Abattoirs must shut down

1793: 

We need to grow out of the idea that it's alright to kill animals in much the same way as small children need to grow out of having temper tantrums. An abattoir mentality runs counter to civilised living. It’s ugly, it’s violent and it’s unnecessary.

Vegans are people who love both animals and people, alike. The struggle is to shift this attitudinal Goliath, and do it without using force or getting steamed up about it. Nothing is achieved by harassing people into agreeing with us. But much is achieved in getting people to think for themselves.

Most people have a great capacity for love, for being loved and showing love. The potential is there for people to see that there’s another way of living life, without using the violent ways of the past. Most vegans have a passion for rescuing animals from the violence of humans, but we also have a duty to be all-round loving-types. There's important ground work to be established - our whole approach must be gentle in order to persuade people by example. We do have a difficult message to get across but to say hard things we need kind words. As much as we might want to persuade others by force of logic and ethical argument we must also be able to prove to others that we're a self-examining lot. We can't afford to give the impression that we are self-righteous. There's nothing more off-putting.

If we are ever judgemental or insulting, we miss our target. Vegans have already earned quite a reputation for preaching and coming across as superior. This sort of comment - “I’m vegan, how about you?” - has to stop. We must drop slogans like “Meat is Murder”, a statement that might be true enough but it's really saying “YOU are a murderer if you eat meat” and that sounds provocative and attacking. As soon as we make a value judgement like this, the shutters come down. And defensive counter judgements are made, like “What bitter bastards you vegans are!” , which effectively puts an end to any meaningful communication.

Abattoirs must close, certainly. That’s the message we try to get across, to show how these places are the epitome of cruelty and barbarity. But the question is how to say that without sounding arbitrary.