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The Animal Welfare Cause
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Loading...Windsor Castle Hosts Vegan Lunch for Interfaith Eco-Conference!
How’s this for progress? Windsor Castle is providing an all-vegan lunch for more than 200 people attending an interfaith conference called “Many Heavens, One Earth: Faith Commitments for a Living Planet.” The conference, which will be attended by leaders from nine different religions, is co-sponsored by the United Nations Development Program and the Alliance of Religions and Conservation (ARC), a faith-based environmental organization co-founded by Price Philip.
The ARC chose a vegan lunch not only because it’s better for the environment, but because it best accommodates the dietary needs of people of various faiths. Ultimately, it’s the ideal diet for everyone, regardless of religion, who believes that all sentient beings should be treated with kindness and mercy. Revered spiritual leaders from the Buddha to the Prophet Muhammad to the Dalai Lama have preached peace for all beings.
Many prominent Catholic figures believe that animals have souls and should be treated with compassion and respect. Pope John Paul II proclaimed that “the animals possess a soul and men must love and feel solidarity with our smaller brethren.” Pope Benedict XVI has spoken out against animal abuse, specifically saying that is wrong to force-feed birds to produce foie gras and to pack hens together in filthy factory farms. Says Pope Benedict, “It is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly.”
Other religions are based on similar beliefs. Cruelty to animals is forbidden in Islam—and raising and killing animals for food is inherently cruel. Most animals on factory farms never see the sun, breathe fresh air, or feel grass beneath their feet. They’re torn from their loving mothers and mutilated without pain relievers. At the slaughterhouse, they’re often dismembered while they’re still conscious.
Muslins who strive to live according to Islamic teachings can avoid causing such pain and suffering by eating a naturally Halal vegan diet. According to the Holy Prophet Muhammad, there is an estimable reward for kindness to every living being.
The Jewish religion also has strict laws and teachings forbidding cruelty to animals. There is an entire code of laws, Tsa’ar ba’alei hayim, mandating that all being be treated with kindness and respect.
Nothing in the Bible, the Torah, the Koran, or any other religious publication justifies our modern-day farming practices, which desecrate the environment and inflict pain and suffering on billions of animals every year.
The vegan meal at Windsor Castle is significant for many reasons, not just because the castle is not normally associated with animal- or environmentally-friendly fare. The lunch is a “model” of a compassionate, sustainable choice that the delegates can advocate to their constituencies–and that’s something everyone can believe in!
Read more: animal welfare, cimate change, faith, religion, vegan, windsor castle
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39 comments
+ add your ownI'll just add my 2 cents and say this: Hinduism is a major proponent of vegetarianism and veganism - in fact, Hindus and Buddhists probably have the largest number of vegetarians (which mean they don't eat eggs either) in the world. That's why I was very surprised that neither religion was mentioned in this article. Also, there is nothing humane about the Halal way of killing (even Muslims have told me this). Of course, it would be wonderful if all religions believed like the Hindus and the Buddhists when it came to animals (and apparently Seventh-Day Adventists are vegetarian due to religion also), but so far I have yet to see other religions actually preaching it. Not that there aren't Hindus and Buddhists that do eat meat, of course there are, but vegetarianism is actually a fundamental part of these two religions.
Noted
interesting,why doesn`t the pope preach this everytime he has a chance.
interesting post
Great article- thanks! For the first time I agree with the Pope about something!!
This is not the job of religion, it should be, but it isn't.
James S.
Nov 6, 2009 3:43 AM
CORRECTIONS:
You are sincere and well-meaning. But your argument is specious.
You cannot logically or scientifically conclude that a vegan diet is healthful from the fact that 80% of the best foods are vegan-consistent though 20% are not. You must conclude that a vegan diet is problematic---especially because the 20% are among the best because they supply NECESSARY nutrients that vegetable matter (and synthetic supplements) cannot supply. Human health requires SOME animal food, but a human need not cause suffering (or greater suffering) to obtain needed animal-source food.
I do not eat meat or fowl (which are toxic even if organic and which are the products of torture and slaughter of innocent beasts who suffer). I eat only two kinds of animals: (1) bi-valve molluscs, which CANNOT suffer becaiuse they do not have neural apparatus that could enable them to suffer; (2) WILD salmon caught at or near the start of their swimming upstream to spawn.
The salmon? They are not ever enslaved. They do suffer a bit from being caught & killed for human food. But they would suffer much more if they were not caught by humans. Bear or wolves or racoons or otters would bite chunks from the salmon while the salmon are alive. Or, if the salmon reach their spawning area and spawn, after spawning, they die by disintegrating, very slowly and very, very painfully.
James S.
Nov 6, 2009 3:43 AM
(1) You are sincere and well-meaning. But your argument is specious. You cannot logically or scientifically conclude that a vegan diet is healthful from the fact that 80% of the best foods are vegan-consistent though 20% are not. You must conclude that a vegan diet is problematic---espceially because the 20% are among the best because they supply NECESSARY nutrients that vegetable matter (and synthetic supplements) cannot supply. Human health requires SOME animal food, but a human need not cause suffering (or greater suffering) to obtain needed animal-source food.
I do note eat meat or fowl (which are toxic even if organic and which are the products of torture and slaughter of innocent beasts who suffer). I eat only two kinds of animals: (1) bi-valve molluscs, which CANNOT suffer becaiuse they do not have neural apparatus that could enable them to suffer; (2) WILD salmon caught at or near the start of their swimming upstream to spawn.
The salmon? They are not ever enslaved. They do suffer a bit from being caught & killed for human food. But they would suffer much more if they were not caught by humans. Bear or wolves or racoons or otters would bite chunks from the salmon while the salmon are alive. Or, if the salmon reach their spawning area and spawn, after spawning, they die by disintegrating, very slowly and very, very painfully.
Slaughtering a million farm animals per HOUR in this country and importing millions of tons of carcasses from rain forests razed to grow hamburger for the subsidized fast food market is not only cruel. It is also causing the extinction of a third to half the non-human WILD species on earth. Taking 17 times the land to eat at the top of the food chain is as ignorant as using enough water to float a battleship to raise one cow to slaughterhouse weight. Water and habitat for wild creatures is a major issue. Not only that but natural predators have been targeted for trophy and recreation by hunters and trappers who exclusively control wildlife agencies as killing businesses for their agenda. This dovetails nicely with animal agriculture for the destruction of the planet. Scientifically, natural predators in natural numbers PROTECT biodiversity - yet mountains of mountain lions, and wolf and coyote carcasses nailed to fence posts along our public lands leased in perpetuity 10 cents on the dollar to ranchers for their private profit are a testimony to the folly of man. Even groundhogs are down to 2% of their former range as they dig holes (VERBOTEN because cattle can step in them and break a leg). Read the 2006 United Nations animal agriculture report that states that slaughterhouse production creates more global warming by 20-40% than ALL TRANSPORTATION. Not only the heart disease and obesity of the American public is at risk - eating animals is a death plan for earth.
J. Roberto L - I'm wondering if the nutrients and substances in fish and yogurt could be found in non-animal sources. I hope so. Also, what do you make of the fact that your list of healthiest foods is 80% vegan? Why do you think you don't see these "foods" on the list: red meat, pork, chicken, dear meat, turkey and all of the other billions of animals that are enslaved, tortured and killed? Do you think we could not only live without eating these animals, but live with thriving health? What does it tell you that, in general, the overwhelming majority of the healthiest, most disease fighting nutrients are supplied by vegan foods? You can get sarcastic with me - that's fine; all I'm trying to do is help animals, which would help people too because it's indisputable that vegan foods are the vast majority of healthy options.
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