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Finding Our New World

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle | 1 Comment on Finding Our New World

We too are animals, and we create our world within our own minds writes End Animal Slaughter Contributor PAUL STEVENSON. When we begin to extend our circle of compassion to include all beings we will transform not only ourselves, but the world we live in.

For millennia we have treated other species of animals as if they were unthinking, unfeeling automata. Descartes believed that because animals lacked a soul they could not feel pain or anxiety, and although his views were not universally accepted they did gain widespread influence.

Rene Descartes

The tragedy is that they helped to provide people with an excuse for treating animals with impunity on a vast scale, and that attitude has persisted right up to the present day. However, we have known since 1859, when Darwin’s “Origin of Species” was published, that we are all related and have all descended by the process of natural selection from one common ancestor. We too are animals, no better and no worse than any other species, just different.

Charles Darwin

The similarities between us and other animals are vastly greater than the differences, especially the similarities between all species of vertebrates. We all share the same skeletal body plan and possess similar organs. We share similar nervous, endocrine, circulatory and digestive systems, all of which operate in much the same way. It cannot be denied that other species experience pain as we do. Similarly, a great many of them experience similar feelings and emotions as us. We are also discovering by the day how complex their societies are. Given the above it is hardly surprising that we share so much in common; in fact it would be astonishing if we didn’t. In view of this we must radically revise our treatment of them.

Animals share not only a similar physiology, but similar emotions

I believe that we have an obligation to treat other animals with respect and avoid causing them unnecessary suffering. The way we treat others has profound implications for us for the following reasons.

There are two aspects to our behaviour – its effect on others and its effect on ourselves. This is similar to Newton’s Third Law in physics, “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. However, although the reaction may well be opposite in behavioural terms,  its effect may be very unequal because of the influence of the mind. Our world is not so much a geographic place as a cognitive one. All we ever know is the product of our own mind, so the meanings our mind makes are our world. It is a world of our own making, our own personal, subjective and cognitive world.

It is our own thoughts that determine our happiness and peace

The way we treat others therefore has profound implications for our own state of mind. Like produces like, and when we treat others well we similarly treat ourselves well, and come to like ourselves more. However, the opposite is also true – when we ill-treat others we ill-treat ourselves and come to dislike ourselves. This has an enormous effect on our personal sense of well being, as in order to feel happy we must like ourselves.

When we ill-treat others we cannot like ourselves and thereby deprive ourselves of peace in our heart. When we speak of “others” we must necessarily include other species of animals for the reasons described above. Now that we know they experience life very much like us we cannot continue to callously exploit them. We cannot permit ourselves to respect and cherish other animals when our sole reason for keeping them is to steal their products and their lives. We cannot allow ourselves to know them and their suffering. We are forced to treat them with contempt rather than respect. As in wartime, we have to deny the enemy’s humanity in order to destroy him.

But in hardening our hearts to their suffering we harden ourselves. In refusing to see and hear them we reduce ourselves into small, hard, cold people. This then becomes our world. We live in a small, hard, and cold world.

It should therefore come as no surprise to discover that so many people live deeply unsatisfying lives. Yet when we cease abusing other creatures and begin treating them with kindness and respect, the opposite becomes true. Our hard hearts soften as we begin to extend our circle of compassion to include every living being.   We do not have to cross oceans to find the New World. Our mind becomes our own New World, our personal Paradise Garden.

Why fishing is wrong

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle | 1 Comment on Why fishing is wrong

The notion of ‘ahimsa’ provides a clear path to guide moral treatment of other animals, writes End Animal Slaughter’s Sandra Kyle

Today I found a photo of the Prime Minister of New Zealand’s partner, a celebrity fisher with his own television show, holding an enormous game fish that he had just reeled in.  The giant bass, so big it took three men to hold him,  had blood congealed around his wounded mouth where the hook had torn through his delicate skin as he sought to escape his hunters.    This photo with the beaming smiles of the fishers and the lifeless body of the bass shocked me, and a question formed in my mind. Can we say that fishing is wrong, when so many ‘good’ people go fishing?   Isn’t morality subject to time and place, and dependent on culture and tradition?   Is there even any such thing as Objective Morality? 

The old saying ‘Do not judge until you walk a mile in someone’s shoes’ is one I am fond of.   It reminds us that life is not a level playing field, and that we all receive and filter information differently.    Genetics, upbringing, education, friends, life experience and encounters, cognitive biases – even, some might say, karma – are different for each of us, and all of these play a part in determining our behaviour. 

Our conditioning also affects what we believe is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’. In a world that is increasingly diverse, and therefore increasingly tolerant of difference (it might not seem that way, but it is) moral relativism is growing.    We may well ask: therefore:  Are there any moral certainties any more?   If there are, then what are they?

The way I see it there is a key ingredient to a universal and powerful moral objectivity and this is the notion of harm.  The  moral equivalent is ‘ahimsa’ (Sanskrit) or harmlessness. 

Every living animal, human and non-human, so long as it possesses a  rudimentary nervous system,  experiences harm.   Nature is no touchy-feely mother.    She is the Mother from Hell, dishing out harm to her children with complete impunity.  Natural disasters, disease, difficulties, accidents are her stock in trade, and because she has equipped her children  with emotions, we suffer emotional as well as physical harm – a double whammy.   When you think about it,  Nature’s modus operandi is the very soul of heartlessness – Survival of the Fittest.   Anyone who has seen moments-old hatchling turtles being picked off by seagulls as they frantically scramble  towards the water’s edge –  to take just one example from a million possibilities –  has no illusions about Nature’s goodness.  She is completely indifferent to suffering, and the best you could say of her is that she is impartial!   But we humans need not be so unfeeling.   We are rational, and can make compassionate choices.   We can be better than Nature. 

Of course, we are  always harming others, sometimes intentionally, sometimes unintentionally.  I am not talking about unintentional harm here.  We harm those around us, and our environment, through our deeds, our thoughts and our words.    We harm the environment by industrial development, land reclamation, spraying toxic chemicals, choking oceans with plastic waste and a myriad other ways.    We harm our fellow creatures by refusing to acknowledge their sentience and their rights, equal to our own,  to live their natural lives.  We hunt them.  We keep them in tiny cages in darkened smelly sheds where they cannot even walk, cannot even stand up.   We genetically modify them causing them to become deformed and die prematurely.   We force them to lead sterile lives in laboratories because we want to experiment on them.  We deliberately put them in harm’s way to be entertained by, or to profit from them.   We sacrifice them for religious reasons.  We murder them in their billions every single year, so we can eat them, even though we and the planet would be much healthier if we didn’t. It is a holocaust of unimaginable proportions, the harm we routinely cause to other sentient creatures.  We cannot keep denying its enormity. The time has come to look at the harm we are causing, and to stop it.

I would like to finish these musings by coming back to the example I began with: fishing.  We cannot plead ignorance any more; the  scientific jury is no longer out.   They’ve announced that Fish are sentient, intelligent and sensitive.  They feel pain and fear.   They are inquisitive, have long term memories, learn fast, and their complex social relationships and mating behaviours rival other animal groups.  If we are to follow the path of ‘harmlessness’ in our guide for moral behaviour, then this means that fishing is wrong and therefore we shouldn’t be doing it.  It means that our exploiting and killing other animals is wrong, and we shouldn’t be doing it. 

It is all quite simple.  ‘Primum non nocere’.    “First, do no harm” This is the key to moral certainty in a pluralistic world. If we think of ourselves as moral beings, and wish to lead moral lives, then we have to stop harming other animals.

Why vegans don’t wear leather and you shouldn’t either

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle | 1 Comment on Why vegans don’t wear leather and you shouldn’t either

End Animal Slaughter’s Sandra Kyle has been visiting India for more than twenty-five years, and has recently returned from her latest trip. In the second of a series of articles for this website on the state of animals in India, she looks at illegal trafficking of cattle, and the rise of leather production in Kerala and Bangladesh.

One of the most beautiful animals I have ever seen is the Indian cow.  Imposing in size, but with a sweet, docile and curious nature, the native breed is most commonly light in colour, although there are brown and pied cows as well.   A distinguishing feature of the true Brahman cow is the distinctive hump, evolved over time to help the animal survive in hot, arid conditions.   These animals are well-proportioned, with floppy ears, large upcurving horns, and enormous expressive eyes and long straight eyelashes.  

Revered by Hindus as ‘sacred’, the Indian cow is also called  “Mother” because she provides milk and, literally, the skin off her back.  Yet this beautiful, gentle animal who gives so much is egregiously treated by the very people who revere her. While it is mainly Christians and Muslims who carry out the trafficking, slaughter and leather processing, it is Hindus who sell their cattle to the traffickers. The whole sordid story is one of cruelty and corruption of the most egregious kind.

Nearly twenty years ago an expose by PETA first brought the problem to light. This created a scandal that saw celebrities such as Chrissie Hynd, Sir Paul McCartney, and the Dalai Llama calling for an end to the trafficking.

The problem with illegal trafficking began in the 1990s, when the Hindu nationalist party (BJP) came to power. When protection for the cow was enhanced,  including heavy restrictions around slaughter, an almost entirely clandestine trade in cows for beef and leather began.  This illegal trafficking was mainly to Christian Kerala in the far South (where cow slaughter is still legal) and neighbouring  Bangladesh, a Muslim nation.   While regulations exist, widespread bribery and corruption by government officials and veterinary surgeons means that they are not enforced.

Prominent Indian Animal Rights activist and veteran campaigner Mrs Meneka Gandhi, Minister for Women and Children in the Narendra Modi government, said at the time of the initial expose in 2000:   “There is a huge amount of trafficking of cattle to both West Bengal and Kerala.  The ones going to West Bengal go by truck and train and they go by the millions. The law says you cannot transport more than 4 per truck but they are putting in up to 70. When they go by train, each wagon is supposed to hold 80 to 100, but they cram in up to 900. I’ve seen 900 cows coming out of the wagon of a train, and 400 to 500 of them came out dead.”

‘The cattle are unloaded just before Calcutta, at Howrah, then beaten and taken across to Bangladesh by road. Bangladesh, which has no cows of its own, is the biggest beef exporter in the region. Between 10,000 and 15,000 cows go across that border every day. You can make out the route taken by the trucks by the trail of blood they leave behind.”

When their destination is Kerala,  the cows are taken on foot, tens of thousands per day, to slaughterhouses  on the border.  “Because they have walked and walked and walked the cattle have lost a lot of weight, so to increase the weight and the amount of money they will receive, the traffickers make them drink water laced with copper sulphate, which destroys their kidneys and makes it impossible for them to pass the water – so when they are weighed they have 15kg of water inside them and are in extreme agony,” Mrs Gandhi stated.

“It’s a hideous journey,” wrote PETA President, Ingred Newkirk, who followed a caravan of cows to Kerala.   “To keep them moving, drivers beat the animal across their hip bones, where there is no fat to cushion the blows. The cows are not allowed to rest or drink. Many cows sink to their knees. Drivers beat them and twist their battered tails to force them to rise. If that doesn’t work they torment the cows into moving by rubbing hot chilli peppers and tobacco into their eyes.”

When they finally make it to the slaughterhouses, the PETA investigation revealed,  they were  slaughtered with repeated hammer blows, which beat their skulls to a pulp. 

It is a devastating  story, and  the worst of it is that it is still happening today.  

I recently watched a video that took a look at tanneries on the India-Bangladeshi border.   Skins are acquired by the tanneries from neighbouring slaughterhouses, and processed by employees working under appalling conditions.     These places are swelteringly hot, and there is an ever-present pungent stench from toxic chemicals used to process the hides. The poorest of the poor work in this industry, including innocent children who also handle the chemicals. Eventually the waste spills out into the streets and then into the waterways, making them black and viscous. Humans, fish and other animals all become sick or die as a result of this industry.

Another shocking revelation in the video I watched were images of a buyer for an Italian shoe company walking around and inspecting the hides. In subsequent shots we saw shoes  being placed in boxes with an Italian brandname, to be packaged and exported to Europe.The illegal trafficking of cattle, their treatment, slaughter, and processing of their hides for leather is a story of unbelievable cruelty, but also poverty, greed and ignorance. It is also a story of unethical employers who exploit their labour, and wealthy international companies who perpetuate the misery in order to profit from their immoral gains.

There is so much misery  tied up with cattle meat and leather in India. Animals transported in punishing conditions who are whipped and beaten as they travel to their destination. Primitive and barbaric slaughter methods in unregulated slaughterhouses.   Unsanitary conditions and poor pay for workers, including children.  A toxic environment that makes people and animals alike sick.  

This is the chain of production of some Italian-brand shoes and no doubt many other High Street brands.     It is why vegans don’t wear leather, and why non-vegans shouldn’t either.

Worker in a toxic Bangladeshi tannery

The plight of the ‘Sacred Cow’ in India

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle | 2 Comments on The plight of the ‘Sacred Cow’ in India


End Animal Slaughter’s Sandra Kyle recently visited India to receive  the Phillip Wollen Animal Welfare Award.  The Award was presented by the Haryana-based Teachers’ Association for Animal Rights, and was given to her by prominent Animal Rights activist Meneka Gandhi, Minister for Women and Children in the Narendra Modi government.

During her two weeks’ stay Sandra  was struck by the numbers of cows wandering the streets of towns and cities.  Read her take on the problem of ‘The Sacred Cow’ in India.   

The cow in India has long had a unique status.   Known by such names   as “Mother”, “Kamdhenu”, “Surabhi”, ‘The Sacred Cow Who Fulfils All Desires’, she is depicted in iconography as a white cow with a female head and breasts, the wings of a bird, and the tail of a peacock.   However while there are temples devoted to Hanuman (Monkey God) and Ganesha (Elephant God), cows are not generally worshipped independently as a goddess, but honoured by protecting and venerating the living animal.  While this may sound very cosy  for the cow, all is not as it seems.  In my opinion there is not one happy street cow in India.

Traditionally, spent cows who could no longer give milk have been sent to slaughter, which was carried out by minority non-Hindus.  Recent  legislation preventing slaughter means  that  owners who cannot afford to keep their animals  release them onto the streets to fend for themselves.  This is creating a dire situation for the cows, as well as posing traffic risks on India’s already chaotic roads.  It also highlights the pressing and persistent problem of waste disposal in this country.

Every year, tens of thousands of cows are killed in accidents in India. They are often seen walking across roads in the middle of the traffic, or standing on traffic islands.   Generally they gather near the ubiquitous rubbish piles, where they root around for enough food to keep them from starving.   While I saw many skinny cows and calves, I also some who looked quite bloated.    I didn’t understand the cause of their large  stomachs until I visited a cow hospital in Haryana, and witnessed an operation. 

The hospital I visited is the Gau Seva Dham (Holy Mother Cow Hospital). The spiritual leader is Devi Chitralekhaji a young woman in her early twenties. Her biography states that she was born in a nearby village and her life’s purpose took root at the age of seven, when she was initiated by a ‘great Saint’. The little girl began devoting her seva (service) to the Holy Mother Cow and, a few years ago, with donations from her followers, she opened the Gau Seva Dham.

The Manager of the Centre escorted our party around the facility. Like any hospital there are ‘wards’, sectioned off portions of a large open sided area, covered with soft sand to make the patients more comfortable. There is an Intensive Care ward, a Cancer ward, a Burns ward, an Orthopedic ward. We saw some remarkable and upsetting sights at this hospital.   A number of cows in the Intensive Care ward were dying, including one so emaciated and weak that she could not raise her head.  In this ward I also saw one of the most pitiful sights I have seen. A cow had unsuccessfully tried to birth a stillborn calf, visible in the birth sac, halfway out of his mother’s vagina. There was nothing the staff could do for this poor girl other than administer pain relief, and wait until she was released from her suffering.  In the Burns ward I saw two cows with pink wrinkly skin, who were recovering from having acid thrown on them.   Cows with visible tumours, some gigantic, were being treated in the cancer ward, while in the orthopaedic ward a small calf who had had his leg amputated as a result of a traffic accident was learning to move around on three legs.  Before long, I was told, he would be fitted with an artificial leg by the Prosthetics team.

Another memorable sight was a cow undergoing an operation carried out by a team of veterinarians and attendants.  Standing in a restraining device, this girl was fully conscious, having been given local anaesthetic prior to having the contents of her stomach emptied, a procedure that can last up to four hours.  Near the operating table was a large bucket where the surgeons were placing the rubbish they pulled from her stomach.  I watched in amazement as tangled string, bits of cardboard, and especially, plastic bags containing rotting food were pulled from her rumen and placed in the container.  Plastic is particularly deadly for cows, who cannot digest or expel it from their system, and as a result the toxic plastic accumulates inside their stomachs, eventually leading to a slow and painful death.  The cow I saw operated on was one of the lucky ones; but this is an expensive and lengthy procedure, and is not the answer to the problem.   The long term  answer is an outright ban on plastic bags, and more regulation regarding the disposal of rubbish in India.    Feeding and watering stations for cattle away from traffic is another option that could be explored.

The cow may be sacred in Hinduism, but the living, breathing animal is far from venerated.   Once they have fulfilled their purpose they are let loose to lead difficult, dangerous lives, largely ignored or tolerated  but sometimes abused by the population.   And there is another shocking aspect to the misery of the sacred cow in this country, and that is how they are abused in the  production of leather, which I will cover in a follow-up story.

The euthanasia of four male baboons highlights one of the problems with zoos

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle | 3 Comments on The euthanasia of four male baboons highlights one of the problems with zoos

The recent euthanasia of four male baboons at Wellington Zoo highlights some of the problems and difficult decisions that Zoo staff have to make.   While the baboon’s social structure breaking down was the reason for putting the animals to sleep,  it also shows that keeping animals in captivity in zoo-like situations cannot meet their behavioural and habitat needs.

End Animal Slaughter contributor Sonja Penafiel Bermudez’s organisation ‘Speak Up For Animals’ and Animal Rights organisation Save Animals From Exploitation staged a vigil outside the zoo.

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A few moments love and comfort before the end

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle | 1 Comment on A few moments love and comfort before the end

The Worldwide Save Movement has well over 600 groups around the world holding vigils for animals going to slaughter.   Read Gustavo Arelland’s Los Angeles Times account of how one of these groups bears witness  outside ‘Farmer John ‘s’.   Farmer John, owned by animal killing giant Smithfields, butchers up to 7,000 pigs every single day.

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‘We’re in a fight for our lives’

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

In her article in ‘The Cap Times’, Patricia Randolph writes that ignoring climate change could lead to disaster in just a few years.  We must change our eating habits to save the planet and our lives.   In her article she also mentions End Animal Slaughter:

‘A new effort has emerged  to end the slaughterhouses of the Western world by 2025: The website states: “There is an enormous amount of evidence that killing animals for food is a root cause of not only of enormous animal suffering but also global warming, biodiversity loss, human disease, and poverty in the developing countries.”

When one opens the website, a kill counter starts the count of animals being killed since opening the page. An estimated 3 billion land animals and wild and farmed fish are killed daily. 

That count does not include hunting and trapping our natural predators and wildlife, the by-catch, and poaching of the last of our wild creatures to facilitate slaughter of the enslaved.’

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‘You Know Who You Are’

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle

End Animal Slaughter contributor Debbie Nelson spends a lot of time talking to people, including those in the animal industries.   She’s had enough of their rationalisations.

 

We have an animal holocaust going on worldwide.  Why do you deny it?  I’m so sick or hearing your excuses!

I’m getting to know you all too well. I talk to you every day, those of you who farm and process animals and their products, and also those of you who consume them. I’m so tired hearing about your animal welfare standards. They mean nothing to the suffering of the animals subjected to this ‘humane’ care.  From in-utero to death, from marketing to consumption, you are contributing to animal misery and anguish. We’re talking about billions of executions after a life of torture with no crime committed.  Where precisely is your link in this chain of animal cruelty?

You know who you are. You are the veterinarians who work at the farms; small, factory and in-between. Your job is to keep the animals alive and walking in step only so they can be killed at a fraction of their natural lifespan.  You keep compassionate, intelligent, emotional beings physically well enough until it is time to kill them to earn money for the farmers.  You are just facilitating the terrible crime that keeps them in their prisons.     Here’s one example:  you help farmers keep their sows in gestation and farrowing crates by tending to the sores where their soft bodies rub against iron bars.  How can you call yourself veteranians?  You took a oath to protect animals and relieve their suffering, not perpetuate it.

You know who you are. You are the consumer of animal products. I hear you say so often ‘I love animals.’  ‘I can’t bear animal cruelty’, and yet you pay someone to kill animals so you can eat or wear them.  Stop turning away from an inconvenient truth!  Research the facts!   Make no mistake, the blood is on your hands of those who give their lives for your cheese, milk, roast dinner, omelette.   Farm animal brutality would not even exist without your ignorant or heartless use of your dollars. Stop sticking your head in the humane washing machine! It’s time you informed yourself.    The power to do this resides with you and no-one else.

Jo Frederiks Art

You know who you are. You are the super-rich and powerful owners of companies that produce, process and sell animal products.  You make millions from farm animal exploitation. They have none of the instruments of power you possess, and can’t speak for themselves. Even humans can’t fight you, they are also under your money-thumb.  As long as your pockets are full what does it matter that billions of animals are killed every year? As long as your investors are happy, who cares about the rest?

What does it matter that dairy calves are taken away from their mothers just hours after birth?  Who cares if dairy cows go to slaughter completely spent at 5 years old when their natural lifespan is close to 20 years?  As long as you’re making money from them, what does it matter?

If a fetal calf is taken from his slaughtered mother and has all its blood drained out while still alive, then so be it. The huge Biotech community will reap the profits. If a piglet has its testicles cut out without pain relief so its meat tastes better, then so be it. The pork associations don’t care.  If bouncing little male chicks in egg-laying hatcheries are ground up or suffocated within moments of hatching, then so be it.  Who cares if they have never known the shelter of a maternal wing? If female chicks have their beak trimmed and some toes cut off to fit them for a life in a battery cage, then so be it.   Who cares if they have the cognition of a toddler human?  What does it matter to the Big Egg producers and the laying farms?  They only care about the mighty dollar.

Let’s pause a moment to consider the often forgotten in animal farming – fish.    In the ag-business of fish farming sentient, playful, social fish lead miserable lives, overcrowded in vats of filthy water laced with chemicals to keep them alive. They endure this horror only to be conscious while being killed. Their gills are cut and they are left to bleed to death in agony. Large fish are at times hit on the head with a bat and are often alive when cut open.  But what does it matter?  They are just fish.

They are just chickens.

They are just pigs.

They are just cows.

They are just animals.

Jo Frederiks Art

Shame on you if you own and run animal farms!    Please don’t tell me you care for your animals. What you care for is efficiency, with an eye on the most dollars you can get from your products, alive and dead.   You don’t sentence those you love to a life of misery and removal to a horrible death do you? Even those of you who allow your animals to live a comparatively decent life still send them away from their home and family, and some of you even put a bullet in their brain yourselves.  You become their friends and care takers, then betray their affection when they can no longer earn their keep. Research!  Think!   When you do you will discover that consumers are leaving off the baby cow milk and cadaver meat in droves, and the future of farming is plant-based.

The penultimate link in the chain of production in the lives of farmed animals is transportation and slaughter. Hundreds of millions are transported in the US every year for breeding, fattening and slaughter.  The industry calls it a “stage of production” referring to live beings as if they were tyres in an auto factory.  Before being transported they have to endure herding and catching. Chicken catching is particularly stressful.  Chicken catchers pursue and grab the birds, hold them upside down six to a fist, then slam them into transport crates. How would you like a electrical prod up the rectum and be moved into a totally unfamiliar place where you will have your throats slit?  That’s what six month old piglets endure.  They are supposed to live over 15 years. At a moment’s notice they must leave their homes and family to be placed in a crowded truck where they are transported in conditions that could be sweltering or freezing, deprived of food water and bedding for hours on end. Some animals experience such extreme stress that they die en route. Because of these horrible impacts on animals the issue of transportation has been addressed by federal, state and international bodies. The laws are clear but as is the case with so many rules in this industry, they are not enforced.

And now we come to the last link in the chain; slaughter, and the various euphemisms used to describe it.   Call it ‘harvesting’, ‘processing’, ‘culling’ all you like, the fact remains that it is taking away the life of a helpless being against its will.  Murder, execution, killing, homicide, slaying, massacre, butchery, carnage, bloodbath, annihilation, and destruction are all more truthful words to use.   Why don’t you admit it?   Call a spade a bloody spade, because that’s what it is.

Most people who read this will be at the consumer end of the production chain, and so my question is primarily for you.   Are you ready to let it go yet, and transition to a vegan diet?

If not now, then when?   If not you, then who?

 

Jo Frederiks Art

 

Veganism: One Small Step for Man; One Giant Leap for Mankind.

Posted on | by Sandra Kyle | 1 Comment on Veganism: One Small Step for Man; One Giant Leap for Mankind.

End Animal Slaughter contributor Paul Stevenson reflects on the true meaning of veganism.

Sometimes people criticise vegans by accusing them of pretending to be better than others. I believe it is a great mistake for anyone to pretend that they are better than others, and it is a sure way to alienate them. However, my own life is immeasurably better now than it was before I became vegan because I now have the priceless joys of a clear conscience and peace in my heart.

It saddens me to think that a lot of people feel threatened by the word vegan, and I believe this reflects a misunderstanding of what being vegan means. Being vegan is primarily about living a kind and caring life by not harming others. Only by cherishing others, and the environment, can our lives ever hope to bloom. A vegan diet is merely a means to that end, not an end in itself, as some people appear to believe. It is not about losing anything; on the contrary, it is about gaining Life itself.

People everywhere dream of happiness and peace. However, they fail to realise their dreams because of the way they behave. Peace and happiness are the consequences of a peaceful and caring life. They are forever denied to those who inflict monstrous, and totally unnecessary, suffering on innocent creatures.

As a species we have taken the wrong track in life. Not only are we not realising our dreams but we are destroying ourselves in the pursuit of false pleasures. We have no need of animal foods and both our physical and emotional lives are vastly better without them. The greatest tragedy of all is that in our fruitless quest for pleasure we are causing unspeakable, unimaginably horrible suffering to multitudes of our fellow creatures. As we brutalise them we ourselves become brutes. The peaceful heart and the bloody hand do not inhabit the same body.

Last, but not least, we are not only destroying our humanity by our callous behaviour but the very environment on which we all depend. We must therefore make drastic changes while there is still time.

Parents who profess to care about their children are effectively stealing their future by the choices they make today. Their lifestyle is truly their children’s deathstyle. They are bequeathing them a wilderness. We must mend our ways without delay, or there will be no future for anyone.  Adopting a vegan lifestyle would do much to turn this dire situation around.

If we truly care about our children we must begin caring about the environment and its inhabitants, upon which we all depend. The funny thing is that when we do begin to care we see through new eyes. We begin to appreciate this wonderful world for the first time. We realise how enormously privileged we are to have been born in the first place.  When we begin to cherish our fellow companions, and treat them kindly and with respect, our heart softens and swells, and overflows with joy.  We begin to see the world through their eyes, and our spirit tingles as never before.   As our minds and hearts expand, sunlight floods into our lives and far horizons extend before us endlessly.  In a very real sense, becoming vegan is ‘one small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind’.

Paul with two of his porcine companions, Tommy and Jimmy.