Vegans vs. Vegetarians

Many people do not understand the difference between being a vegan and being a vegetarian.  A vegetarian does not eat meat or flesh of any kind from animals, including fish, but does consume eggs and dairy.  They might also wear animal products such as leather or suede.  A vegan, on the other hand, does not consume any animal products, including dairy or eggs.  They also will not wear animal products such as leather, suede, fur, or wool.  Vegans also do not patronize any entertainment venues such as circuses that use animals or zoos, as vegans do not support the exploitation of animals in any way, shape, or form.

“What’s wrong with eating dairy or eggs?” you might ask.  “They don’t kill those animals for those products, so what’s the harm?”  I, too, had the same question, and the answer, I’m afraid, isn’t pretty.

Animals raised for food – any type of food – live torturous lives and all are killed in the end.  The “Old MacDonald’s Farm” we may have been taught about as children is as much of a myth as the Unicorn.  While some old-fashioned farms may still exist, they are few and far between and they also cause animals to suffer and die.  The bulk of our food comes from Factory Farms – farms that have literally turned into factories, mass-killing animals by the millions.  The only “farm-like” quality that still exists is that the product they are producing involves living, breathing, feeling, beings.

Cows raised for dairy, or “dairy cows”, live in filthy cramped conditions, where they are deprived of everything that is natural to them.  They do not get to feel sunshine on their skin or grass under their feet.  They do not get to socialize as they naturally would.  Dairy cows are continually forcibly impregnated so that their bodies will continuously produce milk. Once they give birth, their babies are ripped from their care and thrown in dark crates to be killed to produce veal.  This is a traumatic experience for both the mother and baby.  The mother is then immediately re-impregnated, to go through the horror all over again.  Thus, if you support diary, you are also supporting veal.  The veal industry exists because of the dairy industry. Dairy cows are all killed once they stop producing milk, and are sold to become low-grade meat.

Chickens raised to produce eggs don’t have it much better.  They, too, are crammed into filthy spaces in cages so small they cannot spread their wings, stacked one on top of another.  Male chicks are not needed for this industry, so male chicks are literally “thrown away”, either by being stuffed in plastic bags or sent through something that resembles a wood chipper, while still alive.  Like dairy cows, all egg laying hens are killed for low-grade meat once their bodies can no longer produce eggs. If you buy eggs, you support this industry and its horrors, as well.

So, while you may ask yourself, “what’s the harm”, the truth is, the harm is unimaginable and endless, no matter what the animal product is. Animals raised to become “food” live in a constant state of torture and pain, no matter what product they are producing.  Unfortunately, the only language most corporations understand is that of the almighty dollar.  As long as people continue to buy their product, there is no incentive to change.  You can use your power as a consumer to boycott this cruelty.