The basis for this discussion can be found in Gary L. Francione’s Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? It has been excerpted and adapted by Eric Prescott from the Boston Vegan Association’s vegan advocacy pamphlet, “Respecting Animals Means Going Vegan.”
Love animals? Why aren’t you vegan?
VEGAN (vee-g’n):One who refrains from using and consuming any animals and animal products for any purpose, including food, clothing, and entertainment.
It seems safe to assume that Paw Talk readers would be mortified by anyone who kicked a dog out of anger or who killed a cat in order to satisfy his sadistic curiosity. It doesn’t take much reflection to come to the conclusion that you believe these sorts of actions are unjustifiable because they harm feeling beings for no good reason.
What may surprise you is that this belief compels you to become vegan.
If that seems like an incredible leap, please stay with me for just a moment. The connection can be demonstrated rather swiftly.
Let’s start with the basis for your belief that we should not harm animals like cats and dogs without justification. This belief is linked directly to their sentience—that is, their ability to feel pleasure and pain. Anyone who has lived with a dog or a cat knows that they have an interest in avoiding suffering and in continuing to live.
It is also fairly uncontroversial to suggest to this readership that the basic interest cats and dogs have in avoiding harm should not be ignored merely for the sake of comparatively trivial human interests, such as pleasure. I think we can all agree on that.
In order to complete the connection between our belief about cats and dogs and veganism, let’s make three more factual observations:
There is no morally significant difference between dogs, cats and other animals.
To summarize up to this point, we agree that it is wrong to harm cats and dogs without good reason because we recognize that they are sentient beings whose interest in avoiding harm shouldn't be ignored merely to satisfy our trivial interests
Again, this is an uncontroversial statement. It only seems to get controversial when we extend this thinking beyond animals like cats and dogs. But this same exact reasoning applies equally to all sentient beings, including cows, pigs, birds, and fish, all of whom also have an interest in not being harmed. Given our belief about cats and dogs, we have no rational justification for harming any sentient animal merely for trivial purposes such as pleasure (or, for that matter, convenience).
Using and consuming animals and their products causes harm to animals.
Iin all but the most extraordinary circumstances, animals cannot be used by humans without being harmed in various ways, including being deprived of their fundamental interest in continued existence.
As just one example, to produce that seemingly innocuous and ‘wholesome’ beverage known as milk, ‘dairy cows' are artificially inseminated and kept pregnant and lactating as continuously as possible from the time they are able to reproduce. Calves are the inevitable byproduct of this cycle. Within about 24 hours of being born, these calves are separated from their mothers, which distresses both the cows and their offspring. Useless to the dairy industry, each year nearly a million male calves, are slaughtered for veal at around 3-18 weeks of age. After an average of 5 years or 3 lactations, cows no longer produce enough milk to be considered profitable. 'Spent' at a quarter of a healthy cow's lifespan, nearly all of them are slaughtered for consumption, often as ground ‘beef’. While this is just one example, there are many others like it. Harms like these are essentially unavoidable when we use animals for our own purposes.
3. Using and consuming animals and their products serves only our trivial interests.
If using and consuming animals were to do more than serve our trivial interests, it would have to be necessary for us to use and consume them. For instance, we would have to have some need to consume animals or animal products for our health. However, the record shows that we do not have this need. As just one of many potential references of note, the American Dietetic Association stated in a 2003 position paper that well-planned vegan diets are "appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including during pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood and adolescence."
There is simply no need for humans to use or consume animals and their products. Though we might occasionally consider it an inconvenience to avoid consuming them--though we might simply like the way they taste--our interests in convenience and pleasure can be fairly described as trivial when compared to animals’ interests in avoiding suffering and in continuing to live.
When taken together, the above three facts demonstrate that our basic belief about sentient animals like cats and dogs compel us to be vegan. Because using and consuming animals and their products harms animals only to satisfy our trivial interests, and because we agree that harming animals for our trivial interests is wrong, we must seek to end our use and consumption of animals for food, clothing and entertainment.
But what’s wrong with 'humane' animal products? What about vegetarianism?
At this point, you may be seeking for another alternative. A lot of people do, and it’s understandable. Veganism can seem like such an ‘extreme’ step. But, for many reasons, neither ‘humane’ animal products nor ovo-lacto-vegetarianism bring our behavior into alignment with our belief that it is wrong to harm animals to satisfy our trivial interests.
For instance, though they are sold as more ‘humane’ than eggs produced by birds in battery cages, ‘cage-free’ eggs are still produced by hens who have had up to one-half of their beaks amputated without anesthetic. The birds live in large sheds, tightly packed with tens of thousands of other birds. They live in their own waste and suffer from a variety of painful ailments related to intensive egg laying and confinement, even cannibalism.
Though healthy hens have a minimum lifespan of 5-7 years, even cage-free hens are 'spent' after only one laying year, between 12-18 months of age, at which point they are slaughtered to be incorporated into processed foods. And what happens to male chicks in the egg industry? Because they are not bred for meat and are unable to lay eggs, each year over 250 million male chicks are gassed, electrocuted, suffocated, or ground up alive to become ‘chicken meal’.
The example could continue and, like our previous example, there are many more like it, but the point is clear: Using and killing animals for our own benefit is always a harm to them. Our belief that it is wrong to harm animals unnecessarily does not merely require that we reduce their suffering. Because animals’ interests in not being harmed are much more significant than our interests in using them for our own pleasure, we should seek not to consume animals or animal products at all, regardless of how they are labeled.
This example, taken with the ‘dairy example’ above, reveals why vegetarianism does not bring one’s behavior into alignment with the belief that it is wrong to harm animals for trivial reasons: Both milk and egg production require the use of animals, which is directly harmful to them. Because the only reasons to use dairy and egg products are based in convenience and pleasure, we must avoid these products if we wish to remain consistent with our beliefs.
Becoming vegan
Your reaction to people injuring animals for the sake of pleasure demonstrates your belief that we should never harm animals merely to satisfy our trivial interests. Because using and consuming animal products harms animals and because these products are entirely unnecessary, your belief compels you to stop using and consuming them altogether. In other words, a belief you already hold compels you to become vegan.
While you may currently take animal use for granted and not know how to conceive of a life without using and consuming animals, accepting the conclusion that being vegan is the only way for you to live in accordance with your belief about animals means educating yourself about vegan living so that you can make the switch. For support, check for a vegan group in your area and get up to speed on vegan meal planning, animal-free fashion, and so on by using the internet, guide books, and cook books. A world of resources awaits you.
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