On the subject of Animal Rights ...

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This subject causes indignation and embarrassment to most omnivores. They don’t like responding to it. But some do. They even turn vegan. Some, who’ve been vegan a while, try to start a revolution. Others don’t go quite that far. This subject, rejected or embraced, is quite hot. It stirs something deep in all of us.

            Excluding very few ‘from-birth’ vegans, all of us have, at some stage, been omnivores. We can’t get too high and mighty about our present views because, once upon a time, we each had our own ‘good reasons’ for resisting ‘arguments based on compassion’. We were condoners of the exploiters and we practised animal-eating. Then, one day, something happened and we made a move, leaving behind those who hadn’t. We were moving on despite our friends thinking we were mad to be turning into herbivores.

            The jump to herbivore is such a major departure. But after 70 years of research it’s been proved safe. Since back then, at the start of veganism (which incidentally coincided with the start of factory farming), so much has been discovered, and yet there are still pitifully small numbers of vegans and still large numbers of executed-animals being consumed by a vast majority of people.

            In reply to vegan arguments, most omnivores don’t, won’t or can’t agree with us. When vegans realise how reluctant people are we get frustrated. We lose patience. Our lack of patience shows and puts people off finding out what we’ve got to say. And that’s the tragedy. Our losing patience looks like losing faith in people who aren’t like us. Patience is a must because of the magnitude of what we’re attempting to pull off here.

            In our Western societies, even in UK where there are a lot of vegans, we can see no BIG change in public attitude. The papers aren’t supportive, the media in general is not making this into an ‘interesting subject’, teachers aren’t teaching it and priests aren’t preaching it. The concept of veganism, in combination with Animal Rights, is thoroughly ignored, even by the most educated and economically well-off people. That’s depressing ... but we can’t afford to get bitter or people-hating about it. Instead we need to enjoy acting constructively and persist with ‘what it feels right to be doing’. Hold that thought.

            I’ll forecast - it could go either way. There will either be a growth of violence in society or a growth of non-violence. It’s a big question. I’m optimistic for the latter.

            No one will actively welcome greater violence into our society but, by what we habitually do we accept, it probably ‘comes with the territory’ of the habitual use of violence-produced products. This is where most of our living expenses are, in food, where violence is concealed and where the cruelty behind so much of our food is hidden. The consumer can’t recognise the animal-in-the-food when clean, plastic trays of ex-sanguine-ated, headless, footless and de-gutted, animal body-parts are on show - there’s nothing visible to remind the consumer of the food’s real origin. And to help matters along, the consumer is fed the sort of propaganda which suggests that this food looks a lot better than anything a vegan ‘rabbit diet’ has to offer.

            Animal-based food, for omnivores, is simply a sensory matter. It tastes good, it smells good, it looks good. For the average omnivore there’s nothing quite like meat, cheese and eggs and all their derivatives.

            Okay, there’s not much more you can say about that sort of food, but the other problem vegans have, about it, is how we can get to discuss it, and how to avoid the taboo surrounding the discussion of it.

            Slowly the issues are emerging. Vegans are asking a few piercing questions. (So are vegetarians who are concerned about animal welfare, although it’s arguable that they have any right to speak about it since they still eat them or eat their by-products).

            The taboo, surrounding animal-use, protects people … including lacto-ovo vegetarians. But the question remains (and already haunts many animal-eaters) as to how cold hearted they’ve become. I imagine there are many vegetarians or even meat-eaters who ask themselves - how can I help to stop the terrible things being done to animals whilst I continue to enjoy eating them? That question has to hang in the air, unanswered.