WHY VEGAN?
One of our Free Range bunnies, Thumper
I thought I would do a post on going Vegan and why I personally made the leap and commitment to live a Vegan lifestyle.
On an important and personal note, I do not judge those that eat meat and wear or use Animal products.
I do not think I am 'better' than those who do not live a Vegan life, but I LOVE Animals on a crazy love kind of level, and for me personally, when I started learning about Animal Rights and common farming practices,
I felt like eating, using and wearing Animal products conflicted too much with my values as an Animal lover.
WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF VEGAN?
To start with, there is a difference between Animal Welfare and Animal Rights.
Animal Welfare means that you believe that it is ok to eat and use Animal products, but that you believe that the Animals providing these products should live a healthy, happy life, free of suffering, that they should be slaughtered humanely, and that they should be able to express their natural instincts. For example, the SPCA is an Animal Welfare charity.
Animal Rights means that you do not believe that Animals are here for us to use, eat, or exploit in any way, and that Animals should be left alone to live out their natural lives in their natural environments.
For example, SAFE is an Animal Rights charity.
So as a Vegan I do not consume the following:
Meat
Seafood
Eggs
Dairy or an other Animal milk
Honey
Gelatine or any other Animal by product
I also do not wear:
Leather
Wool
Silk
Feather
Fur or any other Animal skin
I also do not use:
Products that have been tested on Animals
Products that contain Animal products (eg: beeswax lip balm)
My journey started when I really fell in love with Toto, my beautiful companion dog that has shared our home for 7 years now. I just couldn't believe how much I loved him and he really is my Animal soul mate in so many ways.
Toto-isn't he so beautiful? He is so, so special
I didn't become interested in Animal Rights though, until last year, when I joined SAFE (Save Animals from Exploitation) as a volunteer and began learning about it. I didn't know the difference then between Animal Welfare and Animal Rights, and was at that point, still eating meat, dairy etc.
I was so horrified to learn some of the truths about farming, and really started making significant steps towards going Vegan, when I learned that there really isn't that much of a difference in the suffering inflicted upon Animals when it comes to Free Range, Organic and standard produce. I had been eating free range, organic meat, dairy, eggs etc thinking that the Animals wouldn't really suffer, and boy I was wrong. Here are some example (prepare yourself, this is pretty awful stuff, and this is STANDARD in NZ farming and is pretty much the same all around the world):
FACT#1
Dairy Cows do not produce milk magically. (I genuinely thought they did before I went Vegan, and I'm a little embarrassed that I once thought that)
They are Mammals, so they produce milk when they give birth.
In Dairy Farming, cows are artificially impregnated. When they give birth, their newborn calves are ripped away from them immediately (the longest is usually a day) after they are born, so humans can use ALL of their milk for the milk products that we do not need, but like eating.
Mother cows love their babies our fiercely and passionately as humans do. They are known to scream out for their babies and mourn them, as we would were we put through that.
When the calves are taken away, they are killed on the spot (with a blunt object, usually) if they are male, because bobby calves (male calves) are considered a waste product of the Dairy industry. If they are female, they will be used as a Dairy Cow just like their mother (they still get separated straight away). They are also used for the Veal industry which is just disgusting, but I will go into that on another post.
A typical Dairy cow will be impregnated once a year and will live for about 4 years until she is considered to have no more use, and is taken to the slaughterhouse.
Cows typically should live about as long as Dogs do.
I literally had nightmare every single night when I found this out. I have a beautiful 2 yr old boy, Romeo, whom I cannot imagine living without. The thought of him being ripped away from me so that another Animal could consume my breast milk is about the worst thing I could imagine.
FACT #2
There are 2 types of Chicken that humans have bred for consuming:
Laying Chickens (for laying eggs) and Broilers (for eating).
Laying Chickens (if they are in a factory farm) live squished into cages, with about an A4 sized space to live their entire lives on. If they on an organic, free range farm., they usually are not in a cage, but will generally have about the same sized space, just without the cage. They are sometime outdoors if free-range but they don't legally need to be. Factory Farmed raised Laying Chickens suffer hugely, spending their whole life, with no space, a metal grate to live on, no sunlight, and no space or chance to express their natural instincts (chickens love to scratch at the ground, have mud baths, peck at the ground, stretch their wings, nurture their young and live in a community of other chickens).
Whether they are factory farmed or free range, EVERY male chick born to a Laying Chicken is ground alive on their first day of life, because as with bobby calves, they are considered a waste product of the industry. The egg and meat industries are separate, so they are not raised for eating.
Broiler chickens (for eating) are usually squished into a shed with hundreds, if not thousands of other chickens. They have been bred to weigh a huge 1.6kg by day 37 of their short life (50 years ago, it took 98 days for this to happen) so that more chicken can be produced for human consumption.
Because of this unnatural growth, Broiler Chickens usually cannot walk (their legs are not strong enough at that age to support the 1.6kg weight), and suffer immensely through broken bones (lack of calcium due to unnatural breeding), dehydration and starvation from not being able to walk to their water and food bowls, and many other health problems from bring so unhealthily raised.
Here are some other facts that are STANDARD practise on farms where Animals are raised for their products:
# All male Animals not used for breeding are castrated without anesthetic.
# Sheep raised for their wool have 'mulesing' inflicted upon them, where they have chunks of skin cut off without anesthetic, to get rid of maggots eggs that have laid in their coats. This happens when they are bred to have rolly skin in order to produce more wool.
# 'Humane' slaughter involves a bolt between the eyes to render the Animal unconscious. They are then hung upside down and have their throats cut. Because of the speed in which this process has to happen due to the current high demand for cheap meat, many Animals are not accurately rendered unconscious before they have their throats cut.
# Veal is made from baby calves, who are usually away from their mothers, then forced to live their short lives (usually about 18-20weeks) being confined to a crate where they are fed a low iron diet. This diet means that their meat is 'desirably' soft due to the anemia in their young bodies.
# Breeding Sows (pigs) are kept in 'Farrowing Crates' for 4 weeks before, during and after they give birth. These crates are made of metal and concrete and are so confined that the Sows cannot turn around, let alone care for her young. Believe it or not, this 4 weeks is actually pretty good, as not too long ago, Sows spent their ENTIRE pregnancy in these concrete crates.
# The food pyramid was created by the meat, dairy and egg industries in order to grow their profit and marketability (this one still shocks me)
#Gas emissions from farms using Animal agriculture create more Green house gases to the world than any other single contribution (yep, more than traffic combustion). So going Vegan is WONDERFUL for the environment.
Phew, it is a lot to take in, I know.
There are SO many more facts but I just used a few examples today.
I reiterate, that I do not share this information to make people feel bad about their food.
I do it because I did not know these facts a year ago and when I learnt what I was unknowingly supporting, I had the knowledge to make decisions on a daily basis that reflected my values.
I did the same thing when I committed to transitioning to a Zero Waste life, and I am now so passionate about these 2 ideas and feel truly positive about what I bring to the world.
Apologies for the crazy long post, and I hope this info gives you an insight into Animal Rights :)
And Remember...
Compassion is Invincible
Xxxxxx
Hannah
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