Being vegan is about as close as you can come to being sympathetic to animals save Jainism, which is ridiculous. My Uncle Rick has been a Vegan for over 20 years. I was working my granddads garden when he decided to come chat.
Now, uncle Rick doesn’t just chat. He is a 50-something granola, tie dye wearing, white (yellow?) bearded man with a braid of hair three quarters down his back. Once he talks to you, he gets right in your face and immediately delves into politics or some deep subject. The only time he lets up is a quick lean backwards before he launches towards you again. It seems almost like he’s reloading his thoughts.
After talking to him, I came to the conclusion that being a person who eats meat , but not animal by products, is more of a humanitarian than the one who just refuses meat. He grew up on a cattle farm. Here’s his line of thinking:
BEEF: On his farm, the beef cows lived a healthy normal life. One day they were killed by being tapped in the head with a machine. Didn’t feel a thing. Then their bodies are carved into meat for you and I to eat. But the life of the cows is almost better than the wild in that they're protected from wild animals, and from having jealous bulls and such.
DAIRY: Dairy cows are given hormones to increase their milk. The goal is to get the udders as close to the ground as you can without them touching. If they touch, they kill the cow immediately. In order for cows to have milk, they have to have a calf. The calf is taken away from the mother immediately after birth. But, in order for the mom to produce more milk, the calf is kept alive in a crate where the mother can hear it’s crying in order to keep the mother producing. After two months, the calf is sold for meat (veil) because it’s too weak to grow into anything else.
The dairy cows, because of hormones and such, are in a constant need to be milked and feel immense pain. The only thing more painful, however, is the milking process when done by machines. Their life is one of constant induced labor, cramps from having too much milk in their system, sores on the udders, and hearing their calves until they stop producing; then they are killed (Usually younger than the beef cows). Dairy cows live a shorter, more pain filled unnatural life than any beef cow ever would.
Howabout we come up with a new term. A Diadairian or something.
Now, with that being said, my uncle said he'd make an exception for drinking milk and eating cheese. If he knew the owners of the animals and knew how he treated them. For an example, he would drink the milk of a cow that someone took care of like their dog. But, if they were the type of people that would get rid of the cow as soon as it stopped producing, my uncle wouldn't drink the milk no matter how nice he was during it's life. He's not a blood uncle so I definitely didn't get my stubbornness from him (though he has some to spare).
As long as you eat it afterwards, are the actions permissable? Should we eat no meat, no dairy. Or, no meat with dairy. Should we eat only from farms which treat their animals well? should we, in our current state, eat less meat? How do we justify killing a breathing thing for food when it's unneccessary?Should we eat no meat, no dairy. Or, no meat with dairy. Should we eat only from farms which treat their animals well? should we, in our current state, eat less meat? How do we justify killing a breathing thing for food when it's unneccessary?
Side note: Though I've been a vegetarian for the two past years, I am currently not one right now. I am eating meat.
