Turning carnivores into vegans [ Intro ]
Make Friends not Enemies
Many discussions on being a vegetarian/vegan start and end with the ethical and moral treatment of animals. The never ending battle between carnivores and herbivorous whether or not “ animals are ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment” tends to exhaust the discussion and keep the gap ever so wide open between the two groups of people.
I believe that we as vegetarians/vegans can approach our fellow omnivore friends, family members and colleagues from more than one possible angle when discussing animal rights. After all, if one of our life goals is to end all animal cruelty and extend the rights of humans to these of animals, we should pick our choice of weapon accordingly.
One thing must be clear — we can’t afford to be aggressive in our politics and actions. Otherwise we risk distancing ourselves by alienating future fellow vegetarians and vegans. And most importantly we do not want to force anyone into becoming a person free of meat and dairy consumption habits. This transformation must be accomplished voluntarily. We can speed it up first by being a good example and second by educating those around us. And often for both of those to happen, it takes time.
Arguments for and against animal rights depend largely on one’s system of values placed either in the ecocentric specter or in the opposite corner where the human being is the center of life. Therefore people who consider that nature and its products and services have no intrinsic value and exist only and only to satisfy our human needs are mostly likely to disagree with the idea of a pig having equal to their rights.
On the topic of animal rights where I stress that they too have feelings and suffer from mental and physical distress when abused, I am greeted with ridicule or at best with apathy. My experience has thought me that it is of little to no success of having a dialogue with such people. Therefore a change in tactic is a must.
If we set aside the moral and ethical implications of the way we currently are treating animals, we are left with plenty to work with. The advancement of animal rights can be achieved through economic, environmental and health leverages that can have a significant power over individual’s choice of diet.
In the following chapters I will be specific, demonstrating and providing examples how we can positively influence on people and change their thinking on this matter.
