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Oct 4, 2008
Veganism is a personal choice that should not be used to vilify those who have not made that choice. I am sick and tired of personal attacks by a small group of vegans who routinely post ugly personal comments about non-vegans - everyday Care2 members who do not mistreat or abuse animals.

Not all people who raise animals for food, especially folks who keep a small amount of livestock for personal use, treat those animals as a product or a thing. My mother-in-law, dead now for 4 years, raised chickens for their eggs and they had the run of her entire yard during the daylight hours. She fed them nutritious greens and fruit and well as grains. If one sickened, she put the sick bird out of its misery quickly and humanely. She gave her delicious, often double-yolked organic eggs away to her family, neighbors and friends. I refuse to condemn her as a person who cruelly mistreated or exploited animals. The only animal I can recall her ever putting down that was healthy was an absolutely vicious rooster that she raised from a hatchling from one of her own chickens - that bird bit and clawed everything and everyone. He did go into the soup pot for stock - and he was put down quickly and humanely.

If all animal farming was abolished right now with a flick of a vegan magic wand, every cow would be dead, and die horribly, within a month or less. So would most chickens. ducks, pigs and many other creatures that humans have domesticated.

Yes, I hate factory farming and animal cruelty, but people who keep and raise animals for food and  who treat their animals with love, respect and kindness abound. And when the animals are killed, it is done humanely, and every scrap is generally used - nothing that can be utilized is wasted. I do not fault people who keep animals for their food and other products, such as milk, eggs, fur, etc. if the animals are well-cared for throughout their lives. I used to buy raw milk from a family farm here in Connecticut. In order to sell raw milk, this family and their farmhands had to meet the strictest standards of animal and equipment care and cleanliness.

Vegans, you have embraced a lifestyle that suits your diet and your conscience. I respect that. But please stop attacking those who do not subscribe to your beliefs. Because someone consumes animal products does not make that person an unfeeling monster.
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Posted: Oct 4, 2008 3:12pm

 

 
 
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Author

RC deWinter
female, age 62, divorced
Middletown, CT, USA
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