Why does a person choose to become a vegan?

Question

I understand the different between vegan and vegetarian but I would like a list of the usual reasons one becomes a vegan. I always thought it was because they don't agree with eating anything that is connected to animals. I have recently become a vegetarian for diet reasons and feel so much better in myself (i.e. I don't ever feel bloated and my shopping bill is cheaper, I also feel like I have more energy). I know vegan again is another alternative diet option but what are the reasons you choose this i.e. I understand why no egg as this is a baby chick but what about cheese - nothing is harmed here?

Answer 1

Congrats on going veg! I'm glad it's working out for you.

These are my reasons for being vegan:

-Cholesterol is only found in animal products (meat, dairy, and eggs). Since high cholesterol runs in my family, a vegan diet is a great way for me to control my cholesterol levels.

-I've found it easier to lose weight on a vegan diet. I lost 20 pounds of flab when I went vegan and it was relatively easy. Even soy ice cream is less fattening than dairy ice cream!

-Helps to reduce animal suffering & deaths in the egg and dairy industries. All egg-producing and milk-producing animals are slaughtered when their production rates decline. (This is true of organic / cage free / "free range" farms.) It would not be economically feasible to allow spent animals to "retire"; it would cost too much to feed and care for them until their natural deaths.

Egg-laying hens on factory farms are crammed into barren, wire "battery cages" so small that the birds can't even flap their wings. They're denied everything that's natural or pleasurable to them. The wire cage floors constantly cut into the birds' feet, causing crippling pain and foot injuries. There's also the issue of de-beaking. Farmers slice off a portion of each hen's beak (with no painkillers), to prevent birds from pecking each other to death in these crowded conditions.

Male chicks and male calves are useless to the egg and dairy industries (since they can't produce eggs or milk). The chicks are commonly suffocated in garbage bags or thrown into high-speed grinders. Like all mammals, cows need to be pregnant in order to produce milk. So there are lots of male calves being born to dairy cows, and these calves are turned into veal.

Eggs: http://www.chooseveg.com/eggs.asp

Dairy: http://www.chooseveg.com/dairy.asp

Problems with "free range": http://www.cok.net/lit/freerange.php

I was vegetarian for about 5 years before I became vegan. Both lifestyles are healthy, environmentally-friendly, and good for animals. Hope this helps to explain the reasoning behind veganism!

Answer 2

Not all, but many people become vegetarians and vegans because they believe in Evolution.  I do not agree with not eating meat myself as God killed the first animal (that was killed) and he commands people to kill animals and eat them.

I must go take care of some things now, but if you give me a couple of hours I will explain my answer to you showing proof.

Answer 3

I am a vegan because -

* I am lactose intolerant so I can't eat anything with milk in it anyway but if I wasn't lactose intolerant I don't know if I'd still be vegan . . . . But cows are impregnated only so they can produce milk that is supposed to be for their calves but is given to humans. Also they are not naturally impregnated they are artificially inseminated which is basically like being forcefully raped by the farmer (not the farmers sperm BTW lol).

* You know how once a month a woman has her period. Well so does an egg. Sometimes they are impregnated so they create a little baby chick. But sometimes they are not so they produce a egg. A chicken period. I wouldn't eat a human period so why eat a chickens?

Those are my two main reasons.

Answer 4

For me, it's just gross to drink the milk of another animal. Plus milk has puss in it. Puss! Eww! I always tell my husband that just before he eats his cereal, lol.

Answer 5

1) Empathy towards the animals used in the "meat" and "animal product" industries.

2) Health reasons - for me, dairy products and most meats just don't sit well...

Actually, eggs that are normally sold in grocery stores will never be "babies" as they are not fertilized. But >>>>

http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming_chic...

Cheese - no harm there? http://www.unhappycows.com/wycd.asp

Answer 6

I don't know either

weird huh? They just don't feel right I guess....

I mean cheese..not bad at all

Answer 7

Because they are afraid of meat.

Answer 8

I am a vegetarian, with the logic being that nothing is killed for my diet.

Vegans will not eat milk or eggs because, although there is no direct killing for these products, there certainly is harm done.

Here is a quote from another YA user, Piscespets, who explained it very well in response to another question, http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;... :

"Chickens die for their eggs by being slaughtered after 11 months when the laying production slows down. As they are hung upside down and have their throats slit they cannot see ovo vegetarian's efforts. They have their feathers scalded off while they are still sometimes conscious. All they see is suffering...the same thing they saw all their life. (boys killed, beaks seared off, battery cages) Also for the person who said that they lay eggs anyway, so why not eat them- they are jammed together in tiny cages and fed unnatural things. They never see the light of day until they are on their way to slaughter.

Milk cows are killed too...In the same way as beef cows. That's where all the fast food joints get their hamburgers. Also to the people who think that cows have to be milked anyway: NO THEY DON'T. That milk is for their babies. They are impregnated annually so that they will have a baby every year. That is where the milk comes from and guess what! That baby that they give birth to is veal if it's a boy."

Answer 9

Vegans believe that no animal should come in contact with the food they eat.  Cheese has come from milk, from a cow.  I am not a vegan myself, yet I can see how anyone can stop eating cheese for that reason.  I am a vegetarian, because I still want to eat dairy products and products made with eggs.  Vegans don't think that any animal should have to help make food, or just make food, for humans.  Vegetarians believe that animals should not be made into food, and some believe that animals should not help.  I'm not sure what I believe.  

Here is a list:

1.  Don't want animals to be killed.

2.  Don't want animals to be hurt.

3.  Want to be healthier.

4.  In a way, it's a protest to the meat companies.

5.  Want to use what I call renewable eating sources, like renewable energy sources.  We are switching from petrolium to wind energy (that's just one energy switch out of many).  Plants are renewable as they can grow again.  Are pigs renewable?  No!!!  We should be just as efficient in eating as we are becoming in energy.  Sorry for the rants and raves!

Hope this helps!

Answer 10

Cows are tortured while factory farms force the milk out of them. It's not as if cows have an endless supply of milk just so we can drink it... They have to be impregnated repeatedly.

Chickens are tortured as well because they're in tiny cages. There are other things too but I've forgotten o.o

Btw, the eggs that we eat aren't baby chickens. Chickens lay unfertilized eggs naturally about once a day. I don't know why lol.

Answer 11

I find that becoming aware of your environment is a natural progression when you begin to look at things. Food, the fuel that goes into your body to nourish it and sustain it, is one place to start. Usually it is for health reasons that one begins to look at food to start becoming aware.

My experience was to look at red meat and get rid of that for health reasons. Then you read up about dairy (the China Study) and how the milk is abusedly taken from the cows (even organic cows now), so I decided not to participate anymore in that industry which means not buying it. Same with chickens (factory farmed eggs is definitely a harm there - by my standards of what I think abuse and suffering is). So I got myself some chickens and took very good care of them, but after two years I was tired to toiling for just a bunch of eggs!

My awareness had taken me from eating healthy to being vegan!

I am also aware of the environmental impact domesticated animals for food has on the Earth (pollution, the ratio of food for animals to animals for food puts us a deplete ratio, destroying the rain forest to make fast food burgers, etc.).

And my journey of awareness keeps going. . . . . . .