Something’s been playing on my mind and I’d love to hear more opinions about it, just so I can educate myself and try and understand things better. Basically, I think of myself as an animal lover, because I DO love animals, in an affectionate way and also from a point of great interest and awe, it’s just a fact that I do love animals, probably more than humans, BUT, I am also a meat eater. I saw a tweet saying something along the lines of “you can’t love animals and not be a vegetarian, it just doesn’t work”, but then it got me thinking, with that tweet in mind, because of the cruelties of the egg, dairy, leather, and fur industries, can you only claim to “love animals” if you are a vegan? I think a lot of animal lovers do consume food and clothing sourced from animal exploitation, and I find the whole thing very confusing, and I do believe in my heart that you can be an animal lover and consume animal products, even though I can’t see the logic of that, and feel like I’m being hypocritical. I think it’s SO important not to be ignorant about where the things we use and eat come from - watching documentaries such as Vegucated and Earthlings is extremely beneficial, even if they are biased, but even though I understand the horrors of slaughterhouses, intense animal farming and battery cages, I still choose to eat meat and dairy. I can’t make any excuse for it, I know some people can’t afford/would struggle to feed a family on a vegan diet, but I CAN afford to go vegan, I just choose not to. I could easily and fairly happily go vegetarian, I’ve done it before, but the truth is I love meat, I love leather, I love cheese and milk and eggs, even though I do think of these things as cruel, even though I do quite often get upset about the industries, I still pay for and use the products. Does that make me cruel and selfish? Can I still say I love animals if I consume these products? Does it make me immoral, or a hypocrite? I really don’t want to be argumentative or provoking with this post, it’s something I’m just really intrigued about - can you still be an animal lover if you eat their flesh and wear their skin? I eat bacon and wear leather boots, but I also love and respect animals, can that even work? :-(
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 12:37:10 +0000