Veganise Me

Yesterday I came across a beautiful letter of apology that was written to the thousands of nonhuman animals who had suffered and died to satisfy one man’s appetite for animal foods.

Dear thousands of cows, chickens, fish, shrimp, pigs and insects,

I paid someone to hold you captive in tight quarters. To remove your genitals, your beaks, your tails and to brand you, all while wide awake and without anesthesia. To forcibly impregnate you and keep you that way all your life. I paid them to remove you from your children and from your parents at birth. And finally to kill you. I paid them to treat you as a commodity, a slave, as an object that existed only for my benefit. As if you could not suffer, or as if it didn’t matter if you could or not. All of this when it was unnecessary to do so. I did this solely for my own pleasures. A tasty meal, a full belly. You gave me comfort, you gave me a way to fit in with others and with the crowd. You gave me a center piece around which I and my family could celebrate. You were there to fill an empty space when I had a longing that I didn’t know how to fix. You made me feel safe. I know you can’t answer me directly, but I want to make this right. I feel I do not yet understand how to do this fully. Until then I will do what I can.

I love you,
Eric

1. Eating meat is part of nature. We need to do everything the natural way. That’s why we never use modern appliances and computers or never slather chemicals all over our bodies in an indoor waterfall everyday. Besides, eating plant products is ENTIRELY unnatural.

2. Eating meat will make you strong. And that’s why strict vegetarian animals such as pandas, horses, and cows, to name a few, are such weak, skinny, scrawny, anemic, helpless animals. (http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/?page=bios)

3. Meat is the only true source of protein. We all know that the millions (and probably billions due to lack of money to afford meat) of vegetarians through time just collapsed and died from protein deficiency. Continue reading

Original post by George Dvorsky on Sentient Developments http://www.sentientdevelopments.com/2007/08/meat-eaters-are-bad-people.html

If you eat meat you’re a bad person.

And you’re probably deluded too, desperately clinging to quasi-sensical rationalizations that are supposed to justify your cruel and filthy habit.

Yup, you guessed it — I’m through being Mr. Nice Guy when it comes to dealing with meat eaters. I’ve passed a personal tipping point, so to speak, mostly on account of my having to suffer through far too many dinner conservations in which I’m exposed to ridiculous and unfounded arguments intended to support the practice of eating flesh.

Ultimately, when it comes right down to it there is no excuse for eating meat.

Let me repeat that.

There is no excuse for eating meat.

All justifications for doing so – including those rare arguments that actually manage to make sense – are weak to the core. There’s no possible excuse that outweighs the damage and suffering caused by consuming meat.

I would now like to take the time to debunk some of the more common fallacies I’m forced to listen to (and supposedly tolerate) on a regular basis:

Continue reading

Let’s pretend for a moment that meat was an absolute necessity for human survival. Shouldn’t we, as the superior beings that we are, uniquely capable of imagination, speech, art and ethics do our utmost to ensure that animals live a good and comfortable life and die in a nanosecond without any chance of feeling any pain?

Now, since we do not need meat to survive, and in fact are healthier without it, then shouldn’t treating animals with such disregard and killing them so callously be considered a doubly barbaric act?

Until we are collectively able to use our intelligence to care about the well-being of all others and stop thinking solely about ourselves and our superiority,  it doesn’t matter whether we’ve been to the moon, built pyramids or iPhones –  we’re still no better than beasts.

Here’s a very interesting slideshow showing the ideal diet of humans:

Ideal Diet.pdf

Below is an edited text from books by Peter Singer.

We don’t usually think of what we eat as a matter of ethics. Stealing, lying, hurting people – these acts are obviously relevant to our moral character. So too, most people would say, is our involvement in community activities, our generosity to others in need, and especially our sex life. But eating – an activity that is even more essential than sex, and in which everyone participates – is generally seen quite differently. Continue reading

Click to view it full size

WHAT’S AHEAD?

• I ask you questions that you might not have asked yourself before.
• I tell you about my own experience being a vegetarian.
• I lay out all the good AND all the bad things about it.
• I present you with a challenge.

I genuinely hope to see you on the green side! ;-) Continue reading

I am an atheist and am completely against religion. But I have found in Buddhism 5 moral precepts that before even finding them I already lived by.

1. To refrain from taking life (non-violence towards sentient life forms)
2. To refrain from taking that which is not given (not committing theft)
3. To refrain from sensual (sexual) misconduct (not committing rape, etc)
4. To refrain from lying (speaking truth always)
5. To refrain from intoxicants which lead to loss of mindfulness (specifically, drugs and alcohol)

Number 1 on that list is the one thing that over 95% of the world don’t do. Their morals stop with no hurting humans as if they were somehow more capable of feeling pain and more deserving of being respected.