People always ask me why I'm vegan, and I tell them "because I don't like the way the meat and dairy industries treat animals." Then they say "So do you eat fish?" Well, even though the purpose of my zine is not to shove veganism down your throat (no pun intended hahaha) or even try to promote it, I think we have a little clarifying to do. So let's begin. --- The world's population is over six billion strong and growing... what difference does one vegan make? To tell you the truth, I have no idea. I think one of our jobs as vegans is to spread the word. Jesus was sent to spread the word of God, James Carville was sent to spread the word of Bill Clinton, and here we are, few and far between, sent to spread the word of animals everywhere. I am a vegan, not only to provide myself with a healthy diet, proven to reduce instances of heart disease, and cancer, but to put into action my compassion towards animals who are given no voice and no rights. --- Picture this, You're a pig. You were just born and boy, are you hungry. You start to trot on over to your mother for a nice drink of milk, when all of a sudden, this massive, gloved hand reaches down and grabs you by the tail. You are taken to a big machine and... OUCH! You look behind you and... hey... where did your tail go? You wouldn't want your fifteen brothers, sisters and cousins to be biting it when you get to the twenty inch cage that you'll all share. You arrive at the Hotel Del Slaughterhouse and have a hard time breathing... no vacancy here! No one's been potty trained, and you are forced to pinch a loaf in the midst of the living room. Eeew, you just stepped in cousin Guido's mess again! --- Well, it's been a month, and you are one of the only five surviving piglets that is lucky enough to go on to stage two of her life. Woo Hoo... it's time to make babies! You are impregnated against your will, and stuck in a two foot crate where you can barely stand up or walk around. You live there for four months, then you get to move to a slightly larger crate where you?probably get some nasty sores since you're laying down all the time due to lack of space. No you can't have any hay! Do you know how expensive that stuff is? Finally your piglets are born and you just can?ait to spend some quality time with the little ones. But wait, what's this? That same gloved hand is taking them away from you... and you know exactly where they're going. Oh well... nothing you can do about it. Might as well just prepare yourself to make more babies... cause all your squealing just earned you gestation duty for the next four months. Ooh... That's gotta suck --- So are animals inferior to humans because they can't communicate with us? Because they taste good? Why can't I eat my dog then? He'd probably taste good. After all, his genetic makeup is similar to a cow's. The truth is, society has deemed it appropriate and acceptable to domesticate cats and dogs, which I agree with. My dog is spoiled rotten and has a more comfortable bed than me. But why have we failed to see that pigs, cows, chickens, sheep... they all have feelings just like us, and our pets. Some more than others, but none of them ask to be branded, or to have their beaks cut off. None of them ask to be put in pint sized pens with 20 other animals, only to suffer from shock, painful hormone injections and eventually a fully conscious slaughtering. I'm not asking you to give up every ounce of meat in your diet, but just think about it next time you're biting into a hamburger. Think about that cow's life, and compare it to your dog's. I would personally kill anyone who put my dog through the sorts of emotional and physical abuse that beef cattle see before they are hung, in full mental capacity, to be slit down their stomach, from neck to tail. I wouldn't want to go through that, my dog wouldn't want to go through that... why would a cow? |
