Just a question, not intended to offend, why can't you have honey as a vegan?

Question

I am a vegetarian, and I consume very small amounts of milk products, and also honey. I thought vegans just refrained from animal products ect......... I am just curious as to why honey is banned, bees are an insect. Please do not take offense to this question because it was not intended for insult.

Answer 1

Well, I don't think animals are there for us to use. Bees are animals. Beyond that, here's some info from the honey industry about how bees are treated:

http://honeybee.breeding.com/

Answer 2

They're exploiting the poor bees!

One assumes, therefore, they don't squash flies or mozzies, which probably causes more 'suffering' than smoking some bees to send them to sleep and nicking their honey, while inadvertently squashing a few. I mean, you can argue fish and what not have brains and can suffer, but *bees*?

It's ridiculous. The answer 'it's an animal and vegans don't use animal products' doesn't hold any water in my opinion because there's no reason I can see to avoid honey specifically apart from the sheer fact than bees are classed as animals.

Answer 3

Vegans feel that any use of animal products is ethically wrong. The bees produce the honey to eat during the winter, so even if the beekeeper gives them sugar water vegans feel as if it's stealing from the bees to take the honey.

Answer 4

Well, bees are insects but insects are also animals. The process of producing honey leads to the death of thousands of bees (not necessarily intentionally). These deaths also occur in the wild, but as a matter of principle, vegans don't eat honey. I would also assume that vegans do not kill insects, since if they do, it would be a tad hypocritical.

Answer 5

yes, bees are an insect, but then you could say that fish are, well fish...and so therefore vegys can eat bees, and fish!!!
The point is that you dont eat any product that comes from somewthing with a heart, put it that way,
my vegan friend didnt know whether to eat honey, but we researched it, and she decided not to. Bees get sprays to calm them when the bee hiver goes in there, which is unatural and makes them dizzy and paralysed...but its a tricky one.

Answer 6

ditto to all of the above and here's a little more...
located in the 411 on 7-11 on Peta2.com


Honey—Sure, honey tastes sweet, but you'll get a bad taste in your mouth when you learn how it's "harvested."

From a former beekeeper: "[T]ypically, beekeepers are gloved and netted to avoid stings (nearly every bee who stings will die due to her entrails being pulled from her body attached to her stinger.) Then the hives are opened as quickly as possible and the bees are ‘smoked.' Smoke from a smoldering fire carried in a ‘smoker' is pumped into the hive and the bees are ‘calmed.' In spite of this, the combs are pulled quickly and many bees are crushed in the process. When a bee is hurt, she releases a chemical message that alerts and activates the hive members who proceed to attack the intruder—giving their lives in the process."

Answer 7

Because one of the points of veganism is that you refrain from eating anything that is made from animals or made from animals - and since honey is made by animals, it would go against those ideals.

Answer 8

You answered your own question. Bees are an insect, therefore an animal.

Answer 9

um...insects are still in kingdom animalia. Honey is technically an "animal product"

Answer 10

I'd rather stay away from bee throwup.It's kind of gross eating something that came out of a bee's butt/mouth,wherever it comes from.