Animals

Vegan

Being a vegan is definitely more of a lifestyle choice and a philosophy than a diet. A vegan does not eat anything that is of animal origin. Vegans will not use animal based products for clothing, or any other purpose.

A person can become a vegan because of ethical reasons involving animal rights, for environmental factors, or for better health. According to an article published by PETA1, approximately 2.5 percent of people in the U.S. are vegans.

Animal rights

Vegans do not consume or use dairy products or eggs even though doing so would not kill the animal. Part of the reason is a belief in the absolute right of animals to exist freely without human interference, but also because many commercially-raised egg-laying chickens and dairy cows are slaughtered when their productivity declines with age - this is even the case with free range animals.

Many vegans also say that there would still be slaughter of animals if we all became vegetarians who only consumed dairy and eggs from animals.

Bulls and cockerels would most likely be slaughtered at birth, unless everybody were willing to pay more for their eggs and dairy in order to maintain these "unproductive" animals.

Farming today is very different from what it used to be. Modern farms are highly mechanized factories - a lot of animals are given products to make them produce more.