“Respect my opinion!” and “It’s my personal choice to eat meat; don’t force your views on me!” are common defenses for eating animal products. So is eating animals a personal choice or is it a little more complex than that? 🤔 🌍
While eating animals and actively choosing to eat dead flesh and animal secretions, may seem like a choice, it’s similar to how a racist or a rapist chooses their actions. Using this logic, it could be morally justifyiable beating a dog or kicking a cat, which raises the question: “If someone makes the personal choice to abuse a dog, does that make it morally justifiable?” 🐶 ❌
Often, non-vegans use this argument because they have either become so detached from the fact that their animal products came from a living being or hold animals with such little regard that they don’t consider the lives of their food worthy of contemplation because they think the consumption of animal products only
affects them as individuals. 🌿 🚫
So when a vegan seeks to educate a non-vegan, we are met with “you should respect other people’s points of view.”. However, as vegans, we do respect the views of others We respect the views of the 56 billion land animals murdered each year that didn’t want to die. 🐄 💔 We respect the views of the dairy cows and egg-laying hens whose bodies are sexually abused and exploited and treated as nothing other than a disposable commodity. 🐓🥛
We respect the views of the 2–2.7 trillion fish and marine animals that are dragged out of their natural habitat every year and suffocated or crushed to death. 🐟 🌊
We respect the views of animals skinned alive for their fur or abused, tortured and
killed for their skin, wool and feathers. 🦔 🪶 We respect the views of the animals callously
tested on by scientists and cosmetics companies, confined to a life of agony
unbelievable pain. 🧪 💔
We respect the views of the animals beaten and punished to perform circus tricks and
unnatural behaviours for our entertainment. 🎪 🦁 We respect the views of every animal that
is oppressed, tortured, and murdered.
We respect the views of the humans who are also victims within our systems of animal
exploitation—and we even respect the view of the person we are talking to, the view
that they probably want to live a long life by caring enough to tell them that
consuming animal products hugely increases their risk of cancer, diabetes, strokes,
dementia, heart disease and every other major disease plaguing our species.💔 🥼
So when people so defiantly tell us to respect the views of others, the question is,
which other view point are they considering other than their own? 🤔 🌍
When they declare it’s their personal choice to eat animal products, what about the
personal choice of every other creature, human and non-human alike, whose life is
treated as inferior and meaningless just so people can poison their bodies with
products created from their death and fear? 🐄 💭
It is not morally justified to murder just because the murderer personally made the
choice to murder. It is not morally justifiable to rape just because the rapist personally
made the choice to commit the act of rape. It is not morally justified to kick and beat
a dog just because the abuser personally made the choice to kick and beat the dog
and it is not morally justifiable to pay for animals to be exploited and killed, just
because a non-vegan personally made the choice to pay for animals to be exploited
and killed. 🚫 🐾
When someone uses the “my personal choice” argument, simply, we want to ask them, “what
about the personal choice of the animal who wants to live, have you considered their
Choice?” Are you considering any view besides your own? What about the personal choice of the animal who simply wants to live? 🌱 ❤️
By acknowledging these perspectives, we can foster a more compassionate and thoughtful dialogue about the impact of our choices on all living beings. 🌍 💚