What is a strict vegetarians???
Ethics/philosophical reasons: Compassion for animals, reverence for life
Environmental reasons
Personal / human health
Political/economical reasons, world hunger
Spiritual and/or religious reasons
Because there are no valid arguments pro using animal products
Veganism feels right/works best for me
All of the above
What is a strict vegetarians???
I am vegan for the health first and I am overjoyed at the animal and environmental benefits of my choice but I am a selfish person and its me me me first
Fruitbat, i used to call myself a strict vegetarian, and i just meant it as being no dead animals, no dead animal by-products, including leather, gelatine, animal fat etc. and no battery-farmed eggs. that also meant no products that were tested on animals.
some people who call themselves vegetarian, as many of us know, will eat fish (or even chicken), eat gelatine and animal fat, and wear leather/suede etc. i used the word 'strict' to mean i was vegetarian in every possible sense of the word.
oh and by the way, back to the thread! i'm vegan for the reasons of the Vegan Society - "For people, for animals and for the environment".
I get it now thanks for explaining it to me! I thought it was a new kind of vegetarian different from ovo-lacto, lacto or ovo (or pesco or pollo but I think they should drop the "vegetarian part and just call themselves pescotarians and pollotarians and that is how I always refer to them)
I also sometimes refer to myself as a "Pure Vegetarian" or "Strict Vegetarian" as well. To me "pure" says it all; nothing to muck up my body, my conscience etc....PURE VEGETARIAN!
Well PURE VEGETARIAN / Strict Vegetarian /100 % Vegetarian are very common terms here in my country, most lacto vegegtarians do use it. These lacto vegetarians are also using/consuming animal milk and milk products and other accessories and clothing like Woolen,Silk,Leather Jackets etc. Inspite of these they claim themselves as it.In India, one who eats Eggs are not called as Vegetarians.Their status is almost like Meat eaters in the society.Egg is very much prohibitive here. People are very much conscious about it.
Before coming to knowledge about Vegan life,myself was used to claim that.
It is only when my ignorance removed by one Canadian friend who is Vegan.
Vegan means strict,pure,100%,real,true,genuine VEGETARIAN
Manish
Maybe this has been around before, but concise and amusing,
http://www.anti-everything.com/pages/vegan.htm
Couldn't put it better myself!
Good link Kevster. Right to the point!
I really liked it. It made me smile, someone telling it how it is! Well done!
I am vegan for health, love of animals, environment, help the world hunger crisis and increasingly spiritual. I am not religious but I have been reading up on different religions and issues such as Karma. I believe that if to kill and eat an animal you consume all the fear and pain that animal has gone through during its lifetime. Your body becomes a living grave! I believe that you can never call yourself truly enlighten if you consume animals. I want to feel inner peace but I always have the fact that I used to eat meat at the back of my mind. I feel like I still have all the pain of the animals I ate in me.
nice concept trendygirl
"you dont have to be tall to see the moon" - african proverb
I'm vegan because of the animals, then the enviroment, or maybe both at the same time
but its kinda weird cause I don't really like animals, I don't want them to suffer or die, especially for human use, but I also don't like them near me, I'm afraid to birds bug sreptiles, fish, most mammels and basically all other animals that aren't cats, I like cats, but only one at a time, I don't want to be around multiple cats
I'm vegan for the animals, the environment, and for health reasons, but the animals are the main reason...
I don’t find it strange that you don’t want to be around them. Just because you don’t want to put them through any kind of pain, doesn’t mean that you want to humanise them and talk to them like Dr Doolittle!
I saw a horrific slaughter take place when I was 11 I went veggie by the time I hit 18ish I was living vegan without realising - to weigh it up I removed all living creatures and the by products from my life as I do not need another living thing to suffer for me to eat, to wear or to wash and stay clean alternatives exist without being cruel no one has an excuse unless they have no feeling for other living things.
Also I di find the health benifits amazing....my overall health improved which is a + on top of a cruelty free lifestyle.
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams
Animals first then personal and planetary health.
At first it was health - I used to always feel sick. I found that a vegan diet with no fats is the best for me. Then I read The Food Revolution and Fast Food Nation. Unbelievable. Now it's the animals, the environment, world hunger, and the fact that I don't trust processed foods, esp. meat and dairy. I'm a slow learner. I have evolved.
:p Gwynneveg
It started out being for my health. My husband died of a heart attack, and that was directly related to his gross meat laden diet.
After he died, I decided that my daughter wasn't going to lose both parents.
After being an ovo-lacto for nine months, I learned about factory farming and other terrors that animals suffer.
So, now, it's for health and animals.
I see eating meat the same way I see smoking.
being a smoker isn't the most healthy way to be and it'll probably kill you faster than if you didn't smoke..
that's why I am vegan.
We must be the change we wish to see. ~ Ghandi
I'm calm like a bomb.
at 6 years old i was in mcdonalds i was kindly told my hamburger was a cow (dad's hey!) so animals is definatley why i chose to be vegie at first, i've always loved animals and would even save worms in the back yard. Im a vegan because i feel strongly about the many forms of cruelty animals endure by mankind today. I also have grown to realise the health benifits, and believe it can have a better effect on our environment.
For the animals
Why isn't chocolate considered a vegetable, if chocolate comes from cocoa
beans, and all beans are a vegetable?
To celebrate my 15th vegan anniversary I created a 'Why Vegan' clip.
You can check it out here under 'Action Clips' - Why Vegan.
I have just seen some of the best e cards in all of cyberspace on your link and urge others to look at and send them,bravo!!!
With love from LOVE.XXX.
congrats on your anniversary, Wanda!
and i *love* the why vegan clip! very well done!!
Gefeliciteerd met je vijftien jarig jubileum Wanda
Well that's easy for YOU to say...1vegan
Fantastic Wanda, that was a phenomenal card, I can't wait to send it out. Congratulations on your anniversary!!
An amazing card, beautifully worded. Good on ya!
www.myspace.com/natureworks1
Beautiful card. Thank you Wanda for sharing it with us. The rest of the cards are pretty good too!
Aurora xx
For the animals. If I were born again as a farm animal... scary... so scary... Imagine living on feces grounds and in so tiny cages for your entire life. Imagine being castrated, broken off your nails, the ends of your teeth, and killed without anesthesia. Eating animals is also bad for the environment and human bodies.
The reason ?
I saw no reason not to, once i realised that ethical vegetarianism was ethically inconsistent.
I'm not somebody who finds it necessary, or even easy, to knowingly do really unethical things - particularly when they are so easy to avoid doing.
As for my reasons -
serious reasons - http://vegansrock.net/cgi-bin/forum/...num=1105608208
light-hearted reasons - http://vegansrock.net/cgi-bin/forum/...num=1105106875
At the age of 12 I decided to become veggie, as I hated the thought of eating animals. My parents were really supportive and began cookin veggie food for all of us. I remember back then there wasn't many veggie delights other than nut roast, or a vegetable bake from tesco. I suppose I didn't really know at that age the cruelty that went on with dairy. I stopped eating most dairy foods and eggs ages ago, and it was really only cheese that stopped me being vegan.
I love all animals and I don't want to be a part of any cruelty they have to suffer. I also feel strongly about the environmental issues. O ther people are starving in the world due to deforestation and over production of meat.
'Never eat more than you can lift' - 'Miss Piggy' :p
That's what I'm talking about. I never needed a reason to give up animal products. I needed a reason to continue using them.Astrocat
well yes, it seems very odd to me, the whole question of "why are you vegetarian/vegan ?" - my reason is simply "why not ?"
Why should anyone feel that themselves, least of all others, should need a reason before choosing to do something ethical ?
ie -
drongo - "why do you choose not mug old ladies ?"
me - "eh ? why would i do that ?"
drongo - "well, then , why don;t you pay for innocents to be abusively held in captivity in order to devour their bodily fluids ?"
My list of reasons was something i wrote and compiled some time after becoming vegan, once the other benefits became clear to me - i reckoned they might be useful to know about for those who felt they required reasons or justification for veg*nism, so that was why i wrote them.
“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 protection by man from the cruelty of man. . . . I want to realize brotherhood or identity not merely with the beings called human, but I want to realize identity with all life, even with such things as crawl upon earth.”
****— Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
“But for the sake of some little mouthful of flesh we deprive a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time a soul had been born into the world to enjoy.”
****— Plutarch (in Moralia) (46-120)
That about sums it up for me
And since dairy and eggs are produced by depriving "a soul of the sun and light, and of that proportion of life and time a soul had been born into the world to enjoy.” I am vegan. I'm sure that Plutach would agree.
spo
Health, animals and environment all equally.
My health so I have the ability to make a stand and change things for the animals and environment.
The animals because their suffering pains me and without them our environment and health would deteriorate.
The environment because lets face it without it we have nothing.
"A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle"
Irina Dunn :D
"We are not human-beings, we are human-becomings"
Roger Ames :D
This may sound like a dumb question, but I wanted to know all of the reasons you guys have. I was vegetarian because of the awful ways in which animals are kept and killed. I gave up smoking after realising what happened to animals for me to have those cigarettes. I have been vegan for about a month now and took that extra step because I didn't want to support the meat industry through buying dairy (I had long since stopped buying eggs). I don't buy anything animal related (tested on them, containing ingredients or made of leather etc) for these reasons.
I'm not trying to cause any arguements, I'd just like to learn about other motivating factors
Same as you for me really. Saw the cruelty to animals and decided I didn't want to be any part of it. Although its not only that, because even if it wasn't inhumane I wouldn't eat it, so I suppose part of me thinks that we don't need animals or to kill for food
Having been vego for 7 years, I joined an animal rights group and the 'hardcore' members who were the ones doing the actual work, rescues etc were all vegan and wouldn't take me seriously until I was too. They actually split from the original AR group due to it's progressive slide into hypocracy and called themselves 'vegans for animals', so veganism was a membership requirement.cookie
As soon as I went vegan I realised that it did say alot about my commitment to animal rights, and the only reason I hadn't done it sooner was the absence of positive influences from other vegans.
This is why I love the forums, for some of the members we are the only support they get and without us they may be crushed by the weight of the world. Vegan communities are only possible through mutual support, and I can see veganism springing up in increasingly remote locations thanks to the influence of the internet and sites like this one.
I turned veggie when I was 8 purely because I loved animals and felt it was wrong to eat them, but then I started to learn more about the meat industry and then about the egg and dairy industries after I joined Animal Aid and got an internet connection.
It was realising there's a direct link between dairy and veal and that buying products with egg in it is just like buying eggs that made me go vegan.
I realised through listening to people like Benjamin Zephaniah and reading various booklets(Naturewatch) & articles on the net(Peta & Viva!) that being an ovo-lacto vegetarian and believing that I was therefore avoiding animal cruelty in my diet, I was still being a total hypocrite.
So I stopped being a hypocrite and went 100% vegan because I love all animals.
(It's nice to know veganisms good for the environment (and human animals) too though!)
I went vegetarian aged 12 because I thought it was unnecessarily cruel to kill animals for food. I naively thought organic milk and free-range eggs and wool wouldn't harm animals.Same here, so I went all the way as a new year's resolution this year, best decision I've ever made, and I wish I'd made it sooner!Evilfluffbunny
It is a monstrous thing to do, to slay a unicorn...you have slain something pure and defenceless and you will have but a half life, a cursed life, from the moment the blood touches your lips.
I am vegan because I don't like animals, so I don't want them in my food!
That is a joke ofcourse. I am vegan, because my heart tells me that I can't eat animals or something from an animal. Like peta says... animals are not ours to eat, wear, use or experiment on..
From the start I was born, I was a child which was busy with nature. I loved animals, I loved the butterflies, I loved the flowers...I did eat some animal products, but I was thinking and thinking... but nobody told me anything about how the animals were kept etc. When I was 10 years or something... I stopped eating meat...but I still was thinking ... but again nobody told me more... only when I got internet and did some search on my own I learned from vegetarians and vegans on internet that there was many more things nobody told me. I stopped with the eggs, I stopped with the milk, I stopped buying other animal products, I stopped with going to zoos....I started with going in the right direction. I started with being a vegan!
Hi you might also be interested in this thread:
Your personal vegan story
I will not eat anything that walks, swims, flies, runs, skips, hops or crawls.
the animals..and just because i do not want these products in my body..health..ethics..the lot!!
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