(also heard as “But it is my right to eat animals.”)

It is true that I myself have no right to criticize the decisions you make that do not infringe on the rights of others, and yet we all have every right (if not every responsibility) to openly defend the innocent by denouncing any & all of your choices that willfully & knowingly confine, abuse, terrify, violate &/or murder other sentient beings … After all, as a general rule we have finally evolved far enough as a species to understand that acceptable personal choices do not have victims.

My Friends, it is not possible for you to hide behind the mantra of “live and let live” or “to each his or her own” while supporting the premature death of innocent beings, nor is it correct to claim a “right to eat meat” when that right destroys the rights — indeed the entire lives — of those others … In essence, while I will always support your right to choose, that right becomes fully null & void the moment you use it to rob another conscious being of the same privilege. After all, there is no right to harm – there is only the right to live free from the same.

And this makes complete sense … After all, if you were to witness a pedophile molesting a child, would you excuse it as a matter of “personal choice”? If you were to witness a slave-owner brutally beating his servant, would you excuse it as a matter of “personal choice”?   If you were to witness a bigot verbally blasting a homosexual, would you excuse it as a matter of “personal choice”? If you were to witness a rapist sexually violating your mother or your sister, would you excuse it as a matter of “personal choice”? If you were to witness a neighbor torturing his dog, would you excuse it as a matter of “personal choice”? … Of course you wouldn’t! And it is every bit as true that it’s not an acceptable “personal choice” to confine & abuse & murder the billions of animals that just want to live their portion of time on Earth in peace, fully free from human cruelties of any kind.

Indeed, any being who can suffer; any being who is fully aware and experiencing an individual life — breathing and feeling and loving, should be staunchly protected from any other stronger being who thinks it is his or her “personal choice” or “personal right” to willfully harm them in any way.   As such, my non-vegan Friends, please know without a shadow of a doubt that you have absolutely NO RIGHT — based on your traditions or your culture or your desires — to deny animals their freedom or their happiness or their lives.

To do so is not to support rights …
… To do so is to create injustice.

To do so is not to support your freedom …
… To do so is to shackle your own Soul.

Current status of this Myth: Reproved & Rejected
Justification it provides for eating animals: NONE

 

“As a vegan, I am regularly asked by meat eaters to respect their decision to eat meat. How absurd! Such a request is directly on par with asking women to respect sexists, asking blacks to respect racists, asking gays to respect bigots and asking Jews to respect Nazis. How can it be moral or even practical to respect the suffering, or the oppression, or the exploitation, or the cold-blooded murder of another being?” ~ anonymous

“You can’t say ‘Live and let live’ while not letting others live …
That’s not how morality works.” ~ Felix Sampson

Filed under: Minimizing the Myths of Meat by Scaughdt