THIS IS A VEGAN WEBSITE?!
I created this website because I love animals. Because I also love ‘80s music, I decided to create a website about both. My hope is that you will have an open mind while reading the information provided on this website, and investigate these claims for yourself. Most people don’t question consuming animal flesh, organs, and bodily secretions (dairy, eggs, honey) because since they were young, impressionable children, they have been told that such behavior is healthy, harmless, necessary, and humane—but none of that is true. This website exposes the lies and propaganda about “farmed” animals, who are referred to as “livestock” by the animal agriculture industry.
If you are new to this website and interested in learning about veganism, please start on this page.
WHAT DOES ‘80S MUSIC HAVE TO DO WITH VEGANISM?
The ‘80s music connection is the ‘80s music artists who are vegan: Bryan Adams, Richard Marx, Stevie Wonder, Brian May (Queen’s co-founder/lead guitarist/keyboardist/singer-songwriter), Phil Collen (Def Leppard’s guitarist), Rick Allen (Def Leppard’s drummer), Terri Nunn (Berlin’s vocalist), Rikki Rockett (Poison’s drummer), Grace Slick (Starship’s vocalist), Morrissey (singer-songwriter and frontman for The Smiths), Annabella Lwin (Bow Wow Wow’s lead singer), Tom Bailey (Thompson Twins’ founder/keyboardist/guitarist/singer-songwriter), Carl Palmer (Asia’s drummer), and more.
These rock and pop stars are featured throughout this website because they believe that animals deserve to live free from abuse, exploitation, suffering, and slaughter. That’s why they choose to be vegan.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE VEGAN?
Veganism is an ethical philosophy that affects an individual’s choices about food, activities, purchases, and lifestyle in general. By definition, vegan means “for the animals,” but living vegan also has profoundly beneficial impacts on your health, other people, and our world.
Veganism is a moral perspective rather than a diet, but a diet may be referred to as vegan. The term “100% plant-based” describes a diet of foods derived from plants only, including vegetables, grains, legumes, fruits, nuts, and seeds. (Sometimes people describe a diet as “plant-based” if it consists mainly of plants but not solely of plants.) People may decide to adopt a vegan diet (a 100% plant-based diet) for their personal health, for the environment, and for many other reasons, but people who decide to adopt the vegan philosophy are doing it for the animals.
Being vegan is about doing your best to cause the least amount of harm possible. Vegans try their best not to contribute to animal abuse, suffering, or killing. By definition, being vegan is about the animals; the other positive outcomes are icing on the vegan cake!
Of course, being vegan affects many aspects of a person’s life, but food accounts for over 90% of our daily choices that involve animals. All of the animals who suffer and die in other industries (clothing, cosmetics, laboratory testing, circuses, theme parks, shelters, etc.) make up less than 1% of the total number of animals who are exploited and killed by humans (see Animal Charity Evaluators). For example, according to the ASPCA (American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), 920,00 shelter animals (mostly dogs and cats) are euthanized every year in the U.S. According to the USDA (United States Department of Agriculture), 9.8 billion farmed land animals are slaughtered for food every year in the U.S. That means that in the U.S., for every dog or cat killed in a shelter, 10,608 “food” animals are killed. And that number doesn’t even include animals who are killed in other industries, nor does it include fish or other aquatic animals.
Being vegan is not just about food choices, but food is the biggest aspect of living vegan. The chickens, cows, pigs, turkeys, ducks, fish, goats, sheep, and other animals who are exploited and slaughtered to create and become human food suffer the most, for the longest duration, for their entire lives, and in the greatest numbers. This website is for them.
BUT WHY SHOULD YOU CARE?
Yes, of course what you eat is your choice, but there is no nutritional or biological requirement for humans to consume animals or their bodily secretions (dairy, eggs, honey). The millions of healthy vegans all over the world are proof of that, as is the abundance of peer-reviewed, evidence-based research and scientific studies about a vegan diet (which can be found throughout this website, and on the RESOURCES page).
To be clear, a vegan is someone who does not participate in any form of animal abuse, exploitation, or slaughter, which includes abstaining from using, wearing, and consuming all animal products: dairy, eggs, honey, gelatin, wool, leather, silk, feathers, skin, and fur. Vegans avoid all forms of animal exploitation. Simply stated, veganism is not just about food: It is an ethical philosophy, and food is the biggest part of it.
Causing pain and suffering and slaughter to emotional beings for taste pleasure, convenience, tradition, habit, or any trivial reason is not morally defensible, but most people who participate in such behavior claim to be ethical. Some of them even claim to be animal lovers. Many of them get very upset about people who abuse and slaughter dogs and cats for food, but they pay for the exact same treatment to chickens, cows, pigs, turkeys, fish, and other animals. Does that make sense? Do those animals somehow experience pain and suffering differently? Do dogs and cats deserve to live free from needless exploitation, abuse, and slaughter, but other animals don’t?
Millions of these animals are slaughtered every day all over the world, after enduring nothing but agony and misery, never knowing any love or compassion or freedom, because most humans have been conditioned to believe that breeding, imprisoning, mutilating, exploiting, and slaughtering sentient beings for food is morally justifiable behavior. A sentient being has the capacity to feel emotions, to perceive surroundings, and to experience life as a fully self-aware individual. Just like dogs and cats, these “food” animals have central nervous systems with spinal cords, pain receptors, and brains. They are emotional beings who can experience pleasure, pain, agony, and fear. Please think about the actual living beings who suffer and die to create and become the “products” that you consume.
Because there is no essential nutritional or biological need for humans to consume the flesh, organs, and bodily secretions of animals, if you choose to ignore what happens to these animals when they are forced to create and become your food, then you are supporting suffering and violence for nothing more than self-gratification. We have an abundance of delicious, nutritious, and affordable plant food that doesn’t come from suffering and slaughter. Please simply make food choices that are consistent with your ethics. Humans can behave morally, think rationally, and live happy and healthy lives without consuming animals and their bodily secretions.
The GOOD NEWS is that it’s very easy to GO VEGAN! Because food is the biggest part of it, you can begin by changing your diet. Check out the 66-page TOTALLY AWESOME GUIDE TO THE VEGAN DIET AND PHILOSOPHY on the RESOURCES page. In this free guide you will find lots of ideas, menus, product suggestions, and advice about going vegan! This resource is designed to get you thinking about what’s available for you to eat and drink that doesn’t come from animal suffering and violence.
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THREE BASIC FACTS
People decide to become vegan when they accept three basic facts, and then apply these facts to their lives:
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Animals can experience pain and suffering.
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Humans cause animals pain and suffering when we breed, exploit, imprison, harm, and kill them.
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We have no nutritional or biological need to consume the flesh, organs, or bodily secretions (dairy, eggs, honey) of animals, nor any need to use them in any way.
After you accept these basic facts, you examine your ethics (what you personally believe is right and wrong), and then apply your ethics to everyone—not just to other humans, nor to only specific animals such as dogs and cats. EVERYONE!
If you need help figuring out what to eat and how to live vegan, simply ask a vegan! We’ve all been through this process. We will help you! We want to help you, not just because we care about the animals—but also because we care about YOU. We know that you don’t want to be contributing to the torture and slaughter of lovable animals. That’s not who you are!!
Being vegan is simply about being compassionate. YOU CAN DO IT!!! Ask for help if you need it. If you don’t personally know a vegan, you can easily find a support system of vegans on social media. All vegans will tell you that the one regret they have is not going vegan sooner.
MANY REASONS TO GO VEGAN
This website focuses primarily on compassion for the suffering animals, but there are many important motivations for going vegan. It is very well-documented that animal agriculture has a major destructive impact on climate change, human health, widespread air and water pollution, water wastage and water scarcity, deforestation, land degradation, topsoil erosion, species extinction, habitat destruction, desertification, ocean dead zones, worldwide human hunger and starvation, antibiotic resistance, and much more. These other issues are referenced throughout this website, and on THE RESOURCES page.
Furthermore, animal exploitation is responsible for the development of pandemic and endemic viral diseases of zoonotic origin such as SARs, Ebola, E. coli, MRSA, salmonella, MERS, H1N1 swine flu, mad cow disease (BSE), H5N1 avian influenza virus, the Spanish flu, HIV/AIDS, the Nipah virus, Lassa fever, Rift Valley fever, Q fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, brucellosis, trichinosis, influenza, measles, gonorrhea, syphilis, anthrax, and COVID-19. These zoonotic diseases all started because of humanity’s exploitation of animals, whether they were raised for food or experimented on in laboratories. These deadly diseases would not exist in a vegan world.
Over 90% of the antibiotics sold in the U.S. are fed to factory-farmed animals to keep them alive and producing “product.” The result is that bacteria and other microorganisms increasingly resist the effects of antibiotics that they were once defenseless against. The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a serious concern because they can cause infections that are no longer curable with antibiotic treatments. Antibiotics injected into animals are found in meat, cheese, eggs, and all animal products, which also contain hormones, steroids, and other pharmaceutical drugs.
If you are unaware of the connection between animal agriculture and these issues, that’s because the media, governments and politicians, the healthcare industry, and education systems are all funded by the animal agriculture industry! Think about it. They don’t want you to make the connection because it’s all about money. The meat, dairy, and egg industries permeate television, radio, internet, and all media outlets with lies and propaganda to fool the masses into believing that animal flesh, organs, and bodily secretions are healthy, necessary, humane, and guilt-free. These industries are getting richer by duping you and inflicting horrendous suffering and violence on animals, which you support!
WHEN DID THE WORDS VEGAN AND VEGANISM ORIGINATE?
The word vegan was defined by The Vegan Society (an offshoot of The Vegetarian Society) in November 1944. Led by Donald Watson, The Vegan Society sought to differentiate their group from vegetarians, who abstain from meat, but consume the bodily fluids and secretions of animals. Donald Watson stated that the word vegan was chosen because it contains the first three and the last two letters of vegetarian. He said that this was significant because it marked both the beginning and the end of vegetarian.
In 1949, the Vegan Society decided to expand the concept by coining the word veganism as a philosophy that includes issues other than just food, embracing the principle of the emancipation of animals from all exploitation by humans. Veganism was then clarified to be “the philosophy of ending the use of animals by humans for food, commodities, work, hunting, vivisection, and all other uses involving exploitation.”
The definition of veganism was amended and refined over the years. By 1988, the official definition became the following:
“Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals, and the environment. In dietary terms, it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.”
In 1994, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the inception of the vegan movement, The Vegan Society declared November 1st as WORLD VEGAN DAY, and November as WORLD VEGAN MONTH, which is now internationally recognized. “World Vegan Month is celebrated around the world as a time to recognize how far the vegan movement has come, to highlight how accessible and beneficial a vegan lifestyle is and to encourage the vegan-curious to adopt veganism by sharing advice, recipes and ideas.”
IT’S NOW EASIER TO GO VEGAN THAN EVER BEFORE!
Every single day it gets easier to live vegan! More 100% plant-based products and services are becoming available and more easily accessible every day because every day there are more people who decide to live vegan, and the food industry is based on supply and demand. There are many affordable, delicious, healthy 100% plant-based alternatives to meat, dairy, and eggs that taste exactly the same! You won’t be able to tell the difference. You just have to look for these products. For help finding vegan brands and products, check out the TOTALLY AWESOME GUIDE TO THE VEGAN DIET AND PHILOSOPHY on THE RESOURCES page.
Ultimately, you must decide if causing pain and suffering and slaughter for nothing more than momentary, trivial taste pleasure...is who you really are, especially when there are affordable, nutritious, and delicious alternatives that don’t come from the pain and suffering and slaughter of emotional beings.
Please think about what you are supporting, do your own research, and simply choose compassion. Please think about how your daily food choices and other decisions impact the animals, our world, humanity in general, and your own health.
VEGAN ALTERNATIVES TO MEAT, DAIRY, AND EGGS
There are now many delicious vegan alternatives to animal products that are affordable and widely available. The VEGAN MEAT, DAIRY AND EGG ALTERNATIVES section on THE RESOURCES page provides website links for dozens of companies that make vegan versions of meat, eggs, and dairy products. Many of them will ship directly to you, or you may order these products from online shopping platforms. And you may always ask for these brands and products at your local grocery stores and restaurants. You will find store locators on many of these websites, to let you know where to find these products locally.
For more vegan brands and products, check out the TOTALLY AWESOME GUIDE TO THE VEGAN DIET AND PHILOSOPHY on THE RESOURCES page.
“I DON’T LIKE VEGAN FOOD!”
Vegans are mystified when people tell us, “I don’t like vegan food.”
Really? What exactly is “vegan food”?
Vegans eat fruits and vegetables, bread and other grains (crackers, cereals, rice, etc.), beans and other legumes, pasta, potatoes, and nuts and seeds—and these items can be used to make sandwiches, pizza, smoothies, dips, hummus, soups, casseroles, garden burgers, sauces, burritos, nut butters, stir fries, etc. The possibilities are endless.
In addition, there is an abundance of desserts, beverages, condiments, and spices that aren’t made from the flesh and bodily secretions of animals. Vegan junk food is everywhere now!
If you want food that tastes like flesh and bodily secretions, there are vegan alternatives for all of that. Those types of food don’t interest some vegans, primarily because they taste too much like slaughtered animals and bodily secretions. These days, vegans never have a problem finding something to eat or drink that doesn’t come from animal abuse and slaughter.
So, when someone says, “I don’t like vegan food,” the next question is, “What is vegan food?” Vegan food, quite simply, is food that doesn’t come from pain and suffering and exploitation and slaughter. It’s delicious and nutritious...and it’s everywhere.
For websites with vegan meals and recipes, check out the VEGAN MEALS AND RECIPES section on THE RESOURCES page. Also on THE RESOURCES page, check out the TOTALLY AWESOME GUIDE TO THE VEGAN DIET AND PHILOSOPHY and the VEGAN MEAT, DAIRY, AND EGG ALTERNATIVES section.
IS BEING VEGAN HEALTHY?
THE ACADEMY OF NUTRITION AND DIETETICS SAYS YES!
Vegans are always being asked for proof that a vegan diet is healthy. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics is the largest organization of healthcare professionals in the United States (and the world), representing over 100,000 credentialed practitioners. The Academy published a position paper in the December 2016 Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (Volume 116, Issue 12, Pages 1970–1980), that affirms its official position that a vegan diet is best for human health and the environment, stating that appropriately-planned vegan diets are “healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits for the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.” The Academy is the leading authority on diet and nutrition in the U.S., and is committed to improving the nation’s health and advancing the profession of dietetics through research, education, and advocacy.
The Academy states that humans have no inherent biological or nutritional need for animals or animal products, and that a vegan diet provides significant health benefits, may prevent and treat chronic diseases, and is best for overall health. The paper states that a vegan diet is “healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits for the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.” Additionally, the Academy affirms that a vegan diet is “appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, older adulthood, and for athletes.”
Also according to this position paper, “Vegans are at reduced risk of certain health conditions, including ischemic heart disease, type-2 diabetes, hypertension, certain types of cancer, and obesity,” and a vegan diet is associated with “low intake of saturated fat and high intakes of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, soy products, nuts, and seeds (all rich in fiber and phytochemicals),” and therefore produces “lower total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and better serum glucose control. These factors contribute to reduction of chronic disease.” The Academy concludes that a vegan diet provides better nutrition than an omnivorous diet, as assessed by the Alternative Healthy Eating Index.
Furthermore, the Academy states that because a vegan diet uses fewer natural resources and is associated with much less environmental damage, it is therefore more environmentally sustainable than diets rich in animal products.
The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics used a large collection of studies and public surveys to arrive at its conclusions. Here are some of the Academy’s determinations regarding a vegan diet compared to other dietary patterns:
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Vegans are at reduced risk for heart disease, and vegan diets seem to be the most beneficial in improving heart disease risk factors.
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Vegans are at reduced risk for cancer, and a vegan diet provides greater protection against overall cancer incidence.
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Vegans have a lower risk for type-2 diabetes, and a vegan diet serves as effective therapeutic tools in the management of type-2 diabetes.
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Vegans are at reduced risk for hypertension, and have the lowest systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels and the lowest rate of hypertension.
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Vegans are at reduced risk for obesity, and a vegan diet is associated with the lowest body mass index.
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Vegan diets typically meet or exceed recommended protein intakes, when caloric intakes are adequate: “The terms complete and incomplete are misleading in relation to plant protein. Protein from a variety of plant foods, eaten during the course of a day, supplies enough of all indispensable (essential) amino acids when caloric requirements are met.”
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Vegans eat the most fiber, the least total fat and saturated fat, and have the healthiest body weights and cholesterol levels.
For more information about this position paper of Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, go to the VEGAN AND PLANT-BASED NUTRITION section on the RESOURCES page.
YOU MAY SEE THE POSITION PAPER AND DOWNLOAD A PDF HERE.
DO VEGANS GET ENOUGH PROTEIN?
Many people insist that they must consume animals and animal products to get enough protein, but what about herbivorous animals such as elephants, hippos, moose, deer, elk, bison, cows, sheep, goats, and horses? How do these animals get their protein? Even gorillas and bears eat a primarily herbivorous diet, and rarely eat animals. How do these enormous animals get enough protein from plants?
The answer is that ALL PROTEIN COMES FROM PLANTS.
Because all protein comes from plants, it is totally unnecessary for humans to consume animal products for protein. Proteins are chains of amino acids. The human body actually makes 11 amino acids on its own, which are called “non-essential.” The nine more-complex “essential” amino acids that we need from external sources are derived from plants. Our bodies actually make protein when we need it, from these amino acids.
When you eat animal products, your body has to work harder to break down the protein made by the animal, back into its component parts, and then reassemble it again. Plants provide all of the amino acids that humans require to build protein. In fact, the human requirement for protein is so low (5 to 10% of our total caloric intake) that as long as you consume enough calories, it’s virtually impossible to have a protein deficiency. When was the last time you heard of someone with a protein deficiency?
It’s very basic science, but the meat/dairy/egg industry has used lies and propaganda to fool people into thinking that they can’t get protein from plants. Unfortunately, if a lie is repeated over and over again, some people tend to believe it.
Furthermore, abundant studies (see THE RESOURCES page) show that people who consume a vegan diet maintain a healthy weight, and have a much lower risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancers, than people who consume animals and their bodily secretions.
VEGAN AND 100% PLANT-BASED ATHLETES AND BODYBUILDERS
More and more professional athletes and bodybuilders are proving that a vegan diet enhances physical performance. They report that being solely powered by plants enhances their overall health, increases their rate of recovery during and after training sessions and workouts, decreases inflammation, and makes them more powerful than ever before. And most of them choose a vegan diet because they care about the animals too.
Meat, milk, and eggs increase acidity in the human body. A high-acidic blood pH causes inflammation and impairs recovery from illness and disease. Foods made from plants are alkaline, and studies show that fruit, nuts, and legumes decrease inflammation, potentially lowering the risk of chronic disease.
For an alphabetical list of some of the many athletes and bodybuilders who endorse a vegan diet, go to the VEGAN AND PLANT-BASED ATHLETES AND BODYBUILDERS and VEGAN FITNESS AND BODYBUILDING sections on the RESOURCES page.
ARE YOU ANGRY ABOUT THE YULIN DOG MEAT FESTIVAL?
The annual Yulin Dog Meat Festival is held every June. Many people angrily protest this 10-day “celebration” in China at which up to 100,000 dogs, cats, and other animals are brutalized and eaten.
How does a self-professed animal lover object to the abuse and slaughter of dogs, without any problem paying for the same treatment to pigs, chickens, cows, turkeys and other animals every single day?
If you are angry about the Yulin Dog Meat Festival, and the fact that up to 30 million dogs are tortured to death and eaten every year in Asia, but you consume the meat (or bodily secretions) of other animals who were bred and tortured to death, how do you reconcile that hypocrisy?
Please take the time to think about it, and decide if, as an “animal lover,” paying for and causing the abuse, exploitation, and slaughter of any animal is who you really are.
“THE MOST INHUMANE TREATMENT”
“I have unfortunately been inside slaughterhouses and can tell you that the animals are not willingly walking up to the end of the kill line and sticking their necks out. These animals fight with every bit of strength they have left at the end of that kill line. They fight to get out of that kill line. They don't want to die, and they know it's coming. They see, and they know exactly what's going to happen to them. There is absolutely no truth that any process of slaughtering is humane. From the moment those animals are taken from those trucks and forced through the slaughtering process, it is the most inhumane treatment that I have ever witnessed.”
Cayce Mell (HumaneMYTH.org)
THE HUMANE SLAUGHTER MYTH
“Humane slaughter” CANNOT exist and makes no sense. How do you “compassionately kill” someone who doesn’t want to die? Animals rely heavily on their senses of sight, smell, and hearing. Imminent death while waiting in line to be slaughtered is a terrifying sensory assault for them. Can you even imagine what it’s like to be in a line waiting to be slaughtered?
These animals are sentient beings with central nervous systems, which means that they have full self-awareness and can experience emotions, including pleasure, pain, and fear. All birds, mammals, fishes, reptiles, amphibians, and many other animals are sentient and socially-complex beings, with feelings and a strong sense that they are individuals. They want to live, and they want to avoid suffering and death. They fight for their lives just as we would if someone were trying to harm or kill us.
This non-graphic footage (click on the image above) shows the experience of a cow who is waiting in line to die. If you pay for what you call “humane slaughter,” then you should see what the last moments of life are like for an animal in a slaughterhouse. This video does not show the actual slaughter—just how the animals in the line react. If you can’t bear to see blood or violence, just watch how this cow reacts while awaiting his death. If you can’t even watch how animals react while they are waiting to be slaughtered...then why are you paying for it?
Learn more about the lies behind “humane slaughter” at The Humane Hoax Project.
THEY KNOW IT’S COMING...
These animals aren’t machines or mere objects, totally unaware of what’s happening around them. They know it’s coming, and they are terrified. Their senses are in overload in these slaughterhouses. They can smell the blood. They can hear the other animals screaming and struggling to escape. They can see what’s happening.
These animals are sentient beings with central nervous systems, which means that they have full self-awareness and can experience emotions, and pain and suffering. They endure severe psychological, emotional, and physical trauma, simply because some people like the way their flesh, organs, and bodily secretions taste. Why do “animal lovers” refuse to think about the pain and suffering that their unnecessary food choices cause defenseless, vulnerable, sweet animals?
Imagine how your dog or cat or other companion animal would react inside a slaughterhouse. It’s the same for cows, chickens, pigs, turkeys, etc. Think about it logically, and stop lying to yourself. You are smarter and more kindhearted than this.
Please have empathy and compassion for others. Please decide what your morals are, and apply them to everyone. Once you realize what these animals experience, then you evolve and make compassionate, ethical choices that are consistent with who you really are. It really is that simple.
MEAT-EATING ANIMAL-LOVERS?
VEGETARIAN ANIMAL-LOVERS?
HUMANITARIAN CANNIBALS?
You helped rescue some dogs this week? That’s wonderful! But how many pigs, chickens, cows, and other animals were slaughtered so that you could eat their flesh? Did you pay someone else to slaughter these animals for you? Is there an ethical or practical difference between committing an act of violence yourself and paying someone else to do it for you?
Please take a moment to think about how morally inconsistent it is to be angry at people in another country for how they brutalize dogs, if you pay for the exact same treatment to happen to chickens, cows, pigs, turkeys, fish, and other animals in your own country.
What would you do if you saw someone about to kill a puppy right in front of you? Would you speak up to stop it from happening? If so, then why are you telling vegans to keep their opinions to themselves, when vegans are speaking up for your victims, the animals who are not dogs.
But you are a vegetarian? Then you are supporting the meat industry. Dairy cows and egg-laying hens and all of their babies are sold to the meat industry to be slaughtered and sold as meat. Because they can’t produce milk or eggs, the male calves and chicks are killed right after they are born, or they are sold to the meat industry for slaughter. And when the milk production or egg production of the mothers declines, and it is no longer profitable to keep them alive, the farmers sell these exploited and “spent” animals to the meat industry. Claiming to be an “ethical vegetarian” makes no sense because the meat, dairy, and egg industries are inextricably connected: Vegetarians actually support the meat industry.
Why are you angry about how dogs are tortured and slaughtered for food in other countries if you support the same treatment to other animals in your own country? If you think it’s wrong for dogs to suffer and die to become food for humans, then is it morally consistent for you to contribute to the suffering and slaughter of other animals to become your food? Chickens, cows, fish, turkeys, sheep, ducks, pigs and other animals are no different from dogs. These animals are just as sensitive, sweet, and unique. They all seek attention and affection, form bonds with friends, care about their babies, experience emotions, can endure pain and suffering, and want to live.
The good news is that there are many delicious, healthy, and affordable alternatives to flesh, organs, and bodily secretions (dairy and eggs), and that there is no nutritional or biological requirement for humans to consume animals or their bodily secretions at all. Your choice to support the meat/dairy/egg industry is a conscious decision to harm, exploit, and kill animals simply because you like the way something tastes. Please engage in some compassionate, critical thinking about your choices and what you are doing to these animals.
On THE RESOURCES page, check out the TOTALLY AWESOME GUIDE TO THE VEGAN DIET AND PHILOSOPHY and the VEGAN MEAT, DAIRY, AND EGG ALTERNATIVES section.
WHAT’S WRONG WITH DAIRY AND EGGS?
Of all land animals who are exploited and killed for human food, dairy cows and egg-laying hens suffer the most, for the longest, and in the greatest numbers. And they are slaughtered when their production decreases. When they are no longer producing eggs or milk at a profitable rate for the farmers, they are sent to slaughterhouses.
Male calves and chicks are slaughtered because they can’t produce milk or eggs. Male chicks born to egg-laying hens are killed on the day that they are born, by gassing, suffocation, or maceration; male calves born to dairy cows are either killed immediately or they are isolated and imprisoned in dark crates and later slaughtered for veal.
Why are the male babies killed? Because they can’t produce milk or eggs, and are therefore useless to the farmers. Why would they spend money to keep them alive? If you purchase dairy products and/or eggs, then you are paying for babies to be slaughtered. Vegetarians cause life-long pain and suffering and death to animals. Think about it, and please go VEGAN if you truly care about animals!
LOOK AT THESE CUTE BABIES!
They wanted to be with their mothers, and their mothers wanted to love and nurture them. But these babies all went to a slaughterhouse. They were born to dairy cows, and since males can’t produce milk, the dairy farmers dragged them away from their mothers and sold them to the meat industry. IF YOU PURCHASE DAIRY PRODUCTS, THEN YOU PAID FOR THE SLAUGHTER OF THESE BABIES.
Cows (and all animals exploited for human food) are emotional beings, capable of love, affection, and a wide range of emotions. They are sentient individuals with central nervous systems and full subjective awareness. They seek attention and affection, bond with other animals, care about their babies, feel emotions, can experience pain and suffering, and want to live—just like you and your dogs, cats, and other companion animals.
Vegetarians need to understand that the dairy industry IS the meat industry. They are inextricably linked because they profit from one another.
Like all mammals, cows must have been pregnant to produce milk. Milk is lactating secretion produced by the mammary glands of mammals who have given birth. Cow milk is specifically designed as the primary source of nutrition and growth hormones for baby cows. The purpose of cow milk is to help a baby cow who weighs less than 100 pounds (45 kg) become an adult cow who can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds (907 kg), depending on breed.
The calves who need their mothers’ milk are cruelly taken away from their mothers. The male calves are either killed immediately after being born, or they are shackled inside crates all alone, and later slaughtered for veal. The female calves are destined to become tortured milking machines themselves, forcibly impregnated over and over again for years, to keep the milk flowing for the dairy industry. Every time they give birth, their babies are taken away. Eventually, their worn-out bodies stop producing milk at a profitable rate for the farmers, and they are sent to slaughter.
Dairy farmers, the animal agriculture industry, the media, the government, and even the healthcare industry have successfully used propaganda and lies to convince most humans that stealing and consuming bovine mammary secretions is healthy, necessary, natural, and completely normal behavior—because there is money to be made by exploiting, torturing, and killing cows. Yes, it’s all about MONEY.
Cows are the gentle giants of the world. They are sweet and docile, and they and have no instinct to harm, which is why they are easily exploited. A measure of human morality is how we treat the innocent and helpless. All sentient beings have the right to experience the nurturing love of their mothers, and to live free from exploitation, harm, and slaughter by humans—because humans have the ability to behave morally, to think rationally, and to live happy and healthy lives without consuming animals or their bodily secretions.
Will you please think about what you support when you purchase anything with cow milk in it? Will you please make ethical, compassionate, and rational choices that are consistent with who you really are?
THE EGGS YOU EAT COME FROM SUFFERING AND VIOLENCE
Because of the prolonged suffering inflicted on the greatest number of animals, the egg industry is the cruelest of all industries that exploit and kill animals. Chickens represent over 95% of the land animals who are exploited and slaughtered for food in the United States. Including ducks and turkeys, birds account for over 98% of these slaughtered land animals, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Poultry Slaughter 2020 Summary. These percentages and the egg production standards and procedures below are the same in most countries around the world.
Approximately 70% of egg-laying hens in the U.S. currently live in battery cages, according to the USDA. Approximately 10 hens spend their entire lives in cage that is about the size of a filing cabinet drawer, in which the space each hen has to move for her entire life is approximately the size of a piece of paper (8 1/2 x 11 inches). These cages are stacked on top of each other, and the hens are crammed together so tightly inside them that they can’t spread their wings.
Birds confined in these horrendous conditions often go insane and peck each other violently, sometimes even cannibalizing each other, which is why the egg industry de-beaks them. De-beaking is a standard procedure and a very painful mutilation: The beaks of these birds are literally cut off or seared off. De-beaking causes chronic pain for chickens, and the U.S. government acknowledges that it is standard procedure and extremely painful for them in this USDA document. If you believe that these chickens don’t suffer, please read this document.
These hens also suffer from diseases due to unsanitary and hazardous conditions. Because the wire cages are stacked on top of each other, feces and urine fall from the cages above onto the chickens below. These hens are bred to produce up to 30 times more eggs than they would in nature. The constant, labor-intensive egg production takes a severe toll on their bodies. Hens naturally lay only 10 to 15 eggs per year, but humans have genetically tampered with their reproductive systems through generations of selective breeding so that they lay up to 300 eggs per year, more than their frail little bodies are designed to bear. Because the constant production of an abnormal quantity of eggs depletes their bodies of calcium, most of them suffer from debilitating, painful osteoporosis.
Once a hen’s egg production declines and she is no longer commercially viable (usually after about 18 months to two years), she is sent to slaughter.
Male chicks born to egg-laying hens are of no use to the egg industry. They can’t lay eggs, and they do not grow as large as the different breed of chickens that the industry calls “broilers,” who are slaughtered for meat. On the day that they are born, the males are separated from the females, and disposed of in extremely cruel ways. The male chicks are either tossed onto a conveyor belt that drops them into a macerator to be ground up alive, or they are gassed to death with carbon monoxide, or sometimes they are just thrown into trash bags or dumpsters where they slowly suffocate in agony.
The egg industry doesn’t deny that all of this violence is standard procedure. And it’s all legal. Do your own research and you will discover the horrible truth about the egg industry. If you purchase eggs, or any products that contains eggs, then you are paying for all of this pain and misery and torture that these birds experience. These animals are not machines. They are emotional beings with full self-awareness and central nervous systems, which means that they can experience pain and suffering, fear and despair, stress and misery.
For more information about how these birds are treated, visit United Poultry Concerns.
WHAT ABOUT “CAGE-FREE,” “FREE-RANGE,” AND “BACKYARD EGGS”?
The terms “cage-free” and “free-range” are marketing scams designed to fool consumers. “Backyard eggs” come from the same suffering and violence as the factory farm eggs. Contrary to what many people want to believe, “humane” eggs do not exist.
Regardless of their living situation, these hens have been deliberately bred to produce many more eggs than they would in nature—more eggs than their bodies can handle, which takes a severe toll on them. Chickens naturally lay only 10 to 15 eggs per year, but humans have genetically tampered with them through generations of selective breeding so that they lay many more eggs. Their reproductive systems have been obscenely manipulated to produce up to 300 eggs per year, more than their frail little bodies are designed to bear. The constant, labor-intensive egg production completely depletes their bodies of calcium, which causes them to suffer from chronic osteoporosis.
The “guilt-free” labels created by the egg industry are marketing scams designed to soothe the guilty consciences of people trying to find a “right” way to do the wrong thing: that is, to exploit, abuse, and ultimately kill animals for taste pleasure and convenience.
“CAGE-FREE” EGGS
“Cage-free” chickens live in massive windowless warehouses that hold tens of thousands of them, crowded together in their own filth. “Cage-free” is a USDA term that means that the hens can “freely roam a building, room, or enclosed area with unlimited access to food and fresh water during their production cycle, but [do] not have access to the outdoors.” Although these birds are not squeezed into tiny wire cages, they never go outside, and they are confined in dark, crowded buildings filled with toxic gasses from their accumulating waste.
USDA definition: “Cage-free eggs must be produced by hens housed in a building, room, or enclosure that allows for unlimited access to food and water, and provides the freedom to roam the area during the laying cycle. Cage-free hens are not required to have access to the outdoors.” (See it for yourself here.)
“FREE-RANGE” EGGS
“Free-range” is another term defined by the USDA, and means that birds must have “outdoor access” or “continuous access to the outdoors,” but this term is so vague that egg farmers can interpret it any way they want. “Outdoor access” can mean a small outside area attached to the confinement building, but it might be just a tiny mud yard or concrete patio that is only big enough for a few of the 30,000 to 40,000 birds in the warehouse.
“Free-range” can mean that birds have access only via a tiny “pop hole” through which they can stick their heads, but they have no actual full-body access to the outdoors. The definition requires no specific number of holes, nor a minimum space requirement. Because these pop holes are acceptable for the chickens to qualify as “free-range,” they actually have access to the outdoors exactly TWICE in their lives: when they are transported as chicks from the hatcheries to the warehouses, and then on their way to slaughter. Those are the only times that they are actually outdoors!
USDA definition: “Free-range eggs must be produced by cage-free hens housed in a building, room, or area that allows for unlimited access to food, water, and continuous access to the outdoors during their laying cycle.” (See it for yourself here.)
“CAGE-FREE” AND “FREE-RANGE” WAREHOUSES
Both “free-range” and “cage-free” hens are packed together so tightly in huge warehouses that they are forced to urinate and defecate on each other. They often have to walk on top of each other, and over the dead rotting bodies of the chickens who suffered to death, in order to get to food and water, if they can find it. The stench of ammonia and feces heavily permeates the air, and disease runs rampant in these filthy, cramped sheds. These chickens are de-beaked too.
Don’t be fooled by the marketing tactics of the egg industry. Because these definitions of “cage-free” and “free-range” are open to interpretation and not enforced anyway, these chickens do not really have access to the outdoors. “Cage-free” and “free-range” chickens experience lifelong suffering and misery, and many off them don’t even make it to slaughter because they literally suffer to death due to the toxic conditions in these warehouses.
“BACKYARD EGGS”
“Backyard eggs” are also misleading. People assume that these eggs are “cruelty free” because they can see the hens, but if you think about it logically, those hens came from somewhere, and they definitely had brothers, who of course can’t lay eggs. Chickens give birth to males and females at the same rate as all animals, a ratio of about 50/50. Where are their brothers?
“Backyard egg” sellers can’t afford to hatch their own chicks in incubators, and they can’t profit from the male chicks anyway. That’s why they purchase hens from the same hatcheries as the factory farms, where the male chicks are slaughtered after they are hatched. If you don’t believe this, then the next time you purchase “backyard eggs,” ask the sellers where the male chickens are.
A common practice for “backyard egg” sellers is to order the “starter chicks” to be shipped to them in the mail from the hatcheries. These babies are shipped without food, water, or any protection, in cardboard boxes for days. In some cases, male chicks are used as packing material for the financially valuable female chicks in the delivery boxes, and then they are tossed in the trash when the shipment arrives. The next time you purchase “backyard eggs,” ask the sellers how they obtain their egg-laying hens. If they claim to hatch the chicks themselves, ask to see the hatchery, the mother hens, and the roosters.
These hens who lay “backyard eggs” are the same hens whose bodies have been genetically tampered with so that they lay up to 30 times more eggs than their bodies are designed to lay, which depletes their bodies of calcium, resulting in chronic and painful osteoporosis. If you believe that eggs can ever be obtained humanely, think about where the hens come from, and what happens to their brothers and parents. Just like all store-bought eggs, “backyard eggs” come from suffering and violence.
A FEMALE CHICKEN’S BODILY SECRETIONS AREN’T HEALTHY FOR HUMANS TO EAT?!
Many people don’t realize that eating eggs is very unhealthy for humans. Egg consumption can lead to heart disease, stroke, several types of cancer, diabetes, Salmonella poisoning, and premature death, as evidenced by the studies referenced below. In fact, in the United States, it is illegal for eggs to be advertised as healthy, nutritious, or safe! (For more information, watch “Who Says Eggs Aren’t Healthy or Safe?” by Dr. Michael Greger).
Eggs are extremely high in cholesterol, a fatty substance that travels through the bloodstream. The human body produces more cholesterol than it needs. It is not necessary for humans to consume any dietary cholesterol at all. One average-sized egg contains 186 milligrams of cholesterol, which is 62% of the U.S. recommended daily allowance. Excess cholesterol can lead to coronary artery disease and heart attacks because the human body can’t manage it. In fact, a study published in the Journal of Atherosclerosis Research found that eating one egg per day is as bad for the heart as smoking five cigarettes per day! Another study found that people who eat more than seven eggs per week have 80% higher coronary artery calcium scores, which measure heart disease risk. Unlike fat, cholesterol can’t be burned for energy through exercise; it has to be processed by the liver, and excess cholesterol gets deposited along the walls of blood vessels, which can lead to heart attacks and strokes. High cholesterol is also linked to breast cancer, liver cancer, joint pain, inflammation, and infertility.
Egg consumption has been linked to several types of cancer. One study found that the consumption of eggs is associated with an increased risk for colon cancer. A study found a link between egg consumption and increased risk of bladder cancer; another study found a link between egg consumption and increased risk of breast cancer.
Eating eggs is also linked to the development of prostate cancer. Eggs have toxic levels of choline, a nutrient that humans need for brain function, as well as for the formation of cell membranes. Too much choline can be very dangerous. A study of 47,896 men found that participants with the highest choline intake had a 70% increased risk of fatal prostate cancer. Another study found that men who consumed 2.5 eggs per week increased their risk for a lethal form of prostate cancer by 81%, compared with men who consumed less than half an egg per week.
Furthermore, research finds that a byproduct of choline increases the risk for a heart attack and stroke. When a person eats eggs, gut bacteria break down choline, which releases a toxic compound called trimethylamine oxidase (TMAO) into the bloodstream. Research suggests that TMAO promotes the growth of specific types of cancer: One study found an increase in the risk for cancer in the gastrointestinal tract; a meta-analysis found increased risks for breast, ovarian, and prostate cancer. One study links TMAO to heart disease.
Egg consumption is also linked to diabetes. A review of 14 studies published in the journal Atherosclerosis found that people who consume the most eggs increase their risk for diabetes by 68%. Another review found a 39% higher risk of diabetes in people who eat three or more eggs per week. Egg consumption also increases the risk of gestational diabetes, according to two studies referenced in the American Journal of Epidemiology: Women who consumed the most eggs (more than seven a week) had a 77% increased risk of diabetes in one study, and a 165% increased risk in the other, compared with those who consumed one egg per week.
Egg consumption poses other health risks for humans. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 1 in 10,000 eggs is infected with Salmonella, a type of bacteria that is a principal cause of hospitalizations related to food poisoning. Egg consumption is the second leading cause of Salmonella poisoning worldwide (the first is chicken consumption). Salmonella bacteria in eggs can survive most cooking methods, and over 10,000 Americans are food-poisoned by Salmonella from eggs annually. In 2010, half a billion eggs were recalled, and thousands of people in 14 states were poisoned due to a Salmonella outbreak.
Eggs are also linked to premature death. A study that included more than 21,000 participants found that people who consumed seven or more eggs per week had an almost 25% higher risk of death than those with the lowest egg consumption. For participants with diabetes, the risk of death was twofold compared with those who ate the fewest number of eggs.
For more information on these studies and more, visit the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.
THERE IS NO REASON FOR HUMANS TO CONSUME EGGS! In addition to being unhealthy for humans, eggs come from suffering and violence. The egg industry may be the cruelest of all industries that exploit, abuse, and slaughter animals because of the prolonged suffering inflicted on the greatest number of animals. There are now many delicious, healthy vegan replacements for eggs! Check out the list of 21 companies that make VEGAN EGGS on the RESOURCES page. Go to the websites for more information. Many of them will ship directly to you, or you may order these products from online shopping platforms. And you may always ask for these brands and products at your local grocery stores. You will find store locators on many of these websites, to let you know where to find these products locally.
Why would anyone eat eggs anyway? The only reason rational humans consume eggs is because they have been duped by egg industry propaganda. It’s all about exploiting, harming, and slaughtering animals for profit. Eggs are not healthy or safe—and they come from horrendous suffering and violence. The egg industry permeates television, radio, internet, and all media outlets with propaganda in order to fool you into believing that a female chicken’s bodily secretions are healthy, necessary, humane, and guilt-free. This insidious agenda is so pervasive that most people don’t even realize that they have been deceived since they were young impressionable children. It’s all about money, and most people don’t realize it.
Finally, let’s be clear about what eggs actually are. Eggs develop from a hen’s ovulation cycle. Female chickens ovulate to reproduce, just like female humans. During a hen’s cycle, an ovary sends a yolk on its path. The yolk forms the egg white goo as it moves through the reproductive tract into the shell gland. (It’s not technically the same as a female human’s period/menstruation cycle because a hen’s reproductive system is different, but it’s the same basic concept.) After the shell is formed, the chicken discharges an egg from the same hole that she poops from! Why would anyone eat something that comes out of someone’s butthole?
MAKE ACTUAL HUMANE CHOICES THAT ARE CONSISTENT WITH WHO YOU REALLY ARE
Please have empathy and compassion for these animals. Please stop spending money on the harming, exploiting, and killing of emotional beings. Please decide what your morals are (what you personally believe is right and wrong), and then apply those morals to everyone. For example, if you believe that brutalizing others for pleasure is wrong, then why wouldn’t you apply that to EVERYBODY? Not just to other humans, nor to only specific animals such as dogs and cats. EVERYONE!
Once you understand that the consumption of flesh, organs, and bodily secretions is not a requirement for good health, and if you have access to 100% plant-based foods, then the choice to continue supporting the meat/dairy/egg industry is a conscious, deliberate decision to harm, exploit, and kill animals for convenience, taste bud satisfaction, and/or cultural habits and traditions.
Please engage in some compassionate, critical thinking about your food choices. You may not like the way it makes you feel, but because there are suffering victims, you should at least question your support of animal agriculture, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you feel. Yes, of course you feel guilty for all of the pain and suffering and slaughter that you caused in the past. Almost all vegans you will meet had to face their own guilt and regret for causing such needless brutality.
But once you know what happens to these animals, and how unnecessary it is to pay for pain and suffering and slaughter, you may then evolve and make smarter, more compassionate, and ethical choices that are consistent with who you really are. It really is that simple. Think about it logically, and stop lying to yourself. Seriously, you know that there is no kind way to imprison and forcibly steal bodily secretions from sentient beings, or to slaughter emotional individuals who are fighting for their lives and don’t want to die.
Please do your own research. Find out what you are supporting. And then make decisions that are authentic to who you really are. Going vegan is not about good people versus bad people, or about judging anyone. It’s about the animals. They are the suffering victims. Veganism is simply about having EMPATHY and COMPASSION for others.
THESE ANIMALS ARE SENTIENT BEINGS
Sentience means the ability to experience emotions including pleasure, pain, and fear. All birds, mammals, and fish (and many other animals) are sentient and socially-complex beings, with feelings and a strong sense that they are individuals. They want to live, and to avoid suffering and death. They fight for their lives just as we would if someone were trying to harm or kill us.
Beyond being sentient, so-called “food” animals have individual personalities and can develop intricate social relationships just like cats and dogs. If you have ever developed a relationship with a dog or cat, then you know that animals have the capacity to love and bond. Pigs, chickens, cows, turkeys, and other animals raised for food are no different. There is no moral justification for treating them any differently than we would treat a traditional companion animal or another human.
OF COURSE THEY SUFFER
These animals certainly experience suffering, fear, anxiety, and loneliness. If you don’t believe that these animals are sentient, please visit an animal sanctuary to meet them in person, or simply watch videos of them online. And if you believe that they are inferior to humans or you don’t feel compassion for them, could you abide by some basic moral standards of decency and nonviolence for all sentient inhabitants of our world?
The point is not whether animals who are exploited and slaughtered for food suffer. Of course they suffer—physically and emotionally. It’s not possible to logically argue that they are mere objects without sentience when you can watch videos of the horrors they endure at slaughterhouses, factory farms, dairy and egg operations, and small farms too.
All sentient beings have the right to live free from exploitation, harm, and slaughter by humans—and humans have the great fortune of being able to behave morally, to think rationally, and to live happy and healthy lives without consuming animals or their bodily secretions. Please think about it and open your heart.
SCIENTIFIC ACCEPTANCE OF ANIMAL SENTIENCE
Scientific acceptance of animal sentience was documented in 2012 by the Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness, a prominent international group of cognitive neuroscientists, neuropharmacologists, neurophysiologists, neuroanatomists, and computational neuroscientists.
Here is the summary of their findings:
“The absence of a neocortex does not appear to preclude an organism from experiencing affective states. Convergent evidence indicates that non-human animals have the neuroanatomical, neurochemical, and neurophysiological substrates of conscious states along with the capacity to exhibit intentional behaviors. Consequently, the weight of evidence indicates that humans are not unique in possessing the neurological substrates that generate consciousness. Nonhuman animals, including all mammals and birds, and many other creatures, including octopuses, also possess these neurological substrates.”
“IT’S MY PERSONAL CHOICE TO EAT ANIMALS AND ANIMAL PRODUCTS!”
What is a “personal choice”? From an ethical standpoint, is it a personal choice to deliberately harm and kill other sentient beings for taste pleasure, or for any kind of satisfaction?
A sentient being is anyone who is fully self-aware, who can experience emotions, who has the capacity to suffer, and who wants to live.
YOUR “PERSONAL CHOICE” HAS SUFFERING VICTIMS.
Humans, dogs, chickens, cows, cats, pigs, ducks, lambs, turkeys, fish, horses, and many more animals are sentient beings. It doesn’t matter how smart they are, or anything like that. What matters is if they can experience pain and suffering. Why would you make a deliberate choice to cause pain and suffering and death for nothing more than personal pleasure?
You may not be completely aware of what happens to animals who are exploited and slaughtered to create and become human food (perhaps because you don’t want to know), but you do know that they are sentient beings, and you do know that being slaughtered isn’t pleasant. You also may be unaware of the detrimental effects that animal agriculture has on the environment, human health, and world hunger. Please do a little research so that you can make informed, ethical decisions regarding what you choose to purchase and consume.
Causing lifelong misery and abuse to emotional beings who are eventually slaughtered for food that humans do not need is not a “personal choice,” but rather a selfish abuse of power.
It’s never a personal choice when you harm and kill sentient beings who were never given a personal choice to avoid suffering and to live free, especially when their lives are violently terminated.
IS IT NORMAL TO CONSUME DAIRY?
All mammals produce milk when they are pregnant. The milk is biologically designed for their babies. Drinking the mammary secretions of another species is not natural or normal. Mammary secretions are intended for the babies of specific animals. Milk is baby growth formula, and contains hormones, proteins, fats, minerals, and other essential nutrients for an infant of a particular species.
Would you drink dog milk? Giraffe milk? Orangutan milk? That’s crazy, right?! Would you drink human breast milk if a pregnant woman squeezed you a glass? Would you eat cheese or ice cream made from human breast milk? Gross, right?! But think about that: You won’t consume the milk of your own species, but you think it’s totally normal to consume bovine bodily fluids as an adult? Perhaps because you’ve been told that it is normal and natural since you were a child? Maybe it’s time to start thinking for yourself?
WHAT IS IN COW MILK?
Milk is maternal lactating secretion, a short-term nutrient for newborns. Cow’s milk is perfectly designed to help a baby cow who weighs less than 100 pounds (45 kg) become an adult cow who can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds (907 kg), depending on breed. Like all mothers’ milk, cow milk contains hormones, proteins, growth factors, fat, and cholesterol. Additionally, cow milk contains blood, steroids, bacteria, pathogens, acidic proteins (which leech minerals and calcium from human bones), and millions of pus cells. Over 80% of the protein in cow milk is casein, which is also used as an ingredient in paint and glue.
DO PLANTS FEEL PAIN?
Plants do not have central nervous systems, which means that they can’t feel pain. It’s true that plants have reactions (such as releasing gasses and producing sound waves) in response to certain stimuli that we would consider painful, but plants do not have pain receptors, which are specific types of nerve cells. They lack the nerves to feel “pain” like animals do.
Furthermore, animals destined to become human food eat massive amounts of plants to create very small amounts of very nutritionally deficient meat. It’s an enormous waste of plants. So, if you still think that plants feel pain, then logically, eating animals who are fed plants creates more plant “pain” than eating plants directly.
“THE FOOD CHAIN”
Sometimes people say that they eat animals and animal products because of “the food chain.” “The food chain,” if it were actually a natural part of life and evolution for human beings, would not entail forced breeding, artificial insemination, genetic manipulation, enslavement, torture, factory farms, or slaughterhouses. The concept of the food chain refers to what is eaten IN THE WILD.
A food chain shows how nutrients and energy are passed from creature to creature, beginning with plants and ending with animals. Some animals eat plants, some animals eat other animals, and some animals eat both.
Anything NATURAL would involve humans in a NATURAL state, rather than a grocery store, a restaurant, or a kitchen. In nature, in the wild, fending for themselves, most humans lack the physical skills to survive. Humans would hardly be at the top of a food chain.
The vast majority of humans eat animals that have been genetically manipulated and are artificially bred in factory farms and slaughterhouses. Those horrendous torture facilities created by humans have nothing to do with any naturally occurring food chain.
HUMANS ARE FRUGIVORES, NOT TRUE OMNIVORES
Yes, humans are technically omnivores because we CAN derive nutrients from animal flesh and animal products. But that doesn’t mean that it’s the best diet for us or that it’s healthy for us, or that it’s ethical. There are many behaviors that we CAN do as a species that would threaten our survival if we all considered them appropriate (such as cannibalism or heroin usage). Because we are moral agents, we make conscious choices to participate in unnecessary violence. There is no biological or nutritional requirement for humans to consume animal flesh, organs, or bodily secretions (dairy, eggs, honey).
True omnivores eat other animals alive. Humans who eat animals are actually “necrovores” because they eat carcasses that have been dead for a while, like vultures and jackals who scavenge on carcasses. Even hunters do not kill and eat the warm, bleeding flesh of their victims; they actually let the meat putrefy (which is mostly muscle tissue), and then they cook it before they consume it. Most of the meat that humans eat has been dead for weeks or months or even years. That meat has been treated with chemicals (such as bleach and dyes) and even carbon monoxide to disguise the decay.
Humans are actually frugivores, which are herbivores or omnivores who are anatomically designed to digest and thrive primarily on fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds. Physiologically, humans most closely resemble orangutans, who are our closest cousins in the animal kingdom. An orangutan’s diet consists of up to 90% fruit; orangutans also eat leaves, shoots, bark, soil, and insects. Humans are anatomically designed to survive primarily on fruit, just like simians and other primates.
FRUGIVORES VERSUS TRUE OMNIVORES
Bears and dogs are examples of true omnivores: They can chew raw flesh with their sharp teeth, swallow it whole, and digest it without any problem. As frugivores, humans have teeth that are very different from true omnivores. We have incisors, but they are very different from the incisors of true omnivores. The incisors of true omnivores are short and pointed, but our incisors are broad and flattened. The canines of true omnivores are long, sharp, curved fangs, but our canines are short and blunted. The molars of true omnivores are sharp blades, but our molars are flattened with cusps. Human teeth are designed for grinding and chewing fibrous plants, not for shearing and shredding raw flesh and then swallowing it whole.
Our teeth are specifically designed for chewing fruit, seeds, nuts, and vegetation. The teeth of true omnivores are designed for shearing and crushing. They have minimal to no lateral or forward mobility for chewing. That’s why actual omnivores rip and chew raw flesh with their teeth and then swallow it whole. Humans have to cook the raw flesh so that we are able to chew it, and then we season it with spices—and eat it with utensils! That’s not what true omnivores do.
In addition to teeth, here’s a list of other striking differences between true carnivores/true omnivores and humans: facial muscles, size of mouth opening, tongue texture, jaw type, jaw angle, jaw joint location, jaw motion and mastication, jaw muscles, salivary enzymes, saliva chemistry, salivary gland size, stomach acidity, stomach capacity, small intestine length, colon type, colon length, colon shape, colon chemistry, bile flow, short-chain fatty acid conversion, vitamin A liver detoxification capability, liver type, liver size, kidney secretion of the enzyme uricase, urinary concentration, urine chemistry, fiber necessity for peristalsis (involuntary constriction and relaxation of the muscles of the intestine), cholesterol metabolism, cellulose metabolism, digestion completion time, brain chemistry fuel, circadian rhythm (number of hours spent sleeping), placenta shape, number of mammaries, type of mammaries, cooling system and perspiration, color vision capability, claws versus nails, paws versus hands, movement (gait), and skin and hair coverage.
“OUR CANINE TEETH ARE FOR EATING MEAT!”
Some people believe that the reason humans have canine teeth is specifically for chewing meat. With the exception of a few mammals (such as rodents and rabbits) ALL mammals have canine teeth, and many of them (such as hippopotamuses, pigs, raccoons, and opossums) do not eat animals. Even bears, badgers, and gorillas eat a primarily herbivorous diet, and rarely eat animals even though they have very sharp canine teeth.
If canine teeth are designed for tearing through flesh, then why do all of these animals have them? The fact that we have canine teeth does not mean that we are designed to be meat-eaters. In fact, the carnassial teeth are what allow animals to rip through meat and tear it from bone. Humans don’t have carnassial teeth.
If canine teeth are specifically designed for meat-eating, then why does the hippopotamus have the largest canine teeth of all land animals? Hippos have ferociously sharp canine teeth, but they are herbivores; they don’t eat animals. If you are still using the excuse, “I eat meat because I have canines!” then please think about why that doesn’t make sense.
“WHAT ABOUT LIONS? ARE YOU GOING TO FORCE THEM TO BE VEGAN?”
It’s flabbergasting how often vegans hear this fallacy, a very common “argument” against veganism.
First of all, how else are you like a lion? What other behaviors of a lion do you imitate? Lions kill and eat their own children, have public sex with any female they choose, and sniff each other’s anuses. Why would you choose one behavior of a lion (eating animals) as a justification for one of your behaviors, while ignoring other typical behaviors of a lion, which you would never and could never do?
Unlike humans, lions are obligate carnivores, which means that they must consume meat because they do not possess the physiology to digest vegetable matter. Lions must meet their nutritional requirements by consuming animals. Because there is no nutritional or biological requirement for humans to consume flesh, organs, or bodily secretions (dairy and eggs), humans can survive and thrive consuming only plants.
And, yes, lions kill and eat other animals FOR SURVIVAL. Humans eat animals and their bodily secretions for palate pleasure. Consuming the mammary secretions of another species as an adult is also something no lion or other animal does naturally. Mammals naturally consume the mammary secretions of their own mother (a member of their species) when they are infants.
Additionally, lions (and other animals) don’t forcibly inseminate other species in order to breed billions of animals into existence, nor do they imprison animals in warehouses and cages. Lions do not confine female pigs in gestation crates. Lions do not cram chickens into tiny battery cages. Lions don’t force chickens to live in the toxic squalor of feces and urine. Lions don’t inject antibiotics, growth hormones, steroids, or drugs into animals. Lions don’t rip out the testicles of piglets, nor do they cut off their tails or pull out their teeth. Lions don’t cut off the beaks of birds or the horns of cows. These are all standard procedures in the animal agriculture industry, on farms of all sizes.
Furthermore, lions do not profit financially from killing animals, nor do they pay others to do their killing for them, nor do they kill and eat more animals than are necessary in order to survive. Lions don’t shop at grocery stores nor do they dine in restaurants. Lions devour live animals in the wild, using their razor-sharp teeth and claws, and they swallow raw flesh whole, along with the blood. Humans purchase neatly-wrapped packages of washed and trimmed flesh that has been processed with chemicals. They cut, slice, tenderize, pulverize, or purée the slabs of rotting flesh. Then they cook it, adding oil, salt, seasonings, sauces, and condiments to alter the putrid stench of terror and death. Humans then use utensils to eat the final product. That’s not what lions do.
Finally, lions and other animals are not moral agents. What they do is based on instinct and survival. Unlike lions and other animals, humans have the great fortune of being able to behave morally, to think rationally, and to live happy and healthy lives without consuming animals or their bodily secretions. We can be perfectly healthy eating only plants, without breeding, exploiting, torturing, and killing animals. Simply put, we can live vegan; lions cannot.
Why would a rational human mimic the eating habits of a wild carnivorous animal, or of any other animal? Why would a human base his or her ethical behavior on what a lion or any animal does?
“Lions eat meat!” along with “Plants feel pain!” and “I have canine teeth!” are among the most absurd excuses that vegans hear from people who are opposed to the concept of not exploiting, harming, and killing animals for food. These are reactionary defense mechanisms with very little thought involved. People use these excuses because they don’t want to face their responsibility and complicity in causing immense pain and suffering, for nothing more than trivial taste pleasure. Most vegans were once in the same position, and we had to accept that what we were doing was unnecessary, unjust, and violent, and not a reflection of who we really are. Instead of trying to rationalize or defend what we were doing by comparing our daily choices to what lions and other animals do, we chose to take responsibility for our own actions, and to change our behavior.
YOU ARE NOT AN ENVIRONMENTALIST IF YOU CONSUME MEAT, DAIRY, AND/OR EGGS
A comprehensive, five-year study by the University of Oxford reveals the detrimental effects that animal agriculture has on the environment, and it includes data on 38,700 farms in 119 countries, including 1,600 processors, packaging plants, and retailers.
Researchers analyzed the impacts of 40 agricultural products, which represent 90% of all food that is consumed worldwide. The study assessed the full impact of these foods on land use, climate change emissions, freshwater use, water pollution, and air pollution. It concludes that THE PRODUCTION OF ANIMAL PRODUCTS IS ABSOLUTELY DEVASTATING FOR OUR WORLD, AND THEREFORE, IF YOU CARE ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT, THE SOLUTION IS TO GO VEGAN.
The findings reveal that meat, eggs, and dairy production (which combined, use 83% of the world’s farmland) is responsible for 58% of agriculture’s greenhouse gas emissions, but that meat, eggs, and dairy products provide only 18% of calories and 37% of protein levels worldwide.
Lead author of the study Joseph Poore concludes:
“A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification [air pollution], eutrophication [water pollution], land use, and water use. It is far bigger than cutting down on your flights or buying an electric car... AVOIDING CONSUMPTION OF ANIMAL PRODUCTS DELIVERS FAR BETTER ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS THAN TRYING TO PURCHASE SUSTAINABLE MEAT AND DAIRY [AND EGGS]... Converting grass into [meat] is like converting coal to energy. It comes with an immense cost in emissions.”
For more information about this study, go to the CLIMATE CHANGE & THE ENVIRONMENT section on the RESOURCES page.
The study was published in the journal Science (June 1, 2018: Vol. 360, Issue 6392, pp. 987-992). To read the full study, “Reducing Food’s Environmental Impacts Through Producers and Consumers,” click HERE.
ARE YOU A GENUINE ENVIRONMENTALIST?
Vegan Bryan Adams has a message for so-called “environmentalists” who eat the flesh, organs and bodily secretions (dairy and eggs) of slaughtered animals: “YOU CAN’T BE A TRUE ENVIRONMENTALIST IF YOU EAT ANIMALS.”
Why? Because animal agriculture has a major impact on climate change, widespread air and water pollution, water wastage and water scarcity, deforestation, land degradation, topsoil erosion, species extinction, habitat destruction, desertification, ocean dead zones, worldwide human hunger and starvation, antibiotic resistance, and the development of zoonotic diseases that become deadly pandemics.
You don’t have to take Bryan Adams’ word for it. All of this is very well-documented. Do you own research and discover the truth for yourself!
“IT ALL COMES DOWN TO PAIN AND SUFFERING...
Not intelligence, not strength, not social class or civil right. Pain and suffering... should be prevented or minimized, irrespective of the race, sex, or species of the being that suffers...
And non-human animals experience sensations just like we do.... They too are capable of growth and adaptation. Like us, first and foremost, they are earthlings. And like us, they are surviving. Like us, they also seek their own comfort rather than discomfort. And like us, they express degrees of emotion. In short, like us, they are alive; most of them being, in fact, vertebrae, just like us.”
(from the documentary Earthlings)
“BUT WE HAVE LAWS THAT PROTECT THOSE FARM ANIMALS!”
No, we don’t. In the United States, over 98% of the land animals who are exploited and slaughtered for human food have NO FEDERAL LAWS “protecting” them. That’s because almost all of these land animals who are exploited and slaughtered are birds. (Fish and sea life have no laws “protecting” them either; including fish and sea life, well over 99.99% of animals slaughtered for food have no federal laws at all “protecting” them.)
There are minimal local and state ordinances or regulations governing the treatment of animals raised for food. People can do whatever they want to these animals, and they do. Many of these animals are fully conscious during their brutal slaughter in slaughterhouses.
The only U.S. federal law that exists is the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act (which was passed in 1958). It mentions exactly four types of animals: pigs, cows, sheep, and horses. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “This Act requires the proper treatment and humane handling of all food animals slaughtered in USDA-inspected slaughter plants. It does not apply to chickens, turkeys, ducks, or other birds.”
The U.S. Humane Methods of Slaughter Act applies only to the exact moment that pigs, cows, sheep, and horses are slaughtered. It mandates nothing about how these animals should be treated from birth until the moment that they are killed. These animals have no federal laws shielding them from the extreme abuse and prolonged suffering that is standard procedure in the animal agriculture industry on meat, dairy, and egg farms of all sizes.
Furthermore, most states specifically exclude “food” animals from anti-cruelty laws. A few states do mention some “food” animals in some anti-cruelty laws, but those laws are almost never enforced for animals who are treated as nothing more than commodities. (To see state laws that address farm animal confinement bans, including battery cages, gestation crates, and veal crates, go to the UNITED STATES FEDERAL AND STATE LAWS on THE RESOURCES page.)
Here are the bird slaughter totals from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Poultry Slaughter 2020 Summary:
9,346,660,000 chickens slaughtered
223,003,000 turkeys slaughtered
22,484,000 ducks slaughtered
9,592,147,000 total birds slaughtered
Nearly 9.6 billion birds were killed in U.S. slaughterhouses in 2020.
The total of all land animals slaughtered for food in the U.S. in 2020 (including the totals of slaughtered cows, pigs, and sheep from the USDA’s Livestock Slaughter 2020 Summary) was 9.75 billion, which means that 98.3% of these animals were birds. That means that fewer than 2% of land animals exploited and killed for food in the U.S. are “protected” by the U.S. Humane Methods of Slaughter Act. There are no other federal restrictions regarding how “food” animals are treated.
So, when your friends and family members tell you that we have laws ensuring that “food” animals are treated “humanely,” tell them that chickens, ducks, turkeys, and other birds have NO federal laws AT ALL to “protect” them from the extreme abuse that is standard procedure in the animal agriculture industry, and that birds represent over 98% of animals killed for food.
Moreover, THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE HAS NO AUTHORITY TO INSPECT FARMS FOR THE MISTREATMENT OF ANIMALS. Who enforces this federal law and these few state laws that purport to protect a tiny fraction of these “food” animals? NOBODY! That means that slaughterhouse and farm workers are legally permitted to do whatever they want to these animals.
But thanks to undercover investigations by animal rights organizations, we can witness for ourselves in videos how these tortured animals are actually treated. To watch some of these videos, go to the VIDEOS OF HOW “FOOD” ANIMALS ARE TREATED section on THE RESOURCES page.
Treating a “pet” parrot, pigeon, or cockatiel the same way a chicken, duck, or turkey is treated in the animal agriculture industry would be considered animal cruelty and a crime. Please think about that ridiculous hypocrisy, and if you are against animal abuse, then simply stop paying for it to happen to ANY ANIMAL!
ARE EGGS JUST CHICKEN PERIODS?
Well, sort of... Eggs develop from a hen’s ovulation cycle. Hens ovulate to reproduce, just like female humans. During a hen’s cycle, an ovary sends a yolk on its path. The yolk forms the egg white goo as it moves through the reproductive tract into the shell gland. Later, out pops an egg. It’s not technically a period because although birds ovulate, their reproductive system is different. They do not have menstrual cycles the same way that mammals do, but it is a valid analogy.
In chickens, the ovary is a cluster of developing ova (yolks). Female human ovaries also contain developing eggs. Periods are the expulsion of an unfertilized egg, along with the uterine lining of the womb; a chicken laying an egg is expelling an unfertilized egg as well. For a bird, the egg is both the egg and the womb. Another difference is that the egg actually comes out of the same hole from which the chicken poops! So, no, chicken eggs are not actually periods, but it’s the same basic concept. Why would anyone eat an ovulation that discharges from a chicken’s ass?
ARE EGGS HEALTHY?
Eggs are extremely high in cholesterol: A single medium-sized egg contains 186 mg of cholesterol, which is 62% of the U.S. recommended daily allowance.
Eggs also have toxic levels of choline, a nutrient that we need for our brains to function, as well as to form the membranes that surround the cells in our bodies. But too much choline can be very dangerous: a 2012 study entitled Choline Intake and the Risk of Lethal Prostate Cancer, found that participants with the highest choline intake had a 70% increased risk of fatal prostate cancer. The researchers concluded, “Of the 47,896 men in our study population, choline intake was associated with an increased risk of lethal prostate cancer.”
A 2011 study found that men who consumed two and a half or more eggs per week had an 81% increased risk of lethal prostate cancer. The researchers concluded, “consumption of eggs may increase risk of developing a lethal form of prostate cancer among healthy men.” And a 2010 study found that consuming eggs increases the risk of recurrence or progression of prostate cancer in 1,294 men who had been previously diagnosed with prostate cancer.
EGGS ARE NOT HEALTHY, NUTRITIOUS, OR SAFE ACCORDING TO THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT!
Many people believe that eggs are good for them, but IT IS ACTUALLY ILLEGAL FOR EGGS TO BE ADVERTISED AS HEALTHY OR NUTRITIOUS OR EVEN SAFE in the United States! A Freedom of Information Act request for communication between the American Egg Board and the U.S. Department of Agriculture obtained by Dr. Michael Greger (Nutrition Facts) reveals that the U.S. government has informed the egg industry that eggs are not allowed to be advertised as healthy, nutritious, or safe—because that would violate laws against false and misleading advertising.
The American Egg Board is a promotional marketing organization that is overseen by the federal government. Its mission is to “increase demand for egg and egg products on behalf of U.S. egg producers.” If egg corporations want to use advertising funds from the American Egg Board, then they must be TRUTHFUL about eggs. The best-known advertising slogan for eggs in the U.S. is “The Incredible, Edible Egg,” because it is legal to say that eggs are edible and even incredible, but IT IS ILLEGAL TO ADVERTISE EGGS AS HEALTHY OR NUTRITIOUS OR SAFE IN THE UNITED STATES!
Eggs contain high amounts of saturated fat and cholesterol and are therefore a major contributor to heart disease. High cholesterol is also linked to obesity, breast cancer, liver cancer, joint pain, inflammation, and infertility. Animal products, especially eggs, are very high in cholesterol. The human body produces more cholesterol than it needs. It is not necessary for humans to consume any dietary cholesterol at all. One average-sized egg contains 186 milligrams of cholesterol, which is 62% of the U.S. recommended daily allowance. Excess cholesterol can lead to coronary artery disease and heart attacks because the human body can’t manage it. In fact, a study published in the Journal of Atherosclerosis Research found that eating one egg per day is as bad for the heart as smoking five cigarettes per day.
Here are the USDA’s requirements for use of the word “healthy” in advertising:
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The saturated fat must be 1 gram or less of saturated fatty acids per 100 grams,
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The saturated fat must be less than 10% of calories from saturated fats, and
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The cholesterol must be 90 milligrams or less per serving.
Eggs do NOT meet that standard, and therefore are not permitted be advertised as “healthy.”
A review of 14 studies published in the Journal Atherosclerosis found that people who consume the most eggs increase their risk for diabetes by 68%.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 1 in 10,000 eggs is infected with Salmonella, a type of bacteria that is a principal cause of hospitalizations related to food poisoning. Egg consumption is the second leading cause of Salmonella poisoning worldwide (the first is chicken consumption). Salmonella bacteria in eggs can survive most cooking methods. Over 10,000 Americans are food-poisoned by Salmonella from eggs annually.
In the United States, eggs are not permitted to be advertised as any of the following:
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“healthful” or “healthy”
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“nutritious” or “contributing nutritionally” or “contributing to healthful components”
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“having a high nutritional content”
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“low in fat” or “low in saturated fat”
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“safe” or “safe to eat”
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“low in calories” or “low-calorie” or “relatively low in calories”
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“a diet food”
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“a rich source of protein”
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“part of a well-balanced, healthy diet”
The bottom line is that it is illegal to claim in advertisements that eggs are healthy, nutritious, or safe because eggs are not healthy, nutritious, or safe—according to the U.S. government! For more information, watch the informative video Who Says Eggs Aren’t Healthy or Safe? by Dr. Michael Greger at Nutrition Facts.
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A VEGAN DIET IS HEALTHY AND PREVENTS DISEASES
The evidence that a vegan diet is beneficial and can prevent diseases is so overwhelming that the 2015 Scientific Report from the United States Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, a federally-appointed panel of nutritional experts, recommends a predominantly plant-based diet for health and environmental reasons.
The report notes that Americans pay more for healthcare than any other country, but more than two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese, and nearly one-third of children are overweight or obese.
This was the first time this committee recommended a diet higher in plant-based foods and low in animal-based foods not only because it’s healthier, but also because it’s better for the environment. This committee’s recommendations influence policies and standards regarding school lunches, food stamp programs, and other programs for children and pregnant women, to ensure Americans eat healthier.
People who eat a vegan diet have a lower risk for heart disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and many chronic diseases. Abundant peer-reviewed, evidence-based research and studies confirm that a vegan diet provides improved health outcomes and protective benefits from many diseases.
In fact, not only has a vegan diet been repeatedly proven to be optimal for human health, but many studies conclude that diseases can be prevented and even reversed with a vegan diet. For more information, including links to many scientific studies, go to the VEGAN AND PLANT-BASED NUTRITION section on the RESOURCES page.
THE CHINA STUDY
If you want hardcore scientific evidence that a vegan diet is the key to optimum health, then this is what you want to read. The China Study is a 2005 book based on the 20-year China Project, the most comprehensive study of health and nutrition (specifically the relationship between diet and chronic diseases) ever conducted. An updated and expanded edition was released in December 2016. Widely regarded as one of the most important books about diet and health, The China Study has prompted many people to rethink their dietary choices and go vegan.
The China Study provides irrefutable evidence of the health benefits of a 100% plant-based diet by providing more than 8,000 statistically significant associations between various dietary factors and diseases—clearly showing the damaging effects of a diet high in animal protein, contrasted with the undeniable health benefits of a vegan diet. There are over 800 references in this book, and most of them are primary sources of information, including hundreds of scientific publications from other researchers.
THE CHINA STUDY’S CONCLUSION: IF YOU WANT TO LIVE A HEALTHY, LONG LIFE, CHOOSE A VEGAN DIET!
The researchers looked at diets, lifestyles, disease characteristics, and mortality rates of 6,500 people in China, and concluded that people who eat primarily animal-based foods are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases than people who eat plant food, and that people who eat plant food both minimize and actually REVERSE the development of chronic diseases.
The researchers emphasize a clear, significant correlation between the consumption of meat, milk, and eggs and many ailments: heart disease, diabetes, cancer, obesity, osteoporosis, Type 2 diabetes, and more—concluding that diets high in animal protein are strongly linked to chronic disease.
The 2016 edition includes updated information about the United States healthcare system, and examines the powerful animal agriculture industry and its propaganda, as well as its ties to government lobbyists and other influential entities, resulting in the concealment of the real science.
According to T. Colin Campbell, “The distinctions between government, industry, science, and medicine have become blurred. The distinctions between making a profit and promoting health have become blurred.... The result is massive amounts of misinformation, for which average American consumers pay twice. They provide the tax money to do the research, and then they provide the money for their healthcare to treat their largely preventable diseases.”
There is more information about The China Study on The RESOURCES page, or click HERE.
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MEAT IS TREATED WITH CARBON MONOXIDE TO MAKE IT LOOK FRESH!
Did you ever wonder why a chunk of slaughtered animal flesh doesn’t rot within a week? Packaged meat doesn’t rot because it’s been treated with a special process that uses carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and nitrogen. Using this toxic preservative is a standard procedure approved by the USDA and FDA (and approved in many countries worldwide).
The animal agriculture industry insists that treatment with carbon monoxide, called “modified atmosphere packaging” (MAP), is necessary due to the difficulty of keeping carnage from rotting while in grocery store coolers. The North American Meat Institute says that carbon monoxide has been used safely in meat products for years (click here).
“BUT OUR ANCESTORS ATE ANIMALS”
Yes, our ancestors hunted and fished for survival. They also lived in caves, treated women like property, and owned human slaves. Is any behavior of our ancestors totally fine for us to engage in today?
Of course hunting was an essential part of human survival 100,000 years ago, but now it is unnecessary and violent “recreation.” Humans are not natural hunters. Actual carnivorous predators hunt for survival and feel the hunger drive for raw flesh. Today, humans prepare or order a cooked meal, seasoned with spices—and eat it with utensils!
We are no longer limited by the circumstances that our ancestors may have needed for survival. The point is that we have evolved, and we don’t need to consume animals anymore. We have reached a point in human evolution that we are able to live vegan.
Our ancestors did not have the same opportunity, nor did they have slaughterhouses and factory farms, where billions of animals are bred to be tortured to death. That's a far cry from hunting for your food to survive.
And an abundance of medical research concludes that consumption of animal flesh and bodily secretions is actually harmful to humans, and very destructive to our world.
OPINIONS AND JUDGMENT
“It’s my opinion!” is the defense mechanism of many ill-conceived, uninformed actions, including the support of animal agriculture. It may be your opinion that consuming animals and their bodily secretions is totally fine, healthy, and ethical, but have you rationally thought about WHY you have that opinion? Do you have all of the facts and information to have a well-informed opinion, or is your opinion just a personal preference based on habit, tradition, your feelings, and very little data?
For example, is it your opinion that breeding, torturing, milking, and slaughtering dogs and cats is wrong? Why do you hold that opinion? Anyone can be misinformed or uneducated, but as a mature, intelligent, compassionate person, you are responsible for examining your opinions, and making decisions based on who you really are.
CHARLES DARWIN
Charles Darwin is one of the most influential humans in history (best known for his contributions to the science of evolution), and he recognized that animals are sentient beings over 150 years ago:
“The love for all living creatures is the most noble attribute of man. We have seen that the senses and intuitions, the various emotions and faculties, such as love, memory, attention and curiosity, imitation, reason, etc., of which man boasts, may be found in an incipient, or even sometimes a well-developed condition, in [other] animals... [Other] animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness and misery. Happiness is never better exhibited than by young animals, such as puppies, kittens, lambs, etc., when playing together, like our own children.”
~ Charles Darwin, The Descent Of Man (published in 1871)
Sentience is the ability to experience life through emotions as a fully self-aware individual. Sentient beings are unique individuals who are conscious and experience sense perceptions. Just like dogs and cats, other animals such as chickens, cows, pigs, and turkeys are not machines or mere objects. They have central nervous systems and pain receptors. They have full self-awareness and a sense of the future. They have desires, preferences, and interests. They are emotional beings with the ability to experience pleasure, pain, agony, and fear.
Are the fleeting taste sensations of flesh, organs, and bodily secretions really that important, when there are so many nutritious and delicious alternatives that don’t come from the suffering and slaughter of sentient beings?
ARE VEGANS DEFICIENT IN VITAMIN B12?
Vitamin B12 (cobalamin) does not naturally occur in animal products, and is the only nutrient necessary for humans that is not directly available from plants. B12 exists at a microbial level as bacteria in soil and in pond water. Our ancestors acquired B12 by drinking from streams and eating unwashed vegetables, which most humans don’t do anymore.
B12 is synthesized by bacteria, fungi, and algae, but not by plants or animals. Animals consume these microorganisms along with their food, which is why this nutrient can be found in their flesh, organs, milk, and eggs. Some farmed animals are actually given supplements of B12, but because animal products are not a direct source of B12, when humans eat them, the B12 absorption rate is very low.
B12 deficiency is as common for vegans as it is for non-vegans, and can cause anemia, neurological disorders, heart disease, and gastrointestinal problems. It’s best for everyone to take a B12 supplement (the methylcobalamin type is superior to the cyanocobalamin type), and to consume food sources fortified with B12 such as plant beverages, cereals, and nutritional yeast. Some people have difficulty absorbing B12 from fortified food and oral supplements, and must get B12 injections.
For more information about vitamin B-12 deficiency, read the research article How Common Is Vitamin B-12 Deficiency? published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
“BUT THE BIBLE SAYS...”
If you are a Christian, and you believe that God created animals so that humans can consume their flesh and bodily secretions (dairy and eggs), then why do you think that God gave them central nervous systems? Did God create emotional beings who can experience misery and pain and suffering because God wants humans to exploit and slaughter these animals, even though God also created a wide variety of plants for humans to consume?
There is no biological or nutritional requirement for humans to consume the flesh, organs, or bodily secretions of animals; therefore, a choice to do so causes unnecessary pain and suffering and violence to God’s creatures. Is that what God desires? If GOD IS LOVE, then why would God deliberately design the appropriate human diet to cause pain and suffering and violence to sentient beings with central nervous systems, full self-awareness, and a desire to live?
And what does the Christian Bible say about the human diet and animals?
According to Genesis, the original diet of humanity was vegan:
Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in it.” And it was so.
~ Genesis 1:11
God said, “See, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food. And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
~ Genesis 1:29-31
The sixth commandment specifically states that we should not kill:
You shall not kill.
~ Exodus 20:13
In the Book of Isaiah, a return to God’s original intent for humanity is described as living in peace and harmony with the animals, all surviving and thriving on a diet of plants:
The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den. They will not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain; for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.
~ Isaiah 11:6–9
The Book of Daniel tells a story about Daniel and three of his companions who choose an all-vegetable diet rather than consume anything that might violate Jewish dietary laws. After 10 days on a diet of only plants, the palace guard observes that they are healthier than those who ate food that came from animals. Then, after three years, the king finds that these men who consumed a diet of only plants have a superior physical appearance, as well as superior wisdom and understanding, a full 10 times better than other members of the kingdom who ate food that came from animals.
Then the king commanded his palace master Ashpenaz to bring some of the Israelites of the royal family and of the nobility, young men without physical defect and handsome, versed in every branch of wisdom, endowed with knowledge and insight, and competent to serve in the king’s palace; they were to be taught the literature and language of the Chaldeans. The king assigned them a daily portion of the royal rations of food and wine. They were to be educated for three years, so that at the end of that time they could be stationed in the king’s court. Among them were Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, from the tribe of Judah... BUT DANIEL RESOLVED THAT HE WOULD NOT DEFILE HIMSELF WITH THE ROYAL RATIONS OF FOOD AND WINE; so he asked the palace master to allow him not to defile himself... The palace master said to Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king; he has appointed your food and your drink. If he should see you in poorer condition than the other young men of your own age, you would endanger my head with the king.” Then Daniel asked the guard whom the palace master had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah: “Please test your servants for 10 days. LET US BE GIVEN VEGETABLES TO EAT AND WATER TO DRINK. You can then compare our appearance with the appearance of the young men who eat the royal rations, and deal with your servants according to what you observe.” So he agreed to this proposal and tested them for 10 days. AT THE END OF 10 DAYS, IT WAS OBSERVED THAT THEY APPEARED BETTER AND FATTER THAN ALL THE YOUNG MEN WHO HAD BEEN EATING THE ROYAL RATIONS. So the guard continued to withdraw their royal rations and the wine they were to drink, and gave them vegetables... At the end of the time that the king had set for them to be brought in, the palace master brought them into the presence of Nebuchadnezzar, and the king spoke with them. And among them all, no one was found to compare with Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah; therefore they were stationed in the king’s court. IN EVERY MATTER OF WISDOM AND UNDERSTANDING CONCERNING WHICH THE KING INQUIRED OF THEM, HE FOUND THEM TEN TIMES BETTER THAN ALL THE MAGICIANS AND ENCHANTERS IN HIS WHOLE KINGDOM.
~ Daniel 1:3-20
Please stop using the Bible to justify abusing, exploiting, and slaughtering animals for food. According to the Bible, God originally intended our diet to consist of plants only, we should live in peace and harmony with the animals, we should not kill, and a diet of plants is healthier and superior.
WHAT ABOUT JESUS AND THE GOLDEN RULE?
What would Jesus do today, if he lived in the age of industrialized agriculture in which billions of animals are bred through artificial insemination, treated like mere commodities, and “processed” like worthless property, exploited and brutalized and killed not from necessity, but for taste bud satisfaction and massive profits for extremely violent industries?
Would Jesus praise humanity for respecting God’s creations? Or would he instead invoke the Golden Rule? Would Jesus insist that, when given a choice between mercy and cruelty, we are compelled to choose compassion over violence?
The Golden Rule is very explicit on how others should be treated:
“In everything, do to others as you would have them do to you; for this is the law and the prophets.”
~ Matthew 7:12
“Do to others as you would have them do to you.”
~ Luke 6:31
Would Jesus be horrified by the treatment of animals in our modern world? He taught us to have love and compassion for those who are weak, vulnerable, oppressed, marginalized, and different from us. The undeniable foundation of the animal agriculture industry is suffering and violence. It is incumbent on followers of Jesus to find out what happens to these animals who are exploited and slaughtered for food, and then to decide if a diet containing animal products is in line with one’s religious beliefs.
Can a Christian in good conscience participate in activities that degrade our world, cause starvation and death to other humans, and inflict horrific and unnecessary animal suffering and violence?
[New Revised Standard Version, © 1989, the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.]
THE ANIMAL HOLOCAUST, ACCORDING TO HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS
Here are the words of Alex Hershaft, founder of Farm Animal Rights Movement (FARM), an international nonprofit organization that promotes animal rights and veganism through public education and grassroots outreach. Alex Hershaft is a survivor of the Holocaust, Nazi Germany’s genocide of European Jews during World War II.
“I spent my childhood years in the Warsaw Ghetto where almost my entire family was murdered along with about 350,000 other Polish Jews. People sometimes will ask me whether that experience had anything to do with my work for animals. It didn’t have a little to do with my work for animals. It had everything to do with my work for animals...
In 1975, after I immigrated to the United States, I happened to visit a slaughterhouse, where I saw terrified animals subjected to horrendous crowding conditions while awaiting their deaths. Just as my family members were in the notorious Treblinka death camp. I saw the same efficient and emotionless killing routine as in Treblinka, I saw the neat piles of hearts, hooves, and other body parts. So reminiscent of the piles of Jewish hair, glasses, and shoes in Treblinka...
And then, it finally dawned on me. ‘Never again’ is not about what others should NOT do to us. ‘Never again’ means that we must never again perpetrate mass atrocities against other living beings. That we must never again raise animals for food or for any other form of exploitation. And that’s when I became an activist for animal rights.”
To watch Alex Hershaft tell his story, from his terrible experience in the Warsaw Ghetto to becoming an outspoken vegan and animal rights activist, click on the image on the left below.
HOLOCAUST SURVIVORS SPEAK: LESSONS FROM THE DEATH CAMPS
Emily Moran Barwick (Bite Size Vegan) covers this topic perfectly in her video featuring actual quotes from Holocaust survivors, comparing animal agriculture to the Holocaust. Click on the image on the right above to watch her video.
“This video conveys the words of Holocaust survivors and their family members. These are their words, their stories, their lessons... Linking the human Holocaust to our treatment of animals has long sparked controversy, disgust and outrage. Opponents view the connection as belittling and disrespecting the experience of Holocaust victims and survivors. But what do we say when those making this connection are themselves survivors?”
~ Emily Moran Barwick (Bite Size Vegan)
“When I see cages crammed with chickens from battery farms thrown on trucks like bundles of trash, I see, with the eyes of my soul, the Umschlagplatz [where Jews were forced onto trains leaving for the death camps]. When I go to a restaurant and see people devouring meat, I feel sick. I see a holocaust on their plates.”
~ Georges Metanomski, a Holocaust survivor who fought in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
“For most of the society, life was lived as if none of this was happening. People had regular jobs, concentration camp workers went off to work in the morning and came home at night to loving families, a home-cooked meal, a warm bed. It was a job for them as it is for the animal experimenter, the trapper, game agent, or the factory farm worker.”
~ Anne Muller, who lost many of her family members in the Holocaust
“That’s the real lesson of the Holocaust, isn’t it? That people could do everything and anything to those that they deemed ‘sub-human.’ Which is, of course, what we do to animals.”
~ Barbara Stagno, northeast director of In Defense of Animals, who lost her grandparents in the Holocaust
“It is wrong to harm others, and as a matter of consistency we don’t limit who the others are; if they can tell the difference between pain and pleasure, then they have a fundamental right not to be harmed... Unless you believe in fascism, that might makes right. We do not have a right to harm others.”
~ Henry (Noah) Spira, animal activist and Holocaust survivor
IF YOU ARE AGAINST ANIMAL CRUELTY...
If you are against animal cruelty, then please do some research and learn the truth about what happens to animals who are exploited and slaughtered to become and create food for humans.
If you are against animal cruelty, then you probably already agree that causing harm to animals for taste pleasure is not an acceptable “personal choice.”
If you are against animal cruelty, then becoming vegan is a rational, compassionate response based on your personal values.
On THE RESOURCES page, check out the TOTALLY AWESOME GUIDE TO THE VEGAN DIET AND PHILOSOPHY and the VEGAN MEAT, DAIRY, AND EGG ALTERNATIVES section.
YOU DON’T LIKE VEGANS?
That’s okay because this is about animal abuse, not about vegans. You may not like vegans, but do you agree with the message that animal abuse is wrong? Please don’t dismiss the message and ignore the suffering animals just because you don’t like vegans. That’s called “shooting the messenger.”
If someone told you that abuse to dogs is wrong, would you dismiss that message just because you didn’t like the person or the way the person was presenting the message? No, you would still agree that abuse to dogs is not ethical or compassionate, right? Vegans are trying to get you to broaden your perspective to include chickens, pigs, cows, turkeys, and other animals as part of your ethical belief that harming and killing animals is wrong.
Vegans are simply telling you that there is a healthier, smarter, and more compassionate way to live. It’s about the animals, who are the suffering victims of unnecessary choices, not about vegans.
