Why is Veganism Important?

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Across the United States, animals are denied lives of their own choosing. Tens of millions of animals are brutally killed every day to satisfy our appetite for the products of their bodies: dairy, eggs and meat.

Case study: Dairy

As with humans, dairy cows produce milk for their children and therefore only produce milk after giving birth. Impregnation is commonly done by shoving a hand into the cow’s anus to guide an insemination gun that is pushed into the cow’s vagina. This process is repeated every year so she will continue to produce milk. Her baby is taken away from her shortly after birth, destined either to become veal or another dairy cow. After 4 to 6 years of being used by us as a milk machine, her milk production declines and, being no longer of any economic value for us, she is sent to slaughter. Her flesh often ends up in fast food hamburgers. All dairy products, including organic and grass-fed, come from cows destined for the slaughterhouse.

Case study: Eggs

Life for layer chickens begins in a hatchery. The male chicks, unable to lay eggs and therefore considered worthless, are killed at birth, sometimes suffocated in trash bags, other times thrown into a trash bin, to die of smothering, exposure and dehydration. The female chicks lay eggs for their entire lives for us to eat. After 18 months, their production declines and, being no longer of any economic value for us, these 18 month old hens are killed. Their bodies are so weak from laying so many eggs that their flesh, considered unfit for human consumption, is used for pet food. All eggs, including organic, cage-free and free range, come from birds destined to be killed.

This is happening right now in this country.

Why does this happen?

In each of these cases, animals are used without their consent and denied lives of their own choosing. After all, who would choose to live a life with a guaranteed brutal ending in a slaughterhouse? In animal agriculture, animals are valued solely by what we can take from them. Their lives are not considered to have any value of their own. Humans breed, raise and kill animals so we may take the products of their bodies – dairy, eggs and flesh – from them for us to consume. We breed animals to serve us. The animals are never given a choice.

More and more people today recognize that it is wrong to use animals without their consent, to force them into lives of servitude for our desires.

There ought to be a law…

Yes, there ought to be a law against using animals without their consent. But laws are not enough. Just as desegregation did not end racism, laws will not end society’s view that animals are ours to use. The most powerful change happens when we decide we will no longer participate in the use of any unconsenting being and work to end the system that supports and relies on animal exploitation.

Since you started reading this page, over 50,000 animals have been killed for food in the United States. You can help stop this.

What can I do?

Because the use of unconsenting animals occurs in so many places in our society, most of us have never thought very much about it. But if you decide that it is wrong to force animals into lives of servitude for our desires, you can make a powerful statement by refusing to participate in this system of oppression. Whether it’s animals killed for dairy, eggs and meat, living in confinement at zoos and circuses, brutalized in the name of science, or skinned for their fur, all these living, breathing beings had lives that we humans decided were less important than our desires. By choosing to not eat animal products, to not attend zoos and circuses, to not use products tested on animals, and to not wear leather, fur and silk, we show in a concrete way our objection to the exploitation of animals.

Just as important, please educate everybody around you – friends, family, coworkers – about the oppression of animals and ask them to end their participation in this system. In this way, we begin to weaken the system that makes animal exploitation acceptable and start creating a new world where none are used without their consent.