How Often Do You Think About Animal Welfare?

[strawberryriddick]

I went vegan to manage my condition, not because I cared about animals. Like most people, I wouldn't walk around and kill a dog but figured that it wasn't a problem to go ahead and eat an animal. I accepted the slaughterhouse practices as a by-product of our society. I planned on hunting this winter.

 

However, I noticed that the longer I was vegan, the more I began to care about the animals. The adorable chicks were now also adorable cows, adorable pigs, and not only were they adorable, I figured they shouldn't be eaten by people in a non-life/death situation.

 

I think about animal welfare and safety when I shop for clothes, food, shoes, or anything else.

I think about having a farm with fresh veggies as I drive through the countryside, and thanks to the pamphlet that I got from ordering VegNews during that special offer, I also start to think about having rescued animals on that farm so they can live out their days.

I think about the lamb on my father's plate.

I think about the sharks whose cartilidge was taken and put into a pill when I have to restock shark cartilidge at work. Imagine your mother being reduced to a pill!

I think about the fabulous fish swimming in the sea when I have to restock the fish oil.

I saw a gloriously beautiful little lobster in the waiting room (picture below) and asked how anyone could see that thing and think of food.

 

 

I am assuming this is somewhat normal for vegans?

 

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v391/strawberryp0cky/rotweiss.jpg

[beforewisdom]

Hey SD;

 

When I started when I was 14 vegetarianism was a way of massaging my ego, being a rebellious teenager and losing weight. I kept at it because it of the health benefits. Then when I finally met some cool vegans I started to care about the animal and environmental issues.

 

I believe that people have natural empathy for food animals and once we find ourselves no longer eating them for other reasons, it is easier to let down our defenses to begin looking at those issues.

 

From what I read in scattered articles over the years, in the west, the typical vegetarian is a 20 something woman who goes veg out of being an animal lover.

[xjohanx]

This is like "how often do you think about sex?" but for vegans.I think about animal welfare/rights all the time, every second that I'm awake. No joke.

[GinaKina]

I definitely think about it daily. I guess it depends on what I am doing on a particular day that determines how deeply I think about it.

[zinzen]

I am with Johan, I was thinking about it before I read this and I will be thinking about it when I am done posting this.

I dont know why, its just the way it is.

When I train I am thinking about training as a way to help the animals. Ect

[vivalasvegans]

As a vegan, I don't really think of the poor widdle cute animals too much in a single issue kind of focus. I'm more of a multi-issue kind of girl who sees the interconnectedness of of what most people see as separate phenomena. I see the subjugation and commodification of animals as related to and interwoven with the subjugation and commodification of women, children, and labor in general on the global market, the industrial based degradation of the environment, the expansion of global capital as a cause of the escalation of violent conflict ... you get the idea.

 

In these terms, I think about the animal issue and others pretty constantly. I've been vegetarian or vegan for 29 years now, and in all that time, I've rarely thought about my diet as saving the sweet innocent adorable critters. I don't necessarily think oysters, or any kind of roadkill are more beautiful or conscious than flower petals, which I do eat. I just try to be ethically consistent by making as little of a mark on the planet as I can, living in conscious protest of the worldwide situation, and being an example that can hopefully inspire other people to open their eyes and shake off the sleep we're all kind of born into.

[_raVen_]

strawberryriddick, it's definitely normal . I didn't know you were so new to veganism, but still, it's the same for me all these years later. Actually, it's even more intense for me now than at first I can't watch those videos or undercover dvds, "Earthlings," etc. Even some movies make me antsy! I see an animal and I'm just waiting to see some sign of abuse; before, a horse in a movie was just part of the set.

So yeah, it's everywhere. It's like suddenly a light goes on and you see all that was always there in the dark.

 

Oy, that lobster picture makes me remember working in a restaurant. Part of the draw to the place was that customers "got to" choose their lobster, live, from a huge tank smack in the middle of the dining area. And guess who "got to" fish it out and take it to get whacked? Even then, I hated that. I wasn't even vegan. And still I didn't make the connection I have to remind myself to be patient with people who don't "get it"; I was there once too. Can make me feel stupid sometimes!

 

Yeah, thinking about animals, human and non- is a constant.