Ethics of Eating
“Mankind’s true moral test, its fundamental test (which lies deeply buried from view), consists of its attitude towards those who are at its mercy: animals. And in this respect mankind has suffered a fundamental debacle, a debacle so fundamental that all others stem from it.”
- Milan Kundera, Czech Novelist, Playwright and Poet
Many people deem that ethical reasons are more important than all others when changing to vegetarianism, or veganism. The basis of ethical eating is the understanding that other living beings have feelings and that their feelings are the same as ours. This comprehension helps everyone to accept another’s suffering in their consciousness.
Many people would stop eating meat straight away if they had to kill the animal themselves. Most people are not aware of the conditions and manner in which these animals are treated.
Equally, cows are made pregnant every year for milk production, cheese, butter and yoghurt, and get killed as soon as they stop being productive.
Twenty to 25% of calves are used for milk production, and the rest are separated after two weeks for meat production, rennet for the production of cheese, and to harvest their skin.
The situation with egg production is not any better, considering that hens, who feel fear, pain and love, keep social contact and communicate with one another, are kept in horrible conditions in industrial mass production breeding facilities similar to concentration camps.
More than 25 centuries ago Pythagoras said: “For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.”
We are today terrified of guns, bombs and rockets, but are we able to close our eyes to the suffering and fear that we ourselves create by killing an unbelievable 60 billion land animals every year.
“I realized that every time I ate any kind of meat, something had been killed for me, and I stopped eating all animals, not just cows and pigs but chickens and fish. I feel so much happier not being a part of the blood chain.”
- Joanna Lumley, actrees
George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist, writer and Nobel Prize winner beautifully explains the ethics of vegan diet: “Animals are my friends...and I don’t eat my friends. This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; (...) the being a force of Nature instead of a feverish selfish little clod of ailments and grievances...”
It is a wonderful feeling when you know that just by changing your diet you are directly saving the lives of many animals.
