--- WHERE I STAND ---
updated 14-08-01

I'd probably describe myself as half way between vegetarian and vegan, or as a vegetarian on his way to veganism. Education is the key. When I was young, I ate meat, and I didn't understand why some people are vegetarian. Then for some years after I became vegetarian I couldn't understand why some people are vegan. Now that I'm old enough to understand a lot more, and now that I have learned so much more, I understand why veganism is the best option - for the animals, for my own health, for the environment, for the world.

At the moment I am vegetarian. I don't eat any meat. I do still eat eggs, milk, and cheese. However, since around the beginning of August I've been cutting down on my dairy and egg consumption. A lot of it easier than I thought - using soy milk instead of cows milk on my breaky cereal, avoiding or cutting out eggs & cheese, etc. In fact most days I eat completely vegan, other days I find it hard to totally avoid little bits of dairy, milk & eggs in most foods that you buy or teas that my dad makes for the family.

The reasons I am working toward veganism is basically exactly the same reasons that I became vegetarian in the first place, and it just makes sense to go the next step.

Cows suffer tremendously in the dairy industry... The dairy & beef industries are the same, and the egg & poultry industries are the same... Cows bread in the milk industry end up as hamburgers. Chickens & roosters born in the egg industry end up in chicken nuggets. It's all connected. Buying dairy or eggs is supporting the killing of cows or chickens.

People from the meat as well as the dairy industry often lie. They lie to protect the billions of dollars in the industry. Is this really right?

There is no money in vegetarian/vegan groups. I don't, nor other people, profit from telling you how much better a vegan/vegetarian diet is.

How many times have you seen an add on TV telling you to drink more milk because it's "good for your bones"? Have you actually been sucked into their scams, not knowing that too much milk actually detereorates your bones and greatly increases your risk of osteoperosis and other diseases, and that by avoiding milk totally and eating other healthy alternatives you are a LOT healthier.

Eggs, even the more expensive eggs produced without battery cages and other cruel factory-farming conditions, are still produced poorly - the chicken suffers. In breeding for eggs-producing hens, what do you think happens to the males? They don't produce eggs - they are killed.

Perhaps even more so, a lot of people, make the trip to veganism for health reasons. Vegetarians are usually healthier than meat eaters. But vegans are usually a lot healthier than vegetarians. Cheese, eggs, milk, and other dairy products contain a lot of fat, cholesterol, and contaminants. Dairy products are responsible for so much sickness and disease.

The inconveinience of being vegetarian was hard enough and still is quite hard at times (eg. being a guest at somebody elses house and feeling like you're being rude asking for a seperate meal or not eating a meal made for you). Being a vegan would be even more difficult. That's why I'm not already vegan. I imagine once I'm living in my own house and buying my own food (and earning enough money to buy nice healthy food) I will be completely vegan. But for now I will just do my best to educate myself and cut down on the egg and dairy I do eat.

I don't buy leather or animal fur or anything else like that; I don't go fishing; I avoid animal tested products wherever I'm aware of it; and I don't support animal circuses.

I avoid doing and eating all these things because I know the harm it does to myself, to the animals, and to the environment. I know about the harm it does because I've found out the facts. Most people don't want to know that the things they love doing are so bad because that might mean they have to stop doing them - therefore, they don't look. I hate ignorance.

For more reasons and information on why I'm vegetarian check out the link below:
* 3 Good Reasons Not To Eat Animals (part of Animal Lib Qld)

---- WHAT IS RIGHT?----
Written early July 2001, quotes added 2 weeks later

What am I supposed to do? What should I do? What is the 'right' thing for me to do? And most importantly perhaps, what is 'right'?

Sometimes I wish I could stop people buying & eating meat, using battery hen eggs, fishing, cruelly using animals for entertainment, and so on... I feel like screaming at them "That's wrong". But I can't judge the people I love. Especially when all they are doing is that that is considered normal. I am the freak, the weirdo, the inconvenience, the 'veggie', the animal freak, the odd one out. I want other people to realise what they are doing. But I don't know how to push my ideas onto other people without offending them or pushing them away.

"Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are not even capable of forming such opinions." - Albert Einstein (1879 - 1955)

As far as I see it, the evidence is clear: Animals feel pain & have emotions just like people do. If it's wrong to kill another person, especially one who is innocent & powerless, then simple logic says that it is wrong to kill other animals or to treat them cruelly/inhumanely, or in any way other than how we would expect to be treated ourselves by other people.
Where is the flaw here? What part of this don't so many people understand? Is it just ignorance that gets most people by? Is it the sheer greed or love of consuming the meat, no matter how wrong it is, that overpowers them? Or is it just plain barbaric cruelty?

"To my mind the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of a human being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for the sake of the human body. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to the protection by man from the cruelty of man." -Mahatma Gandhi

I used to eat meat. For me it was probably the not knowing that got me through... Once I was old enough to realise the wrong of killing animals for their food I became vegetarian. The more I know about what goes on, the stricter I become - not just against killing animals, but against any kind of animal abuse.

"As soon as I realised that I didn't need meat to survive or to be in good health, I began to see how forlorn it is." -Cloris Leachman

But... I realise I can't judge people. I will always be vegetarian, I will always loe animals, and I will always want and encourage others to as well. I can't let my own personal values and beliefs effect my ability to love or accept other people. But at the same time I will always have an extra strong respect for other vegetarians and animal liberationists.

---- ANIMALS ARE IMPORTANT----
Written June 2001, quotes added July 00

I think of other animals as no less important than humans. Humankind are slowly devoloping more morals and respect for others - we now think of males & females as equals - whereas many years ago males were considered all important & dominant - males had the power. It wasn't that many years ago at all, and in many places still holds, that different races of people are considered less important. This is slowly, althought very slowly, being stopped in many places... Many laws now very strongly prohibit many forms of racism. Hopefully, people will soon realise that just as all people are equal, so are all creatures on this earth.

"The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men." - Alice Walker

I don't think it's right, just because people have the power, and the ignorance, that they should be allowed to use animals for food, clothing, experimentation, entertainment, and so on... Animals have feelings just as people do. No matter how "humanely" animals are killed, they still feel it, many of them know it and feel fear & terror before their deaths. Many animals feel and know it when their fellow animals are killed and know they will be next. They do have brains & feelings & thoughts - they know what death is - they don't want to die. Imagine if you were grown up in a cage, saw your family slaughtered and turned into sausages and dog food - you are fattened up and then killed yourself before you're even a teenager. Not a very fulfilling or happy life huh? These animals have committed no crimes, most of them are perhaps better people than a lot of us in so many ways...

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I am interested in meeting other vegetarians & animal rights activists, so please feel free to contact me. Or email me comments about anything on my page...

Check back at this page regularly, and get on my animal rights mailing list as well as (from the main page)... There'll be heaps more info on this page when I get more time to add it all...