I can understand Vegetarians b/c....?

Question

of people not wanting to hurt the animals, but I don't understand vegans. Eating cheese and eggs, drinking milk doesn't hurt the animal at all, so could someone explain it to me. Please don't misinterpret this as sarcasm, I really want to know the viewpoint of a vegan...thanks

Answer 1

Dairy cows live 4 years as opposed to the 12+ years they could live if they weren't "used up" by the physical demands of milking. The dairy cow must have a calf to make milk, the calf is either made into another dairy cow (if it's a girl) or sold as meat (if it's a boy). The calf is taken from it's mother within the first day so it doesn't drink any of the farmers profits. The cow is very soon impregnated again to keep the milk coming. The demands of this make the animal physically spent at 4 years old, and thus worthless, and thus, hamburger (or dog food). So milk drinking doesn't kill cows directly, but their life does suck. Read further at Peta.
Laying hens are kept in tiny cages with 5 other birds. They have so little space that they cannot lift a wing. Because of the cramped conditions, some birds feet grow around the bars on the floor of the cage. All are debeaked or the stress would cause them to peck each other to death. The cages are stacked in rows three high so the guys on the bottom get pooped on from above. The barn is always noisy (consider how you might feel if you lived in a football stadium where you were never allowed to go to the restroom and no on ever shut up.) At two years of age, the chicken becomes soup/mc nugget/potpie. Normal laying hens can live 10+ years. Egg hens are only good if they are hens, so the eggs for new "layers" are hatched and all the baby roosters are killed. They are ground up alive or tossed in a trash can to suffocate under the weight of other roosters tossed on top of them. Some are mercifully killed with CO2. I am a vegetarian. I carefully consider the implications eating eggs or dairy from factory farms. My father-in-law has chickens and I will eat the eggs from him because I know that his chickens scratch on the ground, see sunlight, have fresh air, and stretch their wings. Eggs from the grocery store are from chicken concentration camps. There are more cruel things involved that I haven't mentioned, but you get the idea.

Answer 2

Many people are Vegan for religious reasons, such as those of the Hindu faith - eating the product of an animal is considered to be as sacreligious as eating the animal itself. However, becoming a Vegan doesn't take place from birth - infants and young children are able to eat eggs and milk. The Vegan stage takes place after primary growth has taken place.

I would imagine that some Vegans in general feel the same - it is no different than eating the animal itself, and it comes from the concept that cows milk is for calves, and eggs are meant to be hatched! Also, they may fel that the way the animal products are produced (including honey) enslaves animals and insects - sometimes in horrendous conditions. Even bees are "stunned" by smoke to allow keepers to collect the honey more safely.

Myself, I like my steak rare!

Answer 3

I don't really understand it either because if chickens didn't give eggs and cows didn't make milk, they get sick and die, right? The most extreme thing, that I personally think is ridiculous is that honey is considered an animal product because it's made from bees. The bees naturally make honey! I am a vegetarian, but I eat honey, milk, & eggs. I think that vegans don't want anything to do with the animals because maybe they think that make the product would hurt them? I don't really know. I hope this helped you a little bit! :)

Answer 4

For a book on this I suggest "Diet for a New America" by John Robbins. John gave up being the heir to the Baskin&Robbins business due both the way the animals were treated and due to the dairy industry as a whole.

Personally I have not been able to succeed as a vegan long term I don't eat eggs, drink milk, or eat ice cream. But I do eat cheese and product that might have the above cooked in. I've tried it times. I have been a vegetarian for 16 years though.

Answer 5

I don't eat any animal by-products or any products because that is suporting the US meat industry. You know those "free-range" eggs? There is no goverment regulation on what free range is so most egg companys still shove their chickens in coops and call it "free-range" And about the milk/cheese? How would you like to live a life where everyday you where hearded with all your buddys and milked by a machine then one day your eventully slaughtered.

Any animal is an animal, I believe no animal is supirior to another animal. Just like I wouldn't eat my dog or my brother, I wouldn't eat a cow or a pig. It's not only the fact that eating a living, thinking thing is disgusting, its just the way they are killed and the conditions they live in before they are heartlessly slaughtered. Some pigs are droped into boiling water, some are still alive and squeling as they are being droped in eventually dying from scalding burns and/or drowning. Baby male chicks have no purpose so the farmers either burn them, or just toss them in the dumpster where they die under the weight of fellow chicks.

The worst part is the american public simply block this out. They force them self to not think theyre eating bambi, babe or that cow from Home on the Range. You are eating a breathing creature of God, and heartlessly killing it, then saying you love animals is disgusting. I much would rather eat something that doesn't reason out thoughts. (like vegetables)

Answer 6

It's a statement against the exploitation of animals. Laying hens are crammed into cages in which they can barely move and the excrement from the chicken in the cage above them falls into their cage, etc... It's not a humane lifestyle and if more people stopped eating eggs, then fewer chickens would be subject to it. I'm not a vegan but it's a choice I admire. We each have to choose where to draw our personal line and mine is still on this side of veganism (lacto-ovo veg.)

Answer 7

I think that some vegans believe that any sort of animal byproducts are wrong. Possibly because the animals are held captive (often in inhumane surroundings) and forced to produce milk,eggs,honey, etc.

I'm not vegan.... but that's what I've been told by my vegan friends.

Answer 8

I have a good friend (he's married to my best friend) who is a dairy farmer. They aren't kept pregnant. They have as many calves as "normal" cattle.
There is a dairy farm outside of the town where I grew up. It's not large mind you. Just a little local farmer...but his cows come to the milk barn and holler until he gets out there to milk them. They all get in line where they are suppose to go and stand there and wait. They certainly don't seem to mind. Cows are like humans in the respect that as long as they continue to produce milk, they will continue to produce milk. ie: if I human woman continued to pump her breast after her child was weaned, she would continue to lactate. Hence the term "wet nurse" from the "olden days" :)
But anyway - the cattle I have witnessed on dairy farms have not been mistreated in anyway. Perhaps I have seen two exceptions to the rule, but it's all I have to go on.
The chicken situation. Yick. Makes me sick to think about it. It's horrid and awful. Sad. Should be illegal. As well as Veal. That's just rediculous.
I do prefer to get my milk directly from the farm outside of town here. And I appreciate the eggs my friend gives me from her chickens that are free range. MUCH tastier! And healthier.
I never eat veal and make a big stink about it if I'm sitting at a resturaunt and someone in my group orders it. Everyone of my friends just about knows better by now though. :)
Cheese? No idea. I use to work at a Swiss Colony...I think that was mean! I had to wear a funky uniform and stand in the mall hallway and say "sample?" "sample?" yeah, that was me. ugh.

Answer 9

You just need to do some research. Cheese and eggs do hurt animals, as does milk. Cows don't just give milk for humans. They only produce milk when they have calves. To get their milk we need to steal it, and we need to do something else with the calf. Calves are fed some other crap instead and turned into "veal". They are the direct offshoot of the dairy industry.
CHickens don't just live in happy chicken farms and produce eggs for humans. They live in factory farms by the hundreds of thousands, and they live morbid diseased lives where they never see the light of day. They are killed for their meat as well, just as dairy cows are, because there's more profit that way. It's all about profit, remember, not about the animal welfare, and not about our health. All animal products contain cholesterol and will get us all in the end.

Answer 10

Well, I am not vegan, but my brother in law is, his view is that some of the farms/factories that "harvest" these things from animals are not very humane, even if they do not kill the animal. Also, some feel it is healthier, but in my opinion, he has never looked worse, sallow skin, extremely thin. Good thing he drinks beer because that is the only thing keeping any weight on him.

I can respect his choice, although it is not for me.