For the entire month of February, I'm a vegan carnivore
I’m a vegan. In response to a challenge, for the month of February, I’ve given up my usual carnivorous habits and become a full-time, albeit temporary, vegan. I’ve always been curious about vegetarianism but have never tried it for myself. I can easily understand why people choose to give up eating meat. For flesh-eating animal lovers like myself, there’s an obvious dilemma: how can you like a fellow creature, yet still be prepared to kill and eat it?
Cannibalism is one of the greatest human taboos, crossing all cultural barriers. Yet if we cannot eat humans, why is it OK for us to eat animals? How can we agree that animals are similar to us in so many ways, yet we still feel that we’re entitled to take their lives and munch their meat?
For me, it comes down to the fact that there is a distinct difference between the consciousness of humans and animals. Animals seem to lack the self awareness of humans. If you place a dog or cat in front of a mirror, and place a piece of sticky tape onto their forehead, they will not make the connection between the image in the mirror and their own body. Animals don’t reflect on their own existence, wondering about the meaning of life. Animals lack complex language and most are unable to communicate with other members of their own species in the same way of humans.
How is all this relevant to meat eating? It comes down to practicalities. Humans are able to farm animals, providing for their daily needs while they grow from birth to young adults. Animals don’t have the ability to question the legitimacy of this, and they don’t object to it: they seem to accept their situation with a level of contentedness. When they’ve grown sufficiently for us to eat them, they allow themselves to be taken to the slaughterhouse often without seeming distressed. Of course, a slaughter house is a grim place, and it’s understandable that the sight and sound of an abattoir is enough to make many people give up eating meat. But when slaughter is carried out humanely, animals shouldn’t suffer fear beforehand, nor pain when their lives are taken from them. And back on the farm, the relatives of the slaughtered animals don’t show signs of grieving, as humans would in a similar situation.
It’s important to me that animals are looked after well by humans, to ensure that they have lives that are worth living. They should be protected from fear, pain, hunger, thirst, discomfort and anxiety. They should be allowed to express normal behaviours of their species, socialising, playing and enjoying life. Once this has been granted to them, if we are able to give them a swift, painless death without their prior knowledge, I can’t see a problem: there’s no evidence of suffering.
Of course livestock farming and slaughter don’t always happen in the ideal way; animals don’t always have lives worth living, and abattoirs don’t always function as they’re meant to. But if consumers source their meat carefully, I believe that it’s possible to eat meat whilst still being an animal lover.
I’ve discussed this in previous blogs, and during one debate last autumn, a vegan called Catrina gave me a challenge: stop eating all animal products for a month. This would allow me to find out for myself what it feels like to be a vegan.
I agreed to Catrina’s proposal, and February is my chosen month. For the last three days I've eaten no meat, fish, dairy products or eggs. I'm not even allowed honey on my (non-buttered) toast. Only twenty five days to go.
A local health food cafe/store is helping me source ingredients and choose recipes. Veganism seems complicated, but perhaps that’s just because it’s so new to me. I’ll be reporting my progress on my Facebook and Twitter pages, and I’ll report back here at the end of the month. Watch this space.
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