It is widely believed that the first humanoids were mostly collectors who survived on a plant based diet. Then they evolved the art of hunting and started eating increasingly larger amounts of meat. While this is not a consensual theory, it is possibly undisputed that our ancestors lived much closer to nature than modern humans. And this should b true to possibly all civilizations in known human history. They respected the natural landscapes, the natural cycles of the sun and the moon, the water streams and cycles, and life in general.
Many animal lovers propose that we should take care what stories and songs we teach our children. The reason is that many of those stories and songs are examples of what we should stop doing to animals. So we better sanitize the stories, removing the offending parts or replacing them by more positive alternatives, in order to avoid showing animals as dangerous beings or objects that we can abuse to our own will.
I grew up in a family that were hunters, fishers, and farmers. By the time I was a teenager I had become a hunter and fisherman. I thought nothing about blowing a hole in a rabbit, dove, quail, or any other animal. Once I was going down a hill with my shotgun looking for something to kill. I was watching out for rattlesnakes. All of a sudden a rabbit ran out of the bush into my path. It really scared me and I aimed at the rabbit and fired. The poor little rabbit flew up in the air and his or her intestines were hanging out of their body. The poor little rabbit was squealing in horrible pain. I did not want to rabbit to suffer so with my boot I crushed his or her head. This bothered me the rest of my life including now. It was not enough then to cause me to become a vegan.
Note: This article has recently been reviewed for accuracy by veterinarian Armaiti May, DVM. (www.veganvet.net)
Her comments are included throughout the article in italics, and a summary from her is included at the end.
Dogs are honest about their feelings. Love is irresistible and dogs seem to easily feel someone's love for them. We've been fortunate to share life with a number of vegan dogs. Yes, Beautiful, Magic, Vegan, Miracles, Baba, Kisses, Valiant, etc. represent the pinnacle of their species and are at the helm of the 'vegan dog movement'. We would like to share the knowledge attained from our experience caring for vegan dogs.
It's a widely held belief that people need animal products for survival and good health, even though there are many long-time vegans who are very often healthier than the omnivorous majority. Any country whose economy is largely based on animal exploitation results in its people believing that there's little left to eat if you don't eat animal products. When people find out that I'm vegan, they ask me, 'But what is left to eat?' I tell them that I eat from the vast variety of plants found in the New Four Food Groups; grains, legumes, vegetables and fruit as recommended by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, rather than from the food group charts that were produced by those who profit from dairy and meat consumption.
I have an idea that I'm currently floating around the vegetarian world. Have you ever wondered why so many vegetarian families are "unaffiliated" with any local organization; or why so many vegetarian young people feel "alienated" and "dispossessed" and disconnected, even from other vegetarians, especially if those vegetarians are older than they; or why, if our ideas are so valuable and true, there aren't more vegetarian "revolutions"?
This column will help answer questions that meat eaters throw at vegetarians in an attempt to make them appear uninformed and irrational and force them to justify or even change their eating style.
Here are some Frequently Asked Questions about a Vegan lifestyle.
