Some non-vegans ask, “Why are vegans so serious? Why don’t vegans lighten up?” Here is my answer:
Imagine if you saw a place where they were abusing human mothers and babies. In this facility, thousands of women were giving birth in bed after bed, and as soon as the babies were born, the staff took the infants to another building and then hooked the mothers up to breast pumps. The weeping women were then milked for as long as possible (to sell their milk in the markets), and then forcibly (artificially) impregnated year after year until their bodies were too weak to give birth anymore. At that point the staff killed them and sold their flesh in the markets.
And what became of their wailing babies, who were whisked away at birth? Well, many of the males were killed and their flesh was sold, and the females were raised to become future milkers like their mothers.
Perhaps you can imagine feeling compassion for those crying, suffering human mothers and babies. You might feel deeply disturbed and want to tell other humans about that horrific atrocity you witnessed. But to your surprise, when you try to tell other humans, they tell you to lighten up and stop being so serious. Imagine the despair you might feel when you realize that you cannot help those mothers and babies because the other humans do not want to see and understand what you have seen and understood.
That is the despair of vegans. We see the suffering of the animals, and we understand that they are sentient (able to feel pain and pleasure through the senses) beings, just like human beings. The animals and fish who are farmed as commodities have families and feelings just like humans, cats, and dogs. They all want to live in freedom.
We vegans want freedom for *all* the animals. This compassionate yearning is sincere, and it feels heavy for us, so that is why we are serious and don’t “lighten up.”
The imaginary facility described above, with human mothers and babies, is the exact story that the cow mommas and babies are living on dairy farms. For each human bite of cheese or butter, the cows are enduring unbelievable suffering. Cows are meant to live with their families. The mother cows are designed by nature to create milk for their own calves, not for human beings!
The photo with today’s post depicts a mother cow nursing her calf in the mountains. These kinds of idyllic photos are very misleading because most dairy cows do not get to nurse their own calves. It is such a sad situation. If you still eat dairy, please meditate on the suffering caused by your dairy habit, and please begin your vegan journey soon!
Calf nursing: Ilona Ilyés on Pixabay.
