Be Humane - Be Vegan

Veganism

2024-01-16

Trigger Warning (TW): Descriptions of Animal Cruelty, Rape

Graphic images/videos are hidden by default so everyone can read the text - you can reveal each of them individually.

It was last summer when I started being exposed to more vegan narratives online. I used to scoff at the idea for even thinking about it - I mean, it is easy to cut meat out of my diet - I don't eat meat that often to make a difference, but dairy?

How can I fully wake up without my morning coffee? How do I attend a wedding and not have the delicious cake, ice creams and other delightful desserts? My mouth waters if I even think about having that aromatic ghee pongal with vada and sambar. How do I go about my life knowing that I can never have that ever again?

I tried to get the images out of my head. I tried to convince myself that it is natural, and it is okay to consume dairy. I tried to tell that it does not violate my own set of ethics and morals that I live by. I tried, I really did. It was fucking agonizing.

It's been around 3 months since I stopped consuming meat, dairy and other animal products. I would be lying if I say it's been a breeze. I don't know how to make proper black coffee, so I first had to experience caffeine withdrawal for a week or two, after like a decade of drinking 2-3 cups of milk-based coffee everyday. Contrary to the happy dude on the packaging that you see on soy/almond/oat milk containers, it tastes like sadness. The only close-to-dairy alternative I found is soy chocolate milkshake. I have it occasionally whenever miss dairy. I cannot have many of my to-go snacks that I used to have because it contains milk solids.

Do I regret being vegan? No.
Do I regret not becoming vegan sooner? Yes.
Would I continue being vegan for the rest of my life? Yes.

Let me explain.

First, try to clear your mind of any biases you have accumulated over the years. I try to think from scratch when I face the question of ethics, and that helps avoid some (not all) inherent biases that I have.

Chickens

Take the example of chickens. They are bred in captivity, go through most of their life living in cages barely enough to fit them, surrounded by their own feces and next to no hygiene. We selectively breed chickens to lay the most amount of eggs in a short span of time, and to get to the maximum weight before slaughter. This causes a ton of health problems for them.

Chickens bred for their meat are sent to slaughter when they are around 2 months old. They are shackled to a line, are stunned using electrified water, their throats slit, boiled and defeathered thereafter. A lot of these birds don't get stunned properly, meaning their throats get slit when they are fully alive, and probably are alive even when they are boiled to death.

Hens that are selectively bred to make the most amount of eggs in a short period are used in the egg industry. Once their egg production drops, they are sent to the slaughterhouse like the broiler chickens. Some of these eggs also should be used to raise hens for the next generation of farming. These eggs are fertilised, and once the chicks are born their sex is determined. If it is a male chick, since it is not wanted in the egg industry (and this chick cannot be used in the meat industry since the strains used for egg laying don't grow as big as the broiler chickens), they are ground by a macerator.

(click to expand) TW: GIF of male chicks being ground by a macerator

(click to expand) TW: GIF of deplorable living conditions of hens

Cows

If you are shocked at how chickens are treated in the meat/egg industry, be prepared to be mortified about how dairy and beef cows are treated.

Dairy Cows are bred in captivity, and artificially inseminated once they are 15 months old. They start giving milk after giving birth to their first calf, and must give birth to one calf every year to continue producing milk. They are artificially inseminated within every 3 months of giving birth to calves. Their calves are taken away after it gives birth. If the calf is male, they are sent to slaughter for their veal so that more of their mothers milk is available to be sold. If the calf is female, it suffers the same fate as its pitiful mother.

This happens until they are 3-5 years old, depending on what breed it is. It is then sent to the slaughterhouse to suffer the same fate as cows bred for its meat.

Beef Cows are also bred in captivity, and even though their life expectancy is 15-20 years, they are ready & sent for slaughter when they are 1.5-2 years old. This is enabled again through selective breeding. During slaughter, they are stunned and put up in conveyor belt lines. Their throats are severed, due to which they bleed out to death. Sometimes the stunning does not happen properly, or the bleeding out process takes longer resulting in the cow regaining consciousness - and bleed to death. They are then dismembered by workers to separate different parts of their body. Sometimes the cows are still alive when this dismemberment happens.

(click to expand) TW: GIF of a male calf being taken away since he cannot be profited off

(click to expand) TW: GIF of slaughter of beef cows

Back to the point

There is just too much cruelty about raising a sentient being in captivity, subjecting them to abhorrent conditions, just to get meat or other by-products from them. If everyone switched to a plant-based diet, it would require only 25% of the current surface area used for animal and plant agriculture^[1]. We would be able to feed many more people than we are able to today. You can get good sources of protein from plant-based diets^[2].

No vegan is trying to equate human and animal life. All we say is that an animal's life is probably more important than your taste buds (one of the activists instrumental in making me go vegan - Arvind - tells this all the time).

Please watch the following video if you have not already:

TW: Graphic video containing clips of animal abuse, torture etc.

Credit to Arvind Animal Activist for this video

If you have watched Attack on Titan, I am sure you can draw parallels between humanity in that scenario and animals raised in captivity today (check this reddit post out). The same goes with Promised Neverland.

It is simply immoral and irrational to continue supporting animal agriculture, and I have internalised that. And if I cannot live up to my own standards of ethics and morals, what hope do I have?