VEGANGELICA

Hi Neapolitan! Thank you for your questions. I really am happy to answer them.

Eating dairy products does support the killing of cows. Unfortunately, dairy cows are inseminated (usually artificially) every year in order for them to maintain a milk supply. Thus they give birth every year. The male calves are either killed right away or after around 6 weeks to be eaten as "veal" because it isn't lucrative to raise male "dairy" calves for meat.

Also, although dairy cows normally would live 20 years, farmers usually kill them at around 6 years of age because their milk supply dwindles below the profitable level.

Honey bees, when raised in large populations by people, tend to out-compete non-captive pollinators, which I've read may harm ecosystem species diversity. Bee keepers do kill bees in the process of handling them.

Vegans probably usually feel the negative side of bee-keeping is less important than the negative side of raising large domestic animals to kill. As a vegan, though, I avoid honey because I don't know the full effects of the honey industry on bees and ecosystems. Sometimes I eat some bread that has a little honey in it because often it is hard to find bread without honey.

Ideally, no, since harvesting sealife harms ocean ecosystems...although I'm not sure of the exact origin of decorative mother of pearl. I assume it is a byproduct of the shellfish industry. Ideally there would be substitutes for use in instruments. Or people would just use shells that wash up on the beach!

A related issue I face is with my violin bow: it has horse hair. I very much doubt people harvest long hairs from *living* horses. I need to investigate the little-known, potential horrors of the horse hair trade.

Yes, vegetarians eat mushrooms, because fungi have no brains and thus would be expected to have little sentience or awareness of existence, since the mind as we know it is associated with, if not the same as, the brain.

You are right that fungi are more closely related to animals. They have a weird fleshy taste to me, though I like to eat mushrooms, Neapolitan. They look so alien to me....all those brown spores and gills!

No, because it wouldn't be right to hurt their chance to live. I feel vegetarians are concerned only with human actions and do not hope to end hunting done by animals who have no choice. I do wish the natural world were different than it is, though, because it is horrendously cruel...even though there are amazingly wonderful aspects, too.

A very good question and not easy to answer. My view: yes, vegetarians may care for certain pets and certainly strays, but not make pets out of wild-caught animals or animals who really shouldn't be captive because they don't enjoy it. I wouldn't own a pet where I had to kill another animal to feed her or him, though. I actually know a vegetarian who feeds her dogs steaks, probably reasoning that this is healthiest for the dogs...though I wonder why she ignores what is best for the cows.

While dogs can be vegetarian, cats do require a fatty acid found only in flesh, if I recall correctly...although I should think people could synthesize this component to make veggie cat food. I feel feeding renderized animal parts to cats is probably not healthy for cats and definitely is not good for the livestock animals! I used to own a cat, but wouldn't now because I would feel guilty and sad about supporting the killing of one animal (cows) to feed another (cats). I loved my cat very much, though. The bond of friendship I felt with her helped me feel more empathy for other animals. This is one of the nicest aspects of caring for a pet.

Since an ant is an animal, I think few vegetarians would seek to eat chocolate-covered ants. Most would probably feel that since ants live such short lives anyway that eating them is low on the list of serious harms people cause animals. People bashing baby piglets to death (common practice) concerns me more. I do try to avoid stepping on ants. One thing about being vegan is that you realize you cannot stop or end all killing of animals, but you try to reduce it.

Yes, water is fine. Water is not produced by intentional killing of animals and other living beings, but by their own life processes. Drinking water will not kill aniimals...usually...although freshwater depletion due to human use is a severe problem in many places of the world. Look at the Yangtze River in China...running dry much of the year. So, our use of freshwater does certainly impact other animals and should be considered.

I support free speech but myself do not put people down by saying they are like various non-human animals for the exact reasons you give, Neapolitan. Also, instead of "Kill two birds with one stone" I say "Find two berries in one bush."

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