Animal Writings

There are many reasons why I'm vegan: I want to refrain from causing avoidable harm, I respect animals' will to live, I believe animals are deserving of basic rights (and as moral agents we are obligated to try not to infringe on those rights), a vegan diet is ecologically responsible, as a vegan I don't have to make up stories about where my food came from or why it's ok to kill animals because I like the taste of their flesh. The health benefits are a nice side-effect.

But the most compelling and urgent motivation for me to be vegan is to reduce suffering. Suffering is the worst state of being. We fear intense suffering worse than we fear death. We go to extraordinary lengths, even performing euthanasia, to prevent our beloved animal companions from suffering. When they suffer, we suffer. The philosopher Jeremy Bentham, writing almost two hundred years before the modern animal rights movement, when the concept of animal rights was virtually non-existent, grasped this fundamental basis when, in arguing for animal rights, he stated: "The question is not, can they reason? Nor, can they talk? But, can they suffer?" Suffering implies interests—in fact, profound interests—and this the basis of rights.

The shared capacity to suffer may be one of the strongest bonds we have with animals. And usually we know when an animal is suffering. It is a chilling recognition. They suffer very much like us. They scream and writhe in pain; they lose control of their bowels and bodily functions. If the suffering is psychological and prolonged, they develop neurotic behaviors such as rocking or spinning. But after a while, they descend into learned heplessness. Their lives become so empty and rotten that they give up all hope, they become the living dead.

If an animal is suffering, we are compelled to help her if we can. In the animal agriculture industry, animals suffer. They suffer in so many ways, and at so many points in their abbreviated lives. How does it feel to me a new chick, full of life, hungry and curious, and be thrown in a trash bin, and have so many other birds thrown on top of you that you can't breathe and die of asphyxiation? What does it feel like to be one of the "spent" hens hanging in shackles, muscles paralyzed from being shocked, bleeding to death, blood from the artery in your neck running along your face and dripping on the floor? What of the hens whose only existence has been in a cage? Who can't flap their wings, who can barely move? Who will never breathe fresh air, save for the trip to the slaughterhouse? Who sees nothing but more cages, stuffed with birds, in every direction? They are in the worst of the worst from animal agriculture: the battery cage egg operation.

The only way to eliminate this suffering is to stop buying its products. To stop supporting the industry that causes it and profits from it. The solution is simple—go vegan.

It's really not that difficult. If I can do it, most likely so can you. I loved meat and thought I could never live without cheese. What pointless drama! Giving up cheese is easy compared to giving up my morals.

The main barriers are in your mind. You are comfortable with your present diet, "vegan" may conflict with your self-image, you're not sure what to eat or if you'll get enough protein. Believe me, all these issues are firmly settled and/or there are massive amounts of support and information all around the web and in real life. It sometimes take a gentle push to make a change that has sort of been on hold in the back of your mind. Consider yourself pushed. :) Choosing a diet that is fully in line with your morals—being kind, being decent, being generous, being humble, respecting others as in the Golden Rule—and that is as humane as reasonably possible fosters peace and produces magnificent rewards, both in you and the animals you spare from suffering. Go ahead! It's easier and more gratifying than you think.

Labels: animal agriculture, animal rights, cheese, suffering, veganism