Vegan Dog.

I became vegan in August 2012. I'm not sure I have noticed any particular health benefits to date, but veganism has significantly affected my emotional well-being. (Positively). 

I first thought seriously about the use of animals as products after reading Kurt Vonneguts 'Slaughterhouse 5'. Despite the title, there were only two references to the use of animals but they hit me hard:

'...Almost all the hooved animals in Germany had been killed and eaten and excreted by human beings, mostly soldiers. So it goes.' 

and: 

'...the axle of the wheelbarrow had been greased with the fat of dead animals. So it goes.'

So I gradually came to be a vegan. Yes, I understand that the natural world is a violent, hostile and pitiless environment. Nothing exists for it's own benefit or pleasure. Only for the benefit of its as yet 'unborn' third party. 

It is the industrialized use of animals that is both appalling and unsustainable. The average westerner on the street is not locked in a never-ending struggle for food, where succeeding or failing to make a 'kill' means life or death. The consumption of meat for most westerners involves a casual stroll along the appropriate aisle and selecting neatly packaged 'product'- literally a product. Not a dead animal. A chop. A steak. A sausage. 

I know many meat eaters. I know not a single one who would personally end the life of an animal. My view is 'Can't kill it? Then don't eat it.' 

I have carnivorous friends who have a nervous break down if my two cats catch a bird or rodent. They cannot bear to see the animal suffer 'pointlessly'. Later that evening they will tuck in to a good sized rib cut steak and see no connection whatsoever. 

I have a neighbour who keeps chickens. I see them daily free roaming across the fields near my home. Or foraging and scratching by the roadside. I have no issue at all with them being eventually killed and consumed by my neighbors family. 

So, I'm a vegan. Yet I am not violently opposed to the idea that humans eat animals. For me, the the monstrous scale of the industry required to feed the humans of this world rules out any hope of an industry that could ever be truly 'humane'.

Dog <3