Ethics
There are certainly many reasons why to go vegan, and why to seek alternatives in eating and shopping as well as alternatives to products that are made from animals or tested on them.
A high level of ethical conscience that is naturally connected with veganism is often the main reason for most people. Empathy which we feel when we see a human or an animal suffer is based on a common basis, so for some people the suffering of animals is a reason for excluding themselves from taking part in it.
Science has already given us very solid proof that all animals are capable of feeling the negative aspects of physical pain, as well as that they are able to suffer mentally – the best sources of such information are surely magazines with particular studies, and such sources can be found within scientific magazines focused on Ethology (the list of some particular ones in English can be found within the Czech Ethics section at the end of each article).
Everything mentioned above applies to all bred mammals and even fish, which are even now considered by many to people as animals not capable of feeling pain (links to interesting studies in English concerned with fish feelings of pain can be found here at the end of this article).
Most animals bred nowadays come from so called systems of intense farming - meaning they come from big and indoor farms, often with more than a thousand animals. Conditions in such farms are dissatisfactory mainly due to a lack of free space to move in, as well as due to a lack of stimuli to satisfy their natural etologic needs (these are the needs of a certain biological kind). Also, certain procedures such as castration, the cutting or burning off of horns, the trimming of beaks or tail-docking take place there, and all of these are painful. Most of such procedures are done without aneasthetics, and often cause chronic pain that does not disappear.
Conditions in particular farms differ from one kind of animal to another, however painful deseases such as mastitis, a painful udder inflammation that can be found, according to some authors in nearly half of dairy cows, and lameness, a painful inflamation of legs in pigs, cows, chickens and other birds take place very often.
The satisfaction of etological needs of animals bred for meat, milk, eggs, and also for leather and fur is supressed radically even though these animals - as well as humans - feel very strong motivation towards satisfying such needs.
Some of the most basic of these needs - again the same as for humans - are the need for space and movement (just for comparison: there is usually about 550 cubic centimetres of free space for one layer), the need to care for offsprings (calves are usually taken away from their mothers very soon after their birth), or the need to have adequate social interactions (some of the animals bred for furs which naturally live in solitary are kept in cages in numbers in the thousands, or on the other hand calves, which are very sociable, often face isolation).
Similar problems are connected also with animals kept in laboratories where there is the addition of stress and pain they feel due to the experiments they undergo (for more info click here).
Specific issues are the ones connected with animals used in entertainment - circuses and zoos. Even there, the natural needs of animals are not satisfied, and the physical and mental maltreatment of animals occurs here as well.
A basic principle of a more ethical approach to all of the problems mentioned above is the minimalization of one’s participation in them. This principle is based on the assumption that if the production of animal products is connected with deaths or suffering of animals and that there is an alternative source, it is not necessary to consume such products. It is all the same with consumer goods made from animal ingredients, or with products that were tested on animals.
This ethical approach is of the most importance from the social view as well, because when one is able to care for others to such an extent that the person can limit him or herself, the moral contribution of such an individual is grand. A big thank you to those who have already done it, and to those who are at least respectful towards animals in some ways.
For more info about these issues in English, please go here.
For more info about vegan alternatives in the Czech Republic, please visit the Veg in Czech section.
If you want to see the issues regarding the ethical point of veganism, please watch this movie:
