When do you consider someone vegan?

[Guest]

Vegans are simply vegetarians that care about the other things...vegan is the whole as you said...in diet a true vegan is only a vegetarian and nothing more. Vegetarians can buy meat...cook it and throw it away so long as they don't eat it...its purely a term for what you ingest

[karlhubris]

I think the controversy comes at the interpretation " what is necessary"...are tires necessary? not really. Do they make my life more convenient? yes. At that point you have to weigh the risk/reward? Like I mentioned in another post... Are Clif bars necessary? Absolutely not. Is there a risk that they may contain dairy? Yep. Now you have to weigh the risk/reward.

I also think we have to consider the spirit of veganism...it is not necessarily against the killing of other life forms, but rather the exploitation of life. This is what Crash touched on. I would kill in self defense. Be it a tick, flea, charging lion, or dog attack. Funny coincidence-yesterday may neighbors 120 lbs Am. Bull Dog got out of their yard, I tried to knock on their door to let them know and that beast charged me-that dog is vicious! They heard the commotion and ran out and got it just as it almost got me. When I got in my house my adrenaline was pumping so hard I was shaking!!! Now I am partially at fault, he saw me invading his space...but it got me thinking, what if my daughter was in the front yard, it would have torn her to shreds! Sorry folks, I would have killed that dog. Then maybe my neighbors for doing whatever they are doing to make that dog so aggressive.

Anyways, I disagree on the possibility of being 100% vegan. We are not an island of ourselves, the world around us thrives on exploitation. I offer this as evidence...veganmonk, you have stated you were involved in several martial arts...I assume you trained on mats, perhaps heavy bags...perhaps some where in your training animal products were used (leather bags, glue in the mats or other gear) did you bother checking to make absolutely sure? And my point isn't to say you're not vegan, but only to point out the world around us. If intent is good enough, well I intend to be vegan, but intent is only a start. Now, my peanut butter cups, which seem to be such a huge issue, were a deliberate action. Not something I do often, but a mere confession to all and myself that I am not perfect, I still need to work on self control. My goal is to eat only raw vegetables, nuts and fruits. I'm still working on it. Anyone who says they have achieved 100% veganism has given up the quest and convinced themselves they need look no further. I for one believe this will be a lifetime journey, one that hopefully will consantly evolve to help eliminate suffering and exploitation.

[veganmonk]

The point isn't to tear veganism apart because it technically can never be 100% (and you don't need to take it any further than the walking on or breating in of insects really, to break this concept, let alone get into the tires and everything else).

 

The point is that the term vegan, refers to the respect for animals. Many people have forgotten this due to all the health and environmental reasons, and therefore are not aware of what it means to be vegan, such as not wearing animal products, using products tested on animals or having animal ingredients, being against animals in entertainment, etc..etc.. and this was the only point of my post.

 

I didn't want to create divide, I was merely trying to remind everyone, that to be vegan, is to do it for the animals, so let's not forget about them.

[loveliberate]

A bit of vegan humor: "I'm dont eat vegan food because I love animals, I do it because I HATE plants!"

[Aaron]

...Vegetarians can buy meat...its purely a term for what you ingest

 

Sounds about right given most of the vegetarians I know. Good call potter.

[veganmonk]

Here is some good info on leather in India and affects of it all:

 

http://www.petaindia.com/cleath.html

[Guest]

I read a book written by the Dali Llama and I was shocked. He said its not uncompassionate for people to eat meat if they aren't killing the animal because their not completely aware of how its done...isn't one of the tenants of Buddhism enlightening yourself to your surroundings??? After that I could only make it a few more pages before I gave up...this passive form of compassion is what

lets these vegetarian regions get away with not feeling guilty about this crap.