Animal Rights Action Network
P.O. Box 72, Indian Hills, Colorado 80454 . 720-985-2726
P.O. Box 72, Indian Hills, Colorado 80454 . 720-985-2726
This Website is new and under construction for more information e-mail info@AnimalRightsActionNetwork.org
VEGANISM; THE PUREST FORM OF ANIMAL RIGHTS ACTIVISM
Too often, I still hear about animal rights activists who are not vegan. Simply put, this is speciesist. The way I see it, ‘Animal Rights’ and ‘Veganism’ are synonymous. You can’t logically be for animal rights and still pay someone to rape, enslave, torture and brutally kill nonhuman animals. On a daily basis, non-vegans (and that includes vegetarians) pay someone to do the above mentioned acts for them with their food and product purchases.
For those who want to be an animal rights activist – simply become vegan. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, you are actively protesting the shocking behavior of human beings towards their animal kin. Why have we not grasped The Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do to you?’ Why this ‘easy-to-comprehend notion’ is so hard for others to see in regards to all sentient beings, is an enigma.
Some animal rights people identify with being vegan but they “cheat”, as they say. They need to keep in mind that cows are perpetually kept pregnant, inseminated by a human, and endure torturous conditions. These gentle friends have their newborn (whom they instinctively love and want to care for) stolen, sometimes, within 24 hours of birth. “Cheating animal rights activists” should consider this before they partake of a little cheese or pizza. They are only cheating themselves from having the understanding that the practice of veganism provides. Veganism is a tool of growth that enhances our self-esteem. It gifts us with healthy mind and body, healthy heart, healthy relationships with nonhuman animals, and a healthier relationship with the environment.
Animal rights activists who are leading the way should be vegan, because people will follow guided by their footsteps. Living a vegan lifestyle is a moral starting point for all animal rights activists. It’s not difficult to be a vegan if one grasps how profoundly meaningful it is. On the contrary, when one recognizes all the suffering and damage that stems from consuming animal products, it becomes hard to imagine why people decide not to be vegan! Some activists teach people to love whales, while they contribute to the persecution of cows. People want to punish others for their ‘cruelty to animals’ while they are cruel to animals every day by consuming animal and slaughterhouse products. This behavior is speciesist.
The concept of animal rights activists giving their lives to the animal rights movement, while not living as vegans, is inconsistent with logic and calls out for ‘change’. Being members of an evolving human race, it becomes our duty to change (for the better) in order to advance human consciousness. Veganism is humankind’s next evolutionary step.
It makes much more sense to spend our time, money and resources to promote non-violent vegan education, which encompasses all animal rights issues, instead of working on regulating or bettering the conditions within a system that should simply be abolished; a system that stems from a misinformed, flawed culture. We need to unite and work for empty cages, not better cages. I don’t want to be a part of extending ‘a pat on the back’ to a mega corporation responsible for misery and death imposed on nonhuman animals day after day, year after year, because they enlarged the prison stalls where they hold innocent animals captive or because they agreed to use cage-free eggs. Professor Gary Francione (http://www.facebook.com/l/949fb;www.abolitionistapproach.com) refers to it as the “disturbing partnership between animal advocates and institutionalized exploiters”. It makes more sense to educate and change the mindsets of people; the purchasers, who are creating the demand for these products, by paying businesses to callously exploit non-human animals (and humans too).
We have to stand up and speak the whole truth that veganism and animal rights are synonymous. And I’m not speaking about a wavering, when it’s convenient, not-to-make-a-fuss-in public-type of veganism that some are espousing. It seems that some of the big vegan and animal advocacy organizations are lowering the standard of the Vegan Ideal; to the point that they are replacing the word “vegan” with “vegetarian” or “veg*n” in their literature and on their websites. I don’t want to promote vegetarianism (which has come to mean dairy and egg consumption; hardly a vegetable as the name implies).
Vegans do oppose factory farms, of course, however if there were no factory farms, most vegans would still be vegan. It’s not about whether the process is “humane” or not. Veganism is a protest against a speciesist society that believes nonhuman animals were put here for our use, to be our property, to be subjugated by us; regardless of whether they are “humanely” raised or not. There is absolutely no such thing as humane enslavement, exploitation or murder. There is nothing “humane” involved in the animal husbandry system, even if a product is labeled “humane”. The “humane meat labels” are merely marketing schemes to make people feel good about themselves while they are still directly supporting cruelty. So called “humanely raised” animals have a number of torturous practices inflicted on them. Even when "free-range" farmed animals are allowed to live outdoors, they are still subjected to excruciating mutilations without painkiller, such as castration, branding, dehorning, tail-docking, and de-beaking. They are still slaughtered in the same violent ways as factory-farmed animals. Sentient beings are filled with fear as they are prodded down a narrow chute. They can hear and smell what is happening to others before them, they desperately try to turn around, but can’t, until it becomes their turn to be hung upside down on conveyor belts, and have their throats slit. Some are dismembered while still fully conscious. The whole abysmal system must be abolished and that is the only solution worth working towards.
All forms of slavery including; child slavery and indentured servitude in the coffee & cocoa industries of the Ivory Coast of Africa, women and children in Sudan, child carpet slaves of India, debt bondage in Southeast Asia, human trafficking to serve sexual slavery, forced labor, or child soldiery, forced marriages, and the mass enslavement of nonhuman animals of this world - MUST BE ABOLISHED.
Estimates from various anti-slavery organizations or experts range from a staggering 2.7 million to 27 million (human) slaves in the world today– more than any time in history! (These numbers are comprised of debt bondage/bonded labor slaves, forced labor slaves, trafficked slaves; slaves who were coerced or deceived then transported into a forced labor or debt bondage situation.)
The numbers of nonhuman slaves seems beyond calculation. According to the U.S.D.A. records of 2007 - 10,357 million land-based animals were raised and killed for food (in the U.S.). (This does not include fish or other aquatic animals.) Another 250 million animals were killed for “sport,” in biomedical laboratories, in pounds, or as “pests.” These statistics cover just one year in just one country. Thus far, the history of humanity is appallingly oppressive. It is difficult to stop the slavery in Sudan if you are living in the U.S., however, in most places in the world, one can choose to live vegan - a universal protest against slavery. Vegans do not pay someone else to enslave, rape, exploit and kill other conscious beings.
I understand the anger of many who identify with being ‘militant vegans’. They’ve had enough and are fighting back. The mainstream does not look at them as heroes, but as terrorists. Because of this, I don’t see how, in the long run, for the benefit of all animals, this behavior will accomplish winning over the mainstream public mindset. I propose that we redirect our anger and use it to ignite a fire that burns deep within us to passionately continue educating others of the many benefits of the vegan lifestyle. We need to lead by example that there is a better way. I’m suggesting (and it’s not my theory) that evolution be our form of revolution. We need to bring about a gentle world, where no one lives in fear.
I watched undercover footage of the dairy provider for Land O’ Lakes; (a huge U.S. butter brand). The condition of these dairy cows was hideous. It was pitiful to see humans so coldhearted and not in touch with their natural feelings of empathy and compassion; so much so that they could be complicit in this crime against nonhumanity. We cannot rise to who we are really meant to be, if we are inflicting (or paying someone else to inflict) misery and suffering on others. We free the animals and our own higher nature by living a vegan lifestyle.
There is a lot of internal conflict between the differing factions of the animal rights and vegan movements. If we were all at least vegan, (not pseudo vegan), that would be an essential starting point for the unity we need to actually win rights for nonhuman animals. We carry our veganism with us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; it is the most genuine form of animal rights activism.
To reply to this message, follow the link below:
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Too often, I still hear about animal rights activists who are not vegan. Simply put, this is speciesist. The way I see it, ‘Animal Rights’ and ‘Veganism’ are synonymous. You can’t logically be for animal rights and still pay someone to rape, enslave, torture and brutally kill nonhuman animals. On a daily basis, non-vegans (and that includes vegetarians) pay someone to do the above mentioned acts for them with their food and product purchases.
For those who want to be an animal rights activist – simply become vegan. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, you are actively protesting the shocking behavior of human beings towards their animal kin. Why have we not grasped The Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do to you?’ Why this ‘easy-to-comprehend notion’ is so hard for others to see in regards to all sentient beings, is an enigma.
Some animal rights people identify with being vegan but they “cheat”, as they say. They need to keep in mind that cows are perpetually kept pregnant, inseminated by a human, and endure torturous conditions. These gentle friends have their newborn (whom they instinctively love and want to care for) stolen, sometimes, within 24 hours of birth. “Cheating animal rights activists” should consider this before they partake of a little cheese or pizza. They are only cheating themselves from having the understanding that the practice of veganism provides. Veganism is a tool of growth that enhances our self-esteem. It gifts us with healthy mind and body, healthy heart, healthy relationships with nonhuman animals, and a healthier relationship with the environment.
Animal rights activists who are leading the way should be vegan, because people will follow guided by their footsteps. Living a vegan lifestyle is a moral starting point for all animal rights activists. It’s not difficult to be a vegan if one grasps how profoundly meaningful it is. On the contrary, when one recognizes all the suffering and damage that stems from consuming animal products, it becomes hard to imagine why people decide not to be vegan! Some activists teach people to love whales, while they contribute to the persecution of cows. People want to punish others for their ‘cruelty to animals’ while they are cruel to animals every day by consuming animal and slaughterhouse products. This behavior is speciesist.
The concept of animal rights activists giving their lives to the animal rights movement, while not living as vegans, is inconsistent with logic and calls out for ‘change’. Being members of an evolving human race, it becomes our duty to change (for the better) in order to advance human consciousness. Veganism is humankind’s next evolutionary step.
It makes much more sense to spend our time, money and resources to promote non-violent vegan education, which encompasses all animal rights issues, instead of working on regulating or bettering the conditions within a system that should simply be abolished; a system that stems from a misinformed, flawed culture. We need to unite and work for empty cages, not better cages. I don’t want to be a part of extending ‘a pat on the back’ to a mega corporation responsible for misery and death imposed on nonhuman animals day after day, year after year, because they enlarged the prison stalls where they hold innocent animals captive or because they agreed to use cage-free eggs. Professor Gary Francione (http://www.facebook.com/l/949fb;www.abolitionistapproach.com) refers to it as the “disturbing partnership between animal advocates and institutionalized exploiters”. It makes more sense to educate and change the mindsets of people; the purchasers, who are creating the demand for these products, by paying businesses to callously exploit non-human animals (and humans too).
We have to stand up and speak the whole truth that veganism and animal rights are synonymous. And I’m not speaking about a wavering, when it’s convenient, not-to-make-a-fuss-in public-type of veganism that some are espousing. It seems that some of the big vegan and animal advocacy organizations are lowering the standard of the Vegan Ideal; to the point that they are replacing the word “vegan” with “vegetarian” or “veg*n” in their literature and on their websites. I don’t want to promote vegetarianism (which has come to mean dairy and egg consumption; hardly a vegetable as the name implies).
Vegans do oppose factory farms, of course, however if there were no factory farms, most vegans would still be vegan. It’s not about whether the process is “humane” or not. Veganism is a protest against a speciesist society that believes nonhuman animals were put here for our use, to be our property, to be subjugated by us; regardless of whether they are “humanely” raised or not. There is absolutely no such thing as humane enslavement, exploitation or murder. There is nothing “humane” involved in the animal husbandry system, even if a product is labeled “humane”. The “humane meat labels” are merely marketing schemes to make people feel good about themselves while they are still directly supporting cruelty. So called “humanely raised” animals have a number of torturous practices inflicted on them. Even when "free-range" farmed animals are allowed to live outdoors, they are still subjected to excruciating mutilations without painkiller, such as castration, branding, dehorning, tail-docking, and de-beaking. They are still slaughtered in the same violent ways as factory-farmed animals. Sentient beings are filled with fear as they are prodded down a narrow chute. They can hear and smell what is happening to others before them, they desperately try to turn around, but can’t, until it becomes their turn to be hung upside down on conveyor belts, and have their throats slit. Some are dismembered while still fully conscious. The whole abysmal system must be abolished and that is the only solution worth working towards.
All forms of slavery including; child slavery and indentured servitude in the coffee & cocoa industries of the Ivory Coast of Africa, women and children in Sudan, child carpet slaves of India, debt bondage in Southeast Asia, human trafficking to serve sexual slavery, forced labor, or child soldiery, forced marriages, and the mass enslavement of nonhuman animals of this world - MUST BE ABOLISHED.
Estimates from various anti-slavery organizations or experts range from a staggering 2.7 million to 27 million (human) slaves in the world today– more than any time in history! (These numbers are comprised of debt bondage/bonded labor slaves, forced labor slaves, trafficked slaves; slaves who were coerced or deceived then transported into a forced labor or debt bondage situation.)
The numbers of nonhuman slaves seems beyond calculation. According to the U.S.D.A. records of 2007 - 10,357 million land-based animals were raised and killed for food (in the U.S.). (This does not include fish or other aquatic animals.) Another 250 million animals were killed for “sport,” in biomedical laboratories, in pounds, or as “pests.” These statistics cover just one year in just one country. Thus far, the history of humanity is appallingly oppressive. It is difficult to stop the slavery in Sudan if you are living in the U.S., however, in most places in the world, one can choose to live vegan - a universal protest against slavery. Vegans do not pay someone else to enslave, rape, exploit and kill other conscious beings.
I understand the anger of many who identify with being ‘militant vegans’. They’ve had enough and are fighting back. The mainstream does not look at them as heroes, but as terrorists. Because of this, I don’t see how, in the long run, for the benefit of all animals, this behavior will accomplish winning over the mainstream public mindset. I propose that we redirect our anger and use it to ignite a fire that burns deep within us to passionately continue educating others of the many benefits of the vegan lifestyle. We need to lead by example that there is a better way. I’m suggesting (and it’s not my theory) that evolution be our form of revolution. We need to bring about a gentle world, where no one lives in fear.
I watched undercover footage of the dairy provider for Land O’ Lakes; (a huge U.S. butter brand). The condition of these dairy cows was hideous. It was pitiful to see humans so coldhearted and not in touch with their natural feelings of empathy and compassion; so much so that they could be complicit in this crime against nonhumanity. We cannot rise to who we are really meant to be, if we are inflicting (or paying someone else to inflict) misery and suffering on others. We free the animals and our own higher nature by living a vegan lifestyle.
There is a lot of internal conflict between the differing factions of the animal rights and vegan movements. If we were all at least vegan, (not pseudo vegan), that would be an essential starting point for the unity we need to actually win rights for nonhuman animals. We carry our veganism with us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; it is the most genuine form of animal rights activism.
To reply to this message, follow the link below:
http://www.facebook.com/n/?inbox/readmessage.php&t=1186646143482&mid=1374731G4da768e5Gfc25f3G0
