What is veganism?
Veganism is a way of life that seeks to exclude dependence on the exploitation of animals as much as possible. It goes beyond a vegan diet, which focuses only on food. Veganism is a position that attempts to avoid causing harm to animals in any way, intentionally or unintentionally. Many vegans work actively to change the views of individuals and society in order to eliminate support for animal exploitation. It can also be extended to include concerns for harms to animals that are not caused by humans.
WHAT is antispeciesism?
Antispeciesism is opposition to speciesism, which is the discrimination against sentient beings who don’t belong to a particular species. Speciesism is discrimination based on a trivial biological feature and is analogous to racism and sexism. Just as racism is discrimination based on skin color and sexism is discrimination based on sex, speciesism is based on species. Antispeciesism examines all aspects of speciesism. This includes not only harming some animals, it includes not giving favorable treatment for some animals and withholding it from others. For example, if we give special treatment to dogs but not to cats, that would be discriminating against cats. Another consideration is disregarding the negative situation of some animals because we don’t interact with them. This happens when we ignore the plight of wild animals. Antispeciesism includes all such considerations.
is a vegan diet healthy?
Vegan diets have been studied extensively by government agencies and organizations of dieticians around the world. If properly planned, vegan diets are healthy for all stages of life. In fact, there is much evidence that it is healthier than a diet including animal products.
WHERE CAN I START?
A good place to start is by learning about how to change the foods you eat. Try some simple, delicious, healthy recipes. You can inform yourself about speciesism and antispeciesism, and what respect for all sentient beings means.
Should we help wild animals?
According to a consistent antispeciesist perspective, ignoring the natural harms to wild animals is discrimination against them based on where they live. This is as irrelevant as any biological characteristic. There’s a common view that nature know best, but we only seem to think that when it comes to other animals. We sit comfortably in our homes, safe the discomforts and dangers of the wild, and we go to supermarkets for our food and visit doctors when we are sick.
IT SOUNDs complicated
A good rule of thumb when considering how to treat other animals is this: if we wouldn’t treat humans that way, we shouldn’t treat other animals that way either. This includes harming them directly and also failing to help them when we can.
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