Is veganism the more moral choice?
This should be obvious, but I’m going to say it anyway: there is no moral argument against veganism. There’s no case to be made that being vegan is immoral (if you have one, I’d love to hear it). If our baseline is that veganism itself isn’t immoral, then the question becomes which is more moral - being vegan or not? I contend that there is no argument to be made that unnecessarily killing animals is more moral than leaving animals alone to live their lives.
Let me present you with a scenario that illustrates why veganism is always the more moral choice. Let’s say that you need 2000 calories a day to survive and you have 2 choices (Note: I realize these two items have different nutrients, proteins, vitamins, etc. I could put together an example where they’re 100% the same, but then it’s overly complex and the point gets missed. For this thought experiment, let’s assume they’re the same):
Mutilate (castrate, cut off tails, clip teeth, burn off horns, etc. - all without anesthesia), cause harm to, and slit the throats of enough animals to produce 2000 calories of meat.
Buy a bag of beans or legumes containing 2000 calories.
Which is the more moral choice? I’m not asking if they’re BOTH moral, I’m asking which one is MORE moral. Gun to your head, if you had to choose one as more moral, which one would it be?
Obviously, option number 2 is the more moral choice. I’m hoping you’ll agree that is never MORE moral to cause harm, suffering, and death to sentient beings that feel pain, experience joy and sorrow, and express love. So, if it’s more moral to choose option #2, how do you justify #1? Since we don’t need to harm and kill animals to survive or even thrive (which we don’t since we can easily get protein from plant-based sources, don’t need to consume tons of supplements, and we know a vegan diet is very healthy), then it becomes a CHOICE to kill animals, not a necessity. If we are choosing to harm and kill animals when we don’t need to, wouldn’t that in and of itself be morally wrong?
For the anti-vegans reading this, I want to leave you with one thought. Many of you are so offended at our message of “please be kind to animals” that, rather than looking inwards and asking yourself if it’s wrong to contribute to animals suffering and dying unnecessarily, you’d rather attack and mock us, because that’s easier than dealing with your own cognitive dissonance.
I know this because I was a big meat eater for 42 years. Veganism was nonsense to me. I laughed at it, and I thought it was a joke. But that was my fragile ego not wanting to admit what I knew deep down inside - that what we do to animals is wrong. I felt shame and guilt that animals were suffering and dying so that my taste buds could be happy for 5 minutes, but I wouldn’t let myself admit those feelings, so I pushed them deep down until I couldn’t feel them anymore. I knew it was wrong, but I was selfish and didn’t want to change. Rather than looking inward and seeking personal growth, I lashed out and trolled others, just as you’re doing now. I, too, was part of the anti-vegan hive mind.
Then one day, I grew up, and I woke up. I took ownership of it and stopped suppressing what I already knew - that this was wrong. What we do to animals for our taste buds is immoral. And it doesn’t have to be this way. From that day forward, I started living my life in a way where my actions aligned with my beliefs.
Stop thinking about how hard it would be for you to go vegan, and instead think about how hard it is for the animals right now. Would you want to be in their spot? Would you want to live in the squalor of your own feces, get mutilated (castrated, tail cut off, teeth clipped, horns burned off, etc. - all without anesthesia), forcefully impregnated, have your baby taken away, then be painfully killed by slitting your throat or sent to a gas chamber? All of this just so someone else’s taste buds could be happy for 5-10 minutes, for a meal that will be all too quickly forgotten?
If you wouldn’t want to be in their spot, then why are you doing it to them? Every time you buy an animal product, you’re paying for this abuse. Every time, you’re making that choice. You may not be able to personally change the world and end animal abuse, but you can change the world for that one animal.
Go vegan.
