Yet another resting HERO … (11/16/17)
12 years ago today, Donald Watson — creator of The Vegan Society, coiner of the word vegan, & founder of veganism itself — died at the age of 95.
A vegetarian for 20 years, Donald Watson became a vegan after learning about the horrors of milk production in the 1940’s. He explained his decision as a purely ethical one, saying: “We can see quite plainly that our present civilization is built on the exploitation of animals — just as past civilizations were built on the exploitation of slaves, and we believe the spiritual destiny of man is such that in time he will view with abhorrence the idea that men once fed on the products of animals’ bodies.”
Critics at the time claimed that he could not survive on his proposed diet. As such, living to a healthy old age was important to Watson because he felt the need to show the healthiness of the vegan way of life, and because he refused to take any medicines — owing to their link with the abject cruelties of animal testing and vivisection. “At 93,” he said in 2004, “and never having taken medicines — orthodox or fringe, I am proof that after a weak childhood in a meat-eating family, VEGANISM WORKS.”
God bless you, Donald Watson … May you rest in Peace, and may you always be appropriately honored as the HERO of heroes you truly are.
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