Make ‘World Vegan Month’ last forever
Imagine an environmentally sound planet populated with joyful, healthy animals, humans included. Picture a global society in which everyone is respected and treated as an individual, a world where anger, fear and violence give way to kindness, security and peace.
November is World Vegan Month, a celebration of our compassionate ambition to save the world — and if we want to be around to do that, then going vegan is the first step, because the destructive industry that’s killing animals and the planet is killing us, too, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
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The flesh of dead animals is often contaminated with feces and blood, and meat is the leading cause of food poisoning in the U.S. According to a study at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 96% of Tyson chicken packages were contaminated with campylobacter, a dangerous bacterium that causes diarrhea, cramping, abdominal pain and fever. Think of your best days, your favorite memories. Did they include diarrhea? Research shows that vegan eating can prolong life expectancy by more than 10 years. And vegans enjoy more energy and better health than meat-eaters. The meat industry, on the other hand, is all about suffering, death and destruction.
Animals used for food are confined by the thousands to dark, filthy sheds, cramped wire cages or tight metal crates without even enough space to turn around. As babies, they’re torn away from their loving mothers, and they endure horrific, premature deaths in slaughterhouses. There’s a reason nobody does yoga to the sound of blood-curdling screams. Animals slaughtered for food experience fear and pain, not peace and well-being. We are what we eat, and those who eat animals or anything taken from them are ingesting misery.
Taking an ethical stance against harming others not only helps keep them safe but also strengthens our own inner peace. What we have in our hearts profoundly influences everyone around us, including animals. Just think of the rotting, broken human souls who relish the carnage of dogfighting and compelling vulnerable canines to maim and kill each other. Then think of the overwhelming love and compassion radiating from someone who rescues a dog from such bloodshed and the joy they bring to others.
There are no smiles in a slaughterhouse — but it’s nothing but smiles when cats have the run of the house. Fulfillment arises from how we treat each other. When sentient beings are suffering, we should help them — not experiment on, eat, wear or exploit them in any other way.
Humans, cows, pigs, birds, lizards — we’re all Earthlings living on the same planet in crisis. Exploiting animals for their flesh, milk, skin or anything else generates enormous amounts of pollution. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, factory farms produce about 500 million tons of manure each year, much of it stored in waste “lagoons,” and runoff from these operations is a leading cause of pollution in rivers and lakes — animal agriculture literally fills the planet with crap.
Going vegan is the planet’s gym membership. Environmentalism relies on the synergy between concern for the biosphere and concern for our own health. When we feel good about ourselves, we’re more likely to care about others and take steps to mitigate the human-induced climate catastrophe.
World Vegan Month is really “Save the World Month.” But let’s look past November. Let’s make December World Vegan Month. And then January. And then every month after that. Let’s make it World Vegan Forever. Learn vegan. Eat vegan. Dress vegan. Play vegan. Be vegan. The world is depending on you.
Scott Miller is a staff writer for the PETA Foundation, 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510; www.PETA.org.
