Becoming Vegan: An Affirmative Step Toward Compassion and Peace

by Paul Shapiro

One Heart, Fall 2002, page 8

In a world plagued by so much violence, we are often left with a sense of hopelessness and despair. We feel there is little, if anything, we can do to make the world a better place. We lament the suffering in the Middle East, in much of Africa, and other areas where desperate individuals are forced to endure near-constant hardship, yet we feel there's not much we can personally do to improve their plight.

However, not all suffering is beyond the reach of our help. In fact, a great deal is caused directly by us or, more accurately, by our consumption habits. When we sit down to a meal, we are faced with a decision: Do we want to add to the level of misery in the world, or do we want to add to the level of mercy and kindness? For those of us who want to do the latter, becoming vegan (strict vegetarian) is a powerful step.

The animals we eat suffer immensely. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), approximately ten billion animals (and this statistic excludes aquatic animals) are killed for food in the United States each year. This translates into well over one million animals slaughtered each hour of every day, all year-round.

What were these animals' lives like? The short answer: pure misery. As the agribusiness industry is almost entirely exempt from basic U.S. animal cruelty laws, they are legally allowed to treat farmed animals in ways that would be illegal were they to treat dogs or cats similarly. Instead of being treated as the living, feeling begins they are, farmed animals are viewed as mere commodities whose sole purpose in life is to produce eggs, flesh, or milk for humans.

Almost all farmed animals are raised on "factory farms," where they are intensely confined in cages, stalls, or pens (depending on the species); never see sunlight; never touch earth; and are denied the ability to socialize normally, if at all. While confined, they are pumped full of antibiotics that fight off diseases which would otherwise kill animals living in such unnatural and stressful conditions.

The plight of the hens who lay the eggs we eat typifies the "profit-above-all" mentality of the animal agribusiness industry. Kept in what are known as battery cages—long rows of wire mesh cages typically holding eight birds—the hens spend their entire lives hardly moving at all. While many countries are banning the battery-cage system because of its inherent cruelty, approximately 98 percent of U.S. egg-laying hens are still imprisoned in them. Typically, a four-pound bird is given the floor space equivalent of half a piece of letter-sized paper—barely enough room to stretch one wing. The psychological and physical toll the confinement takes on the birds is immense.

The hens spend their days unable to experience any of their natural desires, including dustbathing, roosting, scratching the earth, and roaming. Many birds even find eating difficult because, when they're born, parts of their beaks are seared off with a hot blade without the use of painkillers, in order to reduce the impact of stress-induced aggression.

In addition to hens, the other animals we use for food production—from dairy cows and veal calves to pigs and "meat-type" chickens—don't lead pleasant lives either. Most are also severely confined and undergo mutilations, such as branding, castration, tail-docking, and tooth-grinding, again with painkiller.

Their misery ends only with death. At slaughterhouses, frightened and confused animals are hung upside down and have their throats slit, often while still conscious. These animals bleed to death and are dismembered, although not always in that order.

How can we continue to allow such violence to occur and expect to retain our humanity? How can we continue financing such horrors when we go to the supermarket or restaurant? As Nobel peace Prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer wrote, "As long as people will shed the blood of innocent creatures, there can be no peace, no liberty, no harmony between people. Slaughter and justice cannot dwell together."

Fortunately, we are not helpless in the face of such great suffering. Not only can we choose to become vegan and say no to meat, eggs, and dairy products, study after study shows that we are actually healthier as vegans than when we eat diets rich in animal products. As U.S. rates for heart disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, obesity, and other life-threatening conditions skyrocket, many researchers and medical professionals are coming to the same conclusion: A vegan diet can help protect our health and even reverse some diseases, including the nation's number-one killer, heart disease.

So, why should we continue to support animal abuse while damaging our own health? The animals of this world cannot stand up for themselves—they need our help. Nothing affirms our desire for compassion and peace more than allowing those at our mercy to live free from our exploitation.

This brief article touches on just the most basic reasons to become vegan: to reduce animal suffering and improve our health. There are many other reasons—from environmental to spiritual—to choose to be vegan. For more information, including recipes, nutrition facts, frequently asked questions, and more, please visit TryVeg.com or call toll-free 1-866-Meat-Free.

Paul Shapiro is the Campaigns Director of Compassion Over Killing (www.cok.net). He can be emailed at pshapiro@cok.net.