articles about animals used for food


	Home Videos Photos Press Articles Animals Writing Classes Bellydance Pilates Yoga Contact	Animals Used For Food Animals: Different But Same Barbeque One Animal, Love The Other Bees Make Honey Anyway, So What's Wrong With Us Eating It? Chickens Lay Eggs Anyway, So What's Wrong With Us Eating Them? Cows Make Milk Anyway, So What's Wrong With Us Drinking It? Fish Aren't Treated Cruelly, So What's Wrong With Eating Them? How About Eggs Or Milk From Family Chickens Or Cows? Is There Such Thing As A Humane Slaughterhouse? Isn't 'Free-Range' Farming Cruelty-Free? Live Exports: What's The Big Deal? Plants Versus Animals: The Stupidest Argument In The Universe So What Do Vegans Feed Their Dogs And Cats? Wanna Lose Weight? It's Easy If You Go Vegan! What's The Difference Between A Vegetarian And A Vegan? Animals: Different But Same Dogs and cats behind bars on death row in shelters is a heart-breaking sight. Equally heart-breaking are the rabbits, mice, monkeys and primates in laboratories trapped in cages their whole lives, tortured daily by scientists. And same with wild animals incarcerated in zoos, aquariums and circuses, never allowed to live free. So how is it that we as a society feel so much for the above animals but have no compassion left for the billions of farmed pigs, chickens, cows and other farmed animals that are cruelly confined in exactly the same way? The fact is that besides being different species, all of the above animals (and all other animals on the planet, for that matter) share certain traits: they're all sentient, they're all innocent, they all feel and try to avoid pain, and they all struggle for survival when they believe their lives are threatened. In other words, while they're all different species, they're the same on a great many levels. Ask yourself: are pigs, chickens, cows and other farmed animals SO different from the cats and dogs you cuddle and love, share your home with and treat as part of your family? Are they SO different from the elephants we fight to keep out of circuses and zoos and the monkeys and primates we fight to keep out of laboratories? Are they SO different that we, as a society, allow these innocent creatures to be treated cruelly and murdered by the billions every year, meanwhile we rage against any kind of neglect or abuse against companion animals and wild animals? Clearly and unarguably, the answer is 'no' - they're not so different to each other. Despite this, our societies continue to treat them very differently - and by their billions. Specifically, over 58 billion farmed animals per year worldwide - more than all the shelter animals, all the lab animals, and all the zoo, aquarium and circus animals put together - suffer a dismal existence behind bars. These poor creatures are condemned to the torturous misery of perpetual confinement that even the worst of criminals doesn’t experience while in prison. In other words, the most sick and evil murderers, rapists and child abusers enjoy more comfort and freedom than the average farmed animal. Can you imagine spending your whole life in a space where there's not even enough room to turn around? I bet you couldn't conceive of enduring that for even ten minutes let alone a whole lifetime. But that's the reality for farmed animals. The only escape from that wretched existence is the final death blow administered at the slaughterhouse. And when the end comes, no kindness is afforded to these animals: they're killed with horrifying viciousness and brutality. Despite all of this, the majority of people in the world eat animals, and therefore not only disregard the mistreatment of these animals, but actually fund their abuse. The reasons for this include the following: Some people don't know about the horrors farmed animals endure. Some find out the truth but refuse to believe it. They make excuses like, "That video must have been just a one-off" and remain in denial. Others use the guise of tradition and/or culture and spout the classic phrase “It's just what we do” to rationalise the status quo. Others value satisfying their taste buds more than anything else, and believe that saying “meat tastes good” justifies abusing and killing animals. And, finally, some believe the notion that human animals are superior to non-human animals and that we should be able to do whatever we want to whomever we want. You might wonder how I know so much about all of the above. Well, except for the last excuse of superiority, in my animal-eating days I myself used those excuses for many years of my life. At that point I was asleep to the truth and entrenched in my habits. But after I awoke to the reality of it all, I changed my heart and mind and changed what I ate. And it wasn't hard - it was a matter of choosing compassion over greed, compassion over habit, compassion over my own wants. It was a matter of opening my eyes (instead of just doing something “just because”) and making informed and kind choices. And I can tell you with all my heart that it was absolutely the best decision I ever made! I encourage you to go meat-free for just one month and FEEL the difference. If you won't, then Google and watch a clip called Meet Your Meat, because if you're going to eat animals, you should meet who you're eating. The animals endure the suffering with their bodies so the least you can do - as one who funds their suffering - is see it with your eyes. If you want to ignore what I'm saying and insist on eating animals, show some courage and find out for yourself what you're backing. After all, you're paying for it to happen. Look into the unknowing eyes of these animals as they stand in line awaiting their death. Hear for yourself their screams of pain as they're brutally killed. And then decide whether it's worth putting them through this just for a mouthful of their flesh. Maybe then you'll change your mind about going meat-free. Pigs, chickens, cows and other farmed animals don't deserve the miserable existences they suffer. You can help eliminate that suffering by getting animals off your plate. Please care. Please stop eating animals - they want to live too. Think before you eat! Barbeque One Animal, Love The Other Imagine a lamb on a spit... Now imagine a dog on a spit... Society tells us that one is an animal you eat and the other is an animal you love, so people typically find one picture completely normal (the lamb on the spit) and the other utterly offensive (the dog on the spit). But besides the obvious difference in species, both images are essentially the same as they're both of a loveable, innocent animal who has been killed and cooked. The difference lies solely in that we’ve been told that one is to be eaten and the other is to be loved. Why cuddle a cat and kill a cow? Why love a dog but eat a pig? Why admire birds in the wild but confine chickens to a space little bigger than their own bodies? They are ALL sentient beings - they are ALL our fellow earthlings. Why love one but eat another? Have you ever genuinely thought about why we as a society so readily accepts this paradox? Societal standards have decided for us that the some animals are companion animals to be loved, and the others are to be eaten. As a consequence, abuse of companion animals is a crime and abhorred by society, whereas abuse of farmed animals is a totally legal institution called animal farming and completely accepted by society. Now, how can I - a vegan who consumes no animal product - know anything about this? Well, I can speak with complete authority because I once thought like that too. Like many, I disregarded farmed animals in the list of animals I loved. So I know exactly how it is to think like that - I’ve been there. At one point in my life I didn't even consider the question of "Why love one yet eat the other?" but thoughtlessly accepted this paradoxical morality for many years of my life. Then, when I started to actually think about this paradox, it stopped making sense. I claimed to love animals but how could I love animals if I was eating them? The two don’t match. When this finally struck me and I woke up to the truth - that all sentient beings (ie. ALL animals, not just the ones that I selectively included) are deserving of equal compassion - I decided to stop acting from habit and greed and start acting from a place of thoughtfulness and compassion. I truly believe that if suddenly all the farmed animals disappeared and someone said: "Let's eat dogs and cats instead", there would be a mass rebellion against that notion because in most countries dogs and cats are thought of as not just companion animals but also as beloved family members. As it stands, people who eat pigs, chickens and cows are often deeply disgusted that people eat dogs in parts of Asia. The mere thought makes them shudder...but they will shudder about the idea of eating dogs and pontificate about how revolting it is while simultaneously popping a leg of lamb in the oven! There’s some serious hypocrisy in that scenario. The long and the short of it is that you can’t honestly state “I love animals” if you eat them. A few of us were lucky enough to have been brought up without animal flesh in our diets, but for the rest of us, we've been a part of that paradoxical morality at some point in our lives and therefore complicit in the abuse and killing of animals. It's when you question the paradox and awaken to the truth that you start to make changes. I decided to do something about the way I lived my life so that I would no longer be a hypocrite by claiming I loved animals while I had the corpse of an animal on my dinner plate. You can make the decision to stop eating animals too, and consequently live a life that reflects a love of ALL animals. Around 98 percent of animals abused by humans are farmed animals. So if you're against animal abuse, you really need to stop eating them because every time you serve up the carcass of a dead animal at the dinner table, you're paying for animals to be heartlessly confined and viciously killed. If you don't want to be part of that agenda, get animals off your plate. Simple as that. Bees Make Honey Anyway, So What's Wrong With Us Eating It? Bees do make honey as a matter of course. So why is it wrong to take it for our consumption? Well, to start with, it’s not ours! Bees make honey for their own survival and if you take the honey away from them to consume yourself, you’re taking away their means of survival. The bees must then create more honey so that they can survive, which is again taken away from them, and they must again make more which is again taken away…and so it goes on. I guess it would be like you coming home from the grocery store with your bags of food only to have someone take them away from you. You’d then have to go back to the store to buy more food, only to have that taken away from you again, and so forth and so on. You worked hard for the money to buy the food so that you can survive - why should someone else have the right to take it away from you? And it's the same with bees: they worked hard for that honey, so it's only fair to let them keep it. Oh, and if that doesn't convince you, maybe this will: honey is bee vomit. So unless you're a fan of eating vomit, that's another reason to stop eating honey and get into some of the delicious alternatives (like golden syrup and agave nectar) instead! NOTE: If you read the articles on my Writing page, you'll notice in the bee articles (Bee-hind The Scenes Part 1, Bee-hind The Scenes Part 2 and High Society) that I make mention of eating honey. At the time I ate both animal flesh and animal secretions (dairy/eggs/honey) and the fact that I make reference to eating honey reflects that. As you can see from reading this page, I now know better. Chickens Lay Eggs Anyway, So What's Wrong With Us Eating Them? Chickens do lay eggs as a matter of course but there's a collection of compelling reasons not to eat them: We've genetically bred chickens to lay a lot more frequently than birds do in nature. We've made them into egg-laying freaks and because of that, their bodies malfunction and prematurely wear out. Male chickens are collateral to the egg industry - being 'useless' they're ground up alive or chucked onto a pile to either suffocate or starve to death. The conditions egg-laying hens are kept in are absolutely appalling - even the vilest of criminals are housed better than these poor hens. Even if we pretend for a moment that the hens live well, the ultimate destination is a brutal death. Eggs are chicken menstruations. So more than being an animal product, an egg is actually a bodily secretion. And, really, why would you want to eat a hen's period any more than you'd want to eat a used tampon? Study after study shows that balanced a plant-based diet (in other words, a vegan diet, which doesn't involve any animal-based products like eggs) is more healthful than any other way of eating. Eggs = Filthy warehouses that reek of urine and faeces. Eggs = Thousands of birds in distress. Eggs = Hens with mutilated toes and beaks. Eggs = Featherless birds, their bodies raw with sores. Eggs = Billions of hens all over the world living in sheer misery. Eggs = Sick and injured birds left to suffer and die. No one cares. No one helps them. (It costs less to get a new hen than to ‘fix’ the old one, you see.) Eggs = Corpses of dead birds lie rotting amongst the live birds, adding the stench of death to the ammonia-laced toxic air. Eggs = Hens that have stopped producing eggs are starved to induce another molt, after which their egg-laying days are over. They are then deemed 'unprofitable' and taken away to be killed. As you can see, 'life' for egg-laying hens is harrowing. Every aspect of the commercial egg industry is utterly inhumane, and the only relief these hens get from their abysmal existence comes in the form of death. Now that you know the real cost of eggs, please show you care by not supporting this brutal industry. Going egg-free is simpler than you think. To start off with, here's a link: egg replacements. We each have the power to end our complicity in the intense suffering, painful mutilations, and violent deaths of these birds, because with every bite we take we can choose compassion over cruelty. Cows Make Milk Anyway, So What’s Wrong With Us Drinking It? Actually, cows don’t just produce milk as a matter of course. It’s basic biology: only cows that have given birth produce milk (just like only women who’ve given birth produce milk). They don’t just lactate day in, day out, all of their lives. Like any other mammal, they produce milk as a direct result of giving birth. So a baby cow has to be born for the milk to come, and the baby has to be taken away from the mother for her milk to be bottled and sold. If the milk goes to the baby cow (as it should), then there’s no milk to be taken by the farmers and the dairy industry is no more. The baby must be taken away and killed for there to be cow milk for human consumption. Therefore the dairy industry, by its very nature, is centred around the killing of baby cows. I’ve heard dairy farmers saying that they’re doing the cow a favour by taking her milk. “She’ll burst if we don’t milk her!” they say. And, it’s true, she would suffer if she wasn’t milked. But if nature could take its course, the baby cow would drink the mother’s milk, and she wouldn't be left full of milk and in need of milking. In other words, if her baby wasn’t taken away to be killed in the first place, she wouldn’t need to be ‘helped’ by being milked. “But I like ice cream, cheese and milk!” I hear you say. Hey, I do too. But there are loads of delicious dairy-free alternatives that mean you can enjoy the taste of ice cream, cheese and milk without funding the killing of baby cows and forcing their mothers to endure a life in hell - confined all of their lives, perpetually pregnant, and in awful pain from being milked almost every day of the year. Make no mistake: the dairy industry is an utterly evil industry. I mean, how can an industry based on murdered babies and their grieving mothers not be? If you think I'm exaggerating in any way, see evidence for yourself by viewing a clip called The Killing Of A Pregnant Cow And Her Calf. For those of you not game to see it, here's a summary: the mother cow is strung up by one of her legs. Her throat is slit, her stomach is cut open (while she's still alive), and her baby is pulled out from inside her. The calf comes to life, has his/her throat cut and is then thrown into down a chute in the wall. The whole time the guys doing this laugh and joke with each other. Hmmm...still in the mood for some ice cream? To make it all worse, most of us have been told from an early age that milk is good for us, when in fact, it's quite the opposite. Research and it and see for yourself. To start with, watch these two clips: Milk, The Deadly Poison and Got Pus? - to learn about the hidden nasties that occur in milk: the pus, the mucus, the urine, the blood, and (last but not least!) the faeces. Beyond the revoltingness of the dairy industry and the revoltingness of the milk itself, the fact that humans are the only mammal to drink milk beyond being nursed by their own mothers tells you the something's not right about us drinking milk throughout our entire lives. Furthermore, that we're the only animal to drink milk from a different species is another dead giveaway that humans shouldn't be drinking cow's milk. Isn't it obvious that cow's milk is for calves? How would it be if a baby cow latched on a human woman's nipple to feed? The would be quite the abnormal sight to see. Well it's the same abnormality when humans drink cow's (or any other animal's) milk: if you wouldn't latch onto a cow's teat to drink her milk, you shouldn't suck it out of a carton either. One TV ad for milk chocolate showed a bunch of tap-dancing cows on a stage. The message of this image is that happy cows give milk for chocolate. But the fact is that there is no such thing as 'happy' for a dairy cow. In order to get her milk, the mother cow's baby is stolen from her, and either killed within days or sent off to be cruelly confined for months on end and malnutritioned in order to be killed for what we call 'veal'. And she, when her body is spent and she stops producing profitable amounts of milk, is sent to a violent death in a slaughterhouse. I ask you: where's the 'happy' in any of that? When I see dairy products, I don't see tap-dancing cows. All I see is dead babies and their grieving mothers, because that's the reality of the dairy industry. Here's a quote from Spirituality And The City by Katie Spiers: “Even if you’re not a mother yourself, each of us had one once! Many of the animals mistreated by farming are mothers. We take their milk, their eggs, and, most disturbingly, we take their children to kill and eat without a second thought.” And seeing as cows can’t talk for themselves, they can’t tell you of their sadness when their baby is taken away from them. They certainly show sorrow when their baby is taken, but who is there to care? The dairy farmers couldn’t give less of a crap if they tried - their wallets are their concern, and the cows are merely objects to be used for profit. Too long the dairy industry has relied on the public staying clueless. But times have changed. The age of technology means we can see for ourselves that the notion of dairy being a harmless industry full of happy cows is an outright lie. Check out these two clips: Milk Comes From Grieving Mothers and The Dark Side Of Dairy to see that truth with your own eyes. The dairy industry is nothing but cruel and doesn't deserve your support. The pus-filled, mucus-covered, urine-drenched, blood-soaked, faeces-coated truth is that milk quite clearly sucks. So for goodness sake, switch to cruelty-free alternatives like coconut mylk, hemp mylk, almond mylk, oat mylk, soy mylk, rice mylk, hazelnut mylk. Get those in your diet, and get that filth called dairy milk out of your cup. Fish Aren't Treated Cruelly, So What's Wrong With Us Eating Them? If you're talking about fish on fish farms, they are indeed treated cruelly. Packed in by the tens of thousands, the conditions they live in are parasite-ridden and dreadfully dirty. In fact, the conditions are so absolutely disgusting that up to half of farmed fish die (due to those conditions) before slaughter. If you're talking about wild fish killed for food, while they might swim free their whole lives, they're certainly killed cruelly. As they're dragged from their ocean homes, the decompression they undergo often ruptures their swim bladders, makes their eyes pop out of their heads, and pushes their stomachs out of their mouths. Some then die of suffocation on the ship, others die from being crushed to death, and others are still alive when their bellies are cut open. So whether you're talking about farmed or wild fish, there's a heck of a lot wrong with eating fish (not to mention other sea creatures too). Approximately 1 to 3 trillion (yes, trillion) sea animals are killed every year for consumption. How can that not be wrong? And beyond the ethics of it, there's the environmental impact: without getting into details (there are plenty of statistics on the internet you can look up) I'll just say that the words 'teetering on the brink of destruction' are no exaggeration at all. Get more details here: No Fishing. Please get fish and other sea animals off your plate, and let sea creatures swim free! How About Eggs Or Milk From Family Chickens Or Cows? Here are some factors to consider regarding eating the eggs or milk of rescued chickens or cows who are treated as members of the family: As far as veganism goes, it technically makes you a non-vegan to eat eggs and milk no matter what the treatment of the animal is. This is just a fact. Ethically, if the animals are treated as beloved family members (in similar way that dog or cat would be) and will not be killed when their egg-laying and milk-dispensing days are over, then there's no ethical dilemna with regard to treatment in terms of the usual confinement and physical abuse farmed chickens and cows suffer. Ethically, taking food from a baby (milk meant for a nursing calf) is not right. It's not our business to be taking that baby's milk for our own consumption. Health-wise, it's a problem. Statistics show time and time again that eating the secretions of animals is simply not good for you. Logic-wise, unless you are a cow, there's just no reason you need to drink cow's milk. In fact, there's no reason to drink any milk (human, bovine, or otherwise) after you've been weaned. We're the only species to do that and it makes no sense at all. Grossness-wise, eggs are chicken periods - and who wants to eat a menstruation? YUK! Also, rescued cow will very likely have chronic mastitis from years and years of lactating non-stop. That means pus and blood in your milk. Again, a big, fat YUK. And there's also the bigger picture to consider: you eating eggs and drinking milk (despite the fact that the animals are treated well) will add to the collective belief that eating eggs and drinking milk is okay. The consequence of that is a reinforcing of the erroneous idea that supporting the egg and dairy industries is okay. It enables people to continue to hide from the fact that eggs and milk mean billions of chickens and cows living a miserable existence until the final trip to slaughterhouse that brutally ends their wretched lives. So all the considerations are laid out for you - now the choice is yours! Is There Such Thing As A Humane Slaughterhouse? In a word: no. Slaughterhouses continually claim that they kill humanely, but unless vets are performing euthanasia on the animals in a relaxed, comfortable environment there's no way any slaughterhouse on the planet kills anything close to humanely. They've got quotas to keep and vets with euthanasia needles would mean the process would be way too slow and not profitable enough. Look at the maths: currently over 58 billion farmed animals all over the world are killed for food every year. According to my calculations (I've rounded off the following numbers for ease), that means over 6 million animals per hour are being killed. In other words, over 105,000 animals per minute, or over 1,700 animals per second. With those numbers, death row at the slaughterhouse has to be a production line, so there's NO WAY that the killing could be done 'humanely'. Seriously, if you think there's any humanity there, you're kidding yourself in a big way: guys covered in blood slashing away at screaming animals is the reality of the slaughterhouse. And there's nothing humane about that. Now, if you're still not convinced and insist that there's such thing as a humane slaughterhouse, I'd like to see you provide evidence of it to me, because I've yet to see anything of the sort. I can point to many clips showing the brutality of slaughterhouses and therefore prove my point, but can you show me even one proving that there's such a thing as a humane slaughterhouse? Still, despite the above statistics and available footage that clearly prove the contrary, some slaughterhouses continue to claim that they kill humanely. So what does that mean I wonder? That they kill the animals with big smiles on their faces? Hmmm... Isn't 'Free-Range' Farming Cruelty-Free? No, 'free-range' is not cruelty-free. Neither is 'organic' or any other catch-phrase used by agri-business to soften the cruel reality of animal farming. One reason I put the term 'free-range' in inverted commas is because it's often not true. The laws are different everywhere, but here in Australia, some state laws determine that 'free-range' means two hours of freedom per day and the rest of the time the animals live in intolerable confinement - and there's nothing 'free' about that. But let's assume that the animals being farmed are truly allowed to be free - it's still not cruelty-free because all the rest of the abuses remain in place. Check it out: The cruelty of the meat industry is still in place because: The animals are still regularly artificially inseminated. There's nothing cruelty-free (or normal) about humans putting objects (including their own hands/arms) into animals' vaginas to inseminate them. The animals are still ultimately killed. And there's nothing cruelty-free about killing if you ask me, even if the animals are treated well: as far as I'm concerned, kindness before killing doesn't equal humane. The cruelty of the dairy industry is still in place because: The cows are still regularly put on the rape rack (and that's official industry terminology, not mine) to have an object and human arm stuck up their vaginas in order to be artificially inseminated. The babies are still taken away from their mums so that farmers can take all of the mother's milk for human consumption. The bobby calves (male baby cows) are still collateral to the dairy industry and are sent off to be confined, malnutritioned and killed for 'veal'. The cows still endure the enormous physical strain of being kept perpetually pregnant or lactating (or often both) and for years and years and years. The cows are still sent off for slaughter once they don't produce profitable amounts of milk. The cruelty of the egg industry is still in place because: The male chicks are still collateral to the egg industry and so are killed when they're one day old by being suffocated to death or ground up alive. The hens are still bred to be abnormal egg-laying machines who produce many more eggs than their bodies can handle. The hens are sent off to slaughter when their bodies are spent from the strain of daily egg-laying and they simply can't produce any more eggs. So, as you can see, 'free-range' (and 'organic' and any similar term) is not cruelty-free in the least. Basically, they're words that attempt to soften the reality that farming animals means violence towards animals. But, hey, you don't even have to take my word for it - research it and see that the notion of cruelty-free farming is a fairy tale. To start with, check out what ex-farmers have to say on a site called The Humane Myth and view the clip The Faces Of 'Free-Range' Farming and see for yourself. Please, think deeply about where your food comes from and how that impacts other living beings. The kindest decision you can make is leaving all animals and animal secretions off your plate altogether. Go vegan! Live Exports: What's The Big Deal? There's a lot wrong with exporting live animals from Australia. In fact, it's probably more accurate to say that there's nothing right about it. To start with, the cows and sheep experience enormous suffering during the long journey by sea. During the voyage, the animals endure the trauma of constant sea sickness and sea spray blindness. Many animals actually die during the journey (half of the deaths are from starvation), and the ones that arrive at the destination alive are suffering from malnutrition, dehydration and disease. In the case of the sheep that are sent to the Middle East to be killed for religious sacrifice, they're bought at sale yards by members of the public and, trussed with wire, dragged along the street by their ears, horns or fleece. They're transported in car boots and on roof racks in 50 degree Celsius temperatures and then killed in backyards, laundries, and in the streets. In 2011, the show Four Corners aired an episode called A Bloody Business. It detailed an investigation by Animals Australia's Lyn White into Indonesian slaughterhouses. The footage of the cruelty the cows endured speaks for itself and can be viewed on the sites listed below. Live Export Indefensible Live Export Shame Ban Live Export Stop Live Exports To summarise: the exported cows and sheep suffer even more abuse on top of the usual amount that farmed animals experience. Yeah, so there's loads wrong with live export. Plants Versus Animals: The Stupidest Argument In The Universe It’s infuriating when someone brings up the inane argument of “plants have feelings too” with regard to the fact that farmed animals suffer. While it's been proven that plants do have a reaction when being cut, it can't possibly be compared to the reaction of an animal that has the same done to him or her. To make it clearer: if you cut an animal (any animal, including the human animal), the animal screams in pain. When you cut a plant, you'll notice a distinct lack of screaming. That proves the point there and then. It's one thing to say, "Did you know that plants have a reaction when they're cut?" which is a scientific fact, but to use the “plants have feelings” argument as a defense of brutalising and murdering animals...it just doesn't fly. It is, quite simply, an utterly ridiculous comment. And, frankly, it's illogical to even compare animals and plants: animals have a brain, a nervous system and pain receptors. Plants have none of the above. Let me be blunt and say that only a fool would compare the suffering of animals to a plant's 'suffering' when cut. A Facebook 'friend' once said, "My carrot was crying out in pain last night when I cut it" as a response to a post I made about the suffering of farmed animals. Fact: a person who is cavalier about the torment and misery of innocent animals has a heart of stone and a brain of cement. Watch some clips of animals being killed in slaughterhouses, listen to their screams of terror and pain when they're being sliced up - often while still alive - and then DARE to tell me that that compares to picking a flower or mowing the lawn. Let me conclude with a response to the “plants have feelings” argument as a justification for abusing and killing animals with a comment that matches the lack of intelligence of the argument itself: DUH - as if! So What Do Vegans Feed Their Dogs And Cats? "What do vegans feed their dogs and cats?" is a question I get asked quite often. There are two schools of thought on the matter. One school of thought is that, while nothing close to a natural diet, cats and dogs can be healthy on carefully balanced vegan diets that include all the nutrients they'd get from the flesh they'd normally ingest if they were wild. The other school of thought is that canines are natural omnivores (but mainly carnivorous) and felines are natural carnivores and that in fairness to their constitutions, they must be fed as such. From this there are two choices vegans make: One choice is to not have dogs and cats in the family, so that there's no support of the cruelty of animal farming for their diet. The other choice is to support animal farming in order to feed the adopted cats and dogs something close to a natural diet. Different vegans decide on different things based on which of the above schools of thought they feel is right. Wanna Lose Weight? It's Easy If You Go Vegan! My friend Mary wrote on Facebook: "Cutting animal products out of my diet was like a bad break-up. I knew it was bad for me, but I enjoyed it for so long. Then I realised how much happier and healthier I was becoming without them. I gave up nothing but heartburn, upset stomach and guilt. I hope all my friends and loved ones won't be the last to join the vegan movement growing into the tens of millions. For themselves and for the animals." Something Mary forgot to mention about being vegan was that it means giving up the extra fat on your body. In becoming vegan I lost 10 kilos. It's the easiest way to lose weight and I've never felt healthier in my life. I feel more energetic than ever, and my body actually feels clean on the inside. Try veganism out - your body will love you for it. Some people can go vegan overnight, but I needed to do it bit by bit. Here are two suggestions of ways to make a gradual transition to a vegan diet: Gradual Transition 1: Month 1: cut out chickens. Month 2: cut out pigs. Month 3: cut out all other animal flesh. Month 4: ditch eggs. Month 5: ditch dairy. Month 6: ditch honey, and you're there - you're vegan! Gradual Transition 2: Month 1: one vegan meal/day. Month 2: two vegan meals/day. Month 3: three vegan meals/day. Month 4: all snacks vegan, and you're there - you're vegan! Gradual Transition 3: Month 1: eat vegan one day/week. Month 2: eat vegan two days/week. Month 3: eat vegan three days/week. Month 4: eat vegan four days/week. Month 5: eat vegan five days/week. Month 6: eat vegan six days/week. Month 7: eat vegan seven days/week, and you're there - you're vegan! The above plans leading to a vegan diet means that by doing it gradually you'll have less cravings (because if you've been eating the above all your life, you probably have some). You'll also have the chance to anticipate what you'll want to substitute when the month comes to cut that product out of your diet - eg. in the first plan, before cutting out dairy, start experimenting with different dairy alternatives (eg. soy mylk, rice mylk, almond mylk) so that by that month you'll have one that you enjoy the taste of. So, after ditching all in the list above, what's left to eat? Answer: everything! Everything, that is, which doesn't involve cruelty to animals. As a starting point, go to Kake's Vegan Cookery to find loads of recipes. You'll see that vegan food is not only healthful and cruelty-free, it's also varied and delicious. I honestly never thought I could be vegan. Once I decided to be vegetarian I knew I could pull that off, but thought that there was no way I could go beyond that to veganism. I thought that with a horrendous sweet tooth like mine I could never give up the dairy- and egg-filled cakes I loved. And what about the chocolate and cheese? The ice cream? Honey on toast? All those awesome-tasting things that I’d have to go without: how could I possibly do it? The good news was that before I had my epiphany about cruelty-free eating, many others came to theirs and have developed cruelty-free foods and recipes that are similar to (and sometimes better than) the dairy-, egg- and honey-based foods I was used to. In other words, replacing the sweets I so loved with vegan alternatives was easy-peasy. I've heard some people complain, "But it doesn't taste exactly the same!" Well, of course it doesn't taste exactly the same. That's because...it's different! The solution is to just get over it. Your supposed 'suffering' from having to make some changes in your diet is nothing compared to the real suffering animals endure every day just so that you can eat their bodies or their secretions (ie. eggs, dairy, honey). Compassion begins on your plate, so push yourself to make some changes even if it means changing your taste buds. If you approach the alternatives with the expectation that they won’t taste exactly the same, you’ll be more open to the experience. No, it won’t be what you’re used to, but you do get used to it and, really, it tastes all the better because it’s cruelty-free. Cruelty-free = extra yummy because you're eating with a clear conscience. And I assure you that NOTHING tastes as good as a clear conscience feels! While I became being vegan purely for ethical reasons I've come to discover how unbelievably healthy a balanced vegan diet is. I feel better than I've ever felt in my life on all levels - physically, emotionally and psychologically. The fact is, our bodies are simply not made to ingest animal flesh. Check out Why Humans Shouldn't Eat Meat to get all a full and detailed explanation. On top of that, a plant-based diet is the most environmentally-friendly one you can choose, so by being vegan I'm an environmental warrior too! And believe it or not, an animal-free diet not only means less suffering to animals but also less suffering for humans, so by being vegan I'm doing my bit to reduce poverty. Read on to see why. First, the question of world hunger. Check this out: over 80% of the grain grown in the world is being fed to animals, meanwhile millions of people go to bed hungry every night. There are situations where people are starving but living next door to crops of soy and corn being grown to feed farmed animals. Ridiculous! Second, the question of the environment. It's an absolute fact that our planet is being destroyed through the farming of animals. Watch Veganism - The Solution and see the statistics for yourself. In fact, the United Nations itself is now pushing for the world to go vegan in order to stop eating the planet to death and save our Earth. As things stand, we're killing the environment one mouthful at a time. And if we continue turning away from this fact, that ignorance will (quite literally) be fatal. If we want to leave our kids anything that resembles a planet they can call home, humanity must go vegan. Within our lifetimes, we'll get to the point where we're only left with one choice to save Mother Earth, and that will be to go vegan. So the option is either to do it willingly now, or be dragged into it when it's the eleventh hour. Truly, being vegan - more than any other thing - will make the most obvious difference to the environment and to humans who are starving. It's clear that conscious food choice is the most powerful way we can make a difference to every living being on the planet and the Earth herself. Following a vegan diet is easy if you keep your eye on the fact that eating cruelty-free is good for animals (both human and non-human animals), good for your health, and good for the environment. Being vegan is not about giving things up, it's about replacing them with alternatives that are kinder to us all. Since awakening to this truth, I've realised the following three things: You can't say with total honesty that you care about animals if you eat their bodies and their secretions because the industries that make animal-based foods are the largest contributors to animal cruelty on the planet. In other words, eating meat, dairy, eggs and honey directly funds animal cruelty. You can't say with total honesty that you care about your health if your body is a graveyard for animals' bodies and a dumping ground for their secretions (milk - which is for calves, not humans; eggs - which are chicken menstruations; and honey - which is bee vomit). You can't say with total honesty that you care about the environment if your diet supports industries that are known to do more damage to the environment than anything else - including all the vehicles on the planet. Being vegan means you'll be kind to animals, healthier, and help save our precious planet. On a vegan diet, all you have to lose is excess fat from your body and guilt in your heart from being part of a system that abuses animals and destroys the Earth. What you'll gain is health and a clear conscience! Hooray! What's The Difference Between A Vegetarian And A Vegan? A vegan is a person who does their best to not participate in any animal suffering at all. Therefore: Vegans eat all foods except meat, dairy, eggs and honey. So they eat legumes, grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds. Vegans use make up, cleaning products and body care products that are not tested on animals. Sadly, it's impossible to avoid medicines that aren't tested on animals (because they all are), but to counter this many vegans choose alternative medicines - like acupuncture, chiropractic, etc - as much as possible. Vegans don't support 'entertainment' that uses animals - eg. bullfighting, horseracing, circuses with wild animals, dogfighting, dogracing, movies that use wild animals as 'actors', etc. Vegans don't wear animals either - so no leather, suede, wool, sheepskin, fur, and silk. A vegetarian, on the other hand, is simply a person who doesn't eat animal flesh. Vegetarians generally don't boycott other types of animal abuse like animal-based clothes, animal tested products, animal-based 'entertainment', and animal farming for dairy, eggs and honey. Some vegetarians do extend their compassion to other areas beyond not eating flesh, but most of the time a vegetarian just doesn't eat meat and that's it. In summary, vegetarianism is merely abstaining from eating flesh, whereas veganism is a compassionate, cruelty-free lifestyle.

Animals Used For Food

Animals: Different But Same
Barbeque One Animal, Love The Other
Bees Make Honey Anyway, So What's Wrong With Us Eating It?
Chickens Lay Eggs Anyway, So What's Wrong With Us Eating Them?
Cows Make Milk Anyway, So What's Wrong With Us Drinking It?
Fish Aren't Treated Cruelly, So What's Wrong With Eating Them?
How About Eggs Or Milk From Family Chickens Or Cows?
Is There Such Thing As A Humane Slaughterhouse?
Isn't 'Free-Range' Farming Cruelty-Free?
Live Exports: What's The Big Deal?
Plants Versus Animals: The Stupidest Argument In The Universe
So What Do Vegans Feed Their Dogs And Cats?
Wanna Lose Weight? It's Easy If You Go Vegan!
What's The Difference Between A Vegetarian And A Vegan?

Dogs and cats behind bars on death row in shelters is a heart-breaking sight. Equally heart-breaking are the rabbits, mice, monkeys and primates in laboratories trapped in cages their whole lives, tortured daily by scientists. And same with wild animals incarcerated in zoos, aquariums and circuses, never allowed to live free.

So how is it that we as a society feel so much for the above animals but have no compassion left for the billions of farmed pigs, chickens, cows and other farmed animals that are cruelly confined in exactly the same way?

The fact is that besides being different species, all of the above animals (and all other animals on the planet, for that matter) share certain traits: they're all sentient, they're all innocent, they all feel and try to avoid pain, and they all struggle for survival when they believe their lives are threatened. In other words, while they're all different species, they're the same on a great many levels.

Ask yourself: are pigs, chickens, cows and other farmed animals SO different from the cats and dogs you cuddle and love, share your home with and treat as part of your family? Are they SO different from the elephants we fight to keep out of circuses and zoos and the monkeys and primates we fight to keep out of laboratories?

Are they SO different that we, as a society, allow these innocent creatures to be treated cruelly and murdered by the billions every year, meanwhile we rage against any kind of neglect or abuse against companion animals and wild animals?

Clearly and unarguably, the answer is 'no' - they're not so different to each other. Despite this, our societies continue to treat them very differently - and by their billions.

Specifically, over 58 billion farmed animals per year worldwide - more than all the shelter animals, all the lab animals, and all the zoo, aquarium and circus animals put together - suffer a dismal existence behind bars. These poor creatures are condemned to the torturous misery of perpetual confinement that even the worst of criminals doesn’t experience while in prison. In other words, the most sick and evil murderers, rapists and child abusers enjoy more comfort and freedom than the average farmed animal.

Can you imagine spending your whole life in a space where there's not even enough room to turn around? I bet you couldn't conceive of enduring that for even ten minutes let alone a whole lifetime. But that's the reality for farmed animals. The only escape from that wretched existence is the final death blow administered at the slaughterhouse. And when the end comes, no kindness is afforded to these animals: they're killed with horrifying viciousness and brutality.

Despite all of this, the majority of people in the world eat animals, and therefore not only disregard the mistreatment of these animals, but actually fund their abuse.

The reasons for this include the following:

Some people don't know about the horrors farmed animals endure.
Some find out the truth but refuse to believe it. They make excuses like, "That video must have been just a one-off" and remain in denial.
Others use the guise of tradition and/or culture and spout the classic phrase “It's just what we do” to rationalise the status quo.
Others value satisfying their taste buds more than anything else, and believe that saying “meat tastes good” justifies abusing and killing animals.
And, finally, some believe the notion that human animals are superior to non-human animals and that we should be able to do whatever we want to whomever we want.

You might wonder how I know so much about all of the above. Well, except for the last excuse of superiority, in my animal-eating days I myself used those excuses for many years of my life.

At that point I was asleep to the truth and entrenched in my habits. But after I awoke to the reality of it all, I changed my heart and mind and changed what I ate. And it wasn't hard - it was a matter of choosing compassion over greed, compassion over habit, compassion over my own wants. It was a matter of opening my eyes (instead of just doing something “just because”) and making informed and kind choices. And I can tell you with all my heart that it was absolutely the best decision I ever made!

I encourage you to go meat-free for just one month and FEEL the difference.

If you won't, then Google and watch a clip called Meet Your Meat, because if you're going to eat animals, you should meet who you're eating. The animals endure the suffering with their bodies so the least you can do - as one who funds their suffering - is see it with your eyes.

If you want to ignore what I'm saying and insist on eating animals, show some courage and find out for yourself what you're backing. After all, you're paying for it to happen. Look into the unknowing eyes of these animals as they stand in line awaiting their death. Hear for yourself their screams of pain as they're brutally killed. And then decide whether it's worth putting them through this just for a mouthful of their flesh. Maybe then you'll change your mind about going meat-free.

Pigs, chickens, cows and other farmed animals don't deserve the miserable existences they suffer. You can help eliminate that suffering by getting animals off your plate. Please care. Please stop eating animals - they want to live too.

Think before you eat!

Barbeque One Animal, Love The Other

Imagine a lamb on a spit...

Now imagine a dog on a spit...

Society tells us that one is an animal you eat and the other is an animal you love, so people typically find one picture completely normal (the lamb on the spit) and the other utterly offensive (the dog on the spit).

But besides the obvious difference in species, both images are essentially the same as they're both of a loveable, innocent animal who has been killed and cooked. The difference lies solely in that we’ve been told that one is to be eaten and the other is to be loved.

Why cuddle a cat and kill a cow? Why love a dog but eat a pig? Why admire birds in the wild but confine chickens to a space little bigger than their own bodies? They are ALL sentient beings - they are ALL our fellow earthlings. Why love one but eat another? Have you ever genuinely thought about why we as a society so readily accepts this paradox?

Societal standards have decided for us that the some animals are companion animals to be loved, and the others are to be eaten. As a consequence, abuse of companion animals is a crime and abhorred by society, whereas abuse of farmed animals is a totally legal institution called animal farming and completely accepted by society.

Now, how can I - a vegan who consumes no animal product - know anything about this? Well, I can speak with complete authority because I once thought like that too. Like many, I disregarded farmed animals in the list of animals I loved. So I know exactly how it is to think like that - I’ve been there.

At one point in my life I didn't even consider the question of "Why love one yet eat the other?" but thoughtlessly accepted this paradoxical morality for many years of my life.

Then, when I started to actually think about this paradox, it stopped making sense.

I claimed to love animals but how could I love animals if I was eating them? The two don’t match. When this finally struck me and I woke up to the truth - that all sentient beings (ie. ALL animals, not just the ones that I selectively included) are deserving of equal compassion - I decided to stop acting from habit and greed and start acting from a place of thoughtfulness and compassion.

I truly believe that if suddenly all the farmed animals disappeared and someone said: "Let's eat dogs and cats instead", there would be a mass rebellion against that notion because in most countries dogs and cats are thought of as not just companion animals but also as beloved family members.

As it stands, people who eat pigs, chickens and cows are often deeply disgusted that people eat dogs in parts of Asia. The mere thought makes them shudder...but they will shudder about the idea of eating dogs and pontificate about how revolting it is while simultaneously popping a leg of lamb in the oven! There’s some serious hypocrisy in that scenario.

The long and the short of it is that you can’t honestly state “I love animals” if you eat them.

A few of us were lucky enough to have been brought up without animal flesh in our diets, but for the rest of us, we've been a part of that paradoxical morality at some point in our lives and therefore complicit in the abuse and killing of animals. It's when you question the paradox and awaken to the truth that you start to make changes.

I decided to do something about the way I lived my life so that I would no longer be a hypocrite by claiming I loved animals while I had the corpse of an animal on my dinner plate. You can make the decision to stop eating animals too, and consequently live a life that reflects a love of ALL animals.

Around 98 percent of animals abused by humans are farmed animals. So if you're against animal abuse, you really need to stop eating them because every time you serve up the carcass of a dead animal at the dinner table, you're paying for animals to be heartlessly confined and viciously killed. If you don't want to be part of that agenda, get animals off your plate. Simple as that.

Bees Make Honey Anyway, So What's Wrong With Us Eating It?

Bees do make honey as a matter of course.

So why is it wrong to take it for our consumption? Well, to start with, it’s not ours! Bees make honey for their own survival and if you take the honey away from them to consume yourself, you’re taking away their means of survival. The bees must then create more honey so that they can survive, which is again taken away from them, and they must again make more which is again taken away…and so it goes on.

I guess it would be like you coming home from the grocery store with your bags of food only to have someone take them away from you. You’d then have to go back to the store to buy more food, only to have that taken away from you again, and so forth and so on.

You worked hard for the money to buy the food so that you can survive - why should someone else have the right to take it away from you? And it's the same with bees: they worked hard for that honey, so it's only fair to let them keep it.

Oh, and if that doesn't convince you, maybe this will: honey is bee vomit. So unless you're a fan of eating vomit, that's another reason to stop eating honey and get into some of the delicious alternatives (like golden syrup and agave nectar) instead!

NOTE: If you read the articles on my Writing page, you'll notice in the bee articles (Bee-hind The Scenes Part 1, Bee-hind The Scenes Part 2 and High Society) that I make mention of eating honey. At the time I ate both animal flesh and animal secretions (dairy/eggs/honey) and the fact that I make reference to eating honey reflects that. As you can see from reading this page, I now know better.

Chickens Lay Eggs Anyway, So What's Wrong With Us Eating Them?

Chickens do lay eggs as a matter of course but there's a collection of compelling reasons not to eat them:

We've genetically bred chickens to lay a lot more frequently than birds do in nature. We've made them into egg-laying freaks and because of that, their bodies malfunction and prematurely wear out.

Male chickens are collateral to the egg industry - being 'useless' they're ground up alive or chucked onto a pile to either suffocate or starve to death.

The conditions egg-laying hens are kept in are absolutely appalling - even the vilest of criminals are housed better than these poor hens.

Even if we pretend for a moment that the hens live well, the ultimate destination is a brutal death.

Eggs are chicken menstruations. So more than being an animal product, an egg is actually a bodily secretion. And, really, why would you want to eat a hen's period any more than you'd want to eat a used tampon?

Study after study shows that balanced a plant-based diet (in other words, a vegan diet, which doesn't involve any animal-based products like eggs) is more healthful than any other way of eating.

Eggs = Filthy warehouses that reek of urine and faeces.

Eggs = Thousands of birds in distress.

Eggs = Hens with mutilated toes and beaks.

Eggs = Featherless birds, their bodies raw with sores.

Eggs = Billions of hens all over the world living in sheer misery.

Eggs = Sick and injured birds left to suffer and die. No one cares. No one helps them. (It costs less to get a new hen than to ‘fix’ the old one, you see.)

Eggs = Corpses of dead birds lie rotting amongst the live birds, adding the stench of death to the ammonia-laced toxic air.

Eggs = Hens that have stopped producing eggs are starved to induce another molt, after which their egg-laying days are over. They are then deemed 'unprofitable' and taken away to be killed.

As you can see, 'life' for egg-laying hens is harrowing. Every aspect of the commercial egg industry is utterly inhumane, and the only relief these hens get from their abysmal existence comes in the form of death.

Now that you know the real cost of eggs, please show you care by not supporting this brutal industry. Going egg-free is simpler than you think. To start off with, here's a link: egg replacements.

We each have the power to end our complicity in the intense suffering, painful mutilations, and violent deaths of these birds, because with every bite we take we can choose compassion over cruelty.

Cows Make Milk Anyway, So What’s Wrong With Us Drinking It?

Actually, cows don’t just produce milk as a matter of course.

It’s basic biology: only cows that have given birth produce milk (just like only women who’ve given birth produce milk). They don’t just lactate day in, day out, all of their lives. Like any other mammal, they produce milk as a direct result of giving birth.

So a baby cow has to be born for the milk to come, and the baby has to be taken away from the mother for her milk to be bottled and sold. If the milk goes to the baby cow (as it should), then there’s no milk to be taken by the farmers and the dairy industry is no more. The baby must be taken away and killed for there to be cow milk for human consumption. Therefore the dairy industry, by its very nature, is centred around the killing of baby cows.

I’ve heard dairy farmers saying that they’re doing the cow a favour by taking her milk. “She’ll burst if we don’t milk her!” they say. And, it’s true, she would suffer if she wasn’t milked. But if nature could take its course, the baby cow would drink the mother’s milk, and she wouldn't be left full of milk and in need of milking. In other words, if her baby wasn’t taken away to be killed in the first place, she wouldn’t need to be ‘helped’ by being milked.

“But I like ice cream, cheese and milk!” I hear you say. Hey, I do too. But there are loads of delicious dairy-free alternatives that mean you can enjoy the taste of ice cream, cheese and milk without funding the killing of baby cows and forcing their mothers to endure a life in hell - confined all of their lives, perpetually pregnant, and in awful pain from being milked almost every day of the year.

Make no mistake: the dairy industry is an utterly evil industry. I mean, how can an industry based on murdered babies and their grieving mothers not be? If you think I'm exaggerating in any way, see evidence for yourself by viewing a clip called The Killing Of A Pregnant Cow And Her Calf.

For those of you not game to see it, here's a summary: the mother cow is strung up by one of her legs. Her throat is slit, her stomach is cut open (while she's still alive), and her baby is pulled out from inside her. The calf comes to life, has his/her throat cut and is then thrown into down a chute in the wall. The whole time the guys doing this laugh and joke with each other.

Hmmm...still in the mood for some ice cream?

To make it all worse, most of us have been told from an early age that milk is good for us, when in fact, it's quite the opposite. Research and it and see for yourself. To start with, watch these two clips: Milk, The Deadly Poison and Got Pus? - to learn about the hidden nasties that occur in milk: the pus, the mucus, the urine, the blood, and (last but not least!) the faeces.

Beyond the revoltingness of the dairy industry and the revoltingness of the milk itself, the fact that humans are the only mammal to drink milk beyond being nursed by their own mothers tells you the something's not right about us drinking milk throughout our entire lives.

Furthermore, that we're the only animal to drink milk from a different species is another dead giveaway that humans shouldn't be drinking cow's milk.

Isn't it obvious that cow's milk is for calves? How would it be if a baby cow latched on a human woman's nipple to feed? The would be quite the abnormal sight to see. Well it's the same abnormality when humans drink cow's (or any other animal's) milk: if you wouldn't latch onto a cow's teat to drink her milk, you shouldn't suck it out of a carton either.

One TV ad for milk chocolate showed a bunch of tap-dancing cows on a stage. The message of this image is that happy cows give milk for chocolate. But the fact is that there is no such thing as 'happy' for a dairy cow. In order to get her milk, the mother cow's baby is stolen from her, and either killed within days or sent off to be cruelly confined for months on end and malnutritioned in order to be killed for what we call 'veal'. And she, when her body is spent and she stops producing profitable amounts of milk, is sent to a violent death in a slaughterhouse.

I ask you: where's the 'happy' in any of that? When I see dairy products, I don't see tap-dancing cows. All I see is dead babies and their grieving mothers, because that's the reality of the dairy industry.

Here's a quote from Spirituality And The City by Katie Spiers: “Even if you’re not a mother yourself, each of us had one once! Many of the animals mistreated by farming are mothers. We take their milk, their eggs, and, most disturbingly, we take their children to kill and eat without a second thought.”

And seeing as cows can’t talk for themselves, they can’t tell you of their sadness when their baby is taken away from them. They certainly show sorrow when their baby is taken, but who is there to care? The dairy farmers couldn’t give less of a crap if they tried - their wallets are their concern, and the cows are merely objects to be used for profit.

Too long the dairy industry has relied on the public staying clueless. But times have changed. The age of technology means we can see for ourselves that the notion of dairy being a harmless industry full of happy cows is an outright lie. Check out these two clips: Milk Comes From Grieving Mothers and The Dark Side Of Dairy to see that truth with your own eyes.

The dairy industry is nothing but cruel and doesn't deserve your support. The pus-filled, mucus-covered, urine-drenched, blood-soaked, faeces-coated truth is that milk quite clearly sucks.

So for goodness sake, switch to cruelty-free alternatives like coconut mylk, hemp mylk, almond mylk, oat mylk, soy mylk, rice mylk, hazelnut mylk. Get those in your diet, and get that filth called dairy milk out of your cup.

Fish Aren't Treated Cruelly, So What's Wrong With Us Eating Them?

If you're talking about fish on fish farms, they are indeed treated cruelly.

Packed in by the tens of thousands, the conditions they live in are parasite-ridden and dreadfully dirty. In fact, the conditions are so absolutely disgusting that up to half of farmed fish die (due to those conditions) before slaughter.

If you're talking about wild fish killed for food, while they might swim free their whole lives, they're certainly killed cruelly.

As they're dragged from their ocean homes, the decompression they undergo often ruptures their swim bladders, makes their eyes pop out of their heads, and pushes their stomachs out of their mouths. Some then die of suffocation on the ship, others die from being crushed to death, and others are still alive when their bellies are cut open.

So whether you're talking about farmed or wild fish, there's a heck of a lot wrong with eating fish (not to mention other sea creatures too).

Approximately 1 to 3 trillion (yes, trillion) sea animals are killed every year for consumption. How can that not be wrong?

And beyond the ethics of it, there's the environmental impact: without getting into details (there are plenty of statistics on the internet you can look up) I'll just say that the words 'teetering on the brink of destruction' are no exaggeration at all.

Get more details here: No Fishing.

Please get fish and other sea animals off your plate, and let sea creatures swim free!

How About Eggs Or Milk From Family Chickens Or Cows?

Here are some factors to consider regarding eating the eggs or milk of rescued chickens or cows who are treated as members of the family:

As far as veganism goes, it technically makes you a non-vegan to eat eggs and milk no matter what the treatment of the animal is. This is just a fact.
Ethically, if the animals are treated as beloved family members (in similar way that dog or cat would be) and will not be killed when their egg-laying and milk-dispensing days are over, then there's no ethical dilemna with regard to treatment in terms of the usual confinement and physical abuse farmed chickens and cows suffer.
Ethically, taking food from a baby (milk meant for a nursing calf) is not right. It's not our business to be taking that baby's milk for our own consumption.
Health-wise, it's a problem. Statistics show time and time again that eating the secretions of animals is simply not good for you.
Logic-wise, unless you are a cow, there's just no reason you need to drink cow's milk. In fact, there's no reason to drink any milk (human, bovine, or otherwise) after you've been weaned. We're the only species to do that and it makes no sense at all.
Grossness-wise, eggs are chicken periods - and who wants to eat a menstruation? YUK! Also, rescued cow will very likely have chronic mastitis from years and years of lactating non-stop. That means pus and blood in your milk. Again, a big, fat YUK.
And there's also the bigger picture to consider: you eating eggs and drinking milk (despite the fact that the animals are treated well) will add to the collective belief that eating eggs and drinking milk is okay. The consequence of that is a reinforcing of the erroneous idea that supporting the egg and dairy industries is okay. It enables people to continue to hide from the fact that eggs and milk mean billions of chickens and cows living a miserable existence until the final trip to slaughterhouse that brutally ends their wretched lives.

So all the considerations are laid out for you - now the choice is yours!

Is There Such Thing As A Humane Slaughterhouse?

In a word: no.

Slaughterhouses continually claim that they kill humanely, but unless vets are performing euthanasia on the animals in a relaxed, comfortable environment there's no way any slaughterhouse on the planet kills anything close to humanely.

They've got quotas to keep and vets with euthanasia needles would mean the process would be way too slow and not profitable enough.

Look at the maths: currently over 58 billion farmed animals all over the world are killed for food every year. According to my calculations (I've rounded off the following numbers for ease), that means over 6 million animals per hour are being killed. In other words, over 105,000 animals per minute, or over 1,700 animals per second. With those numbers, death row at the slaughterhouse has to be a production line, so there's NO WAY that the killing could be done 'humanely'.

Seriously, if you think there's any humanity there, you're kidding yourself in a big way: guys covered in blood slashing away at screaming animals is the reality of the slaughterhouse. And there's nothing humane about that.

Now, if you're still not convinced and insist that there's such thing as a humane slaughterhouse, I'd like to see you provide evidence of it to me, because I've yet to see anything of the sort. I can point to many clips showing the brutality of slaughterhouses and therefore prove my point, but can you show me even one proving that there's such a thing as a humane slaughterhouse?

Still, despite the above statistics and available footage that clearly prove the contrary, some slaughterhouses continue to claim that they kill humanely. So what does that mean I wonder? That they kill the animals with big smiles on their faces?

Hmmm...

Isn't 'Free-Range' Farming Cruelty-Free?

No, 'free-range' is not cruelty-free. Neither is 'organic' or any other catch-phrase used by agri-business to soften the cruel reality of animal farming.

One reason I put the term 'free-range' in inverted commas is because it's often not true. The laws are different everywhere, but here in Australia, some state laws determine that 'free-range' means two hours of freedom per day and the rest of the time the animals live in intolerable confinement - and there's nothing 'free' about that.

But let's assume that the animals being farmed are truly allowed to be free - it's still not cruelty-free because all the rest of the abuses remain in place. Check it out:

The cruelty of the meat industry is still in place because:

The animals are still regularly artificially inseminated. There's nothing cruelty-free (or normal) about humans putting objects (including their own hands/arms) into animals' vaginas to inseminate them.
The animals are still ultimately killed. And there's nothing cruelty-free about killing if you ask me, even if the animals are treated well: as far as I'm concerned, kindness before killing doesn't equal humane.

The cruelty of the dairy industry is still in place because:

The cows are still regularly put on the rape rack (and that's official industry terminology, not mine) to have an object and human arm stuck up their vaginas in order to be artificially inseminated.
The babies are still taken away from their mums so that farmers can take all of the mother's milk for human consumption.
The bobby calves (male baby cows) are still collateral to the dairy industry and are sent off to be confined, malnutritioned and killed for 'veal'.
The cows still endure the enormous physical strain of being kept perpetually pregnant or lactating (or often both) and for years and years and years.
The cows are still sent off for slaughter once they don't produce profitable amounts of milk.

The cruelty of the egg industry is still in place because:

The male chicks are still collateral to the egg industry and so are killed when they're one day old by being suffocated to death or ground up alive.
The hens are still bred to be abnormal egg-laying machines who produce many more eggs than their bodies can handle.
The hens are sent off to slaughter when their bodies are spent from the strain of daily egg-laying and they simply can't produce any more eggs.

So, as you can see, 'free-range' (and 'organic' and any similar term) is not cruelty-free in the least. Basically, they're words that attempt to soften the reality that farming animals means violence towards animals.

But, hey, you don't even have to take my word for it - research it and see that the notion of cruelty-free farming is a fairy tale. To start with, check out what ex-farmers have to say on a site called The Humane Myth and view the clip The Faces Of 'Free-Range' Farming and see for yourself.

Please, think deeply about where your food comes from and how that impacts other living beings. The kindest decision you can make is leaving all animals and animal secretions off your plate altogether. Go vegan!

Live Exports: What's The Big Deal?

There's a lot wrong with exporting live animals from Australia. In fact, it's probably more accurate to say that there's nothing right about it.

To start with, the cows and sheep experience enormous suffering during the long journey by sea. During the voyage, the animals endure the trauma of constant sea sickness and sea spray blindness. Many animals actually die during the journey (half of the deaths are from starvation), and the ones that arrive at the destination alive are suffering from malnutrition, dehydration and disease.

In the case of the sheep that are sent to the Middle East to be killed for religious sacrifice, they're bought at sale yards by members of the public and, trussed with wire, dragged along the street by their ears, horns or fleece. They're transported in car boots and on roof racks in 50 degree Celsius temperatures and then killed in backyards, laundries, and in the streets.

In 2011, the show Four Corners aired an episode called A Bloody Business. It detailed an investigation by Animals Australia's Lyn White into Indonesian slaughterhouses. The footage of the cruelty the cows endured speaks for itself and can be viewed on the sites listed below.

To summarise: the exported cows and sheep suffer even more abuse on top of the usual amount that farmed animals experience. Yeah, so there's loads wrong with live export.

Plants Versus Animals: The Stupidest Argument In The Universe

It’s infuriating when someone brings up the inane argument of “plants have feelings too” with regard to the fact that farmed animals suffer.

While it's been proven that plants do have a reaction when being cut, it can't possibly be compared to the reaction of an animal that has the same done to him or her. To make it clearer: if you cut an animal (any animal, including the human animal), the animal screams in pain. When you cut a plant, you'll notice a distinct lack of screaming. That proves the point there and then.

It's one thing to say, "Did you know that plants have a reaction when they're cut?" which is a scientific fact, but to use the “plants have feelings” argument as a defense of brutalising and murdering animals...it just doesn't fly. It is, quite simply, an utterly ridiculous comment. And, frankly, it's illogical to even compare animals and plants: animals have a brain, a nervous system and pain receptors. Plants have none of the above.

Let me be blunt and say that only a fool would compare the suffering of animals to a plant's 'suffering' when cut.

A Facebook 'friend' once said, "My carrot was crying out in pain last night when I cut it" as a response to a post I made about the suffering of farmed animals. Fact: a person who is cavalier about the torment and misery of innocent animals has a heart of stone and a brain of cement.

Watch some clips of animals being killed in slaughterhouses, listen to their screams of terror and pain when they're being sliced up - often while still alive - and then DARE to tell me that that compares to picking a flower or mowing the lawn.

Let me conclude with a response to the “plants have feelings” argument as a justification for abusing and killing animals with a comment that matches the lack of intelligence of the argument itself: DUH - as if!

So What Do Vegans Feed Their Dogs And Cats?

"What do vegans feed their dogs and cats?" is a question I get asked quite often.

There are two schools of thought on the matter.

One school of thought is that, while nothing close to a natural diet, cats and dogs can be healthy on carefully balanced vegan diets that include all the nutrients they'd get from the flesh they'd normally ingest if they were wild.
The other school of thought is that canines are natural omnivores (but mainly carnivorous) and felines are natural carnivores and that in fairness to their constitutions, they must be fed as such. From this there are two choices vegans make:
- One choice is to not have dogs and cats in the family, so that there's no support of the cruelty of animal farming for their diet.
- The other choice is to support animal farming in order to feed the adopted cats and dogs something close to a natural diet.

Different vegans decide on different things based on which of the above schools of thought they feel is right.

Wanna Lose Weight? It's Easy If You Go Vegan!

My friend Mary wrote on Facebook: "Cutting animal products out of my diet was like a bad break-up. I knew it was bad for me, but I enjoyed it for so long. Then I realised how much happier and healthier I was becoming without them. I gave up nothing but heartburn, upset stomach and guilt. I hope all my friends and loved ones won't be the last to join the vegan movement growing into the tens of millions. For themselves and for the animals."

Something Mary forgot to mention about being vegan was that it means giving up the extra fat on your body. In becoming vegan I lost 10 kilos. It's the easiest way to lose weight and I've never felt healthier in my life. I feel more energetic than ever, and my body actually feels clean on the inside.

Try veganism out - your body will love you for it. Some people can go vegan overnight, but I needed to do it bit by bit. Here are two suggestions of ways to make a gradual transition to a vegan diet:

Gradual Transition 1:

Month 1: cut out chickens.
Month 2: cut out pigs.
Month 3: cut out all other animal flesh.
Month 4: ditch eggs.
Month 5: ditch dairy.
Month 6: ditch honey, and you're there - you're vegan!

Gradual Transition 2:

Month 1: one vegan meal/day.
Month 2: two vegan meals/day.
Month 3: three vegan meals/day.
Month 4: all snacks vegan, and you're there - you're vegan!

Gradual Transition 3:

Month 1: eat vegan one day/week.
Month 2: eat vegan two days/week.
Month 3: eat vegan three days/week.
Month 4: eat vegan four days/week.
Month 5: eat vegan five days/week.
Month 6: eat vegan six days/week.
Month 7: eat vegan seven days/week, and you're there - you're vegan!

The above plans leading to a vegan diet means that by doing it gradually you'll have less cravings (because if you've been eating the above all your life, you probably have some).

You'll also have the chance to anticipate what you'll want to substitute when the month comes to cut that product out of your diet - eg. in the first plan, before cutting out dairy, start experimenting with different dairy alternatives (eg. soy mylk, rice mylk, almond mylk) so that by that month you'll have one that you enjoy the taste of.

So, after ditching all in the list above, what's left to eat? Answer: everything! Everything, that is, which doesn't involve cruelty to animals. As a starting point, go to Kake's Vegan Cookery to find loads of recipes. You'll see that vegan food is not only healthful and cruelty-free, it's also varied and delicious.

I honestly never thought I could be vegan. Once I decided to be vegetarian I knew I could pull that off, but thought that there was no way I could go beyond that to veganism. I thought that with a horrendous sweet tooth like mine I could never give up the dairy- and egg-filled cakes I loved. And what about the chocolate and cheese? The ice cream? Honey on toast? All those awesome-tasting things that I’d have to go without: how could I possibly do it?

The good news was that before I had my epiphany about cruelty-free eating, many others came to theirs and have developed cruelty-free foods and recipes that are similar to (and sometimes better than) the dairy-, egg- and honey-based foods I was used to. In other words, replacing the sweets I so loved with vegan alternatives was easy-peasy.

I've heard some people complain, "But it doesn't taste exactly the same!" Well, of course it doesn't taste exactly the same. That's because...it's different!

The solution is to just get over it. Your supposed 'suffering' from having to make some changes in your diet is nothing compared to the real suffering animals endure every day just so that you can eat their bodies or their secretions (ie. eggs, dairy, honey). Compassion begins on your plate, so push yourself to make some changes even if it means changing your taste buds.

If you approach the alternatives with the expectation that they won’t taste exactly the same, you’ll be more open to the experience. No, it won’t be what you’re used to, but you do get used to it and, really, it tastes all the better because it’s cruelty-free. Cruelty-free = extra yummy because you're eating with a clear conscience. And I assure you that NOTHING tastes as good as a clear conscience feels!

While I became being vegan purely for ethical reasons I've come to discover how unbelievably healthy a balanced vegan diet is. I feel better than I've ever felt in my life on all levels - physically, emotionally and psychologically. The fact is, our bodies are simply not made to ingest animal flesh. Check out Why Humans Shouldn't Eat Meat to get all a full and detailed explanation.

On top of that, a plant-based diet is the most environmentally-friendly one you can choose, so by being vegan I'm an environmental warrior too! And believe it or not, an animal-free diet not only means less suffering to animals but also less suffering for humans, so by being vegan I'm doing my bit to reduce poverty. Read on to see why.

First, the question of world hunger. Check this out: over 80% of the grain grown in the world is being fed to animals, meanwhile millions of people go to bed hungry every night. There are situations where people are starving but living next door to crops of soy and corn being grown to feed farmed animals. Ridiculous!

Second, the question of the environment. It's an absolute fact that our planet is being destroyed through the farming of animals. Watch Veganism - The Solution and see the statistics for yourself. In fact, the United Nations itself is now pushing for the world to go vegan in order to stop eating the planet to death and save our Earth.

As things stand, we're killing the environment one mouthful at a time. And if we continue turning away from this fact, that ignorance will (quite literally) be fatal. If we want to leave our kids anything that resembles a planet they can call home, humanity must go vegan.

Within our lifetimes, we'll get to the point where we're only left with one choice to save Mother Earth, and that will be to go vegan. So the option is either to do it willingly now, or be dragged into it when it's the eleventh hour.

Truly, being vegan - more than any other thing - will make the most obvious difference to the environment and to humans who are starving. It's clear that conscious food choice is the most powerful way we can make a difference to every living being on the planet and the Earth herself.

Following a vegan diet is easy if you keep your eye on the fact that eating cruelty-free is good for animals (both human and non-human animals), good for your health, and good for the environment. Being vegan is not about giving things up, it's about replacing them with alternatives that are kinder to us all.

Since awakening to this truth, I've realised the following three things:

You can't say with total honesty that you care about animals if you eat their bodies and their secretions because the industries that make animal-based foods are the largest contributors to animal cruelty on the planet. In other words, eating meat, dairy, eggs and honey directly funds animal cruelty.
You can't say with total honesty that you care about your health if your body is a graveyard for animals' bodies and a dumping ground for their secretions (milk - which is for calves, not humans; eggs - which are chicken menstruations; and honey - which is bee vomit).
You can't say with total honesty that you care about the environment if your diet supports industries that are known to do more damage to the environment than anything else - including all the vehicles on the planet.

Being vegan means you'll be kind to animals, healthier, and help save our precious planet.

On a vegan diet, all you have to lose is excess fat from your body and guilt in your heart from being part of a system that abuses animals and destroys the Earth. What you'll gain is health and a clear conscience! Hooray!

What's The Difference Between A Vegetarian And A Vegan?

A vegan is a person who does their best to not participate in any animal suffering at all. Therefore:

Vegans eat all foods except meat, dairy, eggs and honey. So they eat legumes, grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds.
Vegans use make up, cleaning products and body care products that are not tested on animals. Sadly, it's impossible to avoid medicines that aren't tested on animals (because they all are), but to counter this many vegans choose alternative medicines - like acupuncture, chiropractic, etc - as much as possible.
Vegans don't support 'entertainment' that uses animals - eg. bullfighting, horseracing, circuses with wild animals, dogfighting, dogracing, movies that use wild animals as 'actors', etc.
Vegans don't wear animals either - so no leather, suede, wool, sheepskin, fur, and silk.

A vegetarian, on the other hand, is simply a person who doesn't eat animal flesh.

Vegetarians generally don't boycott other types of animal abuse like animal-based clothes, animal tested products, animal-based 'entertainment', and animal farming for dairy, eggs and honey. Some vegetarians do extend their compassion to other areas beyond not eating flesh, but most of the time a vegetarian just doesn't eat meat and that's it.

In summary, vegetarianism is merely abstaining from eating flesh, whereas veganism is a compassionate, cruelty-free lifestyle.

In the words of Mahatma Gandhi:
"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated."

SAY NO TO PUPPY MILLS! SAY NO TO ANIMALS IN PETSHOPS! SAY NO TO BREEDERS!

Adopt a homeless animal instead - they all deserve a second chance!

At Say No it's estimated that 130,000 dogs and 60,000 cats are killed every year in Australia because there are not enough homes for them all. And the global numbers amount to millions upon millions every single year.

Puppy mills are a major contributor to the terrible problem of overpopulation. Puppy mills are essentially 'dog factories' where dogs are forced to churn out litter after litter, with no thought for the welfare of the dogs and all thought for profit. The dogs live in appallingly dirty, cramped conditions all their lives, and when they no longer serve their purpose they're killed, dumped or sold for cruel and painful medical testing.

Petshops fit into the picture because puppy mills are generally where petshops get their animals from. Furthermore, having animals in shop windows encourages impulse purchases, and adding an animal to your family should be a conscious, careful decision - NOT one to be made while shoe shopping.

Breeders contribute enormously to the tragic statistics above too. And it doesn't matter whether they're professional breeders or backyard breeders, and whether they breed for profit or not, because while there are homeless animals sitting on death row in shelters, any and all animal breeding is utterly irresponsible.

Now, here's where you come in. You can either be part of the problem or part of the solution. You can either buy animals from puppy mills, petshops or breeders and be part of the problem. Or you can adopt from a shelter or rescue organisation and be part of the solution.

If I haven't convinced you, visit your local shelter or go to Death Row Pets to see the homeless animals. Let their innocent faces convince you that adopting is the only responsible and compassionate choice.

"To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being."
- Mahatma Gandhi

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