pro vegetarianism

Dear Father, hear and bless
thy beasts and singing birds
and guard with tenderness
small things that have no words.
-St. Clement

To take on the mindset of a vegetarian or even a full out, dedicated vegan: Are you not alert to the harm you’re doing to your body and the environment? Are you not troubled by the pain you’re causing the animals? Why slay animals for food when it isn’t essential?

For the sole reason that man boasts an atrocious ego does he think it is ok that he can or ought to rise above his rank as an animal himself. He introduces mind-made constrictions called ethics and expects that this will miraculously alter the classification of nature. This is a highly asinine and pompous thought. It is precisely human beings’ unique capacity for reflection and self-restraint that compels us to pursue ethical values and think morally about our practices. To quote poet Robert Burns: The eagle from his cliffy brow/ Marking out his prey below/ In his breast no pity dwells/ Strong necessity compels/ But man to whom alone is given/ A ray direct from pitying heaven/ Glories in his heart humane/ And creatures for his pleasure slain. Animals that are carnivores in the wild are obligated to kill or starve – we, as civilized omnivores living in a highly-technological world, don’t need to kill for our food.

Leading a vegetarian lifestyle is also very beneficial to your own health in the long run. Not only are meatsf attening and have a tendency to clog up those much needed clear arteries, but they are also full of hormones, nitrates and pesticides, harmful, man-made toxins present in commercially raised animal products—a few factors definitely to be concerned about. Wrongful preparation of such treated foodstuff is also a too-often seen issue that frequently causes people sickness and disease.

That animal liberation is the rational next stride in the advancing stride of ethical development and a vegetarian lifestyle, is no longer the periphery proposal it was back at its beginnings in the 70’s. A rising powerful movement of ethicists, philosophers, law professors and activists are certain that the grand ethical fight of our generations will be for animals’ rights.

To date, the movement has won some of its greatest triumphs in Europe. Recently, Germany became the first nation to award animals a constitutional right: the words ''and animals'' were attached to a provision compelling the government to respect and care for the dignity of human beings. In England the farming of animals for fur was recently prohibited. The Swiss are modifying their laws to adjust the status of animals from ''things'' to ''beings.'' And in a few other European nations, female pigs can no longer be kept in crates and hens cannot be laid into ''battery cages''

Thirty-seven states have of late approved laws making some types of animal brutality a crime. Following protests by activists, McDonald's and Burger King required considerable advances in the means by which the U.S. meat industry slaughters animals. Agribusiness and the makeup and apparel industries are all fighting to soothe escalating public anxieties over animal wellbeing. A though animals are unfortunately still very much seen as mere objects in the eyes of American law, change is in the air.