Why do people choose to be vegans?

[cassie]

For me, I became vegan strictly for health reasons. I had temporary blindness for 8 weeks due to an auto immune/inflammatory process. I started vegetarian and transitioned to vegan. I felt a huge difference each time. The more I learn the more animal cruelty issues have also become an influence for me. Eggs make me sick so I haven't eaten them in YEARS.

Different people do well on different diets. My sister is a vegetarian. It works for her, but when she comes to visit me and I eat what she does, after a few days I don't feel very well at all. I have no energy and, to put it bluntly, I feel downright sick on the very foods she thrives on.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I don't know where you live, but the raising of farm animals is not necessarily inhumane.  There are good and bad farms everywhere, but the beef cattle here in Missouri seem to have a good life out on pasture, and where I lived in California most of the dairy cows were very well taken care of.  The broiler chickens I saw didn't have anything to complain about either.

I do have to agree. The state of the slaughter industry has come a long way in the last 20 years. It's still not a pretty sight to see (often shocking to people who are not ready to witness it or don't know what it is they are watching) but remember, humane doesn't always mean "clean". I think a lot of people forget that sometimes the slaughter of an animal doesn't have to be clean and blood-free to be quick and humane.

I've also been shocked by the mortality rates of a lot of the poultry farms (which is my area of study). In the 80's, mortality in broiler farms and egg farms was a whopping 20+%. Now they are down to only about 3%. This means they are doing something right! The money that goes into keeping these animals alive is tremendous. Many of these farmers do deeply care about there animals because they literally mean the world to them. I've seen terrible videos circulating around the internet, but remember that this is not the norm and these slaughter videos are made to invoke an emotional response.

That said, I totally respect people's wishes to go vegetarian. Many of my friends are veg and a few vegan. The only times it gets tricky is when having group gatherings, but as long as someone doesn't request something totally weird, it works out fine. I was a vegetarian for a long time just because I hated the taste and texture of meat, but now I do eat some chicken, pork, and beef.

 

[Baymule]

I am a meat eater. I slaughter old layer hens and roosters from the occasional straight run. I say a prayer over each one, thanking the chicken for giving up his/her life and thanking God for providing food for my family. I don't like the killing part, I try my darndest to make it as quick and painless as possible. I have no qualms about cleaning the carcass for consumption. I am raising Pekin ducks right now for slaughter. I have slaughtered about half of them, the rest will go next week. I roasted one so far, it was delicious. I care for my animals and respect their lives. I love the fresh eggs I get from the hens and they get treats and goodies all the time.

Beef and pork I buy at the store. I am not able at this time to raise my own, but that is a goal we are working toward. I serve less beef and pork than I used to, because I am against industrial food. I raise a garden, dehydrate, can and freeze for later consumption. I try to live as clean and chemical free life as I possibly can.

Be a vegan? No. But I do not protest against those who are for whatever their reason and I respect their choices. At the same time, do not protest my choices and respect my right to eat what ever the heck I want to.

 

[Bullitt]

I am a meat eater. I slaughter old layer hens and roosters from the occasional straight run. I say a prayer over each one, thanking the chicken for giving up his/her life and thanking God for providing food for my family. I don't like the killing part, I try my darndest to make it as quick and painless as possible. I have no qualms about cleaning the carcass for consumption. I am raising Pekin ducks right now for slaughter. I have slaughtered about half of them, the rest will go next week. I roasted one so far, it was delicious. I care for my animals and respect their lives. I love the fresh eggs I get from the hens and they get treats and goodies all the time.

Beef and pork I buy at the store. I am not able at this time to raise my own, but that is a goal we are working toward. I serve less beef and pork than I used to, because I am against industrial food. I raise a garden, dehydrate, can and freeze for later consumption. I try to live as clean and chemical free life as I possibly can.

Be a vegan? No. But I do not protest against those who are for whatever their reason and I respect their choices. At the same time, do not protest my choices and respect my right to eat what ever the heck I want to.

It seems you have gone a long way toward being self-sufficient. That is great. A pig is pretty easy to raise, if you have the space. You can feed a pig almost anything, such as table scraps and cuttings from your garden.

I still have a difficult time understanding why a person would have an ethical issue with drinking milk or eating dairy products.

 

[ChickenGirl62]

I understand if someone does not want to eat meat because they don't want to eat an animal. I personally like eating meat, but I can understand why someone would not want to eat meat.

Vegans won't eat meat or other animal products, and I think they try to avoid using any animal products, such as leather.

I do not understand the problem with drinking milk and eating eggs. Milk cows eat very well and live longer than most animals in the wild or in captivity. They live a pretty good life. And people can buy free-range eggs is they are opposed to battery hens. And most eggs in the world do not hatch into chicks.

So can someone explain the logic of being a vegan to me?

And I may be asking in the wrong place given the nature of this board.

Hello, being a vegan I can explain this to you..

At ALL egg farms..rooster chicks are ground up alive, suffocated in bags, or painfully gassed.



These are battery hens:


This is a "free range" egg farm. As you see.. It's not really free-range, but this is where your free range eggs come from:
(and of course the barns are never cleaned)


And at fertile egg farms, I think they still kill the majority of roosters.

Now on to dairy farms..

At ALL dairy farms, the calves are ripped away from their mothers right after birth. Both the baby and the mom mourn for days. But the baby is then made into veal.

This is a video of a cow rescued from the dairy industry. Apparently she had recently given birth, and the rescuers didn't know she had a baby until they saw dripping milk. So, they went back to the farm and managed to get the baby cow.

And this is a dairy farm. They smell. They are cruel places of course.

The cows milk is stolen from them. The milk was meant for their baby, NOT human consumption.

The cows are not milked by hand. They are hooked up to a machine:

When becoming a vegan, you don't lose anything. You just stop stealing whats not yours.

 

[ChickenGirl62]

There is nothing humane about any egg farm, or any dairy farm.

 

[roostersandhens]

I understand if someone does not want to eat meat because they don't want to eat an animal. I personally like eating meat, but I can understand why someone would not want to eat meat.

Vegans won't eat meat or other animal products, and I think they try to avoid using any animal products, such as leather.

I do not understand the problem with drinking milk and eating eggs. Milk cows eat very well and live longer than most animals in the wild or in captivity. They live a pretty good life. And people can buy free-range eggs is they are opposed to battery hens. And most eggs in the world do not hatch into chicks.

So can someone explain the logic of being a vegan to me?

And I may be asking in the wrong place given the nature of this board.

Dairy industries are awful! The babies are taken from their mothers, because as all mammals they can't produce milk without a baby. The mom spends 5 minutes with her child. She and her calf mourn for days!

And at egg industries the roosters are murdered. The free-range farms are nothing near humane. I am a vegan for the animals.

Not to mention that the hens are killed at 18 months, and the calves are killed EXTREMELY young! And the dairy cows are killed at about 3 years.

 

[cassie]

Dairy industries are awful! The babies are taken from their mothers, because as all mammals they can't produce milk without a baby. The mom spends 5 minutes with her child. She and her calf mourn for days!

And at egg industries the roosters are murdered. The free-range farms are nothing near humane. I am a vegan for the animals.

Not to mention that the hens are killed at 18 months, and the calves are killed EXTREMELY young! And the dairy cows are killed at about 3 years.

Oh good grief!! What do you think should happen to those extra roosters? And what do you think would happen to them if they were running wild and free? And if calves are "mourning for days" for their mothers I haven't seen it. They are mourning for their dinner and they don't care who or what provides it. Some dairy cows miss their calves and some are just glad to get rid of them. The same was true for my goats. For the record I had a goat dairy for many years and I have also spent a fair amount of time on cow dairies. The dairy cows where I used to live had a good life. And for the record, I am curious what you think should be done with the livestock we have now? Shoot them and dig a hole and bury them? They have to pay for their feed. No one can afford to keep them until they die of old age. In a natural environment, everything ends up as somebody's dinner. Very few wild animals die in their beds of old age.

 

[RoosterLover123]

Oh good grief!! What do you think should happen to those extra roosters? And what do you think would happen to them if they were running wild and free? And if calves are "mourning for days" for their mothers I haven't seen it. They are mourning for their dinner and they don't care who or what provides it. Some dairy cows miss their calves and some are just glad to get rid of them. The same was true for my goats. For the record I had a goat dairy for many years and I have also spent a fair amount of time on cow dairies. The dairy cows where I used to live had a good life. And for the record, I am curious what you think should be done with the livestock we have now? Shoot them and dig a hole and bury them? They have to pay for their feed. No one can afford to keep them until they die of old age. In a natural environment, everything ends up as somebody's dinner. Very few wild animals die in their beds of old age

Oh my god.. You have got to understand that there wouldn't be any extra roosters if people didn't buy eggs and meat! If people weren't breeding chickens, there would be no roosters being ground up! They totally mourn for their mothers, calves aren't stupid. They have the same bond as people have with their mothers.. I hate when people lie about dairy cows.. It's okay, nobody is trying to make you feel guilty!! Nobody is trying to pick on you, I promise. That is nowhere near my intention, and I am sure it isn't the intention of roostersandhens. So you can stop defending yourself with lies. (I don't mean to be rude if it came off that way..) They do not mourn for their food, well maybe they do that as well, but they mourn for mom either way. I doubt many want to get rid of their babies. And you also have to understand that roostersandhens wasn't talking about YOUR dairy cows, or some person who owns a couple cows. She/he was talking about factory farms, where milk you buy comes from. And, I know you were asking roostersnandhens, but I will answer the Qs anyway. If most people went vegan, the people who didn't may buy the remaining meat. Some of the animals could go to sanctuaries. But trust me, if the world goes vegan, it will be a slow process until all the awful industries go out of business.

 

[roostersandhens]

Oh good grief!! What do you think should happen to those extra roosters? And what do you think would happen to them if they were running wild and free? And if calves are "mourning for days" for their mothers I haven't seen it. They are mourning for their dinner and they don't care who or what provides it. Some dairy cows miss their calves and some are just glad to get rid of them. The same was true for my goats. For the record I had a goat dairy for many years and I have also spent a fair amount of time on cow dairies. The dairy cows where I used to live had a good life. And for the record, I am curious what you think should be done with the livestock we have now? Shoot them and dig a hole and bury them? They have to pay for their feed. No one can afford to keep them until they die of old age. In a natural environment, everything ends up as somebody's dinner. Very few wild animals die in their beds of old age.

I'd reply to you.. but I don't want to argue. You can chose to believe that, but please respect my opinions, and I will respectYours. Thanks!