Why Vegan?

Question

I have to say that I can understand being vegetarian for ethical reasons such as being against animal slaughter, but I will be honest and say (with respect) that I don't really understand the vegan viewpoint. Milk, eggs, honey, none of these things are products that hurt the animals. I mean, what's wrong with healthy food like yogurt and free range eggs and honey? So why choose a path as tough as veganism? Why are *you* vegan? Would love to have some light shed on this. Interested in hearing answers.

Well, yes, of course I understand in the case of lactose intolerance. >.> This question is for people who have reasons behind it other than medical ones.

Some very good points. No one has addressed honey or free range eggs yet, though...

Answer 1

I am vegan because I don't think animals are on this earth to produce food for myself or any human. They are sentient creatures that do not deserve to be treated as property.

Most dairy cows and chickens must endure miserable lives and are killed once their production of milk and eggs are considered no longer as profitable. Their lives mean nothing more than the products they produce.

Being vegan is not a tough path at all - I wouldn't trade it for the world!

Ok - let me try :)
Honey - bees are killed in the honey harvesting process but even more compelling for me is the fact that bees do not make honey for humans. It does not belong to us - the bees make that for themselves. I haven't eaten honey in years and I am healthy as a horse!
Free-Range Eggs - If you are buying these from the store and have never visited the farm who knows what conditions these chickens really live - and you must deal with the fact that all the male chicks that are hatched are destroyed.(some chicks are hatched to replace the older hens). If you know the farm or get the eggs from your own chicken I still have a problem with it since that egg doesn't belong to you! You don't need to eat it - so why take it? (plus the thought of eggs is just gross!)

Thanks for asking an intelligent, thoughtful question - we don't get alot of those around here!

Answer 2

Being vegan isn't a "tough" path. I'm not torturing myself or something. I'm not denying myself anything I want by being a vegan - I don't want to eat animal "products", that includes killed animals and products from animals. You mentioned eggs and honey ...

Did you ever wonder what happens to all the male baby chicken? The factories can't control yet which sex the chicken will have, so naturally there will be some male chicken. Since the male chicken serve no purpose (because they can't lay eggs), they're sorted out right after the hatching. They come into a big machine and are killed. Just like that. They don't serve a purpose = they've got no right to live. So, there's one reason for you why I would never eat eggs again even if they came from free range chicken.

[I've seen documentaries about this on TV; in case you're looking for a quote: "Cage-free farms typically buy their hens from the same hatcheries that supply battery-cage farms. These hatcheries kill the male chicks upon hatching—more than 200 million each year in the United States alone. "]

Honey: in nature honey bees survive the winter. But when humans use them for producing honey, they often opt to kill the bees because it's cheapter to start over in spring with new bees than to get them over the winter. So: no honey for me.

Personally, I find this whole concept of using and exploiting animals to produce things and especially of throwing them away, of killing them if they don't serve a "purpose" revolting.

Answer 3

I am a lacto-ovo vegetarian right now, and I want to become a vegan when I turn 18. The reason why is because most cows are force fed hormones that make them grow larger, and that makes them in pain and uncomfortable. And the chickens, same thing, and they are crammed into cages to where they can't even spread their wings, while they lay eggs. And the animals are kept in bad conditions. And since eggs and milk are put into those, that's why people don't...because it still hurts the animal.

For now, until I turn 18, I try to use soymilk as much as possible, or organic milk, and free range eggs.

Answer 4

Others have adequately answered the question of how milk, eggs, and honey do harm the animals. Visit www.cok.net for more information--they also have informaton on the egg industry.

Dairy is not as healthy as the industry would have you believe--did you know that the countries with the highest rates of dairy consumption also have the highest rates of osteoporosis? Excess protein, especially animal protein, causes you to LOSE calcium.

Yes, veganism can be tough, but it's the right decision for me. There's soy yogurt, soy ice cream (and rice ice cream), plant milks, vegan baked goods, vegan goodies of all sorts. I rarely feel as if I'm missing out.

Answer 5

I just have a hard time with anything that comes from animals. I personally find it nasty. I prefer all natural items. I think for myself its a mental issue because we were really poor as a child so the food was always rotten in the house. I have milk issues because the fridge never kept the milk cold enough. My reasons are probably different than most vegans.

Answer 6

right for you :-) As for ingesting out.. i've got no longer 'ate out' in years, lol. So no advice for you there. Snacks? Nature Valley Peanut Butter Bars or something.. nuts, rice brownies, any fruit or vegetable, Triscuits, Wheat Thins... I eat a good number of cereal. With almond milk of course. Thomas Cinnamon Swirl bagels are somewhat good. Earth stability is surprisingly plenty a staple for any vegan. i'm too lazy to think of of extra, :-P you will desire to check out Peta's by twist of destiny Vegan record. And constantly Google something you're uncertain approximately... particularly organic flavors! i replaced into ingesting Chex combination for the longest time earlier i found out it may't be vegan :-( i'm hoping a number of this helps.

Answer 7

I am not a vegan (yet) but I want to be for these reasons:

1. Dairy can make you fat, and you can get calcium from other sorces. Plus there is PUS in milk.

2. Hens used for eggs and cows used for diary are treated JUST AS BADLY as animals used for food.

Answer 8

milk does hurt cows
for one, like all mammals, a cow must have a calf in order to produce milk, put at an early age the calf is taken away from its mommy (awww) and if the calf is male, it most likely will be turned into veal! milk supports veal! also people pump hormones in most commercial cows.

and honey actually hurts bees
"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.""
http://www.petakids.com/candy.html

Answer 9

I'm not an ethical vegan. I'm a selfish vegan. I do it for the benefit of me first. I think of myself first, then everyone else comes after me. By thinking of myself first, I am actually helping the animals since eating them is not good for me.

Milk -- it does harm the animal. See, all mammals are the same, they produce milk when pregnant, then continue to do so as long as the baby sucks because there is interaction between the saliva of the baby and the breast. If you use a pump, eventually the milk will stop. So, these cows have never been pregnant in the first place, so to stimulate milk, they give them hormonal injections. The produces milk. Lots of milk for as long as the cow can handle it. They will suck that cow dry of life for about a year then off to the slaughter house it goes. Cow udder infections and other infections are common. Sick cows are common. Most of these cows are not grass fed free range cows that are taken care of nicely and allowed to live out the remainder of their days in the pasture when they no longer produce enough milk. There is a huge breeding program for milk cows. The females head off to be sucked dry, and all the male babies... get killed. The local dairy farm here kills the male babies and makes cat food from them. I found this out because one day while visiting there and chatting with the farm hand, "Oh, so, where do all the male babies go?" "Well..." he said not wanting to answer and changed the subject. That's when my wife told me that they make them into cat food. Baby male chickens are sent to the grinder just after hatching -- same thing.

Eggs? What's wrong with them? Same sort of thing. I lived on a free range organic chicken farm and they pop out their eggs, and the eggs are collected. A chicken can only produce eggs in quantity when they are very young, and slowly the produce fewer and fewer eggs and the eggs become less and less uniform etc. So, the chickens are kept as long as they are pumping out the eggs in quantity, then once they start to slow down... off to slaughter they go. Chickens are native to forests, not chicken huts or the flat ground they are usually fenced in on. What I described is as good as it gets for food chickens.

Honey -- sure, if you keep your own bees and steal a little honey for yourself, that would be fine in my eyes, but what happens in reality is this: bees make honey for food. That's what it's for. They stockpile it for using and especially for during the winter or off season. The bee farmer takes all of their honey and in the winter they dump a bunch of white sugar for them to life off of until next spring. White sugar (or other sugar) is not really healthy for the bees -- as you could easily guess. Certainly it's a milder form of punishment since we don't actually eat the bees, but I guess honey is all about stealing someone else's food.

Milk -- back to milk; all mammals never consume milk after the breast feeding stage. There's no need for it ever again. Certainly never a need for the milk of another animal.

Yogurt -- same thing, it's the milk from another animal, and that animal is a slave to the person milking it, then they slaughter once it is worn out. Soy yogurt is good enough for me. Solgurt is the best soy yogurt I've tried so far, and I've tried a lot.

But, I'm vegan firstly because of me. Because it's totally unnatural for humans to consume anything but the herbivore diet we are designed to eat. I did extensive research on the optimum food for athletic performance and I came to the conclusion that eating the food which we are naturally designed to eat is best. Along the way I also learnt about where my food comes from, how it is processed, etc. including the animal foods. This just added to my reasons. But, even if the animals were never harmed and, say, we only ate animals that diet of natural causes, I still wouldn't eat them for the previously stated reasons.

Answer 10

I'm not vegan, for health reasons, but I can see their point. They don't want to take anything from the animals, whether or not it harms them isn't really the point. But, I think you can see why they wouldn't want to eat the majority of non-vegan pre-prepared foods. It's hard to say exactly where they came from, and if it says where, they normally jack up the price because of it.

...I don't know if I'm making any sense/points, but I hope this helps.