Sunday, August 23, 2015

The Animal Rights position

1462: 

If we want to advocate for animals then we must be committed to vegan eating, clothing and commodities.  If that isn’t in place we won’t be taken seriously, but once that is secure and we also appear to be healthy, then people are likely to consider our diet to be not such a bad idea after all.
         
But however convincing we are, there are always going to be those who hold onto old attitudes in order to avoid making a radical diet change.  Among them are people who insist vegan food isn’t safe, to become convinced that vegans are foolish to eat that way.  And if that doesn't work, then they'll suspect vegans of having dubious motives, or that our compassion is not genuine, or that we are lying about what is happening to the animals.  If they, in their own minds, can dismiss us, it makes us no better than them, and that means what we are saying can be dismissed.

But there are lots of people who just don’t care about animals or diets or ethics.  Or they may be deliberately ignorant.  Or they’re presently making a living out of the animal industries.  As challenging as that might be for vegans, we can’t waste too much time trying persuade the unpersuadable.  We must move on, without getting everyone’s approval for everything we do.
         

If the cause of Animal Rights isn’t recognised as urgent and essential it will always be left on the backburner.  As vegans we must keep the issues in high profile.  Alongside this, we must encourage and support a wide variety of cruelty-free commodities to come onto the market, to make it that much easier for vegan replacements to be found.  If many people operate product-boycotts, they will be instrumental in encouraging businesses to reinvent themselves, in order to accommodate a new market demand. 

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