Animal Liberation

the-vegan-in-blue:

I’ve often seen people talking in these terms, in one way or another, but I don’t find that veganism is best thought of in terms of number of animals individually saved. I would criticise the use of such points in any discussion about veganism. There are a number of flaws with this mentality, such as:

1. Something like this suggests that I’ve saved hundreds of fish and birds, yet even before being vegetarian I couldn’t stand the taste of fish or bird flesh, so even if I weren’t vegan they wouldn’t have been killed for and eaten by me.
2. This implies that those who otherwise would have done the most harm, are doing the most good now by being vegan, and those who previously did less harm have done less good by being vegan now.
3. It would suggest that to not exploit/harm non-human animals is to do good (saving), rather than to not do bad (the absense of harm).
4. This ignores the goal of eliminating speciesism and use/harm of non-human animals, and shifts focus onto personal good.
5. Harm done to animals in non-food contexts is often ignored in such counts, or even in the egg/dairy industries.
6. If people think in terms of “personal good” then an avid meat eater could potentially do more good by halving their consumption of animal flesh, than someone who dislikes it anyway can by having a vegan diet.

Why rest the significance of veganism on such a flawed and inconsistent concept as number of lives saved by the individual? The important thing is that we are:

1. Challenging speciesism
2. By only our presence causing people to question their exploitation of non-human animals
3. Increasing awareness of non-human animals as deserving of moral consideration
4. Increasing awareness of vegan diets
5. Increasing demand for easily accessible vegan foods/items
6. Decreasing demand for products of animal harm/exploitation**
7. Spreading veganism
8. Challenging the concept of “happy exploitation”
9. Being morally consistent

Those are the things that move us towards real change.

** I know a lot of focus is put on this point, but I think it’s no more than one part of what veganism does to enact real change. If you only focus of voting with your dollar, then it ignores those types of harm in which no money exchanges hands.