Being Vegan Is Not Just A Matter

People Say That Being A Vegan Creates A Social Problem In That Others May React Negatively. But Isnt That The Case If You Take A Principled Position On Any Issue, Whether Its Racism, Sexism, Heterosexism, Violence As A General Matter—or Speciesism? The Key Is To Educate Others About *why* You Take The Position.

We Can No More Justify Using Nonhumans As Human Resources Than We Can Justify Human Slavery. Animal Use And Slavery Have At Least One Important Point In Common: Both Institutions Treat Sentient Beings Exclusively As Resources Of Others. That Cannot Be Justified With Respect To Humans; It Cannot Be Justified With Respect To Nonhumans—however “humanely” We Treat Them.

Humans Treat Animals As Things That Exist As Means To Human Ends. That's Morally Wrong. Sexism Promotes The Idea That Women Are Things That Exist As Means To The Ends Of Men. That's Morally Wrong. We Need To Stop Treating All Persons - Whether Human Or Nonhuman - As Things.

We Proclaim Human Intelligence To Be Morally Valuable Per Se Because We Are Human. If We Were Birds, We Would Proclaim The Ability To Fly As Morally Valuable Per Se. If We Were Fish, We Would Proclaim The Ability To Live Underwater As Morally Valuable Per Se. But Apart From Our Obviously Self-interested Proclamations, There Is Nothing Morally Valuable Per Se About Human Intelligence.

We Cannot Talk Simultaneously About Animal Rights And The 'humane' Slaughter Of Animals.