VEGANGELICA

I wrote a new essay, just for this thread, mojo!

Erica’s “Why I’m a Vegan” essay:

I have been a vegan for over 10 years and an ovo-lacto vegetarian for 10 years before that, primarily because I don’t want people to hurt animals and take away their one chance to live. Being vegan means I avoid eating and using animal products, and I try to treat all animals, including humans, kindly.

I became vegetarian and then vegan for emotional reasons. I cared for pet parakeets when I was a child and considered them my friends. I began to feel uncomfortable eating their close relatives. My circle of concern and the value I place on other species’ lives widened and widened. Just as I love living, I want non-human animals to have the chance to live as long and full of lives as they can, unharmed by me or other people.

Gradually, long after becoming vegetarian, I learned that plant-based diets have health and environmental benefits, too.

Many people may be unaware that well-planned vegetarian and vegan diets are healthful and can be superior to diets that include animal products such as meats, especially red meats, as is described in the American Dietetic Association 2009 Position Paper on Vegetarian Diets (Vegetarian Diets).

Many people may also be unaware that plant-based diets benefit the environment (and people) by reducing the global warming gas emissions, fresh water usage, pollution, and topsoil destruction caused by animal agriculture (please see “Livestock’s Long Shadow” (2006) by the United Nations, FAO, ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/010/A0701E/A0701E00.pdf).

Several of you made the argument that eating meat is “natural” and thus morally acceptable because humans are omnivores (able to eat plants and animals). This argument has never been a convincing one to me.

People can choose all sorts of behaviors that are “natural,” but just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. For example, infanticide, eating “pet” animals, and cannibalism are all natural. However, my ability to digest flesh does not decide for me whether I eat a cow, milk, eggs...or you, for that matter. Humans naturally have the ability to make ethical choices. I can decide...naturally...not to eat any animals.

Some people argue that vegan diets aren’t “natural” because vegans need vitamin B-12 supplements. Vegans do need vitamin B-12, which occurs in nature in bacteria, the source of all the vitamin B-12 in animal products. Luckily, humans discovered methods for synthesizing vitamin B-12 cheaply in large quantities, just like humans have discovered methods for making many other "unnatural" things we use: cars, refrigerators, computers, and vaccines, to name a few.

A small bottle of vitamin B-12 providing a 28-year supply costs only $4. If you feel veganism is unnatural because you need to eat vitamin B-12, then to be consistent you should avoid all “unnatural” things, like vaccines. I choose not to ignore the benefits of being vegan and vaccinated. And I not only survive, but flourish. If veganism weren’t natural, then I wouldn’t be alive on earth, part of nature, right now.

I view the eating of animals as a cultural practice that continues among wealthy humans in developed nations for two reasons only: people like the taste of the animals and are encouraged to treat animals as if their feelings and experiences of life do not matter, as if their lives have no value except as a commodity. Meat-eating cultures make it hard for people to learn about the benefits of plant-based diets. The only benefit that I can see from having a meat-eating diet is that it would give me a chance to eat Urban Hatemonger. (That was a test to see if he is reading.)

As others have stated in this thread, killing non-human animals and eating their flesh is not murder in a legal sense, yet I do feel that killing animals is murder in an ethical sense. I feel it is wrong to kill beings who have feelings and an experience of life. When I look into the eyes of animals, I see them looking out at me. However that experience of sentience (awareness) feels for them, I do not want to end their one chance to have what I value so much: the feeling of being alive.

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MAStudent

My aunt had a laspo apso. A cute little dog.

It got really old, though, and had growths on it. Its time was near.

So my dad, believing in the "Of Mice and Men" and "Old Yeller" philosophy, accepted that he had to put it down for her.

So he took it outside and (we live in the country-ish) dug a grave for it, got it all ready. Then he wrapped his pistol in a towel so it wouldn't be too loud for the neighbors, aimed it at the head....and shot it in the ear. It moved its head.

Then it was moving around. He was trying to aim through the rag. Shot it in the face, but not a good one. Finally had to just get rid of the towel, but then the dog was moving all over, but looking at him for help, too.

He shot it like 9 times in the face before it died. Man! That sucked.

ProggyMan

I would agree, actually participating in the processes that keep you alive is very important. I've never hunted but I've fished and farmed, and hunting is definitely on my bucket list.

NumberNineDream

Are crabs and lobster not allowed for vegetarians?

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ProggyMan

So...Ever swatted a mosquito?

Neapolitan

no, but I ate chocolate cover ants before

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VEGANGELICA

Good goddess! What a horrible death for the dog, MAStudent. And that must have been awful for all of you, too, since your dad had hoped to quickly and painlessly kill the dog so he or she didn't die slowly from tumors and possibly painful cancer.

How did your dad react? Did he wish then that he had taken the dog to the vet who could have quickly and painlessly ethanized her by lethal injection, or perhaps have recommended letting nature take its course? Death by old age is not always painful.

Hi #9! I doubt anyone who called herself a vegetarian would eat any animal, including crabs and lobsters.

ProggyMan, I brush mosquitoes away...gently.

I see your underlying question as a very important one: how do we go about deciding what value another being's life has to us? This question is important for how we treat not just non-human animals but also humans, and people can't even decide on an answer for that! For example, some people feel killing humans in war is acceptable, even innocent bystanders who are "collateral damage."

My decisions about when to kill any animal are affected by my perception of whether it is a threat to me and whether there is a way to get away without either of us being harmed. If a man were standing in front of me, planning to gun me down, and I as a police officer drew my gun, I hope I would try to maim the man rather than shoot to kill. This goes for an attacking human and an attacking tiger and an attacking mosquito.

My full answer about mosquitoes is that if I am outside, I brush them away and run away a little. If one is biting me, the damage/possible infection with West Nile Virus is already done, and I brush the plump, blood-engorged mosquito away. Sometimes, if a mosquito is hovering near me at bedtime indoors, I do try to kill it because I fear that it will bite me in my sleep, though I transport live flies and spiders outside of my home to release them since they are no significant threat to me.

Heh heh...as a child I used to go into a strange store with a friend at a mall and stare at a jar of chocolate covered ants because we were so perplexed and disturbed and disgusted.

Oddly, the thought of eating ants seemed weird but I turned right around during most of my childhood and ate cows or pigs without thinking much about them at all...until I started looking closely in the butcher's case or at someone's dead leg that I held in my hand. Culture is a strong force that puts blinders on people, I feel.

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NumberNineDream

I liked that answer. This mosquito issue has been intriguing me for months now, maybe cause I live in a milieu rich with them. I never kill an insect if I'm outside in the woods, cause I'm a coward and prefer the animals, non-vengeful. However, I do kill the mosquitoes at home if they got me angry enough to make me chase them, but if I'm tired I just sleep with whole body under the sheet (I feel asphyxiated at first, at least I'm not hearing mosquitoes panning from ear to ear).

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VEGANGELICA

It sounds like your attitude toward mosquitoes is similar to mine. The sound of a mosquito's buzzing as you lie in the bed in the dark, knowing you are stalked, is always annoying. You can hear it getting closer and closer...and for me this usually leads to a bright-light, middle-of-the-night pursuit of the mosquito, which usually hides as soon as I turn the lights on.

I suppose in Lebanon with the warmth and water you would get a lot of mosquitoes. Iowa is this way in summer; Minnesota even worse--there people say the mosquito is the state bird!

How we deal with animals people may see as nuisances is something I've thought about, too, Number9. For example, deer and ants. I'll talk about ants. A couple years ago in an old home I noticed some ants coming in under a door. Such cute little ants! I escorted them outside and tried to block the hole.

Well, when the next morning, around 1000 ants were crawling all over the kitchen floor. When 10 are cute, 1000 starts to feel scary...like an invasion. I don't fault them for searching for water or sweet things. But I also don't want them in my home.

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NumberNineDream

Oh and about that question, I think having a Christian up-bringing, I always approached "not eating meat" in the fasting way. As Christians stop eating meat, but keep eating fish, as it's the poor people's food (or something like that).
Thank you for your answers btw...

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