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Why be vegan? Most
people become vegan after having been vegetarian for some time before, not
always but mostly. I
saw a FAB T-shirt the other day: “When Vegetarian’s grow up they become Vegans.”
Whilst
I certainly don’t mean to belittle vegetarian’s (and NEVER would I, having been
one myself for 20 years), I did find that amusing. It
is a well known fact that cattle and hens kept for dairy and eggs are kept in
as equally appalling conditions as animals reared for food. But
that’s OK – buy organic and free range! Well
yes, of course you could buy organic and free range, I’m not going to tell you
not to. But
the sad truth of organic farming is that it doesn’t differentiate that much with
conventional farming methods. The fundamental principles of dairying still
apply within the organic industry: continual pregnancies, unwanted offspring,
problems of disease, together with the distress of transport and slaughter. Not
to mention the fact that in order to comply with the strict regulations the
organic farming industry demands – many animals are not treated with medication
when they are ill. The popular myth that “free-range” egg-laying hens enjoy fresh grass, bask in the sunlight, scratch the earth, sit on their nests, and engage in other natural habits is often just that: a myth. Typically, free-range hens are debeaked and have only 1 to 2 square feet of floor space per bird, and -- if the hens can go outside -- must compete with many other hens for access to a small exit from the shed, leading to a muddy strip saturated with droppings. Although chickens can live up to 12 years, free-range hens are hauled to slaughter the same as battery-caged hens, after a year or two. Free-range male chicks are trashed at birth, just as they are in factory farms. Although free-range conditions may be an improvement over factory-farm conditions, they are by no means free of suffering.
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