Hanging in there

1789: 

Are present-day vegans strong enough to withstand the likelihood of no-change-yet? By leaving the normal style of life behind us, we step out towards a life dedicated to non-violence, even though we know we might never see the big changes take place in our own lifetime. There are still very few people around the world who are willing to defy the expectations of their society to be ‘normal’, when it comes to using animal-based food and clothing. 

Those of us who are vegan take on the world. We are the only ones who defend the right-to-a-life for animals that have been bred and enslaved by our fellow humans. So, we see these animals in a different way to most other people; they regard cows and chickens and lambs as unlike companion animals at home and unlike creatures in the wild, perhaps almost inanimate. Their thinking might go along these lines: Because we can keep them alive in the captive state, breed them and then kill them at will, that they are not like animal-beings at all. They don't possess a life-sense like non-captive animals. They are more like artificial lifeforms, 'created' by humans in much the same way that Frankenstein creates his monster. Maybe they see these animals as assembly line creations that come to life by our instigation and with whom, therefore, we can do as we please.

Probably most people haven't gone into this matter very deeply. They're content to go along with what they've always known, without too much questioning. Animals, or rather dead animals, are very much a major part of a lifestyle to which they're attached. But vegans are different. We believe life is possible without the abattoir. And since this institution symbolises compliance-with-the-norm, then we say this normal is wrong, and therefore it's why we don’t ‘do’ normal. This shameful and violent side of normality is rarely spoken about because if it were, we'd have to take sides. And if we are users of animals we can't be against abattoirs, and we therefore condone the mass execution of these animals. Animal abattoirs are no different to extermination camps of Nazi Germany. People pretend not to know what the abattoir really is, and since abattoirs are usually located well out of town, most people wouldn’t know where the nearest one was. Nor would they know what goes on there, apart from the fact they kill animals there.

From the Industry’s point of view, it’s essential that there’s secrecy surrounding the treatment and execution of animals. The Animal Industries are made up of the people who farm, kill and produce things out of animals. And the customer cooperates, playing along with them since they want to maintain availability of all the items they love to eat, wear and use. And to be able to buy them at the lowest price.

Vegans, however, are on the side of the animals, and since animals can’t defend themselves, we become their advocates and would-be protectors against this juggernaut of abusers and customers. We hope to succeed in winning animals their ‘rights’, even though that might seem a long way off. What keeps us hanging in there is that, in our fight for animals and our own avoidance of abattoir food, we at least know the food we eat is clean and our clear conscience is certainly worth having.