[The following is an extract from my post of 9/10/07 in the "Animals like vegans better" thread]
"I've thought a lot about the question of companion animals and I've reached my conclusions; I'm just surprised that so many seem to have reached different conclusions.
As I see it the 3 main reasons for going vegan are (not necessarily in this order):
1. To avoid animal cruelty;
2. A healthier lifestyle;
3. The environment.
I think the effect of having companion animals goes against all 3 reasons:
1. Animal cruelty I think it's cruel to keep an animal as if it was your baby; its best parents must be of its own species. Hard as it is, I have decided that I have to enjoy watching animals in the wild. I'm lucky to have a bit of garden, so all the flowers in it (planted around the edges) are native species. I put in a small pond (fish- free, obviously) and planted that with only native pond plants. In the centre of the garden are my vegan organic vegetable beds (which benefit from the wildlife attracted by the rest of the garden).
2. Health There are many human diseases which can be caught from companion animals, just as the animals can catch diseases from us.
3. Environment Most companion animals are not native species. Recent DNA analysis shows that the domestic cat is not descended from the native wild cat, but from one in the Middle East. The domestic dog is descended from the wolf, but has been selectively bred to produce varieties that some humans think look "cute", but are so in-bred that they suffer from all sorts of genetic defects.
My garden gets visited by cats from neighbouring properties; they contaminate my vegetables with their non-vegan faeces and they have killed some of the wild birds that I managed to attract. This scares off other birds from visiting, so there are fewer to control vegetable-eating insects."
So that's my opinion; basically I'm agreeing with The Feckler. I don't expect we'd come out at the top of the poll, though, if and when we ever get one.
I just want to add that I appreciate that this is a very emotive topic and I completely understand how so many can hold a different opinion so strongly. I'm not trying to upset anyone, I just think we should all stand back for a minute and look at the bigger picture.
We vegans are a small minority, but we want to maximise our effect on the world, therefore minimising the suffering of animals. Therefore we need to consider how our actions are perceived by omnivores.
If we keep 'companion animals' ourselves, but tell ourselves that it is OK because we are treating them better than omni pet-owners, we will just get into an "Oh no you don't, Oh yes we do!" competition with the omnis, which isn't going to convince anybody.
There is a problem with animals being discarded and ending up in rescue centres, which only happens with omnis. (I certainly hope this is true.) If we say we'll only keep animals that come from a rescue centre, then we're actually cleaning up after the omnis and making it easier for them to discard more animals.
If they see we're doing it, they'll use us as an excuse to say "I'll just discard this animal, it doesn't matter, some stupid vegan will take it in." They'll not do the sums about how many vegans there are and how many animals we can take in, they're just looking to excuse their cruelty; we're making it easier for them.
Each animal that is discarded is a new opportunity for the breeder to sell a younger, 'cuter' animal as a replacement.
So it's a very hard answer I've given - we have to steel ourselves against our compassionate instincts. If anybody discards an animal, they must not be able to find any excuse for their actions.
We must be able to show how cruel the animal trade is and how cruel some pet-owners are without anybody being able to say "How come it's OK for vegans to keep animals, but not us?"
We have to keep the message simple if we're going to influence anybody; it's the only way forward for greater animal welfare.
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