We shall here try to bring enlightenment to those who wish to with the reasons sufficient to transform from a Non vegetarian diet to a vegetarian diet and hence from knowingly or unknowingly being cruel to animals to living a cruelty free life.

At times we wonder why there is so much cruelty and crime in this world. Well, let us consider what the one who conducts them has to say.

“When men first come into contact with crime, they abhor it. If they remain in contact with crime for a time, they become accustomed to it , and endure it. If they remain in contact with it long enough, they finally embrace it, and become influenced by it”

In ancient times, when man was a hunter and a gatherer, he was living wild and was under the effect of same conditions as were the other creatures. These conditions were created by the laws of nature and they are indifferent to human or other beings. Then the hunter had an equal chance to be a prey to some more powerful predator. The man in such a condition had to struggle for survival every moment. Hence, a mere human in wild had to kill for his own survival and the survival of his family. Men would kill the animal directly by himself or with his tools because the necessity was nothing else but survival. However, human being has been empowered with greater abilities which are developed brains, developed limbs (which enables the use of tools), the ability of speech, etc. Henceforth, he has tried to master the laws of nature and has attained the so called “developed” stage.

The reason now, for non vegetarian diets as most people consider are taste, health and some even consider it as maintaining ecological balance. The fact being that most of the animals killed for food are farmed animals and there is nothing about ecological balance in utilizing resources to give life and take it away. We don’t really need all those nutrients from animals as they have ultimately obtained the nutrients from the herbivores sources. There is no explanation for taste but state of mind.

In ancient times man was compelled to kill under the laws of nature and he did it all by himself. Now, a vegetarian keeps on adding unwanted nutrients for he doesn’t spend all that much energy involved in hunting with simple tools. Also, as the farmed animals are the major source of non vegetarian menu they harm health on the contrary to being “healthy”. The farmed animals are treated and kept in inhumane conditions. Hence, they become the carriers of several diseases. The recent outbreaks of salmonella and e. coli bacteria are the examples of evil effect to health from non vegetarian diet. Yet if any one has doubt, can freely visit a farm or can smell the vehicles which carry animals specially fish and poultry.

An assessment of daily requirements of nutrients would prove that man does not really need non vegetarian diet. Depending on energy consumption humans need around 0.8 to 1.5 gm of proteins per kg of body weight which could be easily obtained from vegetarian sources. In fact it is difficult to be protein deficient for a vegetarian.

A Cruelty free Lifestyle

Being “Vegan” ensures a cruelty free lifestyle and is actually better than being merely a Vegetarian as it means not using any animal product. No meat – No milk – No leather – No silk – No Honey and hence No cruelty. A vegetarian supports cruelty involved in obtaining animal products from animals. Obtaining milk, leather, silk, honey or any other animal products definitely involves cruelty. In fact anything that we impose on animals or other living forms is bound to be cruel as no animal willingly does all those services that they do. Now if you think what is so cruel in obtaining milk and leather? Please keep reading.

For the milk that we obtain from “Cow” we consider her “the mother” in India and hence worship her. However it should be noted that no Cow considers humans as babies and gives away the milk willfully. Here, It is the emotion that we have imposed on cows to fulfill our own greed.

Being a little business minded shall help you understand the fact. When it comes to mass production cruelty is bound to happen. To meet the growing demand of milk and leather, backed by population explosion, animals in dairy industry are illegally administered to harmful hormones like Oxitocin to increase the yield and decrease the lifespan of animals. Like meat industry animals are also kept in inhumane conditions even in well developed dairy farms. The cattle are constantly kept pregnant to ensure constant production of milk. The less profitable animals are quickly sent to slaughter houses to meet the demands in leather and meat industry. It should be noted that the demand of leather is far more than meat, since even the vegetarians need leather products in several forms.

Several cosmetics and medicines are made from animal derivatives and even more are tested and experimented on animals. Animals are also widely tortured for entertainment and suffer badly during the festivals, particularly in India.

The self assessment of what we really need for our survival and what we don’t could easily save lives of millions of animals. This statement could be better understood by the knowledge of fact that each year the number of farmed animals killed for food alone, is much higher than the total population of human beings.

Our way of living determines the way, the quality and the survival of other living creatures. Hence, we need to be careful in deciding the way we live.