Most humans value and view dogs and cats as animal companions. They are acknowledged to experience everything sentient beings can feel. Most humans view cows and pigs as nothing more than food. This is a spectacular failure to connect with reality of sentient beings. Humanity lives in denial over what really goes on behind the doors and walls of the killing floors. It is no different than the horrors of what goes on in a certain part of Asia where dogs are boiled and butchered alive in a “celebration”.

That “celebration” is only slightly different than a summer cookout where a slaughtered pig is put on display and rotated on a piercing piece of metal to the delight of all in attendance. There is credible evidence that the so-called “invigorating” smells of dead animals cooking are in fact carcinogenic. So there is not just the ethical connection to make here. There is the health connection.

What is making the connection? It is acknowledging that we are guilty of speciesism. Treating one animal better than another is saying the emotions of one animal not of importance because you view them as food versus viewing them as a companion. When you make that connection, you grieve. You mourn for the lives that are lost in the past, and for those in the present and future.

The ethical and environmental reasons for going vegan have NEVER become more clearer than they have now.

@WriterDann

NOTE: Being from Canada, I acknowledge and accept that First Nation Communities (especially in our vast remote north) depend on hunting for sustenance and survival. In no shape or form am I suggesting that veganism be imposed on those remote communities. It is a fact that fresh fruits and vegetables are a significant cost to these communities even with government subsidies in place. I am aware of efforts to introduce more plant based eating in larger areas of the north such as Nunavut’s capital city Iqaluit.