September 12th, 2011 by Gary Smith

In this series, we ask vegans engaged in different kinds of activism a question, and post their responses, to show a diversity of perspectives on the same topic. This is not a forum for ‘professional experts’ and thought leaders, but a space for community voices. Join the discussion below in the comments.

 

Most if not all vegans would agree that if they had known about the ethical and moral issues involved in animal foods, they would have gone vegan far earlier. As someone who has been vegan since birth, or vegetarian since birth and now vegan, your experience and path have been radically different. What’s it like to have been “born veg?” Are you vegan today because of the same considerations with which you were raised, or has your perspective changed? Is there anything you regret about this upbringing, or are you grateful for it? Do you have any advice for people raising vegan children today?

 

 

Well, I have been born into it, so I only have one side of the coin. I will say that being born vegan, and remaining vegan to this day, provides its challenges as well as many rewards.

I was raised as vegan for human reasons, meaning that once someone understands his/her relationship to the planet and also understands that we don’t need to kill to live, that “animal rights” will take care of itself. I am still vegan for the same reasons, however, now it takes on a different meaning as it is part of my everyday life and career. I think it’s also nice to explore this lifestyle further and truly be able to offer an authentic point of view on the subject for those seeking to make the change. I see myself as a shepherd (joke!).

I am very grateful for my upbringing. The only thing I would change is to have had more of a community around to make it more “normal,” but nowadays I think it is, more in some places than others. There’s definitely more awareness than when I was a kid, so I think it’s better now for parents who want to start a vegan family. I don’t give advice on how to feed anyone under the age of 18 because of legal reasons. But…! I will say do your research. It’s not hard to find how to navigate the common pitfalls of this lifestyle, i.e. omega oils, b12, iron, and calcium needs to be replaced with the bounty of plant-based veggies, nuts and seeds. So google google google! My parents were heavily armed with information (pre-interweb). Everything comes from a book – even doctors learn form a book.

Ayinde Howell is a caterer, freelance executive chef and green entrepreneur consultant in New York City (http://ieatgrass.com)

 

I am so thankful that I was raised vegetarian. I feel like it taught me that it’s OK to be different and to follow what I know to be just and correct.

I wish I had better been able to voice my beliefs as a child; it seemed terribly difficult to explain to anyone. Lunchtime in the cafeteria was interesting. I would get extremely grossed out if I watched other kids eating meat. ‘Chicken fingers’ were the worst – it all seemed so barbaric and strange to me, yet completely normal to everyone else. My mom always packed my (and my sister’s) lunch and made it look so appetizing other kids would make fun of it since it was different, then in the next sentence ask to try it.

I was raised this way because my parents are vegetarian, not religious or spiritual reasons. My mom became veg when some of her veg friends bet her that she couldn’t be vegetarian for six months. After the six months, she felt so good she never went back to eating meat. That was over 35 years ago. I became vegan when I was 23 years old (I’m now 32). I am passionate about protecting all life – people, animals, and our environment. We are all connected. I continue to widen my circle of compassion and to stand up for those without a voice. Through nonviolence, understanding, teaching, and learning I continue to deepen my connection with the world.

It has been very easy to stay vegan, especially when I consider those who would suffer if I didn’t. However, I initially became vegan because when discussing going vegetarian, several meat-eaters pointed out that I had never given up any food that I loved the taste of, so how could I ask them to do the same and give up meat. They had a valid point. So I did some research and discovered veganism and immediately gave up dairy and eggs. This research showed me the tremendous amount of animal suffering involved in these industries that I was completely unaware of before. I’ve never thought twice about my decision.

Of course, I would advise any/all parents to raise their children vegan. My only guess at parenting advice would be to be proud of your choice and honestly educate the child on why you’ve made it.

Cody Yelton is a massage therapist who practices in Gainesville, Florida (www.codyyelton.com). Her experience includes healing and massage modalities for athletes, combat veterans, the elderly, HIV/AIDS patients, and animals.

 

A friend once told me, “Good vegetarian children grow up to be vegans.” How true! My folks went vegetarian in the early 80s and being home-schooled, we didn’t have many issues of teasing or peer pressure. In fact, many of my friends became vegetarian because of time spent with my family.

My parents made an effort to prepare packed lunches for trips, parties, and everyone was given plenty of notice. Pizza was usually on the menu when other people had us over for dinner. The only argument I can remember was when my grandparents bought us the Ghostbuster cereal with gelatin marshmallows. A simple mistake, but my Dad was PISSED. It wasn’t the most positive reaction to leave others with, but I’m glad he stood up for our morals.

Vegetarianism never felt limiting. I credit this to our parents communicating with us. We knew what meat was, about the lives the animals led, and where everything came from. Unfortunately, it stopped at milk and eggs. There was never an aura of control, we were educated and informed little kids and accepted those choices as our own. We’ve never seen flesh as food or leather as clothing, these items were seen as pieces of murdered beings. Hence, we have all been outspoken and probably caused more insult to carnists than the other way around.

This outlook later gave me problems socially. When someone would use the ‘deserted island situation,’ they were never satisfied when I choose bread over a fishing pole, wanting to force meat on me even in a hypothetical situation. They were angry that I couldn’t see a cow or a fish as a source of food and thought I was lying to be right. I’m often asked if I was ever tempted or tricked, people get some sick pleasure out of potentially slipping me steak and ‘changing’ me forever. Yet, even as a picky kid, I was NEVER tempted. The one time I got meat accidentally, I instantly vomited. Meat was not just a dead animal, it was also a trigger to vomit.

Communication is the key to happy veg kids. I saw other kids (who are no longer veg) not allowed to eat white flour, sugars, etc. These kids grew up viewing their lifestyle as ridiculous and their parents insane, encouraging rebellion. It’s hard enough for kids to comprehend the behaviors of society without extra restrictions. These things are not particularly healthy, but they can be cruelty-free. There is a lot better chance it’ll all stick when they don’t feel restricted, but empowered by cool parents. Coupled with a priming in animal empathy, you’ve got yourself a good little vegan.

Gwen Mathers, AKA Miss Kitchen Witch, is a personal chef and caterer who teaches cooking classes in Los Angeles through animal protection organizations (http://www.misskitchenwitch.com)

 

I was raised vegetarian from birth along with my five siblings. My mother had been an ethical vegetarian since she was 17 years old, and although my father was not vegetarian at the time, she felt strongly enough in the matter to make sure that we were raised this way.

In my family we were raised with two tenets: Never hurt anybody, which meant don’t hurt my brother’s body, or a dog’s body or a cow’s body or any-body, the second being always question authority. I honestly feel that I couldn’t have been raised with anything more important than these two lessons.

I am asked regularly if it was difficult to grow up as a vegetarian child. I feel that my mother did an excellent job in explaining clearly to me why we as a family didn’t eat animals. For myself, and I believe for most children, it is a simple idea to understand that hurting someone is not a nice thing to do (regardless if that someone is a non-human animal). I think children more than adults understand this quicker, since children know what it is like to be a small creature dependant on others for safety and care. My mom did not need to go into the gory details of a slaughterhouse in order for me to understand that if I was capable of feeling pain, that others were just as likely to feel pain too.

I often hear otherwise highly intelligent people say that they would feel bad about “imposing” their vegetarian/vegan lifestyle on their children and that they would like their children to decide for themselves. I am a little insulted by this. Children like myself, once something is explained to them, will accept an idea if it makes sense and therefore there is no imposing of will. I also find it shocking because I wonder if these same people would not try to impose their “belief” that drinking bleach is bad for their children? Good parents are going to constantly have to explain to children what is good and what is bad. That’s the most important job as a parent in my mind. If people are too timid to explain to their children that killing animals is wrong, McDonalds or some other corporation will step right up and tell them it is OK!

Knowing and fully understanding why I didn’t eat animals gave me everything I needed for childhood interactions with other children, their parents and teachers. Being asked on a daily basis why I didn’t eat meat was a tiring process, but I was equipped with the reasons and was astounded that others didn’t have reasons why they did eat meat. I never desired to eat meat with my friends; I was repulsed by it and would encourage my friends to stop eating meat.

There were times of course that I didn’t want to be different and would feel embarrassed. At school lunch time when I would pull out my veggie burger or soy meats, I found myself almost hiding what I was eating. But I found quickly that I was not alone in this feeling. Other kids, mostly born of immigrant parents, also would feel shy about eating their family’s cultural dishes at school and that gave me some comfort.

I never felt resentment towards my parents for raising me this way, because they came from a place of respect. We were raised with respect and love and a foundation on which to grow, which is something hard to rebel against. Many people told my mother that my siblings and I would simply rebel against her for raising us vegetarian. Few I think realized that this rebellion could come in the form of every one of my siblings going vegan! Being brought up to think critically of everything I encountered while remaining peaceful in my actions led me at the age of 12 to adopt a vegan lifestyle for myself. I had been exposed to the truth of how mother cows have their babies stolen from them so that we can steal their milk, and how baby roosters were ground up alive by the egg industry because they did not produce eggs like their sisters, and I decided I could not go along with this. The blatant disrespect of innocent creatures lives by these industries flew in the face of the single most important rule I knew: never hurt anybody.

I am incredibly thankful that I was raised vegetarian and was given the freedom to become vegan at a young age. The simple lesson my mother gave of not hurting anyone has led my life down a path seeking justice for others. I am the co-founder of a farm animal advocacy organization called RESCUED, which works to expose the reality of animal agriculture in all of its forms. I am also the creator of the international music project xTrue Naturex, which focuses around raising awareness for animal and humyn liberation issues, taking me to over 20 countries and close to 100 performances a year to speak on behalf of the unheard.

What I would like to add to this article is something I often say when the subject of raising children vegetarian/vegan comes up. I am fortunate to have been raised vegetarian, but it was not necessary that I be born into this family in order to gain this message and motivation. So few current vegans and vegetarians were born that way. We were educated at some point in our lives about the horrors that animals endure and we make the decision to change how we live. Having biological children in order to “create” vegans is not the solution in my mind. If we have the desire to have children in our lives, I think we should follow in what every vegan advocates talk about all the time for dogs and cats: adopt! If we want to make meaningful change in this world with children, then we should save the innocent kids already living on this planet rather than creating more and encourage them to live vegan, just as we would our own. I feel so strongly about this that I had myself sterilized to prevent myself from ever having biological children. Couples having children to “create” vegan babies is far too close to eugenics in my mind. If you have the desire to have children in our lives, adopt, foster, or simply just help out and encourage them to go vegan.

Keegan Kuhn is co-founder of RESCUED and xTrue Naturex

 

My mom, whose father swore off eating land animals after visiting a slaughterhouse in India, raised me as a vegetarian except for small amounts of fish when I was a baby. Luckily for me, for the most part she was very health-conscious, always providing whole grains and withholding sodas from my eating plan. Her beliefs about food certainly affirmed her choices of plant-based meals for me and my brother growing up, and we loved eating my mom’s home-made vegetable curries, whole wheat spaghetti, as well as the occasional gardenburgers – always on a whole grain bun. To this day, I seek out whole grain options and have never even cared for soda or other carbonated beverages.

Apart from a few instances growing up of eating something containing meat while not realizing it, I never chose to “rebel” by eating the flesh of other animals, either. In fact, from a very young age, I professed my love for animals and knew I wanted to become a veterinarian when I grew up. Being vegetarian just seemed natural.

At school, I endured my share of teasing from classmates, usually over my clothes or how nerdy I was, or sometimes my name, but never over my food choices. When I was in elementary school, the school cafeteria grossed me out, especially the smell of it at lunchtime, so I was happy to have a lunch to eat that I brought from home. I remember sharing my fruit “leather” and peanut butter sandwiches with classmates on the playground who found my food quite appealing. In fact, many times I would have them “earn” a piece of fruit leather by tensing a fist in earnest concentration before being awarded the sweet treat. Little did I know I would be using similar techniques to train dogs years later as a vet student.

I am grateful for being brought up as a vegetarian, as it allowed me to live in close alignment with my deepest values. It also made it much easier for my eventual transition from lacto-ovo vegetarian to becoming vegan once I became aware of the cruelty inflicted on dairy cows and egg-laying hens. While an undergraduate student at UC Berkeley, I read books including “Diet For A New America” which opened my eyes and heart to the plight of animals raised for food and impelled me to become vegan and get involved in activism. One of my first activist projects was getting the dorm cafeterias to provide improved vegan options.

If I ever have a child, s/he will definitely be raised vegan. It’s a wonderful way to live, is life-affirming and sets a powerful example for others. I think vegan parents should do their research about appropriate vegan nutrition for infants, children and adolescents so that their child(ren) can be healthy and show the world that being vegan is not about deprivation. Providing tasty, satisfying snacks and meals for school and special occasions can make the lifestyle fun and invite others to explore it.

I think talking to kids early on about the link between showing kindness to animals and being vegan is important, but I would wait on showing graphic images of cruelty until they are older, maybe in their pre-teen or teen years. Although I wasn’t exposed to extremely graphic videos about factory farming and other forms of institutionalized animal cruelty until I was older, I remember having a terrifyingly vivid nightmare involving euthanasia after seeing a kitten euthanized at a vet clinic I was working at before starting vet school. Different people may react to graphic images differently, but regardless of how one chooses to parent in terms of exposing one’s kid(s) to graphic footage, I think it should be done with an understanding of the possible consequences.

Armaiti May, D.V.M., Dr. May’s Veterinary House Calls, http://www.veganvet.net

 

animal rights, vegan, vegan children

June 1st, 2011 by Gary Smith

In this series, we ask vegans engaged in different kinds of activism a question, and post their responses, to show a diversity of perspectives on the same topic. This is not a forum for ‘professional experts’ and thought leaders, but a space for community voices. Join the discussion below in the comments.

Many vegans identify themselves as atheists. Do you believe that your veganism is the result of your atheism or vice-versa? Do you see them as being completely separate? How do they inform each other?

 

I became atheist in 2003. It wasn’t until a saw a video of factory farms and slaughterhouses that I stopped eating animal flesh in 2004, and made the logical step to go vegan in 2005.

Even though I was never very religious growing up (I went to a Catholic church on Christmas and Easter with my mom and sister while my dad stayed home), I think atheism helped me see that it was wrong to eat, wear, and otherwise exploit animals. As an atheist, it was easy for me to reject the supernatural belief in a species hierarchy and instead view the human species as merely one animal among many in the animal kingdom.

I see atheism and veganism as separate, but I definitely think a move to atheism across human society will help free minds of speciesism and affect a shift towards veganism.

Brandon Becker, co-founder of Animal Liberation Action, a grassroots anti-speciesist and abolitionist group working primarily in the Triangle region of North Carolina, U.S.

 

I became a vegan for the same reason I became an atheist. I was confronted with facts. Like most people in America, I was taught to worship a god and consume animal products. I went to a small K-12 Christian school and the summer after I graduated and ventured out into the real world, someone questioned me about inconsistencies in the Bible. My faith was shattered. It would have been easier to live in denial rather than change who I was, but there’s no integrity in ignorance.

Veganism was more intuitive. I stopped eating animals in the early 90s because I realized I was eating animals, but it was only relatively recently that I learned there’s unnecessary suffering and death in all animal products and I literally went vegan overnight. Veganism and atheism are results of critical thinking, and because of what I have learned, I always want to know more. I’ve done the restaurant scene in Portlandia, but I never ask about the chicken because I know he or she came from a slaughterhouse; I want to know about the person who picked the tomato.

It might be arrogant to deny the possibility that there is more to life and I admit that I have seen and experienced supernatural phenomena, but I don’t need a god. I don’t need animal products either. What I am certain of is that I have a limited amount of time on earth and while I am here, I want to cause the least amount of harm and help others reduce their own negative impacts. Unfortunately, telling someone their religion is bullshit is as unwelcome as telling someone their dietary and consumer habits cause vast amounts of suffering and death. Michael Pollan says veganism is an insult to your mother! Mine went vegan after I did, but I still haven’t told her I’m an atheist. Religion itself is oppressive but her personal belief in Jesus Christ isn’t hurting anyone, so I’m not going to ruin that for her. I don’t tell children there’s no Santa Claus.

Faith Gundran is an anti-oppression activist

 

My regard for animals does not derive from my regard towards any god or religion, or the lack thereof. My compassion and passion for things in life derives from the simple fact that I am not an asshole and that even though I don’t believe in heaven after I die, I still strive to be the most foremost person that I can be.

I became a vegan before I realized I was a free-thinker. Vegans and atheists believe in a lot of different things, but wow, how we believe is so much the same! We are both non-conformist. We go against what society has deemed “social norm,” and what they see is correct or acceptable. Vegans and atheists need hard facts. We don’t believe in things because someone tells us to. We need hard proof of new ideas presented to us. And even then, we are going to need some more convincing. Vegans and atheists also share strange ‘askews’ in the picture society has painted us to be. Just as all Atheists aren’t goth, dark depressed people, neither are vegans all granola-eating hippies living in the woods in yurts.

Vegans and atheists tend to have louder voices in the crowd. We have to have bigger voices to let our smaller message to the world to be heard. Every day we are further pushing the boundaries of the First Amendment, and it’s exciting.

A lot of vegans would disagree with me and say that their moral reasons for not choosing to harm animals is their religious view or is a religion itself. Theirs is a decision based on sinning-if-they-don’t, consequences if they hurt another. I don’t believe in deities and I don’t believe in the laws of karma, but I still care about animals. To me animals are fellow hitchhikers on the planet Earth, and my disbelief in deities sprouted from different sources to me. They derive from my own being and experiences.

Meggan Anderson is an actress and animal rights activist (www.meggananderson.com)

 

There’s no question that my general disdain for religion is rooted in the same type of critical thinking that gave birth to my commitment to veganism. I’d like to take this opportunity to specifically address the notions of both ethics – the philosophy of what’s right and wrong – and morality – the behaviors that one endeavors to engage in as an expression of their ethics. More specifically, I’d like to explore how these very concepts relate to both veganism and atheism.

One of the most common questions that religious people pose as an argument against atheism is “How does one define right and wrong or good and evil without the existence of god?” First off, the question is actually insulting to the entire human species. In fact, to imply that we can’t tell the difference between the two without the help of an invisible, supernatural friend is particularly ridiculous in light of the horrific acts that humans have brought upon each other and their nonhuman fellow earthlings in the name of their religious beliefs. Strangely, it takes conscious effort for humans to transcend the religious jargon spoon-fed to them from childhood. Without such effort, they never learn to critically think for themselves and accept what they are told as truth.

The answer to what is right and wrong is actually fairly simple. The lowest possible bar for what is right is to not knowingly cause a sentient being its maximum suffering. In other words, the easiest level of morality to achieve is simply not to torture anyone. In contrast, the simplest path to doing what is wrong is to cause a sentient being its maximum possible amount of suffering. In other words, the lowest bar for what is wrong is to torture someone. That was easy, right? And there wasn’t any need for god.

At some point growing up, I recognized that the stories and rituals surrounding the supernatural being that I was taught to worship as a Jew simply felt unnatural and contrived. I have been critically questioning religion in general ever since.

How does this relate to veganism? I think it’s obvious.

For the majority of my life I had no idea that the food I ate had any backstory whatsoever. I simply never thought about it. Just as religious parents feed stories and scripture to their children, my parents fed me animal products for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It was simply the norm in my culture, just like believing in a supernatural being. When I met my wife, she showed me that in fact the food I was consuming did not appear magically, but actually came from somewhere. She showed me the truth about factory farming and I discovered that I was literally paying corporations to cause enormous amounts of suffering to billions of my nonhuman fellow earthlings.

I self-reflected. I chose to apply the most basic definition of morality to my life, and have since been committed to a vegan lifestyle. Simply put, without god or religion defining right from wrong, all I needed were facts to commit to the lowest possible bar of morality – not contributing to torture.

Avi Brown is a musician, entrepreneur, and tech geek based in the San Francisco Bay Area, where he resides with his wife and four rescued feline companions. He has been vegan for seven years.

 

I see close association with Judeo-Christian religions as a hindrance to becoming vegan.

Let’s say one starts to think honestly about the use of animals as products and food and starts wondering whether it is correct or ethical. Let’s say such a person is an observant Christian or Jew. Such a person is not going to find much sympathy in their religious home where scripture and teachings claim a deep respect for animals, all of God’s creatures, yet in the end the animals are food for the people and their skins become clothing. If you don’t agree, try convincing your rabbi or pastor that he or she ought to interpret their holy book differently and preach from the pulpit that eating a calf, sacrificed with a very sharp blade and a prayer, or that eating a ham or turkey as part of a Christmas celebration, are behaviors their flock should cease. Well, you’re going to get absolutely nowhere. Yes, there are Christian vegetarian societies and Jewish vegetarian groups but they are small splinter groups. Frank Hoffman from all-creatures.org has told us about countless religious people who can no longer find a home in their temple or church, who instead visit his collection of websites. They have to find their spiritual home online because there are just no brick-and-mortar churches or synagogues that denounce the use of animals as food and products adequately. Similarly Dr. Richard Schwartz has been trying to explain to Jewish congregations why vegetarianism, veganism, and environmentalism are true Jewish values. He should be speaking to huge audiences, yet most rabbis don’t give him the time of day.

So, if you are involved in Judaism or Christianity and start wondering whether to become vegan, you are going to have some serious choices. Many choose simply to walk away from their religions that sanction animal murder.

On the other hand, if organized religion was never important to you, or you are atheist and not yet vegan, then you have all the great literature, films, and enlightening speakers at your fingertips as unadulterated resources. Then you can simply think for yourself and not have to be concerned with a religious authority and arcane traditions from another era.

Peter Spiegel is an ophthalmologist and producer of the radio show Animals Today

 

My atheism is simply my personal rejection of the concept/notion/idea of God. Specifically, I strongly doubt there’s a supernatural being with magic powers living in the sky who created the universe, then wrote books about how he did it and why we must worship him. Why has he not produced a DVD or written an app yet?

Now, just to be clear, I also reject this new very vague God that countless people I’ve met seem to have invented on their own. Without fail they believe everything happens for a reason; they use poetic, beautiful, empowering – yet extremely ambiguous – New Age nonsense about how God is love, compassion and kindness. And I always ask them kindly, why does your God of love hate veal calves so much?

My personal road to both veganism and atheism resembles more of a multi-lane scenic highway winding through an awe-inspiring mountain range with both high peaks and low valleys. In other words, I do believe in mountains and I didn’t get to veganville and atheistown via a simple garden path that I decided to take a stroll down one afternoon. The road to both veganism and atheism began for me with questions when I was a child, questions regarding the most commonly held beliefs about the world in which everyone is indoctrinated as children. The more I questioned, the more the many supposed truths about the world did not seem plausible to me. After the questions came much critical thinking, self reflection and yes, spiritual experiences which had nothing to do with magic or the supernatural. I also had many wonderful years bonding with my boyhood canine black lab mix Cassius, and realized he was a person too.

The way to both animal rights and a disbelief in an almighty creator simply became an exercise in connecting the dots to facts, i.e., reality.

Empathy, intuition, secular, liberal, empirical principles and doubt made it rather easy for me personally to eventually find both of these destinations.

Having doubt is a powerful and important tool for functioning properly. Many of us believe that doubt is somehow a negative way to get from one place to another, but we often fail to realize it’s immense power to transform us for the better. There’s an energy and strength in doubt that comes from questioning and investigating stories that don’t seem to make any sense, stories we are told over and over, for instance how God created the world in six days, or that nonhumans don’t feel pain and that their lives don’t matter as much as a human’s.

Doubt possesses a kind of depth to it that faith totally lacks. What I mean by faith here is the belief in a proposition about the world without any evidence to back it up. This is something that seems to be dangerously utilized over and over in all religious beliefs. The same type of thought pattern exists in the unfounded beliefs humans have regarding other animals. Cultivating doubt in one’s life leads to the essential process of thinking things through rationally to the end of an idea.

There are countless ways both atheism and living vegan inform each other and there are important parallels with both for me too.

The first is that one can live a perfectly happy, healthy, fulfilling life without eating animals or without ever believing in a supernatural being who listens to one’s prayers and cares who we might sleep with.

The second parallel is that neither veganism nor atheism is part of a belief system. To live vegan or as an atheist, no dogma whatsoever can be embraced. Rather, both veganism and atheism are rejections of irrational, sometimes very dangerous and harmful belief systems themselves. In this context religion and speciesism are nearly identical twins. There’s nothing about living vegan one has to believe in to realize it’s wrong to kill someone for the mere taste of his or her flesh. There’s nothing an atheist has to believe in to go through their normal day without including Allah in their thoughts.

The third parallel really shows how being an atheist and living vegan are two peas in the same pod. This can be noticed in our daily interactions where we seem able to criticize a person’s belief on any subject we want, except…two. We can’t criticize someone’s personal beliefs about God, or their complicity in exploiting or killing non-human animals for pleasure. Which, of course, includes eating them. The fact is that it remains absolutely taboo in nearly every area of society to question someone’s religious faith or to criticize their omnivorous behavior. Those who do are accused of being self-righteous, insensitive, rude, or un-American. Both of these subjects remain completely off-limits for criticism, and this has terrible consequences.

Another parallel is that the evidence people claim for believing in certain religious doctrines or in believing that it’s okay to enslave or kill non-humans is either false, dishonest or doesn’t actually exist. The belief that Jesus is coming back to destroy anyone who has not accepted him, or that animals were put here on earth by Yahweh for humans to use as they see fit, lacks any proof or scientific evidence. However, both of these ludicrous beliefs control and destroy the lives of billions.

An unthinking, irrational phenomenon takes place in supposed thinking people when they order a plate of ribs or sit in a mosque, church or synagogue. Overwhelmingly they’re accepting either with blind faith, self-deception, or wishful thinking without ever really examining the nuances of what they’re doing. Do they really believe that God has a plan for them, or that no animals were harmed in the process of getting their dinner? What makes all of this possible (besides a claim to tradition) is that most people are in denial or desperately want to believe the myths they are telling themselves.

There is also a parallel in that all theists are atheists when it comes to accepting another religion’s God, and all meat eaters behave like vegans when it comes to not eating certain animals. Ask any Christian if they believe in Zeus or Krishna and you’ll find a militant non-believer standing in front of you. Ask any compassionate person eating organic lamb if they would be at all interested in trying a filet of Labradoodle and you’ll be thought of as disgusting and heartless.

The world is not going to become a more peaceful, loving place for animals or humans if we simply learn to respect the unjustified beliefs of others. The horrible atrocities that occur every day in slaughterhouses have more in common than we would ever want to admit with the feeling of absolute certainty that a religious man has about going to paradise after he flies a plane full of people into a building full of people. Both horrors are made possible by the astonishing power of unreason and both are inspired by unjustifiable beliefs.

If we’re ever going to see an end to these kinds of mindless acts of mass violence, we’ll all need to start building a world where the concept of going vegan or becoming an atheist is no longer needed.

Philip Steir

Vegan Sanctuary blog, www.mcdman.com/steir.html

 

animal rights, atheism, vegan

May 27th, 2011 by Gary Smith

In this series, we ask vegans engaged in different kinds of activism a question, and post their responses, to show a diversity of perspectives on the same topic. This is not a forum for ‘professional experts’ and thought leaders, but a space for community voices. Join the discussion below in the comments.

Many vegans identify themselves as religious and/or spiritual. Do you believe that your veganism is the result of your faith or vice-versa? Do you see them as being completely separate? How do they inform each other?

 

To me, spirituality is simply the search for what is true and what is real. Beliefs are not only not required, they actually may stand in the way of true spirituality and, I’ve found, often do.

The best friend one can have on this search is a completely open mind and an extreme willingness to question anything and everything. So in this regard, my spirituality is definitely related to my veganism. Veganism came about with a willingness to question the norm, and to look at where food comes from without blinders. It hurts to see or think of an animal in pain, or to try and not think of their plight at all. It feels much better to love and respect them. And I’ve found the health benefits of the diet to be life-changing.

One of the best spiritual gifts that veganism has given me is showing me how I don’t feel good when I try to tell others what’s best for them. Plain and simple, it just doesn’t feel right. I think the reason for this is that, when I look deeply, I see that I don’t actually know what’s best for others or even what’s best for animals. It hasn’t felt good to me to act as if I do. Of course others may feel differently in terms of what they feel they know and what feels right to them, and that is perfect.

Eric Milano

Links recommended by Eric: The Work of Byron Katie, Satsang with Mooji, Adyashanti.org, and Benjamin Smythe

 

Back in 1975, fresh out of college, I embarked on a spiritual pilgrimage that brought me from New England to The Farm in Tennessee, which at that time was a spiritually-oriented hippie commune of nearly a thousand people who ate a completely plant-based diet for ethical reasons. I became a vegetarian there, and it was primarily due to the example of these people at The Farm, who were obviously healthy and who were concerned about both animal cruelty as well as the fact that eating animal foods causes world hunger.

I spent the next ten years or so living in several different Buddhist meditation centers, and became a vegan in 1980 out of concern for the cruelty to cows and hens. In 1984, I lived in Korea as a Zen monk, and lived in a monastery there that had been practicing vegan living for 650 years – the monks abstained from meat, dairy, eggs, wool, silk, and leather out of compassion for animals. I began to see clearly that veganism is essentially a contemporary iteration of the ancient Eastern spiritual principle of ahimsa which is non-violence. Ahimsa is a core principle in all religions, actually, and it is based on the universal wisdom of the Golden Rule and also of karma – that whatever we sow, we will reap: when we harm others, we harm ourselves, and when we enslave others, we enslave ourselves. Spirituality is about liberation, and thus always calls us to awaken to the interconnectedness of all life, and to practice kindness and respect for others. These are both pre-requisites for – and the natural results of – authentically realizing our essential nature as spiritual beings.

Donald Watson, in coining the term “vegan,” specified that the motivation in vegan living is to abstain from cruelty and exploitation to animals (and humans). This is ahimsa, and has always been my primary motivation, though I’ve also been motivated by the health, environmental, and spiritual purification reasons as well.

At its core, veganism is a spiritual movement, based on the ancient wisdom teaching of the interconnectedness of all life, and founded on the compassionate yearning within all of us to bless our world and to celebrate our lives creatively and joyfully on this magnificent Earth. I give thanks to everyone who has, is, or will live this message in daily life. By bringing this message, in whatever ways resonates for us, to our world, we help uplift human consciousness to the truth that compassion and joyful health are two sides of the same coin.

Dr. Will Tuttle

Author, The World Peace Diet

www.worldpeacediet.org

 

My initial venture into vegetarianism 27 years ago I would say was inspired more by political beliefs, however my later practice of veganism was definitely motivated by my spiritual practices. I feel that my spiritual beliefs and my practice of veganism go hand in hand, and are inseparable from each other. The two spiritual traditions I feel most closely aligned to are Buddhism and Native American Indian. Both practices hold in high esteem the idea of oneness with all of creation, and respect and honor for all life, and that is something I try to be conscious of each day, and especially with each meal.

In Buddhism, you take the vow to “save all beings,” a very lofty ideal! Having taken that vow, how could one then proceed to support the slaughter of animals for meat, or their enslavement and torture for dairy and eggs? As a true Buddhist, one that wants to end suffering for all beings, there is no better way to do that than by practicing veganism. Similarly, when I attend sweat lodges, we end each round by chanting “Mitakuye Oyasin” (All My Relations), a Lakota prayer to honor all your relations, including the rocks, trees, bears, geese, wolves, etc. Again, I feel that to truly honor your relations, you don’t eat or enslave them, but allow them to pursue their lives with joy and happiness.

Kevin Starbard

www.peacefulway.com

Sea Shepherd Philadelphia

 

I am not Christian, or Buddhist, or a Yogi or any other label. But I connect with many of the teachings in various religions: compassion and love for all, ahimsa, karma, service to others, raising consciousness, oneness, faith, the golden rule. These teachings go hand in hand with my veganism. They are not separate for me because my veganism and my spiritual beliefs are part of my whole being. But, I prefer not to wear labels. I see time and time again people get really defensive when their labels and attachments are challenged. Wars are raged on humans and animals every day because of labels.

Many people use the label of their religion as a reason to do harmful things to others. I had a woman tell me that I was wrong to oppose horse-drawn carriages because “horses, donkeys, and mules have been working for us since the beginning of time and carried baby Jesus on their backs.” I was shocked by this comment. I thought Christianity was based in the teachings I listed above. I naively thought that most people would agree that these horses are working against their will and do not want to be dressed up in fancy costumes and whipped into submission. Just because we’ve been doing something since the beginning of time doesn’t make it right and unchangeable. For her there was a cap on how much compassion she could spread. I don’t understand this.

I often read or hear people say that veganism itself is like a religion. I have such negative feelings about religion, so it’s hard for me to agree with that statement. But since I’m devoted to this way of life and all that it entails, I guess it is my religion. A religion of compassion and kindness for all beings, a desire to help all beings discover joy and bliss, a lifestyle devoid of hate and violence, and the hope for a better future for all creatures.

Christy Morgan, AKA The Blissful Chef (www.theblissfulchef.com), is a vegan chef, cooking instructor, and author of Blissful Bites: Vegan Meals That Nourish Mind, Body, and Planet

 

The following comments are excerpted from the blog post “Paradise Recovered,” with permission of the producers of Bold Native:

I feel that living as a vegan is my natural extension of following the teachings of Jesus. As a Christian, how can I seek to alleviate suffering when I have just eaten a big piece of steak from a poor cow murdered in a slaughterhouse by unskilled workers desperate for income?

Denying myself and taking up the cross is the call for a Christ follower, and every time I say ‘no’ to meat, despite the ridicule and the nastiness of people, I say with my actions that suffering of any type is not acceptable. And this includes remembering the farm workers (most of whom have no health insurance and are illegal to boot) just as much as it does the animals who are abused.

It’s Easter, and I am reminded that Jesus was a Passover lamb that willingly sacrificed himself to satisfy the demand for justice for the things that we do to offend God and one another. Crucifixion was a brutal death, but some of what I have seen from videos of slaughterhouses equals that kind of brutality. I have often wondered how callous someone would have to be to actually crucify and beat someone beyond recognition. And yet, the industry demands that we create these kinds of workers to do this exact thing to animals. Why? For cheap burgers?

This isn’t the days when Farmer Brown took the pig out back because the family was hungry and had no other access to protein, or even when a pre-literate Jewish family hand raised a Passover lamb as a reminder that sin has consequences – in this case, the death of a prized possession. These are animals that have been genetically mutated, filled with chemicals and artificial hormones, forced to live in repulsive conditions, stripped of any natural defenses, beaten and abused, starved and dehydrated on trucks, and then skinned and gutted alive as they hang upside down.

This is changing the way I look at Easter. And I think that perhaps Jesus, through his crucifixion, lowered himself to the worst imaginable state…a state that many animals suffer. Jesus went willingly to his cross…these poor animals have no choice.

Andie Redwine, writer/producer of the award-winning independent film Paradise Recovered, a modern-day adaptation of the biblical Good Samaritan parable of faith, tolerance, and spiritual abuse.

 

I remember how sad and outraged I was when I first learned, at the age of three, that we kill animals for food. But I wasn’t in a good position to argue about the injustice I saw in this. So I went along with the programming I received from my family and from society, and ate what was put before me. But I can still remember thinking very highly of vegetarians because they make a special effort to help animals each day.

Many years went by before this issue again came to the fore. My ex-wife and I became members of the Humane Society of the US, and we occasionally received pictures that showed the typical living conditions of farmed animals in this country. I found it shocking and could hardly believe that this could occur in a modern, civilized society such as ours. I was also troubled by the tremendous waste of resources that’s involved in animal agriculture. So I gradually went vegetarian and a year later went vegan.

A few years into my new lifestyle, I began thinking about what my biggest benefit was in making the change. I had dropped 30 excess pounds and my cholesterol numbers had improved a lot; I no longer had lower back pain; and was completely rid of the sinus infections since dropping dairy.

But my biggest change, the one that meant the most to me, was in my relationship to a higher intelligence and my newfound sense of clarity regarding the idea of “Oneness” and connection to everyone and everything. I thought “Wow, I do have religion!”, and I stopped calling myself agnostic.

My spiritual growth was enhanced tremendously by my vegetarian and animal rights activism and by making some time available each morning for reflection/contemplation/meditation/prayer for farmed animals. Veganism has been a wonderful practice for me and has helped expand my world far beyond my own personal interests. I’ve learned firsthand that shifting toward a plant-based diet is a powerful, powerful way to love this planet and all those who share it.

Don Robertson

Volunteer chairperson for EarthSave Baltimore

 

My first thought is of that delightful George Bernard Shaw line, “A man of spiritual intensity does not eat corpses.” Amen! Yet I am surprised that you say that many vegans self-identify as spiritual or religious. I think I have found a higher proportion of committed atheists among vegans than in the general population. In fact my first few years of animal rights activism brought on a profound loss of faith. It was almost a cliché – as I learned the horror of the mass institutionalized animal cruelty that is at the framework of society, I asked if there could possibly be a loving God who would allow it.

Indeed, my animal rights activism, which propels my veganism, may make the belief in a God as presented by the classic religions difficult. Yet it makes faith of a different sort necessary. And that faith makes my activism possible, so I love the way you put it, that they “inform each other.”

I practice yoga daily and I study A Course in Miracles, a spiritual text that uses traditional Judeo-Christian terminology to present decidedly Eastern ideas. The main tenet is forgiveness. A Course in Miracles teaches that we do not sin, we make mistakes, we choose badly, and we can always choose again. We are a deeply flawed species; acting in cold self-interest is part of our nature. Yet another part of our nature, perhaps the truest part of our nature, is loving.

I think my activism is more compelling and I know I stay saner when I dispense with the idea that people who don’t yet feel how I do about animal suffering are bad, are the enemy – any more than I am a true enemy to those fighting the global water crisis if I take 15-minute showers. That more forgiving outlook comes from my spiritualism and is fundamental to my activism.

If we don’t believe that other people can change, as we continue to see ourselves change, how can we be activists? My spiritualism, the repetition of mantras such as “Forgiveness is my function,” reminds me that people aren’t good or bad, but instead all have the capacity to choose compassion. It keeps me on course as an activist. I would be useless without it.

Karen Dawn is author of Thanking the Monkey: Rethinking the Way We Treat Animals, and founder the animal advocacy media watch site DawnWatch.com.

 

Values are, or at least should be, at the core of our beings. For some, religion is a matter of values and belief (and for others it is a matter of ancestry and tradition). Despite ancestry and tradition, I could not and would not choose to live any religious way of life that contradicted my values and beliefs. Thus, I find it quite wonderful that Judaism does genuinely support values that I deem most morally right and by which I choose to live my life, including my vegan values. More directly to answer the question, though, my veganism is not the result of my Judaism, nor is my Judaism the result of my veganism. They are both important in my life and fit together quite well, sharing certain teachings, and having no contradiction between them.

In Judaism, there is that which is considered law and that which is considered tradition. There certainly are traditions in Judaism that are not vegan, but those are mere traditions that do not go back to the origins of Judaism, are not required, and for the most part were actually adopted by Jews from their non-Jewish neighbors. That which is a part of religious Jewish requirement, however, not only does not require anything non-vegan, but much of it actually beautifully supports and sometimes teaches a vegan way of life. Even when the Torah speak of a “land flowing with milk and honey,” the milk of which it speaks is almond milk and the honey of which it speaks is date honey.

Food is culturally an important part of Jewish life. Most holidays have their traditional foods, and those that actually have their religious significance are, or easily can be, vegan – apples dipped in date honey at Rosh HaShanah, fall harvest vegetables at Sukkot, latkes and apple sauce at Chanukah, hamantashen at Purim, matzah, charoseth,, bitter herbs, green vegetables, etc. at Passover, falafel at Yom HaAtzmaut, etc.

All Jewish holidays are filled with positive messages that are quite congruent with being vegan. Passover, for example, is also known as the Festival of Freedom. While traditionally on their seder plates, some Jews use an egg to symbolize new life and growth and a shank bone to symbolize the blood that was used as a paint on ancient doorposts, these are not items referred to traditionally in the haggadah to actually be eaten or even required to be present. The symbolization, though, is important, and it is quite acceptable to use an avocado pit instead of an egg and beet instead of a shank bone, as they symbolize the same. At my seder, we use “The Haggadah for a New World,” which I wrote decades ago. It includes all the required and most traditional Passover readings but also incorporates other elements that are important for fully consciously celebrating such a Festival of Freedom.

My favorite day of the year is the ancient Jewish holiday of Tu b’Shvat. It is an age-old holiday that was the original Earth Day. It is to be celebrated by honoring the earth, taking care of the earth, and feasting on the fruits (and nuts) of the earth. The holiest of all holy days on the Jewish calendar is Yom Kippur. As I lead the children’s services at synagogue, each year some child asks the question of why there are many adults in synagogue without their belts and wearing fuzzy slippers or canvas sneakers instead of their dress shoes. It is a perfect opportunity to help the children learn the vegan message that is such a part of Yom Kippur.

On the holiest of holiest of all days of the year, when we are to be asking G-d for forgiveness for all of our sins, Judaism teaches that it would be considered the greatest sin to be wearing part of one of G-d’s beautiful creatures. It is thus prohibited on Yom Kippur to wear animal products such as leather. I help the children realize that if that is the holiest way to live on the holiest day of the year, then we can make our everyday lives more holy by living that way everyday of the year. Being vegan is the ideal in Judaism. In Eden, the world was vegan. When the Moshiach comes, the world will be vegan. While we may be permitted to not be vegan in these unholy times in between, there is no reason we can’t elevate our lives to be holier and be vegan everyday of our lives. As Jews, we can live fully by our values as VeJEWtarians.

www.VeJEWtarian.org is a chavurah for those who are both actively Jewish and vegetarian and consider both to be important parts of their lives.

Andy Mars, Ph.D., is director of www.KidsMakeADifference.org, which includes vegan camps, a vegan school, and the Veg Kids organization

 

animal rights, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, spirituality, vegan

May 9th, 2011 by Gary Smith

 

 

In this series, we ask vegans engaged in different kinds of activism a question, and post their responses, to show a diversity of perspectives on the same topic. This is not a forum for ‘professional experts’ and thought leaders, but a space for community voices. Join the discussion below in the comments.

Last week PETA posted a note advising vegans to eat small amounts of animal products when dining at non-vegan restaurants. They used a couple of examples: a tiny bit of a dairy product in the bun of a veggie burger and not “grilling” the wait staff about whether your order is grilled on the same grill as meat. They say this makes a vegan diet look difficult and dogmatic, which will discourage others from going vegan. Kathy Freston advocates eating 2 percent animal ingredients when dining out in her book Veganist and in a contributed essay for Kris Carr’s book Crazy Sexy Diet. She’s talking about small amounts of butter, whey, or other animal ingredients in the bun your veggie burger is served on. Do you agree that vegans should not worry about small amounts of animal ingredients in your restaurant food? What are the implications if a large percentage of vegans decided to take PETA’s and Kathy’s advice?

 

Worry…what a foreign concept to associate with my veganism, a way of life that makes me so utterly happy and proud. I don’t identify with the word whatsoever when it comes to how I eat, how I order, or who I might imagine is judging my requests at a restaurant (human minds tend to overestimate this kind of thing anyway). I’ve chosen this vegan life with intent and purpose and so I live it wholeheartedly – not sometimes, not a little, but always. Committed to the cause in this way, I am more Malcolm X and MLK than Booker T. Washington. As in the aforementioned news, there are enough Booker Ts in the vegan movement already who support people in maintaining, “just a little,” the status quo. This is simply not what I aspire to.

The only times that worry comes into play in this sector of my life is in hindsight of a missed opportunity where I could have spoken up for veganism and animals, could have helped educate someone misinformed or unacquainted with our tenets, could have… but didn’t. We should worry in these cases! I should “worry” (with active concern) about those moments where I am not living according to my own virtues or the courage I seek to possess. By examining those flawed moments, I will grow and they will happen less and less. I will be able to help more animals and open more hearts in the long run.

So in my opinion, Freston and the PETA note are wrong, we should worry. But not in the sense they mean. We shouldn’t worry that restaurants will despise us, that friends will think we’re dogmatic, etc. We should worry if we’re not living according to the virtues we hold dear. We should worry if we’re eating two percent animal products in a restaurant so as to make the host feel comfortable. And we should worry as well if we’re behaving like aggressive idiots towards an unaware waitress instead of politely making a vegan request or offering suggestions for more vegan options (if they can’t meet your request, politely order something else). You never know the kind of seeds your thoughtful words and choices might plant. What makes an effective activist is the ability to read an audience and relate – in an intelligent, tailored way – what you know, so that we are heard, not hidden.

Ruby Roth is an artist, writer, and activist living in Los Angeles, California. She is the author of That‘s Why We Don‘t Eat Animals, the first children’s book to address the emotional lives of animals, factory farming, the environment, and endangered species

 

Asking vegans to temporarily betray their ethics and partner with their adversaries in order to avoid being seen as a nuisance is libelous, confusing and damaging to the positive results of the vegan movement. It is not viable to the liberation of animals to willfully consume the products that oppress them. Sensitivity is one thing, but fundamental change is another.

It’s important to understand that the process of change is slow and unpredictable, and that one thing is certain: it will always be met with friction. I refuse to reconcile my desire to change the world with my desire to simply survive it. If you’re concerned with social etiquette when ordering vegan food, I encourage you to try the cruelty-free (and apparently overlooked) approach of simply using your manners; after all, no animals are harmed in the process of using those.

Elissa Sursara

Actress and animal rights activist, Twitter

 

I think this not only sets a dangerous precedent of a cavalier attitude towards animal-based ingredients, but it also trivializes the essence of veganism. It is more than just a diet, or even a lifestyle; it is the living practice of animal rights, and as such, it is not a mere exercise in purity. Instead, it is a practice of ensuring justice – justice for the animals that are confined, tortured and killed by industries that exploit them.

As in any other justice movement seeking to redress the wrongs of oppression, there is nothing trivial about anything that ultimately denies beings of their inherent rights; it is our responsibility to counter offhand racist remarks, for instance, even if there is no one else around who might be affected by it, because it serves to educate the person that even such seemingly trivial actions serves to normalize oppression. By the same token, insisting a restaurant or a manufacturer ensure that there are no animal ingredients at all will educate them that veganism is a practice of principle. If we don’t insist on strict adherence to a principle, then industry will not take us seriously and not bother to change its practices and methods.

What PETA and Kathy Freston suggest sets a bad precedent; it’s similar to a chef telling you that you should accept a dish that has “just a tiny amount of meat.” It shows a lack of respect for the ethics behind veganism. And while at a personal level it may seem inconsequential, small numbers do add up. If every vegan does as what PETA and Kathy suggests, that will ensure a large steady demand for animal-derived ingredients, with the resulting suffering as the consequence.

Now granted, the price of living in an industrialized society today is that no-one can live entirely completely 100 percent vegan, but again, the point is not about purity, but about justice; we have to strive, as much as we can, to achieve the kind of change to ensure justice for all beings, and if that can include modifying the methods of industry to not have any animal-based ingredients at all, then that is something we have a responsibility to demand.

Peter Keller

Elected member of the Board of Directors, Northwest Animal Rights Network

Campaign founder and director of the Vegan Mentor Program

 

What rescue can suffering animals expect when even “animal rights” organizations and “vegan” authors casually announce that a little bit of cruelty is okay? PETA defines vegans by their intentions, not their actions. You can assert you are vegan as long as you eat animal foods only when it would be inconvenient not to. You make choices based on a terror of what other people will think, rather than on your own principles. You set a role model of “well, I’m vegan, kind of, not really sure why.”

Even if you are focused mostly on your own health, a little bit CAN hurt. Some things are good in moderation, like sunshine, exercise, food, and sleep. Others are best at a zero dose, like smoking, addictive drugs, mercury, asbestos, DDT, diesel exhaust, and animal protein. Even small amounts cause damage.

If you are motivated by kindness to animals and to the earth, the advice to be a casual vegan makes even less sense. Once people tell themselves it’s okay to eat animal foods in restaurants, the tendency is for this state of mind to balloon, until being plant-based becomes a distant memory. The greatest rewards for being vegan are the peace of mind and kinship with animals that spring from NEVER participating in suffering. Even one thoughtless bite of animal ingredients rips a hole in this inner peace that will devastate your world. Is the convenience worth the price? (Explore the joyful inner peace a day with rescued animals brings in this blog post.)

Janice Stanger, Ph.D.

Author of The Perfect Formula Diet: How to Lose Weight and Get Healthy Now With Six Kinds of Whole Foods

 

I went out and sat with our three rescued calf boys this morning. I felt at ease with them because since going vegan three years ago, I had done as much as I could to avoid animal products in the things I buy. Beyond not wanting to put even trace amounts of the suffering of these boys’ brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers into my body, I also want to support products that make the effort to not include animal ingredients, and patronize restaurants that provide that with which I want to nourish myself.

Whenever I visit a restaurant, unless I happen to be at one of L.A.’s raw food restaurants, I always have to make substitutions and alterations since I eat predominantly living foods. I apologize in advance to my server for being the difficult one, but I let them know what I really want in my meal, and almost always they are gracious. If not, I will give my money elsewhere. I look at requesting items without animal ingredients as a form of education. Most times I feel that people are surprised at where animal ingredients show up, and in what forms.

I do not think making veganism “easier” will be accomplished by accepting trace amounts of animal products, I think it will make it weaker and less discussed and ultimately remove some demand for products fully without animal ingredients. My calf friends do not want to eat parts of their relatives, and nor do I.

Cameron O’Steen

Education & Outreach Liaison, Animal Acres, a farmed animal sanctuary and compassionate living center based north of Los Angeles

 

As vegans, we unintentionally consume non-vegan things all the time, whether it is parts of dead bugs that end up in cereal from the cereal manufacturing plant, or a dessert a well-meaning non-veg friend made for us that has something in it that they didn’t realize was an animal byproduct. Vegans who dine at non-vegan restaurants should expect animal byproducts in their food. It is done unintentionally when the restaurant kitchen staff get rushed and doesn’t remember to modify the meal, or because the restaurant staff are unaware of what vegan means. We all think everyone knows because we know, but the reality is that a very small number of people truly know what the word vegan means, including some honey-eating vegetarians. I think vegans should try to convey to the waitress and waiter what veganism is, not just for the selfish purpose of getting a vegan meal for themselves, but to help other vegans who will dine there in the future.

I usually say to the waiter or waitress, “I’m going to be trouble, but hope you can help me.” This is said with a smile. I proceed to tell them I’m vegan and explain what that means in one short sentence (they aren’t looking for the history of veganism). I then say, “what would you recommend I order that is vegan?” Reminding them that I’m vegan reinforces the term. When they make a recommendation, they usually say “I really like this item,” and I jokingly say, “well I definitely don’t want it if you like it” (again said with a smile). Then I almost order what they recommend, unless it has things I hate like sprouts. The server always asks later in the meal if I liked what they recommended, and the whole experience is pleasant for everyone. It is a collaborative effort and the server is happy to help the customer find something that works.

I don’t like the idea of vegans ever intentionally eating non-vegan items to please people. Most of us did that when we were first becoming vegetarian; we kept eating meat occasionally just to please our family or our friends. As we become more honest with ourselves about what we care about, we have an obligation to be honest with others. The worst thing is to be viewed as a hypocrite. If you say you care about animals, but go out and buy a nice new car with leather interior or can’t give up your favorite silk tie or leather shoes, that will bother people. Along with that, if you say you love animals, but are mean to most people you interact with, you are similarly doing a large disservice to animals. Deciding to not intentionally participate in a system of oppression is what we are all supposed to do, so baby steps are fine, but going backwards hurts animals and hurts us as individuals.

Vegans shouldn’t listen to PETA, Kathy Freston, or me, they should decide for themselves what makes sense – and what makes sense should always be doing what is in the best interest of the animals for whom we are supposed to be advocating. Exploiting a chicken for an item with a little bit of egg, so our friends can order ten seconds sooner (because we aren’t asking questions) isn’t creating a future vegan at the dinner table and isn’t helping the chicken. I’ve never been at a dinner where the vegan who didn’t ask questions about the bread got their meat-eating friend to give up steak for that meal. The way we get people to give up meat is by educating them about the issues, not by eating a little bit of whey and eggs.

Prahbat Gautam

Co-Founder, Los Angeles Veg Society

www.laveg.org

 

 

Kathy Freston, PETA, vegan, Veganist

May 2nd, 2011 by Gary Smith

 

This post debuts a new feature on The Thinking Vegan: TTV Consortium. In this series, we ask vegans engaged in different kinds of activism a question, and post their responses, to show a diversity of perspectives on the same topic. This is not a forum for ‘professional experts’ and thought leaders, but a space for community voices. We hope you’ll join the discussion below in the comments.

Many vegans in the community will not support so-called “single issue campaigns” such as fur or vivisection. They feel that outreach should be focused on vegan education. Others feel that these campaigns are a way of bringing people into the movement, and they have the potential to be tactically successful. Do you support single issues? If so, please explain which issues you feel are worthy and why.

 

I support single-issue campaigns only if they (1) don’t throw other species under the bus, and (2) make it clear that any animal use is unacceptable. Don’t say that you’re against the killing of whales, dogs or elephants because they are special; it implies that other animals are not special or are less deserving of rights. Instead, focus on the fact that they are sentient and try to make it clear that you oppose the use and killing of all sentient beings.

Regarding which single issues are worthy, I believe it’s more effective to focus on ending a use or saving lives, rather than regulating a use. For example, campaigns that chip away at the edges of animal use are saving lives. The edges – the issues where much of the public is on our side – are where we can save lives right now. Suffering is suffering, but some uses are more obviously wrong to the general public than others. (Not more wrong, but more obviously wrong.) You might not be able to convince Aunt Mary to go vegan, but you might be able to convince her that fur, cosmetics testing and hunting on National Wildlife Refuges are wrong. And when enough Aunt Marys believe in something, legislators will listen.

Saving lives is not just about ending uses of animals. Other campaigns to save lives include TNR (trap, neuter, release of feral cats), protecting wild habitats, and fighting breed-specific legislation.

On the other hand, telling people to buy cage-free eggs is problematic because you are telling people to buy eggs. Let the exploiters try to convince the public that their form of exploitation is better than their competitor’s – that’s not an animal rights message. Campaigns to reform the industry are one thing, but telling people which animal exploiters to support is another.

Will incremental reforms lead to abolition? I don’t think anyone knows for sure, but with such limited resources, I believe the movement should focus on campaigns that will save lives, including vegan education.

I know that some activists feel that single-issue campaigns do not advance animal rights, but I believe that they do if done correctly. Also, single-issue campaigns give us a chance to save some animals today, before the world is vegan.

Doris Lin

About.com Guide to Animal Rights

 

I support single-issue campaigns for several reasons. First, sometimes they are winnable, which means immediate amelioration of animal suffering. Second, sometimes a single issue is a valuable way to educate the public because the facts are tangible and the images are vivid. Third, it bugs me to see animal abusers go about business as usual without anyone objecting.

Some of the campaigns I’ve been involved in over the past year include fur, foie gras, rodeos, circuses, lobster games and puppy mills.

Dave Simon

Orange County People for Animals

 

I support any action – individual or collective – consistent with the philosophy and goals of anti-speciesist animal liberation.

If a person or group of people were to demonstrate in order to denounce, and demand a total ban on, the use of any and all other animals as experimental test subjects in medical and scientific labs, I would support them. If a person or group of people were to protest against, and call for the cessation of the use of any and all other animals as sources for clothing, shoes and accessories, I would support them as well. For just as a clear, consistent and compelling argument against the use of all other animals as food can help to call attention to the pressing moral problems inherent in our use of other animals, so can a clear, consistent and compelling argument against the use of all other animals as sources of entertainment (in circuses, marine parks and on race tracks, for example).

Having said this, not all campaigns against the exploitation of other animals are or necessarily will be consistent with anti-speciesist animal liberation. An obvious example would be a campaign against the slaughter of seals in Canada that threatened a boycott of “seafood” from the Canadian markets unless the slaughter of seals was brought to an end. Clearly, this type of campaign would not be consistent with anti-speciesist philosophy; rather it would be speciesist itself. There is no non-arbitrary reason I know of which makes the lives of most of the forms of ocean-dwelling life who end up as food on our tables any less valuable to them than are the lives of seals to the seals themselves. Anti-speciesists ought not to be willing to sacrifice the lives of some other animals simply for the sake of yet others.

In any case, as part of any campaign which I would support or join, I would always make sure that the primary message I conveyed, clearly and consistently, was that any and all uses of all other animals as tools, resources, sources of entertainment, food, clothing, experimental test subjects or anything else must end. When it comes to other animals, this is the single issue I support.

Tim Gier

Administrator at ARZone.ning.com, an online social justice network of activists and advocates in the animal movement; volunteer at Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary, blogger, Timgier.com.

 

While vegan education is critical to changing public perceptions about animals and ultimately bringing about change for them, single-issue campaigns are sometimes necessary because they don’t fit neatly into the vegan box. Animal research is one of those issues.

Urging people to give up meat and dairy products will certainly reduce animal suffering and transform societal attitudes about animals used for food. But vegan outreach alone will do little to help those animals imprisoned in laboratories across the globe. Behind closed doors of esteemed universities and tucked away in unassuming private labs, millions of animals live lives of quiet desperation. One could argue that of the myriad ways animals are exploited, experimentation on animals is perhaps the most cruel, since animals are subjected to relentless torture for weeks, months, even years. Procedures conducted on animals in labs are horrific – animals, including dogs, cats, mice, rats, monkeys, rabbits, and more are given electroconvulsive shock, exposed to radiation, caustic chemicals, and biological agents, burned alive, subjected to addictive drugs, psychologically tormented, and deprived of food, water, and sleep.

To be effective at ending animal research, a campaign must undertake a variety of activities, such as filing freedom of information requests, conducting investigations, encouraging and building relationships with whistleblowers, developing educational materials, employing social networking, educating the public, establishing alliances with other voices, promoting non-animal alternatives, and generating media. An effort of such complexity requires a level of expertise and focus that vegan education alone simply cannot provide.

Brian Vincent

Founder/director, Stop UBC Animal Research, a community grassroots campaign to educate the public about research on animals at the University of British Columbia; founder/director, Canadian Coalition Against Animal Research and Experimentation, a network of animal advocates working collectively to end animal research across Canada. See their Facebook group page or Twitter.

 

I do support single issues and think they are absolutely necessary. I want to save as many animals’ lives as I possibly can. There are lots of people who eat meat and will continue to eat meat, but if we can get them to agree with us that purchasing fur is unnecessary, then we are saving millions of animals from being skinned alive and clubbed to death each year.

Fur is an issue that a lot of people can and have gotten behind. Yes, vegans shouldn’t wear fur/leather (though some still do: I’m stunned at vegetarians who buy a new car with leather seats), but making the world vegan as the starting point is the stopping point in logical thinking. It’s equivalent to saying that once we have world peace we can start focusing on educating people. It’s the education that needs to come first for people to see that non-violence is in the best interest of people everywhere.

Single issues are essential to make significant change happen in our lifetime. We need to each work on the areas where we are most comfortable. Being vegan is great, but we still need to figure out how to get L.A. to stop euthanizing millions of animals in our shelters. Stopping the sale of fur, eliminating animal testing, or creating more vegans – any and all of these are worthy goals. Every issue matters.

Prahbat Gautam

Co-Founder, Los Angeles Veg Society

* Editor’s Note: although we tried to get comments from activists who oppose single-issue campaigns, none were willing to participate personally. Instead we were directed to Gary Francione’s work on the subject, an example of which can be found here. Francione is a professor of law and philosophy at Rutgers School of Law-Newark.

animal rights, fur, The Thinking Vegan, vegan