I’m vegan for a number of reasons, the main one being that I don’t believe animals deserve to be held captive, tortured and/or killed anymore than I believe humans do. Animals are sentient beings who experience fear and feel pain just as real as any human. After all, humans are merely animals.

As a feminist who fights for women’s rights, as a bisexual in support of queer rights, as a proponent of civil rights and as an anarchist who doesn’t believe in any kind of hierarchy, I feel that supporting animal rights is perfectly in line with my other beliefs.

How can I be against the exploitation and commodification of women if I support the exploitation and commodification of animals? Especially when it’s the female animas who are most often tortured. Female egg laying hens have their beaks seared off (even those labeled free range) and are put into tiny cages stacked on top of each other, forced to live in the waste of those above them. Dairy cows are forcefully inseminated at a place that the factory farm workers have “playfully” nicknamed the “rape rack”. They give birth, only to have their baby taken away from them to eventually become veal an dare hooked up to machines which cause large and painful sores until her milk slows and the entire process is repeated. When both chickens and cows are considered “used up”, meaning they’re too old to produce eggs or milk anymore, they’re killed. For these reason, among others, I believe that the animal industries are very much a patriarchal institution. This is why, in my opinion, feminism and animal rights go hand in hand.

I’m an environmentalist. I feel that humans have done so much damage to the Earth that at this point, it may be beyond repair. Animal agriculture is one of the largest causes for pollution in the world. *It is responsible for 18 percent of greenhouse gas emissions measured in CO2 equivalent (more than transportation), and 64% of of anthropogenic ammonia emissions. It is also one of the largest sectoral source of water pollution, contributing to eutrophication, “dead” zones in coastal areas, degradation of coral reefs, human health problems, emergence of antibiotic resistance and many others. The major sources of pollution are from animal wastes, antibiotics and hormones, chemicals from tanneries, fertilizers and pesticides used for feedcrops, and sediments from eroded pastures.*
*From Vegan Outreach

I’m an anarchist and don’t believe in any kind of hierarchy. How could I say, without hypocrisy, that I don’t believe there should be hierarchies among humans but it’s just a fact that human animals are above non-human animals? I know that people have their reasons why they believe that animals are inferior to humans but every group who has ever tried to oppress another had their justifications for it. The fact is that animals have ways of communicating with each other, they share relationships and familial bonds, experience grief and fear, and feel pain when they are harmed. Knowing all of these things, I see no proof that non-human animals are lesser beings than human animals.

Similar Articles:

• Harvest Moon and the “Happy Farm”
• Body Image and Veganism
• What is Animal Rights?
• QFE - Quoted for Emphasis
• Guest Blog by Reverence Lily - Resisting Temptation