11/01/14 Why do We Pet Some Animals and Eat Others?
Animal Friends invites you to mark World Vegan Day
- Veganism enables us to dismiss carnism as a system in which killing of animals is considered to be normal
Is it rightful and logical that we love our dogs and cats and we eat cows and chickens? We could ask ourselves these and similar questions for the upcoming World Vegan Day that is marked on November 11. This day was founded by Louise Wallis in 1994, former president of british Vegan society, to draw attention to compassion to animals and also to promote ethical, healthy and ecological aspects of veganism.
For the upcoming World Vegan Day, Animal Friends on its web site has published an interesting educational lecture by social psychologist Dr. Melanie Joy, author of book Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism. She explains that we eat some animals, and some of them we don't, without thinking about why we are do it, because it supports the invisible belief system we were raised in, which she calls carnism.
Many of us lives with companion animals and consider them family members, when, on the other hand, they don't think equally of other animals that ends up on their plates. Like some animals can be a companion animals, they could also be a steak, and vice versa, which is confirmed by examples from the other cultures on which menus are both, dogs and cats. Carnism as violent ideology leads humans to participate in inhuman practices in which they should consider the utilization and killing of animals as normal.
Calves are cute and sweet to everyone, however, due to suffocation of our awareness and empathy, which is inherent to carnism, few of us actually think about that drinking milk is directly affecting them and their mothers. Human species is the only one that is actually drinking milk from the other species, and that during adulthood, presenting it as something natural, normal and even necessary. Thus the warnings on the harmful consequences to our health by dairy consumption are being ignored, as well as the fact that cows are subjects to annual pregnancies, and calves are taken from them to become veal.
This year the World Vegan Day is calling to everyone to think about the values of the lives of all animals. This day is a great opportunity to enjoy with your family members, friends and colleagues in the benefits of plant food and informing others about veganism. By achieving vitality and health benefits, switching to a vegan diet is becoming a general question of sustainability, regarding that using animals for food is associated to a huge consumption of natural resources, world hunger and cataclysmic destruction of the environment.
In the USA, where the demand for meat is falling every year drastically, the number of vegans is higher than the number of vegetarians, while the number of vegans is growing everywhere on the planet. The vegan diet more and more becomes the nutrition of the future. It is rich in delicious flavors and tempting scents, nutritionally richer and healthier than usual western nutrition, and thus by using vegan varieties of traditional meals, one can enjoy the same meals and flavors that we are used to. Except enjoying food, with a vegan diet everyone is saving many animals and also both the environment and our health.
Besides not eating meat, fish, eggs, milk, dairy products and honey, those who chose to become vegan also don't wear footwear and clothing from leather, fur, wool, silk, and feathers, they use cosmetics and cleaning agents which were not tested on animals, they don't visit circuses with animal acts and zoos and don't buy animals, but adopt them.
Let's ask ourselves – if we wouldn't eat a dog or a cat, why should we do that to a horse, cow, pig or to a rabbit? Lets make a World Vegan Day initiative to step away from carnism and start building a more righteous world for everyone through a vegan diet and non-violent modern lifestyle.