There is an incredible amount of polls conducted each year to calculate how many people are vegetarian and why they choose to be so. Most people seem to choose a meatless diet because of either animal rights issues or health issues. A poll conducted by the Toronto Vegetarian Association claims that most Canadian vegetarians choose a meat-free lifestyle because of animal suffering (Click the graph for more polls on vegetarianism from the TVA). A poll conducted in the U.S. showed that those polled chose vegetarianism for health reasons over the others, but that the majority chose the diet for multiple reasons.
Common arguments for vegetarianism based on ethical reasons include beliefs such as: "animals are not for humans to use as they wish," "the reasons to eat animals don't outweigh the unjust treatment and suffering of animals" and "humans are unfairly treating different species unequally (ie: keeping dogs and cats as pets, eating cows and pigs)."
There is an incredible amount of evidence and arguments for and against these above stances, none of which I will go into. I've realized over the years that people will believe what they want, and they'll come up with any argument possible to validate those beliefs. But if you'd like to learn more about vegetarianism and veganism from an ethical standpoint, there's no shortage of Web sites and books out there packed with great information. Check out a couple sites to learn more:
1. Animal Rights and Vegetarian Ethics
This site tackles some really great issues and questions surrounding vegetarianism, some I'd never even considered before. The site's author does an amazing job of covering all the angles and trying to answer all questions relating to each ethical issue.
2. Viva!
There's great information all over Viva!'s site, but the above link goes directly to a mini-slideshow about the ethical issues of eating meat. The presentation of it is a little dramatic - but there's absolutely nothing inaccurate about it.
3. PETA
Again, there's great information all over PETA's Web site too, but this link goes directly to an article entitled "Why Animal Rights?" The type is small and it's kind of lengthy for on-line reading, but I highly recommend reading through it.
PETA's Web site also includes countless videos exposing animal injustices. Click the link to see some of their most recent videos. PETA's "Meet your meat" video is listed in the top right corner of the page as one of their top five videos. It's the single-most influential video for animal rights according to vegetarians and vegans on Veggieboards.com.
Some images from PETA's videos:
Animal experimentation
A lab rat at a Petsmart testing facility
A fur farm
A video of China's dog and cat fur trade (fur that activists' reports show is re-labeled as other species' fur and sold to U.S. merchants)
1 comment:
This post is very interesting. I really didn't know that so many people eat vegetarian because they don't wish to harm animals. I thought that the number of people's whose primary concern was health would make up the majority of vegetarians. Save the animals, eat a tree!
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