers: i really dont get vegetarian's that say they dont wont to eat animals but they drink milk eat eggs wear leather ext. it's the same as eating a animal it's just not meat but the animals still live in cramped conditions and are cruley misstreated so why not just become vegan
It is ridiculous to ask "why would farmers mistreat their animals..." because in factory farms, they aren't farmers, it's a company who owns these animals and no one cares about them.
that aside....
I understand your question, but I think that where true compassion starts is at home. I have felt the same way about people ranting about recycling but eat all kinds of meat and food shipped from all over the world. It may seem foggy, but in all of it, you have to see that everyone who contribute, even just a little, is doing more then the j@ckass walking through life unquestioning. Even if a vegetarian eats eggs and dairy, they are doing far more then the average person.
We should support each other, not judge each other. Through understanding you can get your point across and feel secure in your choices.
Good luck fellow veg!
i'm not a vegetarian or vegan, but when you drink milk or eat eggs of animals, you don't kill the animals for it. Also, if you don't drink or eat (yougurt, cheese...) the milk, what is it there for then...God must have created these things for some reason...
hope that helps! :)
The answers will be varied and may not have real meaning to you but they mean a lot for the person saying it and that's all there is to it. Why meat, why chicken, why fish, why wear black, why wear green etc etc. It's all the same thing: choice, preference etc etc.
Why are you non-vegetarian? replied Prince Charles of England - beeing asked that question. What du you find good in eating meat?
And *IMHO* I would like 2 say:
Why supporting Murderers?
Why punishing other beeings?
If we are Gods (like Jesus told we were) why dont we behave like this?
Peace on Earth
You're under the false assumption that people are vegetarian for ethical reasons. Some people just don't like the taste of meat, so they don't eat it; or they can't for some health reason.
Kinda makes me mad when people like you come on here and pontificate about animal wlefare when you no little about the nature of animals behaviour. Why would a farmer deliberately mis treat his animals afetr all they are his livelihood that like a Taxi driver not having his car serviced. No matter how much room you give animals they will cluster together its in their nature. They like the company. Go visit a free range farm the animals dont spread out over the whole area available they cluster together same as wild animals live in packs and flocks.
There are many reasons that people are vegetarian.
Some are because they don't like the taste of meat.
For others, it may be for religious reasons.
Others, it may be a choice that they want to make for environmental reasons that they can explain from their point of view.
For others such as myself, they do it for medical reasons (reaction when taking med's that cause problems).
No one has the right to bind their view upon another, esp. when it comes to what a person is going to be eating.
I think there's a place for a transitional state on the way to veganism, and i think you have to look at the whole life cycle of all the resources you use and all the connections between yourself and the environment. I haven't resolved the phosphate bottleneck problem to my satisfaction, for example.
Veganism is about compassion. You have a lot more to do with the other human animals in your life than the non-human ones and there's also the question of animal suffering as a side-effect of what you do, which means food miles, industrially-produced vegan alternatives and the like. I would define vegetarianism as being focussed on diet and veganism as focussed on lifestyle.
To some extent I can agree with you about leather but being a vegetarian and eating dairy and eggs is a big step.
I missed the decision that put you in charge of whats right and wrong.
Eating an unfertilised egg from one of my own hens that is free to come and go as she pleases is not the "same as eating an animal"
I do not understand why some veggies wear leather though, i cannot understand that at all. I'm not judging them, i just don't understand thier viewpoint. Leather forms part of the profit made from the slaughter of the cow. If we didn't use the leather, meat would be more expensive and less would be consumed - therefore less cows would be reared/slaughtered.
Its a simple supply and demand situation.
A fair proportion of veggies avoid leather though.
Dairy is also an issue, i avoid it. There are many well documented issues around the dairy industry, some of which are mentioned regularly on this site but worth repeating in case people want to learn:
I see dairy farms approx every other day because we visit them to see about rescue Jerseys. The farms I'm talking about here are nationally recognised as being the best in the industry, they have viewing gallaries and consistantly win awards so we are not talking about the average or less, we are talking about the BEST here. And this is UK farms which are recognised as having the best husbandry in the world.
Artificial incemination every year
Cows would naturally calve every 2-3 years. Dairy farms artificially inceminate them every 11 months. This causes excessive stress on the cows body, increses the chance of prolapse and generally "wears them out"
Hormone enriched feed
The feed they are given is enriched with artificial growth foods. these are generally made with cattle meat protiens.
Bribe/feed caged carousels
These suck. They are large rotating carousels where the cows are caged in a space where they cannot move. They have "black boxes" on thier legs which communicate with the main operating computer. They are fed just the right amount of food depending on how much milk they gave yesterday. They have added growth food if thier production drops
One person can milk about 400 cattle on a carousel so there is no time for checking the animals health - they just milk them dry and kick them out.
killing bulls, excess calves and free martins at 1 week old
All bulls are killed at 1 week old. They do not keep any back for breeding as they bring in new blood lines. In the UK we don't use dairy bull calves for veal anymore. Bull calves go to make low quality leather products such as cheap sofas.
They kill all free martins as there is a good chance they will be barren.
Strangly, they feel these animals with colostrum at birth to keep them alive, but then kill them a week later.
excess feeding to produce 60 lites of milk per day
The growth food is all designed to produce excess milk. Cows are naturally designed to produce about 15 litres. The european targets for 2009 are set at 90 litres, i don't think it need me to tell you if this is heading the right or wrong direction.
intensive rearing means low husbandry checks
As mentioned above, most automatic dairies have one milkmaid per session, thats it. I know a dairy farm with 1200 cattle and 3 employees. Tell me how they can ever check the cattle....
removing calves from mothers after colostrum feed
This is stressful, cows bawl for weeks for thier young, calling them to be fed. Obviously the calf cannot "run to mom" because its in dog food by now.
killing the cow at 7 years old
Cows can naturally live to 20 years old. Production dairy cows are killed after 4-6 births so are never kept after 7 years old.
Hope that helps.
Eggs ? As you can see from my picture I am a chicken and i can confirm that chickens are the worst abused of all farm animals, Many veggies choose thier supplier carefully - either buying from friends, a hobby farm or free range where they can actually see the hens roaming about.
EDIT: From your additional comments it sounds like you are frustrated with the fact you can't get your point across. Thats to do with YOUR communication, not the answerers.
You could have phrased the whole thing is a much more positive way. I'll do i for you, look out for my question
here you go:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?...