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WHY VEGANISM?
1. Intro (plus, what about fish?)
2. Why don't vegans buy/eat dairy?
3. Why don't vegans buy/eat eggs?
4. Why don't vegans buy/eat honey?
5. Why don't vegans buy leather?
6. Why don't vegans buy wool?
7. Why don't vegans buy silk?
8. Why don't vegans buy down?
9. Why don't vegans buy fur?
10. Why don't vegans buy animal-tested products?
11. Why don't vegans buy animals from breeders?
12. Why don't vegans buy/drink certain alcoholic and
soft drinks?
13. Why don’t vegans visit zoos/aquariums?

1. INTRO

This section will aim to explain the moral imperative of

veganism, as opposed to vegetarianism, and to explain
why vegans abstain from buying, eating, and wearing the
products listed in the above menu.
Firstly, let us define what veganism is: veganism is a
moral obligation whereby one abstains from supporting
the systematic exploitation of animals for food, clothing,
service, and entertainment. Essentially then, a vegan
does not support any industry that uses animals for any
purpose. Simply put: animals are here with us, not for us,
and we have no right to use them as our slaves.

It is pretty self-explanatory why vegans would not

buy/eat meat, given that everybody in the world knows
that an animal has to be slaughtered for that product,
thus the ethical implications are clear. As such, this
section will focus on all the products that separate
vegans from vegetarians (so eggs, dairy, wool, etc.).
Hopefully then, the answer to the question of, "So why
vegan? Why not just vegetarian?" will become clear.

If, however, you do wish to see a video that focuses

solely on meat, please watch 'Meet Your Meat' here.
Remember though that simply abstaining from meat
alone is not enough, as buying any animal product
contributes to the cycle of violence and exploitation that
you will learn about below.

But what about fish?

Fish, too, are sentient creatures, who seek to avoid

danger and death, like land animals. As such, vegans do
not consume fish either. You can see some videos on the
fishing industry below.

How Conscious Can A Fish Be? (documentary)

Animal Equality tuna fishing investigation

Seaspiracy (documentary)

Sea Life (Farm to Fridge)

The Fishing Industry Explained in 5 Minutes

Is there actually an ethical reason to eat fish?

2 . W H Y D O N ' T V E G A N S B U Y / E AT DA I R Y ?
The dairy cow lives a miserable existence. Regardless of
whether the farm she is kept on is organic, free range,
and whether or not she is grass-fed, she faces a lifetime
of sexual violations and mistreatment, until she is
eventually killed.

The process of how we get milk starts with the sexual

violation of a cow. This is done via what we cutely refer
to as 'artificial insemination', though the correct term is
rape. Without her consent, a farm worker shoves his/her
hand into the cow's sexual orifice and pumps semen into
her with a steel device in order to impregnate her. Cows
need to be made pregnant in order to produce milk, so
this is completely routine practice in order to maximise
milk production.

Once she calves (i.e. has a baby), the calf is only allowed
to spend a short amount of time with their mother before
they are taken away—many calves will not even get to
taste their own mother's milk. Many dairy cows will cry
out for weeks for their stolen baby.

If the calf is a male, he is considered a 'waste product'

(as he cannot produce milk) to the dairy farm, and thus is
either killed there on the farm or is sent off to the veal
industry. Female calves will meet the same fate as their
mothers, facing a lifetime of reproductive system
violations and painful births, all so that we can eat
cheese or ice cream. Once a female's time is up and she
no longer produces a profitable amount of milk, the
farmer makes one last profit off her body by sending her
off to slaughter.

Videos:

'The price of milk' (non-graphic)

Burger King dairy supplier abuse

Dairy is Scary

Male dairy calves deemed 'waste' and shot

3 . W H Y D O N ' T V E G A N S B U Y / E AT E G G S ?

Regardless of whether you buy free range, cage-free, or

just bog-standard shop eggs, the level of violence and
exploitation remains the same.

The process all starts at a place called a hatchery. At

hatcheries, male and female chicks are sorted by
workers called 'sexers'. Males are, like male calves in the
dairy industry, considered 'waste products', and are killed
at the hatchery, either by being macerated alive, or by
being gassed, drowned, or suffocated in a sack. Females
are painfully de-beaked and sent off to the farm (be it
free range, or whatever), where they will lay a painful
300+ eggs per year due to genetic manipulation (as
opposed to a wild chickens 20 or so per year).

Once a chicken no longer lays a profitable amount of

eggs, she is crammed into a tiny crate with all her
feathered friends, thrown into the back of a truck and
driven off to slaughter, where she awaits a brutal
execution (in developed countries, this is generally done
by being thrown into an electric bath to be ineffectively
stunned, then hoisted up upside down and going along a
conveyor belt to have her throat slit). Many chickens will
remain fully conscious after their throats are slit and will
be boiled alive in the de-feathering tank afterwards.

So what about backyard eggs (i.e. eggs from hens you

keep in your garden)? Do vegans eat those? The answer
is no, and there are multiple reasons for this, but to
summarise: animals are not vending machines for us. By
identifying as a backyard egg eater, one is promoting
the exploitation of non-human animals and furthering
society's idea that these animals are a 'food source' for
us. This, in turn, contributes to the cycle of violence in
these industries. As well as this, repeatedly taking hens’
eggs from them actually forces them to lay more, which
can cause damage to their reproductive systems. Simple
put, their eggs are not ours to take. See 'The Truth About
Backyard Eggs' from the list of videos below for more on
this.

Videos:

Hatchery footage

Male chicks drowned by egg industry

Typical chicken slaughterhouse

The Truth About Backyard Eggs

4 . W H Y D O N ' T V E G A N S B U Y / E AT H O N E Y ?

Wait, what... not even honey?!

Don't worry—as former non-vegans ourselves, most of us

completely understand why people would be surprised
at the concept of abstaining from buying/eating honey
for ethical reasons. But when we examine a.) what
veganism is all about and b.) why it is unethical to
consume it, it all becomes very clear. Allow me to
explain...

Bees produce honey for themselves, and themselves

only. They work tirelessly for it, and we take it from them.
So to be blunt, supporting the honey industry literally is
theft—it is the fruits of someone else's labour that does
not belong to you.

Veganism encompasses abstaining from exploiting all

creatures great and small—not just the big cuddly ones
like cows.

But are bees that bothered? Do they even care that we

steal their honey? Well, think about it logically: if bees
wanted you to take their honey, or were even in the
slightest bit okay with it, you wouldn't have to wear that
ridiculous bee-keeping suit every time you went into
their hive and stole it!

For more information on bees and the cruel, exploitative

practices of the honey industry, I highly recommend
giving this site a visit.

Videos:

The Honey Industry Explained in 5 Minutes

5 . W H Y D O N ' T V E G A N S B U Y L E AT H E R ?

Many people are under the impression that leather is a

by-product of the beef industry. This is not true. Cows
are bred, enslaved, abused, and murdered specifically
for their leather, primarily in developing countries with no
welfare regulations in place whatsoever.
Cows in the leather industry are brutalised from birth to
slaughter, having their tails broken, having chilli peppers
rubbed in their eyes to make them jump up if they
collapse from heat exhaustion, being ineffectively
stunned, and often being skinned alive. So buying
leather is no different to buying fur, which many non-
vegans are repulsed by. Below are some videos showing
leather industry footage.

Remember: synthetic leather is readily available online

or in shops. So you don't need to worry about smart
shoes or anything if you're a vegan... we've got you
covered!

Videos:

Stella McCartney on the leather industry

Leona Lewis on the Bangladeshi leather industry

Leather in 60 Seconds Flat

6 . W H Y D O N ' T V E G A N S B U Y W O O L?

Now the first argument I can see someone presenting

upon reading this is, "sheep need to be sheared". Yes,
this is true. This is why they are sheared at vegan
sanctuaries. But it's not the actual shearing for the
sheep's own benefit that is the reason vegans abstain
from buying wool. Let me explain why the "sheep need
shearing" argument against vegans buying wool is a
fallacy, using this analogy:

Imagine someone set up a farm where human children

were being farmed for their urine. Now, urination is a
natural process, and children need to urinate, yes? But
let's say these children were being bred via artificial
insemination (sexual violation) of the little girls old
enough to bear children. Now imagine that babies unfit
for urine production were slammed to death against a
wall/floor (a routine wool/pork industry practice known in
industry as PAC, aka 'pounding against concrete'). Then
the male babies had their testicles ripped off, and babies
of both sexes had tags put through their ears (all without
anaesthetic). After each of them had produced a
profitable amount of urine, they were packed onto ships
to the Middle East to face a gruelling journey, where
their fate upon arrival would be to have their throats slit
via the Halal method (no stun) so they could be eaten by
the locals. But hey, children need to urinate, right?

Now do you see why this is a bad argument?

The above sounds pretty sick, but this is the reality for
lambs and sheep farmed in the wool industry, which is
one of the most brutal and appalling industries to have
ever existed. All sheep in the wool industry meet a
violent end, and all are exploited, enslaved, and abused
for their wool. There is no 'humane' way to farm sheep
for their wool any more than there is a 'humane' way to
farm human children for their urine. See the videos
below for wool industry footage and information.

Please also be aware of 'angora' wool, which is taken

from rabbits. See also in videos below.

Videos:

Pink speaks up for sheep

Patagonia 'responsibly sourced' wool

The Cruelty Behind Our Clothing: Wool

Angora wool industry footage (rabbits)

7. W H Y D O N ' T V E G A N S B U Y S I L K ?

Just as with honey, no creature, great or small, is

excluded from being given the right to be free from
exploitation when it comes to veganism. That's why
vegans abstain from funding the cruel and exploitative
silk industry, where silk worms are boiled alive just for
our vanity.

Video:

Is Silk Vegan?

8. WHY DON'T VEGANS BUY DOWN?

The down industry is a barbaric trade, and birds
enslaved in it suffer terribly as a result of being kept in
cramped conditions and often being plucked whilst alive
and fully conscious ('live plucking'). Just as with any
other animal product industry, birds bred for their
feathers will be brutally slaughtered. Much of the world's
down comes from China, where no animal welfare laws
exist—so when it comes to how birds on down farms are
treated, 'anything goes' is, unfortunately, often the
mantra.

Videos:

Live plucking from 'responsible down suppliers'

Footage taken from down supplier for Canada Goose

9. WHY DON'T VEGANS BUY FUR?

Fur farming—an industry so brutal that it is banned from

the UK—is still, unfortunately, prevalent in many
countries today, and the wearing of fur is coming back
into the 'mainstream' via trims on hooded jackets, and
bobbles on hats and keyrings.

There are several ways fur is sourced:

Most fur is sourced from fur farms, often in China (where

there are no animal welfare laws), North America, or
Northern/Eastern Europe. Animals on fur farms face a
living hell, where they are locked in wire mesh cages,
often gnawing at the mesh in hope of escape as they
urinate and defecate on each other due to the cages
being piled high. On Western fur farms, the enslaved
animals are generally murdered by having their necks
snapped, while in China, they tend to be either beaten to
death or are anally electrocuted to ineffectively stun
them and then are skinned while fully conscious and
tossed into a pile of dead animals.

There is also fur sourced from wild animals killed by

'trappers'. Trappers lay out steel leg traps (banned in
many countries) and wait for animals such as foxes or
coyotes to be lured into them. Trapped animals will often
attempt to bite off their own legs, such is their
desperation to escape from these hellish devices. When
the trapper returns to the trap (often after the animal has
been trapped in it for up to 2 or 3 days), the trapper will
either shoot the animal or will bludgeon them to death. A
notable example of a brand who uses the trapping
method is Canada Goose, whose jackets use real coyote
fur (as well as being stuffed with down).

Videos:

Inside Chinese fur farms with Olivia Munn

Inside a Russian fur farm

Inside a Norwegian fur farm

Inside a US fur farm

Coyote trapping

The truth behind Canada Goose coats

10. WHY DON'T VEGANS BUY ANIMAL-

TESTED PRODUCTS?

As well as refusing to buy clothes and food containing

animals parts and ingredients, vegans also refuse to buy
products that are animal-tested.

Animals in testing facilities are subjected to things most

people wouldn't even wish upon their worst enemy, such
as having their eyes sewn shut, having pipes forced
down their throats and into their stomachs, being burned
alive, and eventually, being killed.

Animal testing literally is animal abuse, and there is no

logical argument against this. Just as it would be wrong
for someone to scrub chemicals into your pet's eyes for
an experiment, so too is it wrong to do it to any animal
enslaved in an animal-testing facility. It is not acceptable
to torture and abuse someone else's kind for the
advancement of one's own. Take slavery, for example:
was it okay to enslave Africans in the West, simply
because it helped the West advance and created what
we now know as 'the New World'? Of course not. Then
neither can it be morally justifiable to enslave and torture
animals because of any 'benefits' it may give our
psychotic species.
If humans claim to be an advanced and scientifically
brilliant species, they can move past using animals for
cruel, barbaric and unnecessary experiments.
Unfortunately, all medicine is tested on animals (see
below) so the goal for that is to work towards ending it
via societal change. With cosmetic and all other products
though, you, as a consumer, have the power right now to
play no part in it.

There is some confusion over animal-tested products,

which I will explain: 1.) is that vegans currently do not
have an option to buy pharmaceutical products (e.g.
medicines, pills) which are not animal-tested, as animal-
testing is required on pharmaceuticals by law—so while
vegans are able to choose an alternative to animal-
based clothing and food very easily, unfortunately, we
currently have no option for pharmaceutical products.
But remember: veganism is about doing the best you
can and actually trying to minimise your harm to the
planet. The original definition of veganism, as coined by
Donald Watson, was to avoid animal exploitation "as far
as is practically possible". 2.) is that, despite animal
testing for cosmetics and cleaning products (e.g. soap,
drain cleaner, etc.) being banned in certain countries
and regions (e.g. in the European Union), companies still
sell to China, where animal testing on all cosmetics and
household products is required by law. As such, vegans
do not buy cosmetic products from brands which sell to
China.

Videos:

Animal testing at a UK facility

Animal Testing in 60 Seconds Flat

Pig tested on for cruel military training

The story of Britches (liberated from a testing facility by

activists)

11. WHY DON'T VEGANS BUY ANIMALS

FROM BREEDERS?

Systematically creating and selling sentient beings as a

business commodity completely violates veganism's
principles of abstaining from supporting the 'use' of
animals for human benefit. What's more is that, every
time one buys an animal from a breeder, an animal dies
in a kill shelter, where thousands of unwanted animals
(e.g. cats or dogs) are 'put to sleep' every year. So
supporting the pet industry supports the overpopulation
of 'pet animals' and their eventual culling.

So what is the vegan stance on keeping pets? Simple:

'adopt, don't shop'. So yes, we absolutely do encourage
you to provide dogs, cats, and any other animals at
shelters, with a loving home. The general concept of
'pets' however, needs to be gradually phased out (i.e. by
not supporting the pet industry), as the existence of this
industry is, by nature, violent and exploitative.

12. WHY DON'T VEGANS BUY/DRINK

C E R TA I N A LC O H O L I C A N D S O F T D R I N K S ?

Many alcoholic and soft drinks, while appearing to be

vegan, use animal-derived ingredients in the
manufacturing process. Soft drinks may use gelatin, for
example. With regards to alcoholic drinks: beers often
use 'finings' in the manufacturing process to clarify the
liquid (this is done by dropping a fish's swimbladder in
the tank) and wines may use albumen (egg protein), milk
proteins, or gelatin. These are actually not essential
ingredients in the manufacturing of drinks, and many
brands are looking to replace their filtration and
clarification ingredients with plant-based alternatives like
the other brands (Guinness, for example, have now made
their cask product vegan-friendly, and are in the process
of making the tinned product vegan-friendly too).

This may sound a little daunting and overwhelming if

you're looking into going vegan, but please be assured
that it all becomes second nature after a while and you'll
know which brands to buy. My suggestion is to google
your favourite brands of soft drink to find out whether
they use animal-derived ingredients or not. With regards
to Coca-Cola and Schweppes, for example, you can find
that (according to The Vegan Society): "Most Coca-Cola
and Schweppes products are vegan-friendly save for Lilt,
Lilt Zero, Kia-Ora Orange Squash with no added sugar,
and Schweppes Orange Squash. This is the same with
Britvic, who make Pepsi, except for the Pepsi Diet
versions."

When it comes to alcohol, luckily, excellent websites

such as Barnivore contain a huge database of alcoholic
drinks for you to check whether a certain alcoholic drink
is vegan.

(A tip for shopping for wines and seeing if they're vegan

just by checking the label: If you see a wine and, in the
allergens section of the label, milk and egg is not listed,
and the label also says 'Suitable for vegetarians', this
means the wine is vegan, as it means it uses neither fish,
gelatin, milk, nor egg in the manufacturing process.)

13. WHY DON'T VEGANS VISIT

ZOOS/AQUARIUMS?

Whenever someone wants to make money out of

animals, you can be sure that there will always be
something unethical about it—and zoos and aquariums
are no exception to this rule.

While business owners (i.e. those who run the zoos and
aquariums) may claim to accommodate animals properly,
the fact of the matter is that a zoo or aquarium can never
truly recreate an animal’s natural environment. This is
why animals in zoos commonly sow signs of stress and
boredom.

Essentially, these places are nothing more than glorified

animal prisons, which have made millions over the years
from capturing wild animals, enslaving them, and
charging for people to come and gawp at them in their
prison.

Zoos are run by non-vegans and employ non-vegans. As

such, on top of the already immoral enslavement of
these animals, extremely anti-vegan practices take place
in these venues. These include murdering animals for
trivial reasons such as “surplus to requirements”,
“complaints from neighbours about noise” and “to make
space for another male”, to list a few (see here for a
Wikipedia page listing notable zoo animal murders and
the given reasons).
You can go to this page on Gary Yourofksy’s ADAPTT
website which gives a succinct but thorough debunking
of the commonly given arguments for zoos (also
applicable to aquariums), including “conservation” and
other reasons.