While reading the beautifully written article, When You Look at an Animal What Do You See, by Justin Van Kleeck of the Sustainablog, I felt compelled to take a closer look at my own views on animal welfare, veganism and the human superiority complex.
According to some, you’re either vegan or you’re the devil. You’re a hypocrite if you claim to value life while consuming meat and using animal products. I respect everyone’s opinion, but I think there’s something special about a person who can present their opinion without judging those who have a different set of beliefs.
Here’s a brief quote from Justin’s heartfelt explanation of his point of view:
“I see the magic of a living being going about its essential task of living, of being what it is by nature. I see something so precious that for me to make it suffer, or even worse to take its life (directly or indirectly), would be the highest act of selfishness.”
Since I’ve been approached countless times about the ethics of eating meat, it wasn’t the subject that caught my attention. It was the tenderly straightforward and nonjudgmental approach Justin used to express his point of view.
Without any intentions to persuade others to eat meat or to stop eating meat, I’d like to openly share my viewpoint with all of you and find out your different perspectives on the subject.
For starters, I’m not vegan, vegetarian or anything close to it. I am, however, a person who loves, values and respects the miracle of life. What I see when I look at an animal is a being that, like myself, embodies life in all its magnificence. I see a being that not only embodies life, but reproduces life and sustains other life forms.
Not only do I refuse to look at myself as a superior life form to other animals, I refuse to look at myself and animals as superior to other living things. My belief is that all life is valuable beyond measure.
Life is all around us and I take none of it for granted—from the single cell microorganism to the largest beast. From the smallest bacteria to humans like you and me, I see life as a miraculous reflection of All-That-Is. Every tree, flower, and plant; every bee, spider and amoeba—another marvelous reflection of what it means to coexist, to live and to play a part in the expansion of our Universe.
I see the need to respect and appreciate the complexities of the Universe, including death and the various ways each living thing contributes to another.
To really grasp the extent of our relationship with everything around us, let’s take a look at this on a different level. When antibiotics kill off too many of the bacteria in your gut, what happens? You get sick. You lose some of the ability to fight off other illness because you’ve thrown off the delicate balance of living bacteria in your body. In essence, you need bacteria and bacteria need you. What a strange yet poignant reminder of the significance of ALL life!
I see myself as one with everything, not as a superior being privileged to take life from all others. Every cow is just as valuable as the human who has a steak dinner; and every blade of grass is just as valuable as the cow who eats it. Bacteria, parasites, mosquitoes, animals, bees, trees—we are all in this together. So, how can I NOT choose veganism with such a love for life?
Life sustains life—period. That includes the lives of both vegans and people like me. I eat meat from animals. I use wood from trees in my fireplace. I cut fresh flowers from the garden. I eat a variety of plants, roots, herbs, fruits and legumes. All of these life forms are valuable to me and I consume them with immense appreciation and love for their role in sustaining my life and the lives of other life forms.
I see veganism as an honorable path to follow if it feels right to you. However, I don’t believe it is the one path for everyone. My personal choice is to lovingly consume but never abuse. I give thanks for everything about the cycle of life; including the physical life that ends so that I may have eggs for breakfast or fish for dinner. The same is true for the plant life that sustains my being. The fact that fruit and vegetables don’t communicate in a way that I can hear with my physical ears doesn’t make their lives less meaningful. I honor all living things one in the same. That is what feels right to me.
Life isn’t as black and white as we so often want to see it. There are more gray areas than we will ever unravel, yet the cycle of life continues in a state of perfection that we humans can’t quite comprehend. In the grand scheme of things, it doesn’t matter so much if you’re vegan, vegetarian or neither. It doesn’t matter so much if you stepped on a bug or killed the bacteria on your hands before having a meal.
If you will let your heart be your guide and make each choice with love, your life will add value to everyone and everything in the Universe.
Nea is a Life Transformation Coach who believes happiness should never be optional.
If you’re ready to live a happier, more fulfilling life and you want to know how Nea can help you overcome what stands in your way, contact her now or click the link here to learn more about life coaching
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Hi, I'm Nea. As a 
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Thank you very much for this article! You gave me some kind of inspiration, because I’ve been blaming myself for not refusing to consume meat.
People who practise yoga are supposed to be vegetarians, but my body can’t cope with it.
Do what feels right for you, Ann. We must live our own path and that will sometimes mean that others dislike our choices. That’s okay. It doesn’t change the fact that you know what works for you.
I agree with your thoughts, Nea. I believe, too, that life sustains life! What I just can’t stand with other people is that they tend to abuse this word. I just do believe that not every animal can be eaten.
Thanks so much Aybi for sharing your thoughts. I simply try to do as little harm as possible in every way in my life.
Hi Nea. I appreciate this post. Before I went vegan this was the primary reason I cited for continuing to consume animal products: life feeds on life. This is an inescapable reality of life on earth, and plants and non-sentient animals are just as “alive” as cows, pigs, fish, etc.
But I can no longer use it as a justification for eating animals because it doesn’t really address the moral issue regarding animal exploitation. The issue is not that we sustain ourselves by taking life per se, it’s that we cause enormous suffering to sentient beings, and we take ownership of their lives for our purposes, and we don’t have to. There is no evidence that plants or bacteria suffer, but it is clear to anyone that if you kick a dog it suffers very much like a human does. Yet we make a bizarre distinction between hurting a dog when we don’t have to (which we call animal abuse) and hurting other sentient animals when we don’t have to (which we call food production.)
Animals who are used as raw materials in the food industry (and there are billions yearly) are conscious and feeling during this entire process. And as far as I can tell the only reasons we do it are frivolous and unnecessary: it is profitable to do that to them, it is gratifying to do that to them (they taste good), and we are accustomed to doing this to them. Just as we now look back on human slavery in the Americas as an atrocious custom that was sanctioned, rationalized and argued for in its time, I think we will one day look back on today’s exploitation of animals as an unthinkable atrocity.
I agree that it is possible to respect life without choosing veganism. We all respect life when it compels us to do so. But we will also make others suffer when it compels us to do so. No matter how reverent we are of the miracle of life, the fact remains that justifying omnivorism means that we are willing to cause enormous suffering to many beings just because there is something enjoyable or convenient about it for us.
When everyone’s doing it, it is a remarkably easy thing to rationalize. I was able to do it for decades and I was never a bad person, never a particularly ignorant or selfish person, and I always respected life. So while I agree with your main point, I can’t agree that it means the consumption of animals can be justified.
Hi David. I really appreciate your perspective as well. The only core principle here that I disagree with is the difference between sentient beings and other life forms. I don’t judge by evidence alone. Granted there is no evidence of a great many things, yet that doesn’t mean them less true– just less understood.
Yanking a plant from the ground seems okay because the plant doesn’t respond in a way that humans recognize as suffering. Even if it wilts and dies, we don’t call the police and cry out about the injustice. There are some extrasensory people, however, who “hear” plants in their various states of crisis or suffering.
Just because most humans can relate more to animals than to plants, doesn’t mean we are doing more (or less) harm (or good). Animals roaming uninhibited in the jungle regularly feed on each other. It appears cruel if you watch the hunt and kill process with judgment. You may even want to rush out and save the one that seems helpless to defend himself. It’s quite sad depending on your perspective. From a different perspective, it’s all a miracle.
I think there will always be things that are beyond our understanding while we live as physical beings. We judge what is moral or immoral, right or wrong, acceptable or unacceptable. But there’s generally a bigger picture to everything we see. And one human’s truth will never be THE truth.
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