There is this guy who recently became vegetarian in my building. He says that he is vegetarian for health reasons. He has a labrador retriever whom he bought from a breeder (
). He takesd ecellent care of his dog, buying him expensive meds giving him home cooked meals, walking him and taking him swimmimg more than most people do, etc. etc. He really does love his dog. yet I spent an over three hours debating with him about the ethics of veganism.
He says that he totally does not understand how vegans can say to "animal lovers" that they arent really animal lovers if they et animals. He doesnt get this. According to him, you can love animals and still eat them.
He thinks we vegans have NO right to tell people that they DONT really love animals if they eat animals. he says that "love" is a feeling and who are we to tell people what they feel or whom they feel it towards.
EDITTED TO ADD: Then when I asked him whether he thought that an abusive man who raped and abused his wife constantly, but claimed at the same time to love her - I asked him if he thought that this claim would be absurd (since I see it just as absurd when meat eaters who support the rape and murder of animals call themselves "animal lovers"). His response was: "If the husband thinks he loves her, then he loves her. LOve is a feeling and there is no right or wrong. Abuse and rape cannot amount to love in YOUR mind, but it is love in his mind. And there is no universal truth that says that rape and abuse cannot be love. It is all subjective - a matter of opinion and semantics."
THis is the first time in the many debates that I have had with animal eaters that I met soembody who refused to concede that "RAPING A HUMAN IS WRONG" no matter where you are or who you are. If a country or a culture thinks that raping women or children is "ethical" then I would say NOT that they are wrong "
in my opinion", but that they are WRONG
PERIOD. End of story. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! To be fair, this person is OPPOSED to raping humans. He thinks it is wrong. But he thinks it is wrong
"in his opinion". He does not believe that there is a "Truth" about the wrongness of rape.
Then he tried arguing that we should be targetting young people and teaching them about how food animals are raised and kills because "you cannot teach an old dog new tricks." That people of his generation (350 have meat eating so ingrained in them and how he was totally raised to love chickens and at the same time eat them and therefore....what? I dont remember the rest of his point.
He also says that human beings are superior by far to all other creatures, and that certain creatures (presumably the bigger cuter ones) are superior to certain other creatures whom are superior to insects, etc. He says that he would have no problem sacrificing billions of animals if it cured human diseases. He says that vegans are angry and that they are hostile and that it is ineffective to use shcok tactics to get through to people. He says that I had no right to stick animal rights stickers in the elevator of my building because that was a violation of the privacy and the space of other people living in that bulding.
he says that it is custom and tradition to eat animals and that people have been doing it for so long that you cannot expect people to change overnight by viewing a documentary or reading a brochure.
I havent felt this frustrated with anybody in a long time. I am saddened, depressed and devastated that soembody who loves his own dog to death and such little sympathies for animal rights and can be so speciest. I am disappointed that this person, who loves his dog, would go back to eating meat in a second if health factors were taken out of the vegetarian equation.
I am frustrated with myself for getting so frustrated. I just wish that everybody felt the urgency and saw the moral urgency and imperativeness of veg@nism.
This is a man who lets his dog drink out of the nasty toilet and then has no problem kissing his dog right on the muzzle. AS much as I love animals, and as much as I am non-speciest, I think that is DISGUSTING. How can somebody who doesnt mind kissing a dog that just drank from a toilet be such a FLAMING speciest?
MY dog would have access to fresh, HEALTHY water- not nasty toilet water.
anyways i am just rambling sorry if this makes no sense but i am very depressed, saddened and just feeling hopeless for animals. I feel that the task before us is an impossible one and that we are fighting a losing battle.
Then somebody goes vegan for the animals sake (and health) and their is a small glimmer of hope that justice for animals will one day be a reality...but that seems so far away.
I feel that I may have to exit the activist seen. Not because I dont love animals, but because I love them. I feel that I am too passionate and that this has grown to be counterproductive. I am not helping animals anymore - I am hurting them. I think they would be better served if I retire from activism.
sorry for the rambling but i am really upset right now
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