Veganism:
Frequently Asked Questions

Q. Other animals eat each other. Why can't we eat them?

A. Predators in the wild kill other animals out of necessity. Without doing so, they wouldn't survive. Humans, on the other hand, kill other animals by choice. The human body has no need for animal flesh whatsoever. In fact, it has been consistently proven that a vegan diet is generally healthier than a diet heavy with animal products. Eating animals is not necessary for human survival. Rather, it is a matter of ethics: Is it acceptable to inflict the gratuitous suffering onto countless animals for something that is indisputably unnecessary?

Q. If you want to be vegan, that's fine. But, don't tell me what to do.

A. Imagine saying to someone, "If you don't want to beat your child, that's fine. But, don't tell me not to beat mine." While we are entitled to believe what we like, we are not entitled to treat others—especially those weaker than we—however we like. If we are responsible for gratuitously harming others, people have every right to ask that we stop.

Q. If the animals are raised to be eaten, isn't that okay?

A. Two hundred years ago in the United States, humans raised other humans as slaves. The fact that these humans were raised to be slaves did not justify their slavery. For the same reason, raising animals for the purpose of torturing and/or killing them does not justify their exploitation.

Q. Where do you draw the line? Insects? Plants? Bacteria?

A. There are some animals (such as insects) who we are not certain are capable of suffering. It is up to each individual to decide where she or he feels the line should be drawn exactly. However, all of the animals we institutionally exploit feel pain and suffering, and care about their lives. Because of this, they deserve to be free from misery just as much as we do.

Also, because of their lack of a central nervous system, brain, pain receptors, and so on, it is virtually certain that plants and bacteria do not suffer (though you still save exponentially more plants by eating them directly, rather than by funneling them through farmed animals.

Q. Humans are the smartest animals and we're the "top of the food chain." Why shouldn't we use our strength to our benefit?

A. The argument that "might makes right" has been used by many (including Hitler) to justify countless forms of cruelty and domination throughout history. Merely because we're able to be cruel and violent doesn't mean that we ought to be.

Q. It's impossible to live completely cruelty-free. Almost everything we do causes someone suffering. Why try at all?

A. True, it is impossible to completely avoid causing any suffering in our lives. However, that doesn't justify an "open season" for flagrant animal abuse. By adopting a vegan diet, we can drastically reduce the amount of suffering we cause in our daily lives.

Being vegan is not about being "pure." Rather, it is about doing what we can—within reason—to remove our support for animal abuse.