Myth #66: “But veganism robs animals of their Purpose.”
Even though quite a few people believe this myth to be true, it is actually nothing more than an arrogant fabrication of the human mind. Rest assured that farmed animals do not see themselves as mere “food” for any other being — certainly not us humans, and their obvious terror & fervent unwillingness to die in slaughterhouses is evidence enough of this fact.
No, “food animals” are seen as such only because a large portion of the human population has been indoctrinated to label them so. Indeed, every single sentient animal knows life and wants to live, knows companionship and wants to love & be loved, and knows comfort and wants to be free from pain & suffering. Not a single one of the billions of animals who are murdered annually around the world had as its primary purpose becoming food for humans — not a single one of them. Those humans who have had the good fortune to visit an animal sanctuary and experience firsthand the peaceful nature & warm personalities of deer, sheep, pigs, cows, horses, chickens, turkeys and goats know this Truth already … And yet those who haven’t, too often do not.
Anyway, this myth isn’t really about arguing for the innate worth & independent meaning of the lives of sentient animals … What it’s really about is awakening humans to the raw arrogance & sheer ignorance of their egocentric value systems that judge animals to be “less than”, and therefore rationalize placing them under our jurisdiction to do with as we please.
When it gets right down to it, we really aren’t the most moral of species, and it would behoove us all to get off our high horse (sometimes literally) and start treating sentient animals with the basic respect & decency they all deserve. Remember, there was a time not so long ago when the majority of us humans believed that the Earth was flat, that diseases were caused by demons, and that thunderstorms were caused by an angry god. Fortunately, we woke up from those delusions — which means that we can wake up from or current delusions as well.
My Friends, our fellow sentient animals are not our property, they are not our food, and they are not our servants. Animals have their own lives, their own desires, and their own reasons for being. It is time we awoke to this fact … and it is time we started acting accordingly.
Thank you.
Current status of this Myth: Excoriated
Justification it provides for eating animals: NONE
“A pig is intelligent and, like other sentient animals, has a sense of family about it. When I sit down next to a tree, my pigs sit down with me. I could no more kill one of them than I could my dog …As such, I’ve logically grown to find the taste of meat repulsive, and meat itself — in knowing from when it comes, despicable.” ~ inspired by David Lay
“How could it ever be our Purpose
to rob another being of his or her Purpose?”
~ Will Tuttle
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