How humiliating!

542:

Vegans are preparing for the future. We see a society whose food and clothing is entirely plant-based. But I have to keep reminding myself that it isn’t just a private matter. If we’re nothing else, vegans have a public role to play. We’re surely meant to go public in order to represent the voiceless animals.

            How we present ourselves ‘as vegans’ and how we’re seen by someone who’s perhaps never met a vegan before reflects on every other vegan and indeed the whole cause. Donald Watson’s original concept, in 1944, was based on compassion, non-violence and herbivorous living. If we represent that ethic today we promote it best by keeping our message clear and simple, so that even small kids can grasp the sense of it.

Vegans act on behalf of the voiceless whether they be children (being poisoned by parents who’re feeding them harmful substances) or animals (who are being imprisoned and killed). We aim to protect the innocents from the clutches of the exploiters. That protective spirit in us drives us to bring the whole issue to the attention of our fellow humans.

We can all see innocence when we look into the eyes of an animal. In their innocence, animals are at-peace-within-themselves, and children have a level of that same true innocence too. That’s why our chief job is to protect it, wherever we see it, because by the time adulthood comes along it’s probably been lost. But that doesn’t mean to say it can’t be restored to some extent.

At present we can’t possibly rediscover any level of innocence all the time we’re still committing crimes concerning animals. It’s absurd to think otherwise.

            Instead of attacking them we should be learning from them. Instead of trying to ignore their peaceful natures we should be applauding them, emulating them. When we attack and kill animals (daily, by the billion, everywhere on the planet) it’s as if we are trying to crush their innocence, to bring them down to our level. Unless an animal is engaged in some ravenous attack on me I can’t see any reason to hurt it let alone end its life, let alone eat it? Psychologically speaking there’s no reason for hurting them or for stealing their babies or sucking secretions out of their bodies. It’s just so shameful that humans do this when we no longer have any need to. How humiliating this is for us as a species.