Your Daily Vegan

Me and my bad hair with Ingrid Newkirk, President of PETA

Like most vegans, I was a vegetarian before I made the leap into veganism.  At that time, one of my favorite animal rights group was PETA and I would plaster my social networking profiles with PETA promos.  I have met Ms. Newkirk, and admire her ability to speak so passionately from the heart on animal welfare issues- even though our philosophies/beliefs are not the same.

Since making the evolution to veganism, I’ve since lost my devotion to the group due to their stance on animal welfare. See, PETA advocates for the more humane treatment of farmed animals and it’s this policy that I disagree with (among a host of others).  It may seem strange to think that a vegan would be against advocating for the more humane treatment of farmed animals and, realistically speaking, I’m not.  But more humane treatment means that the animal is still going to die.  I advocate for no animal use – and it’s this unapologetic (consistent) stance that PETA’s President, Ingrid Newkirk, has an issue with. In a recent Times article she has this to say:

The goal for many activists is simply to get more people to eat less meat. “Absolute purists should be living in a cave,” says Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA). “Anybody who witnesses the suffering of animals and has a glimmer of hope of reducing that suffering can’t take the position that it’s all or nothing. We have to be pragmatic. Screw the principle.”

Something that a lot of people fail to realize is that when you are talking about veganism, you are talking about life and death.  If, as a vegan, you say to someone, “Please eat less meat,” then you are essentially saying that less is good enough.  And that just isn’t true.  Using less animals is still using animals.  Eating dairy and not “red meat” is still consuming animals.  Being a vegetarian that wears leather shoes or carries a stylish leather bag is still consuming animals.  Doing those things less isn’t going to solve the problem.  In fact, it will make the problem worse.

What? How can people consuming less animals make the problem worse you ask? Well, no matter how many times a week you consume a steak the cow still died.  So even if you only have steak once a month, the animal was still slaughtered.  The idea that consuming less provides people with “good feelings” that they are doing something to help solve the problem.  So they will never really move beyond eating less animals.

Only with a consistent vegan message (and a United Vegan Movement – not Candy-Coated Veganism) will true change happen.