Vegan Soapbox

The Box Has A New Domain

2007-12-31T19:09:00.000-08:00

Vegan Soapbox has moved!

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http://www.vegansoapbox.com/

Why Do Omnivores Hate Us?

2007-12-20T08:45:00.000-08:00

Vegan Soapbox has moved!

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Read "Why Do Omnis Hate Us?" here: http://www.vegansoapbox.com/why-do-omnivores-hate-us/

Constructive Criticism

2007-12-19T15:07:00.000-08:00

Read "Constructive Criticism" at:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/constructive-criticism/

Vegan Soapbox has moved!

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Vegetable Orchestra

2007-12-15T09:50:00.002-08:00

See the vegetable orchestra at:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/vegetable-orchestra/

Vegan Soapbox has moved!

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Is The US Dairy Industry Trying To Conceal Truth?

2007-12-14T09:33:00.000-08:00

Vegan Soapbox has moved!

http://www.vegansoapbox.com/

Read about the US dairy industry here:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/is-the-us-dairy-industry-trying-to-conceal-truth/

Veganism Is Not Just A Diet

2007-12-13T13:08:00.000-08:00

Read this article here:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/veganism-is-not-just-a-diet/

Vegan Soapbox has moved!

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Red meat is the Donald Trump of cancer

2007-12-12T11:32:00.000-08:00

This article has moved. Please go here to read it:http://www.vegansoapbox.com/red-meat-is-the-donald-trump-of-cancer/

Vegan Soapbox has moved!
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Super Cool Gifts For The Super Cool

2007-12-10T11:52:00.000-08:00

Vegan Soapbox has moved!

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To read this article about gifts, please go here:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/super-cool-gifts-for-the-super-cool/

Your Mommy Kills Animals and Propagandists Bully People

2007-12-10T07:09:00.000-08:00

Vegan Soapbox has moved!

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To read this article, go here:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/your-mommy-kills-animals-and-propagandists-bully-people/

Keenen Ivory Wayans on Vegetarianism

2007-12-07T16:09:00.000-08:00

Vegan Soapbox has moved!

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To watch this video, please go here:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/keenen-ivory-wayans-on-vegetarianism/

10 Books for Vegetarian Children and Families

2007-12-07T09:39:00.000-08:00

Vegan Soapbox has moved!

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Read about vegan books for children here:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/10-books-for-vegetarian-children-and-families/

Vegan Gift Guides

2007-12-06T12:35:00.000-08:00

This article has moved. Please go here: http://www.vegansoapbox.com/vegan-gift-guides/

Veganism and Morality

2007-12-01T13:04:00.000-08:00

This article has moved. Please go here: http://www.vegansoapbox.com/veganism-and-morality/

'Free Range' Is A Marketing Term That Means Nothing

2007-11-30T17:14:00.000-08:00

This article has moved. Please go here to read it:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/free-range-is-a-marketing-term-that-means-nothing/

Solution To Climate Change: Go Vegan

2007-11-30T14:12:00.000-08:00

This article has moved. To read it, please go here:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/solution-to-climate-change-go-vegan/

Meat Propaganda

2007-11-26T22:29:00.000-08:00

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http://www.vegansoapbox.com/meat-propaganda/

Non Industry Partnership: Abolitionist Manifesto Part VI

2007-11-24T12:00:00.000-08:00

This article has moved!

Please go here to read it:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/non-industry-partnership-abolitionist-manifesto-part-vi/

Vegan Thanksgiving Meal

2007-11-24T07:26:00.000-08:00

This article has moved. Please read it here:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/vegan-thanksgiving-meal/

The Vegan Revolution: A Small Slice Of History

2007-11-24T07:17:00.000-08:00

This article has moved. Please go read it here:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/the-vegan-revolution-a-small-slice-of-history/

Happy Thanksgiving

2007-11-22T07:47:00.000-08:00

Give thanks that you're not a turkey.

By the way, Vegan Soapbox has moved. Please visit the new website here:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/

Vegan Cookbooks: Veganomicon

2007-11-21T11:00:00.000-08:00

This post has moved to http://www.vegansoapbox.com/vegan-cookbooks-veganomicon/

Google Factory Farming

2007-11-15T16:06:00.001-08:00

Go ahead, do it:

Or if you'd prefer, I'll do it for you:
Google Factory Farming >>

The results you get should be something like:

Read up and educate yourself.

(sponsored search)

Vegans R Dominat'n UR Blogosphere

2007-11-15T12:26:00.000-08:00

This blog post has moved:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/vegans-r-dominatn-ur-blogosphere/

Room For Compassion (gobble, gobble)

2007-11-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

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http://www.vegansoapbox.com/room-for-compassion-gobble-gobble/

Vegan Children

2007-11-09T12:26:00.000-08:00

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http://www.vegansoapbox.com/vegan-children/

Vegan Restaurant Activism Kiva and Prosper Style

2007-11-04T05:55:00.000-08:00

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Frequently Asked Questions

2007-11-02T14:46:00.000-07:00

This post has moved. You can find it here:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/frequently-asked-questions/

Why A Vegan Blog?

2007-10-29T10:13:00.001-07:00

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On Property

2007-10-22T17:30:00.000-07:00

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http://www.vegansoapbox.com/on-property/

Animals Are Not Property: Part IV of the Abolitionist Manifesto

2007-10-21T09:02:00.000-07:00

This post has moved
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/animals-are-not-property-part-iv-of-the-abolitionist-manifesto/

Moral Imperative: Abolitionist Manifesto Part III

2007-10-21T08:46:00.000-07:00

This post has moved:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/moral-imperative-abolitionist-manifesto-part-iii/

The Right To Be Treated With Respect

2007-10-20T15:00:00.000-07:00

This video post has been moved:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/the-right-to-be-treated-with-respect/

City Vegan Restaurant Guides

2007-10-19T18:53:00.000-07:00

This post has moved to
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/city-vegan-restaurant-guides/

10 Reasons Not To Be Vegan

2007-10-13T04:52:00.000-07:00

This post has moved. Please go here to read it:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/10-reasons-not-to-be-vegan/

Labels & Labeling

2007-09-30T08:51:00.000-07:00

This post has moved to
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/labels-labeling/

The Fundamentals: Part II of the Abolitionist Manifesto

2007-09-29T17:26:00.000-07:00

This post has moved:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/the-fundamentals-part-ii-of-the-abolitionist-manifesto/

In Our Heads: Abolitionist Manifesto Part I

2007-09-25T21:46:00.000-07:00

This post has moved:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/in-our-heads-abolitionist-manifesto-part-i/

Vegan Web Graphics

2007-09-25T16:37:00.000-07:00

Many vegan and animal rights websites offer pro-vegan graphics that you can add to your blog, MySpace page, or other website. Here are some samples:

Check out these resources to get your own graphics:

Vegan Vids

2007-09-22T15:37:00.000-07:00

More vegan vids:

Vegan Muscle Power

2007-09-22T15:08:00.000-07:00

Here's one vegan's philosophy:

He's got more at VeganMusclePower.com
Who says you need meat to build muscle? Not vegan bodybuilders.

I am vegan because...

2007-09-14T19:14:00.000-07:00

"I am vegan because I don't have the right not to be." wrote Flynn at the Vegan Freaks forums.

"I became vegetarian literally overnight in 2003 after I spent about 6 hours (between midnight and 6 am) watching videos on http://www.petatv.com/." wrote the Vegan Princess.

"I decided to be a vegetarian because I love all animals." wrote Morgan.

"I am vegan because my pain is no greater than their pain. I suffer the same as a dairy cow, the same as a lab rat. I am vegan because i can see the un-necessary suffering in a shampoo bottle, the loneliness in zoos. I am vegan for every animal whose pain was silenced, brushed aside. I am vegan because I feel that caring about something is more important than convenience, because my pain is no greater than theirs, and I can see this." wrote Ali

And Chrys Bader made a whole website to answer the question: Why I Am A Vegan.

Moral Duty Analogies

2007-09-05T15:38:00.000-07:00

There is a difference between a moral duty to refrain from harming something or someone and a moral duty to care for something or someone.

If a child fell into a lake and couldn’t swim would you have a moral duty to rescue that child?

The answer depends on the situation. Can you swim? Are there crocodiles in the lake? Is the water freezing cold? All of those factors must be considered before determining one's moral duty.

This is the stray animal analogy. The colony of feral cats living in the alley might be getting along just fine with plenty of food scraps and minimal threats or there might be an evil person trying to poison them. The danger they are in combined with the danger of rescuing them must be considered. There is no moral duty to "rescue" stray cats.

However, if you pushed a child into a lake you would most certainly have a duty to rescue the child.

This is the companion animal analogy. Humans created the situation that makes surplus companion animals reliant on humans to survive. We've over-bred cats, dogs, rabbits and other companion animals and now they are shelter animals. Humans created the problem, therefore, we are responsible for the solution. We should protect and care for those animals. We have a moral duty to care for them.

If you were deciding whether or not to push the child into the lake, is it your moral duty to refrain? Yes.

This is the veganism analogy. We have a moral duty to refrain from harming others. We must inflict as little pain as possible for our survival. We have a duty to refrain from killing whenever possible.

Earthlings

2007-08-31T10:03:00.000-07:00

Check out this movie, Earthlings.

hat tip: Propagandhi blog & official Earthlings website

Hotline For Arrested Animal Activsts

2007-08-12T07:16:00.000-07:00

If you're arrested or subpoenaed for animal activism, call 888-654-3265.

"The National Lawyers Guild has established a hotline, 888-NLG-ECOLAW, for individuals arrested or subpoenaed for offenses related to environmental or animal activism."

Source: National Lawyer's Guild press release
More at Green Is The New Red.

More Alike Than Different

2007-08-09T15:03:00.000-07:00

Basic vegan argument:

Premise 1: Humans do not need to consume animal products to survive.
Premise 2: Needless killing and torture is inhumane, cruel, and immoral.
Conclusion: Therefor, animal product consumption is cruel and immoral.

Or, it's explained this way:

"Would you be willing to cut an animal's throat?"

"...And how ethical is it to pay someone to do things that are wholly unnecessary and too atrocious to watch?"
"We have no nutritional need for meat, eggs or milk. Eating meat means, quite literally, eating a corpse. It means robbing the animal of her or his life, and then devouring the body. Animals are all made of flesh, blood and bone, just like we are; they have the same five physiological senses of touch, smell, sight, hearing and taste. They are more like us than they are different."

From Humane Meat: A Contradiction In Terms

Vegans Don't Bury Their Heads In The Sand

2007-08-09T13:56:00.000-07:00

An article about going vegan for a month notes:

"So why do otherwise perfectly sane people become tofu-powered vegans when vegetarianism already covers the killing of animals?"
"The answer is multifold. First, egg and dairy production requires only the female of the species, so the surplus males are killed at birth or when very young."
"There is also the view that the treatment of farmed animals is cruel (and this includes bees)."
"It is an uncomfortable fact that, as a meat eater, I am very happily complicit in being removed from the knowledge of how my meat gets to be on my plate, but vegans do not believe in burying their heads in the sand."

Yes, vegans don't bury their heads in the sand.

Abolitionist Manifesto Examination Introduction

2007-08-07T17:08:00.000-07:00

James Crump and Karin Hilpisch wrote the "Abolitionist Manifesto" at the Abolitionist Animal Rights blog. I will examine each part and add my thoughts.

The parts are:

"I. Animal liberation begins in our heads."
"II. Animal liberation will not merely be enhanced or safeguarded by certain moral relations between humans and nonhuman animals."
"III. Abolitionism is principled antispeciesism, which in turn is a moral imperative."
"IV. Animal welfare is informed by an instrumental view of animals and as such is firmly rooted in the property paradigm. A necessary prerequisite of animal liberation is thus the rejection of animal welfare and the corresponding adoption of a form of incrementalism that occurs within a rights-framework."
"V. Veganism is not merely another form of welfarism -- a "tool" for reducing animal suffering. Rather it is a moral imperative arising out of animals' right not to be used (as property)."
"VI. Nonparticipation in the speciesistic exploitation of animals is an axiom of the abolitionist movement -- as indeed it should be of any movement that purports to take animal interests seriously."
"VII. There are no different rules for theory and practice; critical theoretical thinking is not an "intellectual game", and consistency is not an "ivory tower" (which isn’t vegan, anyway). On the contrary, critical/theoretical thinking is a necessary prerequisite of effective activism such that activism that is not informed and normatively guided by theory is chaos -- or, in other words, new welfarism."
"VIII. Since abolitionism and new welfarism are incompatible paradigms, there is no point in actively participating in events like conferences that are organized by welfarists."
"IX. The belief that we should maintain relations with the new welfarist movement is based on the false assumption that we are merely one movement divided over strategy -- over the efficacy of campaign tactics."
"X. Abolitionist and welfarist frameworks inhabit conceptual spaces different from one another."
"XI. The new welfarists' claim that we should "transcend the dichotomy" between welfare and rights repudiates not only the significance of the most important strategic issue facing the animal rights movement but also the changes in our relations with nonhumans that are an indispensably necessary precondition of animal liberation."

Vegan Resources

2007-08-06T13:56:00.000-07:00

Post Punk Kitchen: www.theppk.com
Veggie Meal Plans: www.veggiemealplans.com
NYC Vegan Restaurant Guide: supervegan.com/restaurants.php
Super Vegan’s list of links: supervegan.com/links.php
VeggieBoards - forums for veg*ns: www.veggieboards.com
Vegetarian Resource Group: www.vrg.org
Vegetarian Times Magazine: www.vegetariantimes.com
Go Veg: www.goveg.com
Try Veg: www.tryveg.com
Vegan Essentials - clothing for vegans: www.veganessentials.com
Happy Cow - worldwide vegetarian restaurant directory: www.happycow.net
Vegan Action: www.vegan.org
Vegetarian Society: www.vegsoc.org
Vegan Society: www.vegansociety.com
Veg Source: www.vegsource.com
Veg Kitchen - recipes: vegkitchen.com

Famous Vegetarians

2007-08-03T07:20:00.000-07:00

Simple and Succinct Moral Justifications for Veganism

2007-08-02T09:35:00.000-07:00

Many vegan theorists have lengthy diatribes for veganism, for animal rights, or against welfarism*. But they're unnecessary. Brevity is a virtue. Thus, I will be brief.

These are some simple and succinct justifications for veganism:

Animals are my friends and I don't eat my friends.
Veganism feels good physically and psychologically. It gives the vegan person a clear conscience.
Life and freedom have value for all beings.

*Welfarism is short for "animal welfarism," which is the movement to treat animals "humanely." The essential premise of animal welfarism is that animals exist to serve humans, but that humans shouldn't treat animals poorly. Basically, animals should not to be abused or neglected.

Welfarism differs from abolitionism, the movement to curb human interference in animals' lives.

The Case For Animal Rights

2007-08-01T20:48:00.000-07:00

This post has moved to a new location:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/the-case-for-animal-rights-2/

Tom Regan on Justice

2007-08-01T15:40:00.000-07:00

Eating Meat Is Like Eating Babies

2007-07-30T13:58:00.000-07:00

The other day my husband, the poker pro, commented that he was glad we had four cats (as opposed to one or two) because it made him realize how individual they all are. He realized how they each have their own separate personalities. Animals are not ruled by instinct alone; they are far more human-like than most people are led to believe.

Anyway, he said it made him more of a vegetarian. He became vegetarian for health reasons (before we met) and I became vegetarian for animal reasons. We met because we had vegetarianism in common, something uncommon in Las Vegas. He said he now thinks eating animals is morally equivalent to eating babies! Wow. I never imagined that change would occur in him so quickly and so organically… all because we have four cats! There’s nothing quite like keen observation and real life experience.

Some people criticize animal lovers for anthropomorphizing them. But more and more science is revealing how similar animals are to humans, something animal rights activists have been saying all along.

ABC recently reported about personality in non-human animals:

“What’s particularly puzzling to biologists is similar traits, like aggression or shyness, are found in very dissimilar species, like fish and birds, but not in every member of the species, and those traits persist over a wide range of circumstances and over a long period of time. That is the very definition of personality— consistent behavior over time and in different situations.”…

“‘There are examples where you can see this rigidity in a personality is not always a very good thing,’ he [Sander van Doorn, an evolutionary biologist at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico] said. ‘There are studies of spiders, for example, where some spiders are more aggressive than others when they defend their territories. But those spiders are also more aggressive to their own offspring. Sometimes, they eat them.’”

“Other studies have shown that animals are more like people than was once thought, at least in terms of personalities. Members of the same species that are about the same age and size and sex can behave vary differently, even under similar circumstances.”

The Chicago Tribune reported the results of an experiment that showed some complex decision-making in dogs that resembles human infant decision-making.

“The findings come amid a flurry of research that is revealing surprisingly complex abilities among dogs, chimps, birds and many other animals.”

“‘Every day, we’re discovering surprises about animals and finding out animals are far more intelligent and far more emotional than we previously thought,’ said Marc Bekoff, an animal behaviorist who recently retired from the University of Colorado.”"The study was inspired by research with human infants. …’The behavior was very similar to the children who were tested in the original experiment,” said Zsofia Viranyi, of Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, who helped conduct the experiment, published in the May 15 issue of the journal Current Biology.”…

“‘What’s surprising and shocking about this is that we thought this sort of imitation was very sophisticated, something seen only in humans,’ said Brian Hare, who studies dogs at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany. ‘Once again, it ends up dogs are smarter than scientists thought.’”

The New York Times recalls personality experiments with octopuses:

“‘How do we even define what an emotion is in an animal?’ I recalled Roland Anderson [a scientist at at the Seattle Aquarium] asking earlier that day. ‘And why do they even have these different temperaments?’”

“It was back in 1991 that Anderson and Jennifer Mather, a psychologist from the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada, first decided to undertake a joint personality study of 44 smaller red octopuses at the aquarium as a way to begin to codify and systematize what they thought they had been observing. Using three categorizations from a standard human-personality-assessment test - shy, aggressive and passive - their data would ultimately show that the animals did consistently clump together under these different categories in response to various stimuli, like touching them with a bristly test-tube brush or dropping a crab into the tank.”

“‘The aggressive ones would pounce on the crab,’ Anderson told me. ‘The passive ones would wait for the crab to come past and then grab it. The shy animal would wait till overnight when no one was looking, and we’d find this little pile of crab shell in the morning.’”…

“As Jaak Panksepp, the neuroscientist who first discovered rat laughter, has pointed out: ‘Every drug used to treat emotional and psychiatric disorders in humans was first developed and found effective in animals. This kind of research would obviously have no value if animals were incapable of experiencing these emotional states.’”

AnimalBlawg comments on this new trend of non-human animal behavioral studies:

“Similarly, animal activists have long had allies in the scientific community. Jane Goodall and others have argued for animal rights for decades. Now, however, I believe animal activists are at a critical point, much like environmental activists in the early 90s. The scientists are on the verge of shifting the debate; even the moderate masses will have to confront the personhood of animals. Not just their pets, their food.”

This post was crossposted at my personal blog.

Disturbing Video

2007-07-29T13:29:00.000-07:00

Animal Rights Are Self-Evident

2007-07-23T07:11:00.001-07:00

This post has moved:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/animal-rights-are-self-evident/

Sufficient Condition for Ethical Veganism: non-human animals are entitled to exist without externally imposed unnecessary suffering

2007-07-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

This post has moved:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/sufficient-condition-for-ethical-veganism-non-human-animals-are-entitled-to-exist-without-externally-imposed-unnecessary-suffering-2/

Welcome to Vegan Soapbox

2007-07-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

Vegan Soapox has moved to it's own domain. Please go here to read Vegan Soapbox:
http://www.vegansoapbox.com/