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Vegan Speech on Morality
To eat an animal is to eat one of God’s creatures. Do you really think that they were put on this earth solely for us? That he meant for us to enslave and murder them in their billions every year? That he meant for us to tear his land apart for space to herd cattle? I do not think that he did.
People argue that, if God hadn’t meant for us to eat animals then he wouldn’t have made them so ‘tasty’. But humans taste the same as animals, flesh is flesh and it all tastes the same. Murder smells the same whether it is of a human or an animal. Is it right to eat humans? No!
Is it right therefore to eat animals just because they taste nice? No! Not only is it immoral to eat a living thing for its taste or texture, but it is unhealthy too, both physically and spiritually. Animal flesh is not for us. As a great man once said, “I do not regard flesh food as necessary for us. I hold flesh food to be unsuited to our species. To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body. The more helpless the creature, the more it is entitled to protection from the cruelty of humans.” That was Gandhi, one of the most peaceful people that ever lived.
For too long now has the abysmal lie, that humans need meat and that it’s right to eat it, been passed down through centuries, through children, the innocent whose minds have been poisoned by the flesh, by their parents, by human life. This is where it ends.
For too long now has man tortured animals and murdered them for meat. For too long has man stolen, from the animals, the goods that they produce for their own young. And for too long has man imprisoned their young and made them suffer.
If you eat meat, any meat, you are participating in taking the life of a living creature just to satisfy your appetite, whether that life belongs to a cow, a sheep, a pig, a chicken, a fish or a lamb.
If you eat eggs, you support the egg industry, where billions of chickens are brought up in the most horrendous conditions for their eggs, and which brutally murders millions of baby male chicks every year, by-products of the egg industry.
If you drink or eat dairy, then you are supporting the dairy industry, where billions of cows are artificially inseminated to force them to have calves, only for the calves to be taken away to veal farms or slaughterhouses and the cow to be sucked dry three times a day for the milk intended for the calf.
If you wear wool, you are supporting the wool industry which shears rolls of flesh off, with the wool, so as to keep flies from nesting on the sheep. The horror and blood only attracts more flies, however, which no farmer seems to consider.
If you wear silk, you are supporting the silk industry where billions of silkworms are boiled alive in their cocoons so they can‘t damage the silk by eating their way out of it.
If you wear fur, you support the fur industry which brutally murders thousands of rabbits, baby harp seals and endangered species every year. (Fake furs from China will, more often than not, be actual rabbit fur, as the Chinese have large rabbit fur farms that are used to produce ‘fake’ fur for countries like England. If you buy fake fur, always check the label and make sure it’s not from China, or Canada as there, they club baby harp seals to death for their fur.)
If you wear leather, then you are supporting the dairy industry, as leather is usually derived from ‘spent’ dairy cows which, after they’ve been used to the very extent of their bodies, are sent to slaughterhouses for meat and leather production.
If you drink things such as colored drinks or red wine without checking all ingredients, you are supporting the cochineal industry, an industry which bakes living female beetles and crushes them to obtain a dye for food or for fabrics.
If you eat shellfish or any other sea creature, then you are supporting the seafood industry, which captures life from the sea, the one free place on earth, and eat fish that is rich in mercury and toxins and that has a high risk of food poisoning.
As you can see, there is so much to look out for as a vegan, you have to check the label on everything you buy and make sure that there are no sneaky animal products. But it’s not a bad side of veganism. If anything that promotes healthy eating, as you can see what ingredients there are that are good for you, and what are bad. You can find vegan foods anywhere you go, they are called vegetables! And fruits! And nuts and seeds!
If you go into a supermarket and everywhere you look there's meat, then you may say, ‘How come there’s so much meat if it’s bad for you? Surely, if it were bad for you, the shops would not sell it!’ The answer is that the reason that there is so much meat is because the demand for it is high. The companies aren’t going to worry about people’s health so long as they buy their products. The demand for specially-made vegan foods is much lower, and that is why only one little box in the corner of the supermarket is devoted to veganism. If everyone suddenly went vegan with a few exceptions, then the supermarket would be filled with vegan products with just a small box of meat products in the corner.
Many people say, ‘How come, if veganism is so good, were there no famous vegans in history?’ The answer to that is there have been many famous vegetarians and vegans throughout history. People just don’t realize that they were actually vegans and vegetarians. Of course those two words were only invented a few hundred years ago. Up until then, vegans and vegetarians were known as Pythagoreans. This was because, possibly the first known vegan was Pythagoras. He loved animals and believed that they were special and not to be touched or disturbed. He has had many teachings passed down through the years, but probably the most memorable ones for vegans and vegetarians are:
“As long as humans continue to be the ruthless destroyer of other beings, we will never know health or peace. For as long as people massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, those who sow the seed of murder and pain will never reap joy or love.”
“Men dig their graves with their own teeth, and die more by those instruments than by all the weapons of their enemies.”
“Animals share with us the privilege of having a soul.”
Pythagoras was a great man. He started the long road to a better place, and for two millennia now, people, vegans and vegetarians, have been walking it further and further until now, we’re nearly there. Just a few more years and this world could be changed into a wonderful, peaceful place to live. You can imagine it can’t you? Well I can, and as long as you can imagine something then it’s possible.
Pythagoras lived to be 75 years old, and he lived in 530BC. Do you know what the average life-span for a person then was? Definitely not 75.
You don’t have to be a genius to see that eating meat is wrong. I know it is, and I’m no genius. You only need a heart and an inquisitive brain or a love of animals or an imaginative mind, or all three in some cases. The most rewarding thing about veganism is that you really feel connected to the animals and responsible for the saved lives of many of them. You also feel tied in with nature, like now you belong in the world, that the world actually wants you, loves you.
Every meat eater is responsible for the destruction of the world, of the animals that are part of the world. The animals do not rightfully belong to us. They are God’s creatures not ours. God loves all his creatures and so wants to see them free and happy, as he intended. Just because he gave us free will does not mean that he intended for us to ruin his once beautiful world. We are, if anything, guardians of this world which he has entrusted to us.
We talk about Jesus’ teachings, like the one about the rich man and his three slaves, as guidelines for our own lives. Well, the world, if you like, is a little like a bag of gold. One slave went and invested it and tripled the value in his money, the other started a business and doubled it and the third buried his in the garden so that it would be safe. Now God isn’t really asking us to be like the first slave, or the second, but the third. We’re supposed to be looking after his world and we’re doing an awful job! We’re ten times worse than the third slave. We didn’t even keep the world safe. Instead we’ve damaged it almost beyond repair. If we were a forth slave, then that slave would have gone out and blown all the money on gambling and drink. That is the equivalent to what we’ve done. And eventually we, and the slave will have nothing left, we’ll have gambled it all away.
So, the world needs to stop being ruined! Not only are vegans concerned with animals but they care about the world as a whole, and that involves the forests, country, sea, mountains, rivers etc. But one thing that vegans do care about a lot, that others seem to think that they don’t, is humans. They care that people in third world countries need food, and they’re just the people to help them. They know that people are vulnerable and need help sometimes to sort things out. That’s why we have experts isn’t it? So that they can help people who need it.
90% of all crops such as soy and corn are fed to livestock. Now imagine that they didn’t need to be fed to livestock, because everyone is vegan. The amount of food left over would be enough to feed the world around eight times over! That’s why charities such as H.I.P.P.O. (Help International Plant Protein Organization) exist. They specialize in trying to turn people vegan and on to these main issues that are affecting the human world, such as hunger. Why do we feast so greedily on meat when, at the end of the day, that’s the main reason why third world hunger and poverty exists! People just can’t seem to work it out, but doesn’t it make sense to you?
“The maddest thing of all is to see life as it is and not as it should be!”
Many of the greatest people in history have been vegetarians and vegans.
Pythagoras, Plutarch, Socrates, Plato, Leonardo Da Vinci, Leo Tolstoy, Tagore, Buddha, Rousseau, Shelly, Henry David Thoreau, Isaac Bashevis Singer, George Bernard Shaw, Einstein, Franklin, Newton, Albert Schweitzer, Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr, Mark Twain, Seneca, Thomas Paine, Charles Darwin, St Francis of Assisi, H.G.Wells, Van Gogh, Rachel Carson, Thomas Edison, Charlotte Bronte, William Blake, William Wordsworth, and many, many more, far too many to count. But people like Darwin and George Bernard Shaw were great guardians for all animals.
Some things said by George Bernard Shaw include:
“People ask me how I look so young; I tell them I look my age. It is other people who look older; what do you expect from people who eat corpses?”
“Animals are my friends. And I do not eat my friends.”
“If a group of beings from another planet were to land on earth-beings who considered themselves as superior to you as you feel yourself to be to other animals - would you concede them the rights over you that you assume over other animals?”
“Custom will reconcile people to any atrocity.”
“Human beings are the only animals of which I am thoroughly and cravenly afraid.”
“Those who won’t hesitate to vivisect won’t hesitate to lie about it as well.
“Atrocities are no less atrocities when they occur in laboratories and are called ’medical research’”
“The average age (longevity) of a meat-eater is 63. I am on the verge of 85 and still work as hard as ever. I have lived quite long enough and am trying to die, but I simply can not do it. A single beef stake would finish me, but I can not bring myself to swallow it. I am oppressed with a dread of living forever. That is the only disadvantage of vegetarianism.” George Bernard Shaw went on to live another nine years before he died at 94 years old.
We were never meant to consume flesh. We are not designed that way. Think about it. Give this world a second chance. Before it’s too late. |
The Bright
Light Sarah Carson "When
I went vegan, Sarah Carson
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