Dear extremist vegans (& non-vegans who point out the fact that we cannot be 100% cruelty free, as if that was an excuse to not try to live vegan), I have a bad news and a good news for you! Personally, I try to do my best to avoid all animal ingredients in the products I buy. But we must be realistic -- there is no such thing as 100% vegan or perfect vegan. Even our PCs & laptops, cell phones, iPhones, cars, etc. may contain animal ingredients... :( Thats the bad news! The good news is, most of those things usually contain animal byproducts, which means they are not necessarily funding the meat industry directly. Animals are not really killed just to produce your laptop and car! If we manage to get most people to stop funding the meat, egg, dairy, honey, fur, leather, silk, wool, etc. industries, those companies that produce products containing animal based ingredients will have no choice but to switch to plant based ingredients, and if we get most people to boycott the products that are tested on animals (or at least the ones that are not necessary), those companies will also stop testing as they will see that no one buys their products anymore if they are animal tested. Bottom line: dont try to be perfect and stop worrying so much about every single ingredient in every single product you buy and about every product not being 100% cruelty free, or else you will end up being very depressed & disappointed as you will find out you cant buy almost anything since over 99,99% of all products may contain at least one animal ingredient or one ingredient that has been tested on animals or that comes from a company thats owned by a company that tests on animals, blah blah blah. This is exactly why many people go back to eating, wearing, exploiting and using animals -- because extremists make it look like its so hard to be vegan and theres so much restriction to the point they start feeling like they must stop living in order to be vegan. And its not. Being vegan is not as hard as most people think. I can only speak for myself, and I will say that it is pretty easy for me to live vegan. Of course, I will admit that sometimes it can be hard to find certain vegan products, and there are times when I just choose not to buy a certain product if Im not sure its vegan friendly. But I do not feel its too restrictive. I still buy what I need & like, and I always check the ingredients. I am still enjoying life. I dont always buy from vegan companies as thats technically impossible, but I try to make sure the products I buy are vegan. Being vegan does not mean you must be perfect or stop living; it simply means you try to do your best to minimize animal cruelty and avoid animal exploitation and use. However, there comes a time when you just have to ask yourself, where will you draw the line? In my honest opinion, I think a vegan would help a lot more animals if, instead of playing vegan police and criticizing everyone whos not perfect, they tried encouraging a non-vegan to try all those delicious plant based alternatives and cruelty free clothes -- and helped them in their transition to a compassionate lifestyle by providing them with useful advice and information. Please note that I in no way am saying we should not do our research and not try avoiding animal byproducts & ingredients when possible. All Im saying is, sometimes it is impossible to avoid everything that may contain an animal byproduct or an ingredient that has been tested on animals. Same goes for the vegan police criticizing other vegans for Liking a fur wearing celebrity on FB, for example. I hope those people do realize that 99% of all celebrities are non-vegan, and wearing fur is NOT worse than eating meat, eggs, dairy, honey, etc. or wearing leather, silk, wool, etc. or using animals in any other way -- so, if they will choose to not listen to a singer or band just because they wear fur, then I sure hope they will also refuse to listen to music by singers and bands (and stop watching movies with actors, actresses and directors) that eat meat & other animal products or use animals for any other purpose... Well, you get my point. Im all for boycotting non-vegan celebrities, and by boycotting non-vegan celebrities I mean not buying their stuff, etc. ...BUT, if you are going to criticize me for having a fur wearing singer on my Likes list on FB (which is just for FB updates, anyway, and NOT because I agree with them or like them as person), then you might as well remove every single non-vegan musician or celebrity from your own list, or else you will sound very hypocritical. I do not like it, but it is just the reality. Our reality. The reality of vegans living in a non-vegan world...
Posted on: Sun, 23 Mar 2014 21:02:53 +0000
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