Why is Veganism Important?
This text is based on the video and pamphlet “You Can Help Stop This.”
The following describes violence that might be discomforting. But this is what other animals endure every day. These are the practices humans support.
If this is violence, it is our violence. If this is indecency, it is our own indecency. For this is our food, our clothing, our science, and our entertainment. If this is oppression, then we are the oppressors.
We are the ones holding the whip. And only we have the power to put it down.
Exploitation
Forcible impregnation of a cow used for dairy.
All this starts with our belief that other animals are ours to use. We believe they exist to serve us. We consider them objects to be used freely.
We make them our tools – our milk machines, our rodeo machines.
Because we consider other animals as here for us – and because we demand the products of their bodies – they are confined, forced to work, separated from their families, beaten, and killed.
Confinement
This bird has been denied the choice to be free.
Whether with cages, chains, barns, fences, or leashes, confinement robs the individual of freedom.
Other animals used for food are confined in barns, electric fences, tanks, and small cages and stalls.
Other animals used for entertainment at circuses and zoos are kept in cages and chains. Animals who naturally run free are locked in zoo pens and cages.
For scientific testing, other animals are locked in cages and confined in unusual devices. Movement is restricted so scientists can violate specific body parts without jerking or itching.
Our pets are locked in cages and restrained with leashes and harnesses. Pet fish are confined to small bowls and tanks.
Confinement is a result of our choice to exploit other animals. We confine them so we can use them. We confine them so we can get what we want from their bodies.
Forced Labor
This horse has been forced into a life of serving humans.
As with confinement, forced labor takes away an individual’s freedom and choice.
Horses, mules, camels, and oxen are forced to pull wagons and to carry humans and luggage on their backs.
Other animals at circuses are forced to perform tricks in front of an audience.
Female cows used for their milk are forced into a cycle of pregnancy, birth, and milking. We forcibly impregnate them so they have a child and produce milk. We take away their child, take away their milk, and when the cycle is through, forcibly impregnate them again.
Forced labor is a result of our choice to exploit other animals. We believe they exist to serve us, so we make them serve us.
Ownership
A mouse who is destined to become a human's property.
Other animals are bought, sold, and owned by humans. This robs individuals of choice and rips families apart.
Other animals used for food are sold at auctions. A cow’s new master pays the cow’s old master. The cow has no choice.
Dogs and cats are sold in stores and parking lots. An individual’s life is handed over to anyone who pays retail price.
The ownership of lives is a consequence of using other animals for our ends. In order to make individuals into products, we make them into our property.
Physical Violence
Calf being choked for human entertainment at a rodeo.
The most offensive result of exploitation may be physical violence.
Other animals used for food are often kicked or beaten with rods to force them to move.
Other animals forced to perform are often beaten into obedience. Violence demonstrates the human’s power over the nonhuman, leading the nonhuman to obey.
Other animals at rodeos are physically dominated for human entertainment. Other animals exploited for testing are shocked, burned, and purposely infected with disease.
Physical violence is a result of our choice to exploit other animals for their bodies and labor. To exploit them, we need to control them; to control them, we use physical violence.
Killing
Supermarket display showing pieces of killed cattle.
Other animals die when we want them to die.
We kill billions of other animals every year to eat their bodies.
When cows stop producing enough milk to be profitable, they are killed. When hens stop producing enough eggs to be profitable, they are killed – even on organic, free-range, and cage-free farms.
To produce leather, cows are killed. To produce fur, fur-bearing animals are killed.
We kill other animals by testing products on their eyes and skin. We kill unwanted cats and dogs in shelters. We demonstrate our power by hunting and killing other animals.
Killing is a result of our choice to exploit other animals. To ‘harvest’ the bodies we want – and remove the bodies we don’t – we end the lives of countless individuals.
Devaluation
This possum has been killed by a human-driven vehicle.
We don’t care when other animals die.
We drive fast and often, hitting other animals. We think little of their corpses on the road. If they were human corpses, we’d be shocked.
We believe that humans are more important than other animals, and we spread this understanding through our language and culture. We call other animals “it.” We use the word “animal” as an insult, even though we are animals, too.
This is speciesism. Speciesism tells us this oppression is O.K. We say, “They’re just animals.” Speciesism eases the conflict we feel about locking someone in a cage for their whole life or impregnating them without their consent.
Speciesism is a result of our choice to exploit other animals. We want to use them, but using them feels wrong – so we tell ourselves that they deserve it, that it needs to be this way.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Veganism
Veganism as defined by the Vegan Society is the principle that humans should live without exploiting other animals.
A growing number of people have made a commitment to align their lives with the vegan principle of non-exploitation. This commitment means:
- gradually or immediately transitioning to exclusively plant-based foods and clothing
- boycotting animal circuses, zoos, rodeos, and products tested on animals
- doing one’s best to oppose human oppression in all its forms
A provocative sign held during a peace vigil.
To be ‘vegan’ is both to have the goal of liberation for all beings and to dedicate oneself to achieving that goal, even if it seems idealistic or far off.
Please make a commitment to align your life with the vegan principle of non-exploitation. Please work to remove your support from oppressive practices, overcome your own prejudices, and spread these ideals and practices to the people around you.
Resources
- For more on veganism, visit YouCanHelpStopThis.com
- For vegan nutrition, visit The Vegan Society’s website at vegansociety.com/food/nutrition
- For more on nonhuman oppression, try reading:
- Marjorie Speiegel’s The Dreaded Comparison: Human Slavery and Animal Slavery
- David Nibert’s Animal Rights/Human Rights: Entanglements of Oppression and Liberation
- Ida Hammer’s “The Vegan Ideal” blog at veganideal.org
