Five reasons NOT to become vegan?

Elizabeth Holli Wood of the Tampa Vegan Examiner recently posted a response to a video giving people 5 reasons NOT to become a vegan. I found her responses informative and eloquent but wanted to add a few of my own to the mix. First, watch the video so you can see what I’m talking about here.

The “self awareness” test

I don’t see where this is even an issue.  I could care less, as a vegan, if the animal can pass this test.  The first flaw of the test is that it is administered by humans.  Humans cannot speak duck, cow, chicken, pig, goat, ect.  This means we can only hypothesize about what the animals know or don’t know.  No animal I know can speak human.  What I do know is that any living thing with a central nervous system can feel pain.  Cows and chickens (to use the examples in the video) both have central nervous systems and can, therefore, feel pain.  I, as a human, should not take a life to sustain my own.  It is unnecessary – I can survive (and well too) on food that doesn’t cause pain and suffering to a sentient being.

If you eat meat you are for animal cruelty

Anyone who eats animal products (or wears them) should go on an educational field trip to a factory farm.  Once you get the grand tour please talk to me about laws surrounding “humane killing” of animals.  I think if people actually went to a factory farm and then on to a slaughterhouse they would quickly change their minds about how humane we are to our “food”.  I would agree that the average person who eats meat is NOT for animal cruelty but only because the average person is not educated about where or how their food is produced.  Pull the curtain back, oh great Wizard of Oz, and you’ll see that food production IS cruel and by eating meat you are supporting cruelty to animals.

Even Vegans kill Animals

It never ceases to amaze me that omnivores always throw this up as an excuse to continue the slaughter.  I don’t know of any person out there who can subsist solely on air and water, nor do I know any vegans claiming that they aren’t making an impact on our resources to live.  Vegans aren’t superheros or magic, rather they are a group of people who believe that all animals have rights to life.  This should not be misconstrued to be that vegans believe we don’t kill anything EVER.  But we do try to minimize our impact by choosing to live without those products made from the life of another.  And, as Elizabeth Holli Wood mentioned, any animals killed in the process of farming is slight (but not unimportant mind you) to those killed in slaughterhouses.  The numbers are so staggering you can’t even compare the two.

Veganism and your health

This is another point that always amazes me that people say.  As a vegan I have never made the claim that vegans are the healthiest people in the world.  What I have said, and other vegans I know have said, is that we reduce the chance of certain diseases by eating vegan.  Reduce not eliminate.  And mentioning working out and going to the doctor?  Of course those things are good for you – that’s true whether you are vegan or omnivore.  But just as it’s been proven over and over again that working out is good for your health, it has been proven that a diet high in animal protein increases your chances for certain diseases and cancers.

Speciest?

There is nothing wrong with being a speciest.  I guess that is true as long as you aren’t cruel to other species.  Here’s the thing.  Yes, humans are suffering.  Humans are suffering at the hands of environmental challenges or other human hands.  Animals are suffering at the hands of humans.  Yes, let’s reduce human suffering.  I’m all for that.  But just because there is human suffering doesn’t mean that animal suffering doesn’t matter.  Choosing veganism doesn’t mean you aren’t for human rights.  In fact, vegans choose to live a compassionate lifestyle and by default this includes humans (since they are an animal).  One thing should not be excluded from the other. Human rights and Animal rights should be one in the same.