What is ethical veganism?

Ethical vegans believe that it is morally wrong to make animals suffer and die just so that we can consume animal products, whether to eat, to wear, or otherwise.

Ethical vegans believe that non-human animals have a right to be free from suffering, and a right to life, just as humans do. We are all thinking, feeling, sentient creatures. We all experience emotions, positive and negative. We all have the capacity to suffer.

Ultimately, ethical vegans believe that we should “be kind to all kinds” - that we should treat all creatures as we would like to be treated ourselves.

Buddhist teachings provide a useful framework for us to consider ethical issues. They encourage us to realise that ethics can be - indeed, should be - grounded in our capacity for compassion and empathy. The Tibetan concept of empathy translates roughly as "the inability to bear the sight of another's suffering".

Fundamentally, we are all able to empathise with the suffering of others. From our own experiences, we know that suffering is bad and happiness is good, we know that life is preferable to death, and we know that peace is preferable to violence. Our capacity for empathy, our awareness of suffering, can guide us in determining whether a particular action is good or bad from an ethical point of view. In trying to live an ethical life, the key question for us to ask is really: does a particular action cause unnecessary suffering for others?

Many people would describe themselves as animal lovers and hate seeing animals in distress. We know that pigs are intelligent and emotional creatures (source 1, source 2), we know that chickens suffer in the egg industry (source), we know that cows suffer in the dairy industry (source), we know that fish feel pain (source), and we know that ultimately both animals and humans suffer in industries that treat sentient living creatures as nothing more than commodities (source).

As Ed Winters - Earthling Ed - invites meat-eaters to consider, “how do you humanely take the life of an animal?”; “a meal lasts a matter of minutes, an inconsequential amount of time… but that meal has cost the entire existence of an animal.”

In considering how we might live a more ethical life, we should ask ourselves how we might bring the greatest happiness to the greatest number of living creatures - and how we can reduce fear, sadness, and suffering as far as possible.

Concepts of empathy, compassion, and kindness are central to vegan ethics. Ethical vegans do not see any fundamental difference between a dog, a cat, a pig, a cow, a chicken, or any other animal - including a human. All have the capacity to feel pain and to suffer, to feel fear, to feel joy, to form family bonds, to enjoy freedom, and all prefer life over death. This does not necessarily mean that we must think of human and non-human animals as "equal" - whatever that might mean - but just that all share certain fundamental characteristics, because all are sentient creatures with central nervous systems, brains, and sensory perception, and therefore all should share certain fundamental rights - such as the right to life.

Since it is not necessary to eat animals, as plant-based alternatives are now readily available in shops and restaurants, eating animals cannot be morally justified. Farming animals for food (and other products, such as clothing) causes them unnecessary suffering and unnecessary death. It has been 'normalised' by centuries of cultural practices that treat animals as 'things', as commodities - but this does not make it right.

Animals have been turned into mere products by cultural practices and even by our language. We talk about eating "beef" and "pork" rather than eating "cow" and "pig". We talk about wearing "leather" rather than wearing "cow skin". We can buy neatly packaged meat products in shops, able to pay for other people to have carried out the raising, killing and butchering of the animals behind closed doors.

Why do so many people find such unnecessary barbarity to be acceptable? Well, Buddhist teachers have described how our sense of empathy can be dulled by an atmosphere of violence and indifference. We are very easily able to ignore where our food has come from (when we can buy it neatly packaged from the nearest shop) and, in any event, we are told from an early age that eating animal products is perfectly normal and indeed is good for us. People have become very disconnected from the horrific realities of the livestock and dairy industries.

The message of veganism is a fundamentally positive one: that we are all capable of recognising that happiness and joy are preferable to fear and suffering, that life is preferable to death. We can all empathise with other living creatures - and from an ethical point of view, we should do so. We should not hide from, but we should acknowledge, the fact that animals have to suffer and die so that humans can consume animal products. And we should ask ourselves, how can we justify this from an ethical standpoint?

Our response is that there is not any reasonable justification, because the suffering and death of literally billions of sentient creatures each year in the livestock, dairy, egg and fashion industries is entirely unnecessary. Plant-based foods are tasty, healthy, and better for the environment; plant-based and man-made fabrics are just as effective as their animal equivalents.

YouTube is full of videos of people who (to much celebration) save animals that have fallen down drains, got stuck up trees, and so on. If we see an animal in distress, our gut feeling is to help it. If we see an animal in the park, our gut feeling is to play with it rather than to grab a knife to try to kill and eat it - even if we are feeling hungry.

In summary, becoming vegan is to align our actions consistently with an ethical framework that acknowledges our fundamental capacity for empathy and kindness. In my view, veganism is therefore inherently an "ethical" stance. Furthermore, a key point to remember is that diet and what we consume cannot simply be a matter of personal choice when there are victims - the animals - that have no choice, that are made to suffer in the livestock, dairy, egg and fashion industries. Such suffering is entirely avoidable.

To those who say it is impossible to live healthily as a vegan, we would simply point them to the wise words of Dr Ellsworth Wareham, speaking here in 2013 when he was a mere 98 years old (having retired at 95 from his medical practice). His key advice for living a long and healthy life: be active; be vegan; be calm; and get a good night's sleep!

And finally, for those who think vegan activists and ethical vegans are "extreme", "militant", or worse, we would simply direct them to the thoughtful words here of Earthling Ed. Calling activists "pushy" or saying they "force" their views on others is doing them a huge disservice, given they are not motivated by malice or by any selfish or negative emotion. They are motivated by a strong sense of wanting people and all living creatures to be able to live happily, healthily, and free from suffering. As the title of Ed’s speech indicates, opening your mind to ethical veganism will likely mean that you will never look at your life in the same way again.

If you are not already vegan, why not sign up for Veganuary and give it a go?!