A journey much shorter!!

1745: 

To inconvenience oneself by becoming vegan, for the sake of farm animals, will seem unnecessary to most people. They won’t think through the logic of the issues. They’ll come to the conclusion that vegans are just attention-seeking.

Our biggest challenge is to say what we have to say despite rejection, disagreement and even ridicule. And to remain vegan without the need for others’ approval or encouragement. I know ex-activists who have given up (activism, not vegan food) in frustration at the public’s ethical weakness over animal issues; they haven’t been able to accept that this radical change of attitude, affecting so much of one's normal lifestyle, might be very slow to catch on. It is, after all, a major shift of emphasis from human-centred concern to concern for the non-human. But that is why there is such a need for activists to stay active, to hang in there for the duration, if only because omnivorousness is SUCH an ingrained habit.

It seems that animal issues, because they are so closely connected with our daily food, are shunted off into the too-hard department. In a conspiracy of silence, the issues are rarely talked about, either in the media or at home around the dinner table. Maybe people make a small gesture, mainly for health reasons, of reducing their red meat intake. Maybe others give up meat altogether (for ethical and/or health reasons). But in general, stopping all compliance with animal farming and boycotting all animal produce is not on the cards, because the using-of-animals suits human convenience so very well.

If we boycott animal products there is obviously going to be a dramatic change to our daily life. However, if we don’t, then we are condoning the abattoir and all that it stands for (and that also involves the exploitation of hens and cows for eggs and milk). If demand for animal products dropped, abattoirs would have to shut down: if abattoirs shut down, commercial animal farming would stop, and animal products would no longer be commercially available. That would spell such a dramatic change in the way humans operate that we guess it's not likely to happen overnight; if there is no obvious threat to human survival, such a change isn’t likely to happen.

If change doesn’t seem likely, then an activist vegan might lose heart. But if we are NOT dependant upon the likelihood of change in order to remain vegan, then we are vegan simply because it is right. By choosing to lead a life of non-violence, we must be able to handle living in a society where we might never see the sort of substantial changes taking place that we’d like to see.

The abattoir symbolises our compliance-with-the-norm. This side of 'normality', the shameful and violent side, is rarely spoken about. The crimes against animals are rarely witnessed. The abattoirs are located well out of town, and most people wouldn’t even know where the nearest one was. Nor would they know in any detail what goes on there, apart from the raw fact that animals are slaughtered there.

From the Animal Industry’s point of view, the secrecy surrounding the treatment and execution of animals is essential. The Industry comprises people who farm, kill and make things out of them, and whose income is generated from animals. They obviously have a main interest in maintaining the market and their own income, for which they need a knowledge of customer predictability. They know the customer will always cooperate, to maintain supply of all the items they love to eat, wear and use, and to have them at the lowest possible cost.

Vegans, however, are on the side of the animals, and since animals can’t defend themselves we take on the role of their advocates and protectors; we stand against the juggernaut of abusers and their myriad customers. We hope to succeed in winning animals their ‘rights’. But at the same time, in reality, we might have to accept that animal rights are still very far from being won.

Our efforts are not futile. We start out with high hopes and brave intentions, and then have to face up to disappointments and come to terms with the reality of a much slower change than we would want. But along the way something else happens to help our resolve. We realise what omnivores can’t possibly know, that our food is clean, our health is on the ‘up’, and our own tastes are not as fixed as we feared, and therefore our cravings aren’t as powerful as we thought. And that's what is so intrinsically attractive about becoming a vegan.