The case for being a vegan?!
The animals (and I) have a very comfortable life and about once a month or so we take a bird to roast, and every season the pigs and lambs end up in the butchers - with the best cuts finding there way to my freezer...
At no point during their lives are any of my stock treated badly, and I am living as man has been for the past several million years.
Now please explain to me the case for declaring yourself a vegan?
Why not eat the unfertilised eggs, use the ewes wool or eat their meat?
Answers: I keep chickens, pigs and sheep which I rear traditionally on my smallholding.
The animals (and I) have a very comfortable life and about once a month or so we take a bird to roast, and every season the pigs and lambs end up in the butchers - with the best cuts finding there way to my freezer...
At no point during their lives are any of my stock treated badly, and I am living as man has been for the past several million years.
Now please explain to me the case for declaring yourself a vegan?
Why not eat the unfertilised eggs, use the ewes wool or eat their meat?
i love meat and would like to buy some from people like you..
I'm not a vegan - can you tell me if you slaughter your animals without fear? If so where can I buy your unadulterated happy meat?
(It is the fear hormones released into the animals bloodstream at the time of death that is in the meat and it is very unhealthy for any one to eat, that and rotten meat.)
if it has a face don't eat it.
That's how meat should be brought to the table - brought up from scratch by someone who grows to care for the animals, treat them well during life, and kill them cleanly when the time comes.
Well done, you.
EDIT: person above, what if it only has part of a face? Potatoes have eyes, and corn has ears...
EDIT II: on a more pedantic note, man hasn't been living like that for 'several million years'. Leaving aside the fact that 'man' (as in, homo sapiens) has not even existed for anything like that long, animal husbandry was only started - and then, only on a very limited scale - in the Neolithic
I see it as exploitation. I commend you for treating your animals kindly, but in the end they are still killed. Even if you kill them quickly with a shot to the head or something, just think about that. Would you want that to happen to you?
Also, I just can't bring myself to eat flesh or any by-product, as it gives me chills. I much prefer plant foods. They seem fresh to me. Meat and Dairy is never fresh in my opinion.
there should be a need to make a case. no matter how the animal is treated before it is killed, theres still the fact that its being slaughtered. i'm sure you've had a pretty decent life so far, since you've been relatively happy, can we kill you now?
and as for the mil and eggs, it's not ours to be taking. it's theres and no one else's. do ppl take your things?
Why should I plea a "case"? It's very clear that veganism isn't a lifestyle you appreciate.
But I'll reply...
You're dellusional if you think you're not abusing your power relationship with these beings. In your mind, they exist to serve your purposes, and that's exploitation. You put the superficial interests of your species above the most basic interests of these creatures. As a vegan, I see your behaviour as terribly wrong.
And don't fool yourself. Cows don't "give" you your milk. Ewes dont' "give" you their wool. Chickens don't "give" you their eggs. And no animal on this planet would "give" herself to you to be your dinner if she had the choice.
I don't care how good you think your animals have it. So long as you treat those animals as your property, so long as you take what clearly belongs to them (their milk, their eggs, their skin/hair, their lives), then they are exploited. They are slaves. And I don't care what species you belong to - nobody should have to live as a slave.
And THAT is why I am vegan.
#1. [I'm sure it is safe to assume] You are a private farmer. Therefore you cannot speak on behalf of factory farms. I'd say, and most other people who know also would agree, that factory farms are probably 95 if not 100% corrupt. The animals are treated badly, all of them. Even the ones that are not beaten and abused, are still living in tiny cages that have no room for them to move.
#2. It is by far, BY FAR, the healthiest way to live if you do it correctly. Everyone knows someone who tried to become a vegetarian or a vegan and got sick, ended up in the hospital, WHATEVER! Those people are dumb and don't know what they are doing. If anyone would do their research they would see that the reduction of animal products in ones diet leads to a healthier life. And if they contued to do their reserch they would see how to adjust and balance their diet accordingly.
#3. [This is not a reason, but merly an observation of your logic] Why is it okay for someone to wear the skin of an animal, but not the skin of a human? Why can't I go out to Sunset Blvd and cut up one of those pretty people, eat them, and wear them? Because my moral values tell me I can't the worlds moral values tells me I can't do that, it is sick. Also, why is it okay to murder an animal, but not okay to beat them? If animal cruelty is illeglal shouldn't it also be illegal to kill them and eat them? Why can we call one thing wrong and another thing right when applying it to the same subject? Isn't that sort of a paradox?
well, what a nightmare it would be if we all started killing our own meat at home. If you want to eat meat, eat it... and if you don't...... don't. Unfortunately, if we all stopped eating meat tomorrow, they wouldn't set all the cows, pigs, sheep and chickens free to run wild would they? they'd just cease to exist. The numbers involved are simply vast. Most people have no idea. When you think that virtually every supermarket in the western world has a daily turnover of beef on it's shelves, that's an enormous number of animals that are being supplied.
I'd be hopeless with a smallholding. Within a week all the animals would have names and nobody would end up eating anybody. We'd all live together in the house and eat toast.
If you go to the plains of Africa, there isn't a single zebra, wilder beast, antelope etc that meets a nice end. Every single last one of them (once they're old or injured) will be torn limb from limb by 'something' in a horrific ordeal.. it's sad, but it's not unnatural.
Well.... what can you do? adopt a herd of cows and feed them until they die of old age?
I dont want to eat an innocent animal. thats my case. those animals never did anything to me, and eating then created this horrible meat industry and its factory farms.
Ever read up on what the Nazis had to say about their behaviour when on trial for war crimes? None of them took any real responsibility, with a single exception being Albert Speer. He wasn't actually involved in any crimes as he was an architect, but as he was a member of the cabinet he was responsible.
But as for the Waffen SS, the troops which carried out the crimes in the camps, none of them would accept responsibility. They all just said they were following orders, and couldn't really see why the things they had done were so bad.
It is human nature to strive to normalise the things we do. When everybody we know does the same thing, why would we question it? You question us as though we are wrong in our thinking. I accept that your farming practices are traditional and less harmful to the animal than say factory farming. But the fact remains, you choose to kill and eat an animal even though you can survive without doing so. I see that as an act of selfishness. Why should something have to die just because I want something to eat?
The thing is, your idyllic scenario may be true for you, but it is no way reality for the overwhelming majority of animal foods that the overwhelming majority of people in the developed world have access to.
In the real world, laying hens are debeaked and stuffed into battery cages with so many other hens that they cannot spread their wings. They're drugged and fed rendered cattle parts and subjected to force moulting when they stop laying. Their male offspring will be suffocated or ground up alive as soon as they are sexed. Even when labeled free range, most will never see the light of day. Instead, their feet will grow deformed from standing on wire their whole lives. It's brutal and inhumane.
Sheep are subjected to harsh conditions also, including mulesing which leads to pain and infection.
I don't have to defend the decision not to kill animals for food. I don't believe that it's necessary, I don't believe that it's healthy, I don't believe that it's humane and I simply don't do it.
how about this?
http://marieconbgdlr.files.wordpress.com...
I think it had a good life before it was killed, dont you?
There are a number of cases and it differs from person to person, the first is, subservience, throughout history there is argument about whether it is okay for one being to impose their will against another, is it okay to have slaves?, is it moral to abort pregnancies? should one kill another animal, or use its services without knowing its will, there is even the argument of whether one should kill a plant or break rocks, (see Jainism). All of these are arguments that deal with people trying to place a line on the value of life and there are a lot of places to put this line.
The fact that animals are conscious and can feel pain is more tempting to make one feel compassion for the life of these beings.
There is also a gross out factor, eggs are basically a chickens menstruation cycle for example.
There are also institutions that vegans feel they need to protest in general, those that do not approach the use of animals that you do, one may make the argument if you are against harsh abuses of slavery pre-civil war, would you be willing to support slave owners who payed, educated, & treated their slaves well? (I know it seems like a bit of strech but I've heard it before)
There are other moral reasons, to feed a cow or pig or any animal requires putting more food into that animal than the food the animal produces, thusly you are wasting food. & how can one morally waste food in such a way when there are starving people in the world. Also the amount of water that is used to raise livestock (compaired to crops), and farmland utilized only adds to the wasted recources of livestock.
Thirdly some folks just don't like the foods as much as they like fruits and veg so whith the other arguments its an easy choice to go vegan
I don't think there is a case for it. It isn't natural and a vegan diet lacks in essential minerals and proteins. On the upside, the world would be run by cattle.