Go Vegan! Why Not?

Vegetarianism and veganism are two lifestyles that aren't typically or thoroughly thought about, and that's a problem. I know... the scary V words. Growing up, my parents put meat on my plate just about everyday. I had never thought about it until just recently. As one grows up, they grow apart from traditions they were used to and lifestyles that they once pursued. When you're growing up, you step back and look at the world with a realistic point of view. Riding your bike turns into driving to high school, television shows with your parents turn into hour long talks about your future, reality strikes and you're not a kid anymore. I think while one is maturing, it is critical to think about your diet. What are you putting into your body? Animals. The same things that you lay in bed with, the same creatures that you play ball with and walk in the park beside. Think about that.

Yes. The animals you digest may be stereotypically titled as "unimportant" or "just farm animals" but in the end, they are living, breathing beings, just like we are. You would never sit in bed staring at your cat thinking, mmm I could go for some cat right now. It is just wrong. If you eat animals you are indeed a follower of speciesism- the assumption of human superiority leading to the exploitation of animals. How do you morally justify killing an innocent creature? Taste? Health? Nutrition? It is how you were raised? Well let me explain why none of that matters.

For the Animals

These animals encounter nightmares that you would imagine as unbearable and cruel every single day. They get beat, screamed at, separated from their babies, torn apart, throats slit, among many other terrors. These animals sense the fear of their friends and hate every second of their lives. There lives are completely pointless aside from the fact that humans like the taste of them.

Chickens, hens, and turkeys are tortured horribly in the agriculture industry. They are kept in such small places that they can barely flap a wing, they live with so many others that they can't even assume any type of pecking order like they're naturally supposed to, making them depressed. They continue to eat and eat, and are fed unnatural antibiotics so that they will grow twice their supposed size, and cripple under their weight. Baby chicks must have their beaks burnt off, causing injury and inducing severe and unbearable pain. Then at the end of their absolutely pathetic lives, their throats are slit upside down, and someone enjoys them for dinner.

If that wasn't horrific enough, pigs suffer from the same extent of horror. Female pigs are put into tiny pens for breeding where they can barely move at all, and saddest part of the breeding process for pigs- the "runts" or the baby piglets that just aren't big enough for American standards go through a process called "thumping" after being concieved. It is called thumping because one of the farmers (if decided the piglet is too small or underdeveloped) will thump the animals head off the ground, causing a painful and unrighteous. You know... because the 105 million pigs that are raised annually on factory farms alone are not enough for the American diet. For these animals to finish their lives, they are taken to a slaughter house, hung upside down, and their throats are slit.

Fun fact- pigs are as intelligent as a three year old toddler. This means that the unfair destiny they are given can cause an exasperating amount of psychological damage to them. Therefore, farmers can become overwhelmed and irritated making them more ruthless in their killing, or simply not caring as much as if the animals were being raised in their home. The entire process of eating meat is completely unecessary and exhausting for everyone. No one enjoys the fact that they are eating another being, and factory farmers are said to be the most depressed people on the planet. The one and only reason we are still brutally murdering sentiant beings is for pleasure (taste). Yes. This takes place because human beings are too lazy and selfish to simply eat healthier.

Another fun fact- eating a plant based diet can prevent and even sometimes reverse 7/10 of the top leading causes of death in America. So for anyone to argue that eating meat and dairy is healthy would be absolutely ignorant or downright oblivious.

Another animal that we make suffer is the cow. Cows can get so excited that they solved a problem that they will begin to jump up and down. Imagine being a helpless animal, with no ability to stand up for yourself, then thinking that you had solved a problem, getting extremely excited about it, just to figure out that you're about to die with your friends at the end of your miserable life.

The dairy industry allows for beautiful babies to be ripped from their mothers and cry for each other for days until the baby is sent to slaughter. If the baby is a female, it shares the same fate as it's mother-it becomes a dairy cow. Pumping milk all day, causing soreness, and weakness until they can no longer produce anymore babies or are too weak and old. Then, they too are sent to slaughter. If you're wondering how so many cows are getting pregnant, they artificially inseminate them. This means a dairy farmer takes a male cows semen and inserts it into the female cows vagina with their hand. I feel as if this is cruel and disgusting.

These animals suffer all day and all night with no way of escaping.

For People

You too can benefit from eating plant based. Did you know that 7/10 of the United States leading causes of death can be prevented or even reversed from eating a plant based diet. I will provide a list below.

Human beings have 20 foot intestines. Interestingly enough, every herbivore on the planet has much longer intestines for their bodies. This is because we are all supposed to be eating a high amount of plants. Unlike carnivores who can survive off of raw meat, we cannot eat raw meat because our stomachs cannot handle it.

If you want to prove to me that you are supposed to eat meat, I would like for you to go into your backyard and take a video of yourself catching a rabbit, attacking it with your body, and killing and eating it right there in the middle of your yard, without cleaning, skinning, or cooking it. That is what every other carnivore on the planet does to eat meat.

It is a common misconception that we need to eat meat to survive or that we need the protein from meat because thousands of people have lived long healthy lives from eating vegan, and the proteins we get from plants and other natural foods is actually much better for us, especially with all the extra hormones and antibiotics they now put into our meat.

Leading Causes of Death in the United States from 2017:

Heart disease: 647,457

Cancer: 599,108

Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936

Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201

Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 146,383

Alzheimer’s disease: 121,404

Diabetes: 83,564

Influenza and pneumonia: 55,672

Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 50,633

Intentional self-harm (suicide): 47,173

Found on https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm

For the Planet

To conclude my argument on why veganism is the best diet choice, I'd like to say that carbon emissions are at an all time high right now causing horrifying natural disasters like the Australia wildfires which killed around 500 million animals and over 20 people.

By cutting out meat in your diet, you can reduce carbon emissions drastically, considering animal agriculture is the main culprit in this deadly issue. Also, 80% of deforestation is caused from agriculture, so cutting out unnecessary foods in your diet like animal products can reduce this as well, giving our planet more oxygen!

If you would like to change your lifestyle and upgrade to a healthier one, as well as save animals that suffer daily, AND save the planet from possible termination, make the switch!

Resources

check out this young climate activist changing the world:

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https://www.ecosia.org/