Veganism

Animal liberation

We embrace a philisophy of animal liberation (or anti-speciesism), believing that animals exist for their own reasons and are not our property. Sharon Nunez from Igualdad Animal eloquently explains what we’re up against:

Anti-speciesism is the idea that speciesism – discrimination due to the species we belong to – is an immoral and unjustifiable prejudice that must be questioned and firmly and effectively rejected. Speciesism is as morally defensible as racism, sexism, ageism or any other group discrimination. The consequences of speciesism are brutal. Behind speciesism there is a tremendous amount of suffering and an immense number of deaths. Speciesism is babies separated from mothers shortly after birth, millions of hours of deprivation from freedom, murders, mutilations, rape, and any horror imaginable in a perpetual cycle.

Veganism means a total rejection of the domination of animals, for food, clothing, entertainment and scientific research. It is both the most effective way of stopping one’s complicity in animal suffering, and the only logical expression of a philosophy of animal liberation. The struggle for animal liberation cannot be viewed in isolation, however, and alongside speciesism we stand firmly against racism, sexism, homophobia and all forms of domination that divide us to protect the powerful.

Meat

Thousands of animals will have been slaughtered for food while you read this website. In the UK alone, almost 3 million animals are slaughted every day (not including fish).

The vast majority of these animals will have been born and raised in the dark, dirty, cramped conditions of a factory farm, their lives filled with pain and suffering. However the animals were raised, all will have died a violent death at the slaughterhouse, often improperly stunned, and after a long and tortuous journey from the farm.

Animals are treated by the meat industries as if they are unfeeling machines, alive only to generate maximum profit. But each chicken, lamb, cow or pig is a sentient being capable of experiencing pain, fear, discomfort and distress.

Dairy

The dairy cow is the hardest worked of all farm animals, kept on an exhausting cycle of forced pregnancy and milk production. Their bodies distorted through selective breeding, lameness and infections are rife.

Like people, cows produce milk to feed their young. However, in order for us to have the milk, their calves are taken away a day or two after birth – a highly distressing experience for the mother. Female offspring will later be used to produce milk, but males cannot, so are killed immediately or raised for veal. Organic or not, all cows are killed as soon as they’re no longer profitable.

Today’s dairy cows produce an average of 22 litres of milk every day. This costs as much energy per day as an 8 hour run. The life span of a cow can be 25 years, but dairy cows are quickly worn out and are killed at 6 years old.

Eggs

Despite centuries of domestication, laying hens retain the natural behaviours shown by their wild ancestors. Hens need to carry out behaviours such as building a nest, perching, pecking and scratching at the ground, dust-bathing, etc. but for the majority of the world’s egg-laying hens, the farming system renders it impossible to live anything remotely resembling a natural lifestyle.

In the UK, almost 30 million chickens lay their eggs in battery cages, with 4 or 5 to a cage and a space equivalent to an A4 sheet of paper for each chicken. Conventional battery cages are set to be phased out in favour of “enriched cages” but the chickens will have little extra space, and the egg industry shows its confidence that the ban won’t proceed by continuing to display conventional cages at trade fairs. The conditions for non-battery hens aren’t much better, with most never going outside, and many suffering from untreated infections, wounds from other chickens, and stress-induced stereotypical behaviour. To stop chickens pecking each other to death, their beaks are often sliced off without anaesthetic.

Male chicks – half of all of those born – are of no use to the egg industry, so are crushed alive or gassed. 30 million day-old chicks are killed in the UK every year. All egg-laying hens are slaughtered once their production drops, on average at 16 months old, of a possible lifetime of 15 years. Their bodies are either thrown away or used in low-quality processed food, such as soup and baby food. There is no reason to draw a line between the egg and meat industry: both are run on the principle that animals are commodities, that can be tortured and killed when it is most profitable.

Fish

Some people who give up eating meat continue to eat fish, believing that fishing is less cruel and environmentally destructive than farming. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Fish feel pain, just as all mammals do, otherwise they would not survive. They possess a brain, central nervous system and pain receptors all over their bodies. Fish caught by trawler nets undergo extruciating decompression as they are hauled up from the deep, before being cut open alive or left to suffocate. The increasing numbers caged in off-shore fish farms are starved for days or even weeks prior to slaughter, before being clubbed or bled to death.

The boats that are emptying the world’s seas are vast floating factory units, leaving fish with no chance to escape, and leaving nothing left in the sea to breed and replenish stocks. In the world’s marine fisheries, more than 80 percent of fish stocks are already fully exploited, overexploited, or depleted. Furthermore, drift nets and trawlers catch and kill many “unwanted” fish and other species, which are then thrown back into the sea.

Fish farms also have a deleterous effect on the environment, through the destruction of ecosystems to make space for farms, the emission of high volumes of toxic waste, and the spread of antibiotics, growth promoting drugs and other additives to wild species.

People and planet

Climate change is one of the most pressing problems we face today. According to a United Nation’s report, animal farming is responsible for 18 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions – more than is produced by the entire transport sector worldwide. Farming animals is a major and direct source of methane – an extremely potent greenhouse gas. Furthermore, large amounts of CO2 are released when huge areas of forests are destroyed for animal farming – the single biggest cause of deforestation in the world.

Plant-based diets are also less resource-intensive, requiring only one third of the land and water needed to produce a typical Western diet. Farmed animals consume much more protein, water and calories than they produce, so far greater quantities of crops and water are needed to produce animal ‘products’ to feed humans than are needed to feed people direct on a plant-based diet. With water and land becoming scarcer globally, world hunger increasing and the planet’s population rising, it is much more sustainable to eat plant foods direct than use up precious resources feeding farmed animals.

People who eat a veg*n diet are at far less risk of developing debilitating diseases and certain types of cancer, which are caused or aggravated by a meat and dairy-based diet. According to the American Dietetic Association, veg*ns have reduced risk of a number of chronic diseases, including obesity, coronary artery disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, prostate and colon cancer. (Journal of the American Dietetic Association, June 2003, Volume 103 [6] p748-765.) Find out more about the health benefits of veganism from the online Viva! guide, “The Healthiest Diet of All”.