How Does Veganism help animals?
1- What Veganism means
2- When Veganism started
3- Why Veganism is good for animals
What Veganism means
The word Vegan was initially defined as a diet free of animal-based foods. Unlike what a lot of people may believe, although veganism is on the rise, it is not a religion. There are many ways to adopt a vegan lifestyle. Yet one thing all vegans have in common is a plant-based diet combined to avoiding:
- Eating any flesh (meat and fish)
- Consuming ingredients that come from animals exploitation (milk, honey, eggs...)
- Purchasing any item that requires animal suffering (fur, wool, silk, leather, tested on animal products)
- Going to places that use animals for entertainment
When Veganism started
Although the vegan diet was defined early on in The Vegan Society's beginnings in 1944, it was as late as 1949 before Leslie J Cross pointed out that the society lacked a definition of veganism. He suggested “the principle of the emancipation of animals from exploitation by man”. This is later clarified as “to seek an end to the use of animals by man for food, commodities, work, hunting, vivisection, and by all other uses involving exploitation of animal life by man”.
Veganism Throughout History
There is much evidence of people choosing to not support animal products as far as 2,000 years ago. 500 BCE, Plato the Greek philosopher, and the mathematician Pythagoras promoted benevolence among all species and followed what could be described as a vegetarian diet. Around the same period, Siddhārtha Gautama (better known as the Buddha) discussed vegetarian diets with his followers.
Moving forward to 1806 in our era and the earliest concepts of veganism starting to take shape with Dr William Lambe and Percy Bysshe Shelley amongst the first Europeans to publicly object to eggs and dairy on ethical grounds.
Why Veganism is Good for animals
The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. -Gandhi, Indian spiritual leader