We get asked a lot of questions on a regular basis. Here are answers to some of the common ones.
Ve-what?
Veganism is a lifestyle based on the idea that human beings don’t have the right to use non-human animals for our own purposes. Vegans don’t eat anything that comes from an animal, including meat, dairy products, eggs and honey. Vegans also avoid using animal products like wool and leather and other bi-products found in a (shockingly) wide range of things. I also don’t use products tested on non-human animals, and Alex and I believe that a component of the vegan lifestyle is attempting to rescue and assist animals in duress, including ‘companion animals’ like dogs and cats.
Not to be confused with herbivores, who simply don’t eat anything that comes from a non-human animal. Or a human animal, for that matter.
Why not milk or eggs?
Both milk and eggs come from animals, but you don’t have to kill the animal to get them, right? In a perfect world like the one pictured in the Real California Cheese commercials, that’s how it would work. Sadly, in the world we live in there are no singing cows and no such thing as an animal product gleaned without animal cruelty and exploitation. So much for ‘Sadie the Happy Cow’.
Both milk and eggs are products of animal reproduction. In order to give milk, cows must have had a calf. Just like women, cows don’t produce milk out of the blue. That would be awkward. Ostensibly, the milk the we drink was meant for a calf. If we’re drinking it, there’s a calf somewhere who isn’t. So what happens to these calves? They’re the ‘by-products’ of the dairy industry, removed from their moms before reaching a week of age. The ‘lucky’ females may be retained as future dairy cows. The really unlucky ones, and the males, have two options. They’ll either be sold as cheap meat, or they’ll be sold as veal. Either they’ll be sent off to live out their (very short) lives in an feedlot or they’ll spend the few months of their lives tethered in crates so small they can’t turn around, without bedding, fed a diet that keeps them purposefully anemic so people like Anthony Bourdain can enjoy a soft, pale piece of veal.
The dairy cows themselves are generally kept only until their milk production ceases to be ‘optimum’. They’re raped and impregnated yearly so that they can continue to have calves, only to have them taken away so the cycle can start all over again. After their milk production drops below a certain level, they’re sold to slaughter. Most dairy cows are dead by age 7. The natural life-span of a cow is around 22 years.
Like cows, egg laying hens are kept only until their egg production drops and then unceremoniously shipped off to be killed. They live their lives crammed in cages smaller than a sheet of paper, beaks removed so they can’t injure the other birds in their cages.
Eating eggs, cheese and drinking milk directly contributes to the death and abuse of millions of animals yearly. It may be harder to see than the connection between meat and the deaths of non-human animals, but it’s there.
Don’t you know Hitler was a vegetarian?
That’s what you think, but you know what they say about assuming things. Learn a lesson from Anne Coulter and do your own fact checking. I’d also like to point out that he was a Christian, and if that isn’t enough to make your realize how facetious this question is, then maybe the fact that he created Volkswagon will be. Think about that the next time you get into your fuel efficient yet adorable car, why don’t you.
Why don’t you focus your efforts on humans! Don’t you know there are starving children/people being killed/human rights being violated?
I don’t live in a bubble. The short answer is that the two aren’t mutually exclusive. There are even organizations that promote both simultaneously, like Food Not Bombs. I can care about both human animals and non-human animals, and I do. Including more individuals in your moral community makes you a better person. Also, taking “sentience” as the only necessary requirement for attributing moral worth to an individual better ensures that the most vulnerable amongst us (e.g., ethnic minorities, the mentally handicapped) will be protected from great injustice and moral harms.
Why do you hate Anthony Bourdain so much?
Because he’s more ignorant than Brittany Spears, and not nearly as entertaining. Also, he talks too much.
You’re awfully hard on horse sports, but you own a horse, right? Isn’t that a little hypocritical?
First of all, it’s a common misconception that the only reason one would have a horse is to use him, or her. Yes, many people judge the value of a life by whether or not you can ride him, but they also feed his half-cousin to their dog without thinking twice. Not my style. Yes, I do have a horse but many vegans have dogs, cats and other animals. The law calls us owners, but we don’t have to act like them.
I have a background in equestrian sports. Eventing, Dressage, Hunters and Jumpers. I also have a background in eating flesh. Let’s just say my world view has undergone a drastic shift, shall we? Riding is no longer something I feel I can be part of.
Rivet and I have been together for years. I owe him more than I could every repay, and I do my best to make sure he’s never exploited or used as a ‘tool’. Many people are unaware of the costs associated with caring for a horse. Many people are unaware of what happens to unwanted horses. Many people have felt it necessary to judge me for leaving Rivet in a place where he does work on occasion. To those people, I say fuck off, you commie bastards. Rather than give him away to a precarious future with someone who doesn’t feel like I do, I’ve elected to do my best to pay for his care in a facility where he’s happy, healthy, and where I trust the people caring for him. I make no money off him, and never have. The end.
Suffice to say that Rivet will never have to do anything he’s not interested in doing, aside from shots and feet trims. And occasionally pose for a photo.
Doesn’t promoting animal rights devalue humans? It’s a slippery slope from your position to full blown euthanasia of the young and healthy.
I value life. Animals having inherent worth doesn’t mean people suddenly have less. There isn’t a finite amount of worth in the world that has to be shared among all living beings. Instead of devaluing human life, I’m elevating the importance of all sentient life. I don’t think people should be treated the way we currently treat animals, but that in the ways that matter, we must treat animals the way we treat people.
Have more questions? Here’s some FAQ from someone more learned that I’ll ever be.
