Question:
Well, I’ve been wondering about something for a while. I know slaughter houses are extremely inhumane, yet if a vegan were to bring this up and go on about it, they’d be considered some crazy vegan fanatic. But my question is, why shouldn’t vegans, or even vegetarians, be defensive about their life stye and preach about animal rights?
It’s just so wrong what slaughter houses do. I know we’re supposed to respect other people and their diets, but why should we? Why should we be supportive and not care that our friends contribute to a very inhumane industry? And why shouldn’t vegans rant on about animal rights? I know to some people animals don’t mean much, but at one time blacks didn’t mean much to others either. (I know, extreme analogy to some, but it works)
So to simplfy, my main question is why should vegans or vegetarians accept other people’s life style even when vegans/vegetarians know that those others choose to contribute to inhumane industries? (i.e. meat, leather, etc.)
kate r: Who ever said I didn’t care about what else goes on in the world? That doesn’t even have anything to do with the question.
Oh, and I never said I thought everyone should stop eating meat. I myself would never eat it, but if a person owned their own farm and did everything humanely, I wouldn’t care.
Yes, animals do kill other animals in ways that aren’t seen as humane, but they don’t keep them cramped up their whole life in filthy warehouses where they suffer daily abuse. I don’t even understand how people can compare animals kill other animals to what people do to animals in slaughterhouses. I could understand comparing it to people who go out hunting though, and I wouldn’t criticize people who hunt.
How you or anyone can simply say there’s nothing ethically wrong with keeping animals locked up in filthy little cages force fed hormones, antibiotics, and sometimes even other dead animals for their whole life before inhumanely killing them is beyond me.
We gotta do what we gotta do. This question always pulls up the same, lame meateater’s answers about nature and bla bla bla. You just gotta remember to give people space.
Let them be aware of your chocies, but no one like a pressure-vegan. One experience wth these tyoes causes a meateater to despise them therefore thinking poorly on all vegans/vegetarians. Remember, every person will seek the truth to their passions in their own time.
I think that it’s possible to encourage our friends to avoid slaughterhouse products while not pressuring them to become vegetarian. Alerting them to the cruelties is not forcing them to accept your views. Suggesting how they might live a more conscientious lifestyle while not affecting their diet is not pressuring them. Granted, many might not want to hear it… but you can bring up the benefits of buying locally (local farms in many cases treat their animals far better than the huge commercial farms and then you’re also promoting your local economy and helping your local family farmers). Encouraging them to buy free-range eggs & beef, organic products, etc. is simply helping them to eat healthier… not restricting their diet. Truly free-range animals are almost guaranteed to be healthier than those who live shoulder to shoulder with others of their kind, knee deep in feces and pumped full of antibiotics just to keep them from dying due to their disgusting living conditions. If you buy locally, chances are you will see the cows out in the field every day, etc. It’s more expensive… but it’s certainly a better quality product.
I’ve found myself agitated in the past when I heard myself talking about vegetarianism too much. I came to realize that if found myself irritating others probably did also. My policy now is to talk about it when approached by someone who has a deep open-minded interest, or at a potluck or veg outreach event. We really only exasperate ourselves needlessly when we debate with close-minded people. Some meat-eaters become attracted to vegetarianism because they know of a person who quietly goes along doing their thing. It is a slow process but we have no choice except to be patient.
For me it becomes a question of not lowering myself to another person’s level also. A lot of meat eaters look for a chance to debate with a vegetarian in order to get underneath their skin. It’s also ironic that meat eaters love to talk about their meals with no consideration as to whether a vegetarian is overhearing it and getting disgusted. There again I do not want to fall down to their level of inconsideration. I’d much rather be quiet about my lifestyle until I am an in environment controlled solely by myself and other vegetarians.
i totally agree with you. I feel that we gotta preach ourselves out and reach out.
The more that we show a need to educate and inform people of our views, the more desperate for attention we seem to them. There is no way that we are going to change an entire country or planet full of people, and giving the impression that our entire existence is focused on “converting” people only takes things backwards and makes our choice seem like a choice to be unhappy.
When we open up when people are actually curious, we take more control over whether the conversation will be a positive or negative experience. Many of these sad, sad trolls are products of interacting with undereducated members of our “veg community”.
I agree with you, As vegans/vegetarians we should express our views about animal rights because how can we change societal views on animal abuse without voicing some kind of opinion. It frustrates me that when I do talk about the inhumane ways of how animals are treated, people say i preach but its not preaching, its teaching people about where their meat comes from and to make people aware because if people do not know something how can they change. I would love for people to take in and consider what I say and most do but I will not stay quiet otherwise nothing will change and I don’t think any other vegan should either. Everything that goes on in the world affects everyone at some point or another, the world is a smaller place than we imagine.
People who are vegetarians for AR causes, are usually fairly open-minded people. They knew the facts and made a change in their lives. Most people who eat meat are still rather close-minded about the facts and details. Deep down, most know that what happens to the animals is wrong, but they can’t bring themselves to change. If they can’t change their own lifestyles, then why not mock others’ lifestyles?
Personally, I am a vegetarian and an Animal Rights activist. I even get sick at the thought of hunting for meat. A bullet traveling at 1,000ft/second is no match for a deer who can only run at about 80ft/second. If someone were to go out barehanded, kill a deer and then bring it back for dinner, I’d be impressed and respect them. But, anyone who tried would quickly realize people weren’t designed for hunting.
When people make a big deal about my diet, I point out how taboo it would be to take the family dog and toss it into the stew. I also comment about beheading and then skinning, boning and chopping up their child to grill up for dinner that day. I see no difference between any of these and eating a cow, chicken, pig or fish for dinner. The idea is grotesque but forces them to realize the only difference between any of those and their own meat is the type of animal it happened to come from.
I won’t sink to their level and I won’t force people to not eat meat, the same as they try to get me to eat meat. If the people care for me, then they won’t try to argue with me. If they do argue with me, then they don’t care about my choice or respect my decision. I’m not going to waste time or energy arguing with a person like that. They have to do the research on their own and make their own choice.
I personally think everyone should be given the facts so that they can make and educated decision. No one can coherse anyone into doing something they don’t want. I don’t go around giving people an earful but if they ask questions I answer them or if I hear someone giving a misinformed answer I correct it with facts. Yes, there are other things going on in this world but that shouldn’t mean that you turn a blind eye to another problem. Each person contributes to this world in many ways and so many people will stereotype vegetarians before they so much as meet one and there is no convincing them otherwise. Some people will always believe vegetarians suffer from malnutrition, are anorexic, or spend excessive amounts of money on food even if they meet someone that proves otherwise. They will always hate us because that is what they made up their mind to do. I personally say that I have just as much right to talk about what I eat as anyone else.
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RT @vegancook101: For those who are vegan/vegetarian for animal rights…? http://lowfatveganrecipes.com/for-those-… #vegan
RT @vegancook101: For those who are vegan/vegetarian for animal rights…? http://lowfatveganrecipes.com/for-those-… #vegan
humans are actually pretty humane when it comes to killing animals for food. Compare what we do, to how killer whales devour grey whale calves, right in front of their mother, or how a komodo dragon devours a horse. I try to be vegan myself, as much as I can. But I don’t see anything ethically wrong with eating meat. I just minimize it, for health reasons.
Well how do you suggest we kill them? Cause I sure love eating them. For every salad you eat, I will eat 2 hamburgers. Face it, your well out numbered.
Its interesting what you state, because the fact is with your anology black people did not matter and it was no crime to shoot a china man back in the 1800s. Animal rights do matter and I find it very amusing when I hear people rant on about the meaning of life but justify killing and eating animals!! there are so called spiritual people who think its ok to kill animals and talk about the humane way of doing it – ie keeping them happy and contented until the big murder day – how pathetic.
But the fact is the killing and consuming of animals is wide spread and is accepted and people tend to classify people who preach to them otherwise as fanatics.
I often make it a point of telling people I am a vegetarian because I like animals but I dont preach and when I can I tell people of the 1000s of vegetarian and vegan recipes but I leave it at that. Any social change is a slow process and its a matter of just perservering. Also its a big money industry the killing of animals and that is a great hurdle to cross. Also your own analogy of black people not mattering is quite pertantant because when the salve trade was occurring black people were traded as cattle and whole black families sold and seperated for the almighty dollar – change occurred albeit slowly but when the change happened it moved very fast and in time people will keep questioning the appropriateness of mass slaughter and of slaughter houses. Keep up the good work.
Also I answered another question yesterday and I downloaded 113 vegetarian and vegan recipes names, and I am left wandering why people are so obsessed that meat is so important to the diet when there are literally 1000s of nourishing vegetarian meals to be made that kill no animals but I guess people have to work it out themselves.
I agree. I used to have arguments with another vegetarian friend over this topic. He would say “why do you care about their diets, it’s their bad karma”. I would say “I don’t care about their karma, I care about the animals they are helping to kill”.
i ,am animal activist and i,m veggie
I would say if every veg/ would be able to convert a meat eater over , That’s one more veg/ we have…
For me, it’s hard to think of meat eaters as good, conscientious people sometimes. Then, I realize that that used to be me before I learned what I know now.
So I guess what really bothers me is people who have full knowledge of the industry and its cruelty and continue to fund it. I find it very difficult to excuse that.
You can . . . and I for one . . . subscribe to the humane treatment of animals and so should we all . . .and I’m not vegan. The treament in some of the agri-business facilities is repulsive. And offenders should be punished by law.
But, I do not (1) have to accept another persons lifestyle nor (2) do I have to always preach to others how superior my lifestyle is (3) have to be so isolated from the real world that all I can discuss is diet and ethical choices.
There is a cadre of lunatics on YA V&V forums.
i think it’s wrong to inhumanely kill an animal but come on. people out there are starving , babies and kids are dieing i really think we have bigger problems
The simple answer is because we don’t want to make our position seems too extreme because then people will never revert to being animal-friendly.
Baby steps are the way to go. You will scare/piss people off by being fanatical (although it’s not an awful thing). I know it’s awful and I am a huge animal rights veggie, but hopefully by setting a good example, people will follow. All you can do is educate, not preach. You cannot make up people’s minds for them.
People just don’t take well to extremism. (I know you and I don’t think it’s extreme, but to a person who has only known animal flesh as their daily nurishment..it is).
It is one thing to bring something up with an aim to educate, it is quite another to insist everyone follow your moral beliefs.
For most vegetarians, making the factory farms more humane isn’t good enough. For me, that would be a great accomplishment and would have some chance of being achievable in a not so long amount of time. It’s highly unlikely you’re going to get people to agree that animals should never be eaten.
It is almost the equivalent of a religious belief.