Veganism: Just Another Way of Reducing Suffering Or a Fundamental Principle of Justice & Nonviolence? | Animal Rights: the Abolitionist Approach

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Veganism: Just Another Way of Reducing Suffering or a Fundamental Principle of Justice & Nonviolence? | Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach

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IS VEGAN! Veganism: Just Another Way of Reducing 07 Suffering or a Fundamental Principle of Justice & Podcast If you want it. 03 2010 Nonviolence? Posted by Gary L. Francione in Blog

Dear Colleagues:

It is important to understand that there are significant differences among those who regard themselves as vegans.

One important difference is between those who maintain that veganism is merely a way www.TheWorldisVegan.com Find Me Online of reducing suffering, and those who maintain that it is a fundamental commitment to justice, nonviolence, and a recognition of the moral personhood of nonhuman animals. Blubrry Wise Words iTunes The difference between these two groups is not merely a matter of abstract theory—it has Twitter "All beings are fond of life, like Vimeo pleasure, hate pain, shun destruction, profound practical consequences. like life, long to live. To all life is Wikipedia dear." The prevailing position on veganism among new welfarists is that veganism is a way YouTube — Acharanga Sutra (Jain) at 1.2.3. —one way—of reducing suffering. Understand in this manner, veganism is no different than cage-free eggs or meat produced from a slaughterhouse designed by PETA-award Translations 56 Billion Per Year winner Temple Grandin. These are, new welfarists claim, all just ways of reducing suffering. If X chooses to reduce suffering by being a vegan, great; if Y chooses to French 0 buffaloes reduce suffering by eating cage-free eggs, great. If X decides to reduce suffering on German 0 camels Monday by eating no animal products and on Tuesday by eating “humanely” produced Portuguese 7 cattle animal products, that’s fine. To maintain that, as a moral matter, X should be a vegan on Spanish 1,185 chickens Monday and Tuesday and every other day is “absolutist,” “fundamentalist,” or “fanatical.” 63 ducks Abolitionist Pamphlet 9 goats People like Peter Singer, and groups like “Vegan” Outreach and PETA maintain this 0 horses position. For example, Singer maintains that being a “conscientious omnivore” is a 32 pigs 13 sheep “defensible ethical position.” He claims that being a consistent vegan is “fanatical.” Singer 15 turkeys labels himself a “flexible vegan” who will be non-vegan when it is convenient. He mentions eating free-range eggs and dairy. He talks about the “luxury” of eating meat Number of animals killed in the world by the meat, dairy and egg and other products from animals who have been well treated, in his view, and killed industries, since you opened this “humanely.” PETA claims that adherence to veganism as a matter of principle is a matter webpage. This does not include the of “personal purity,” “narcissistic cultural fad,” and “fanatical obsession.” “Vegan” billions of fish and other aquatic Outreach makes the emphasis on suffering clear and downplays the use of animals in animals killed annually. claiming that veganism: Now available in 19 languages! Based on 2007 statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations' Global is not an end in itself. It is not a dogma or religion, nor a list of forbidden Books Livestock Production and Health ingredients or immutable laws—it is only a tool for opposing cruelty and Atlas. reducing suffering. Get this counter »

A fundamental assumption of the new welfarist position is that killing animals does not Blog Posts per se inflict a harm on them. Animals do not care that we use and kill them; they only Commentary: Discussion with Ronnie care about how we treat them and kill them. As long as they don’t suffer too much, Lee and Roger Yates animals are indifferent to our using them. They have no interest in continued existence. Vegan Philosophy in Spain! Live Call-In on Michael Medved’s It is this thinking that has led to the “happy” meat/animal products movement, which has Radio Program been the most serious setback in the struggle for justice for nonhumans in decades. It is Announcement of New Series on this thinking that leads PETA and Singer to maintain that we may have a moral obligation Animal Ethics by Columbia University Press not to be vegan in situations in which others will be annoyed or disconcerted by A Short Note on Abolitionist insistence on veganism. Veganism as a Single Issue Campaign Save a Seal; Eat Non-Canadian I reject this view. I believe that it is speciesist to maintain that nonhumans must have

http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/veganism-just-another-way-of-reducing-suffering-or-a-fundamental-principle-of-justice-nonviolence/[7/17/10 2:52:51 PM] Veganism: Just Another Way of Reducing Suffering or a Fundamental Principle of Justice & Nonviolence? | Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach

Seafood minds similar to human minds in order to have an interest in continued existence. Any Singer Approves (Again) of Animal sentient being has an interest in continued life in that she prefers, wants, or desires to Exploitation; Drayson on Vivisection remain alive. In my latest book, Animals as in the U.K. Persons: Essays on the Abolition of Animal Exploitation, I discuss my Commentary #16: Responding to We can no more justify using nonhumans as human resources than we can justify human theory of animal rights and explain Questions: Single-Issue Campaigns slavery. Animal use and slavery have at least one important point in common: both why nonhuman animals should be and MDA Opposition to the institutions treat sentient beings exclusively as resources of others. That cannot be regarded as "persons"—full Abolitionist Approach justified with respect to humans; it cannot be justified with respect to nonhumans members of the moral community. Euphoria? For Whom? More » —however “humanely” we treat them. Partners in Exploitation Eight Animals The abolitionist approach sees veganism as the application of the principle of abolition to Video Veganism: Just Another Way of the life of the individual. It is our personal expression that we embrace the moral Reducing Suffering or a Fundamental Principle of Justice & Nonviolence? personhood of all sentient beings and we reject the status of nonhumans as chattel New Book Coming Soon! property. Veganism is an essential part of our commitment to nonviolence. Opposing Views: On Violence Veganism is not just a way of reducing suffering; it is what justice for nonhumans requires On Violence at the very least. It is not the last step in our journey to reject the moral schizophrenia that characterizes the human/nonhuman relationship; it is the first step. If animals have any Blog Archive moral significance, then we cannot eat, wear, or use them. A vegan is not a vegan only 2010 on Mondays, or only when it is convenient. A vegan is a vegan all the time. I would no May (1) more not be vegan just because my being vegan made someone else uncomfortable Watch presentations about the April (5) than I would remain silent if someone told a racist joke or harassed a woman because to Theory of Animal Rights and other topics, as well as keynote addresses March (6) object would make the perpetrator uncomfortable. and interviews given by Professor February (8) It is no more “absolutist” or “fanatical” to be a consistent vegan as it is to be consistent in Francione. January (16) one’s rejection of rape or pedophilia. Indeed, to characterize consistent veganism as 2009 “absolutist” is itself speciesist precisely because we would not so characterize our Abolitionist Designs 2008 complete rejection of fundamental forms of human exploitation. 2007 2006 If you are not vegan, go vegan. It really is easy. It is better for our health and reduces the violence that we do to ourselves. It is better for the planet and reduces the harm that we do to the home of sentient beings and to the ecosystems that sustain all life. But, most importantly, it’s the morally right thing to do. We all say we reject violence. Let’s take what we say seriously. Let’s take an important step to reduce violence in the world starting with what we put in our mouths or on our bodies.

And remember, it’s not an impossibility: THE WORLD IS VEGAN! If you want it.

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1. Veganism: The Fundamental Principle of the Abolitionist Movement 2. Some Thoughts on the Meaning of “Vegan” 3. Veganism: Morality, Health, and the Environment 4. In Defense of Mark Bittman 5. Some Comments on Vegetarianism as a “Gateway” to Veganism

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