Written by Srinwanti
Edited by Aaliya
Illustrated by Deepshikha Banerjee
The inspiration for this article came to me after I attended a session on the Sustainable Development Goals in college on the same topic. And honestly, it was quite graphic and gruesome and traumatising. Actually, not quite, it was very graphic, gruesome and traumatising. It definitely haunted me for a good 4 days. However, it was extremely informative and opened my eyes to the harsh reality which I have continued to blissfully ignore all this time. Hence, I decided to write this article to spread the idea of veganism and animal rights further and explain why it is becoming such a big crisis in today’s times.
Veganism and animal rights have developed as major social and ethical issues in recent years, reflecting an increasing concern for animal welfare and the environmental impact of livestock farming. However, despite increased awareness and advocacy efforts, these movements confront an array of challenges that impede their growth and effectiveness. Navigating the vegan and animal rights landscape is a challenging endeavour, involving everything from public sentiment to institutional obstructions.
One of the most significant problems for veganism and animal rights is firmly rooted social views towards animals and animal products. For the longest time possible, humans have considered animals to be sources of food, clothing, entertainment and have continued to use and exploit animals for their own benefit. This anthropocentric viewpoint is strongly embedded in societal norms and practices, making it harder to challenge and modify. Moreover, there are also many industries and companies which make a huge profit and gain from animal exploitation, which further gives them a lot of political and social power and status, thus reinforcing the existing status quo.
Nowadays, veganism is becoming increasingly popular and many people are becoming aware of this concept and are trying to take steps to prevent animal suffering, abuse and deaths, by going for alternatives and replacing animal products with things which are more sustainable and don't involve the exploitation of nonhuman animals. But veganism and animal rights still face a lot of criticism and scepticism. Some people argue that human beings are omnivores and hence it makes sense for them to consume animal products because it not only completes the food chain but also provides us with many nutrients and has health benefits. Many think that this kind of lifestyle is not feasible or affordable. People say that getting access to vegan food items is not easy, especially for certain marginalised groups and communities. We can take the example of our own college lifestyles as well. A lot of times, whatever food we consume is very cheap and easily accessible to us. Shifting to a vegan lifestyle would naturally be quite a difficult step for most of us because as students we are not earning our own money and living a vegan lifestyle is not something we would want to follow along with our already busy and hectic college lifestyle. Hence, even if students realise the importance and advantages of veganism, they might be very hesitant to shift towards it.
The animal rights movement frequently struggles to gain widespread public acceptance and involvement. Despite increased public knowledge of animal welfare issues, many people remain apathetic or disinterested, regarding them as secondary to human rights or environmental concerns. This lack of empathy and unity is a fundamental challenge to promoting animal rights and tackling speciesism—the concept that humans are superior to other animals. Veganism and animal rights movements also often tend to intersect with other social movements as well such as racism, gender equality, LGBT movements, and so on. This can have a major impact on people’s perspectives and experiences.
Becoming vegan doesn’t just mean removing meat from your diet. It is also necessary to remove eggs and dairy products from your diet as well. The conditions in which hens are kept is not at all hygienic or good for them - they are often kept in very cramped conditions and are forced to lay almost 30 times more eggs than they naturally can. Most of the time, hens would also be debeaked, malnourished and dehydrated and have broken bones or suffer from illnesses. Conditions in dairy farms are also very cruel and harsh. Newborn calves are often separated from their mothers within the first 12 hours itself before the milking process begins. This process is very distressing and disturbing for both the mother and the calf. Calves are also made to spend at least 2-3 months in isolation in a small pen where they are fed large amounts of food so that they become fat and can be used for production purposes. In some cases, when the calves reach their lactation phase, they are made to go through a process of artificial insemination so they can produce more babies. Once the production phase is over and the cattle is deemed useless, they are mercilessly slaughtered and sold in markets for their meat and other products.
In conclusion, it can be said that veganism can really help save the lives of many animals from the hands of torture and death. Changing your diet can no doubt be an intimidating process, but at the end, the decisions we make can contribute to saving the lives of animals and make a huge change. Hence, it can also be very empowering.
Interesting and also disturbing to read. Thanks for writing this.