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:

  1. Eating any flesh (meat and fish)
  2. Consuming ingredients that come from animals exploitation (milk, honey, eggs...)
  3. Purchasing any item that requires animal suffering (fur, wool, silk, leather, tested on animal products)
  4. 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

All animals, whether they are farm animals, companion animals, marine or wildlife animals - is one of the main reasons why many people globally choose to adopt a vegan diet and lifestyle. As people who care about the animals of the earth, we believe that, like human animals, they have rights and deserve to have their best interests taken into consideration, regardless of whether they are useful to humans.

Why the vegan diet helps animals. 

Modern agriculture commonly keeps cows, calves, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, you name it, in overcrowded stalls, cages, crates, or sheds where they are often unable to turn around or take even a single step for their entire lives. Deprived of veterinary care, exercise, sunlight, and even the feel of grass beneath their feet, these living, breathing, thinking, feeling beings, whose senses are so much like our own, suffer and die at the rate of millions per day just so that we can have burgers, patties, nuggets, and wieners. Deciding what we will eat means choosing between the horrors of factory farming and respect for animals.

Pigs, cows, and chickens are individuals with feelings - they experience love, happiness, loneliness, and fear, just as dogs, cats, and people do. More than 25 billion animals are killed by the meat industry each year - in ways that would horrify any compassionate person.

 

Now that you know, what's your next move?