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"Pain is pain, regardless of the species of the person feeling it."
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Veggie Directory.com was created to raise money and awareness for the Animal Liberation movement. This movement is based on the writings of philosopher Peter Singer in his 1975 book "Animal Liberation." In this work, Singer outlines the argument that all animals equally capable of experiencing pleasure and pain deserve equal consideration. Not granting this equal consideration is dubbed "speciesism" by Singer, and its parallels to racism and sexism are obvious. Perhaps this view is best expressed in Singer's own words:
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If a being suffers there can be no moral justification for refusing to take that suffering into consideration. No matter what the nature of the being, the principle of equality requires that its suffering be counted equally with the like suffering...of any other being.1
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Singer's point is clear: pain is pain, regardless of the species of the person feeling it. When an animal is kicked or beaten, is that suffering any less real or any less intense than the suffering that a human endures when treated the same way? Does stabbing a cow hurt that cow any less than stabbing a human hurts a human? If we hold that it is bad to bring about suffering in humans, why should there be any question about bringing about the same amount of suffering a member of another species? Equal faculties for experiencing pleasure and pain demand equal consideration.
If we accept this view of things, that animals' interests are to be given equal consideration, man's current treatment of animals is a sad state of affairs indeed. Every year, over ten billion animals are slaughtered for human consumption, most of them never being allowed the simple pleasure of breathing fresh air or seeing the sunlight. Instead, they are crammed into cages so small that they can barely move and are slaughtered in some of the most brutal ways imaginable.
That's where we come in. We can make a difference-not only through our clicks on this site, but also through our everyday actions. We can, and should, change our diets and lifestyles to accomidate the needs of animals. For more on this, go to my Take Action page. By raising money for and awareness of FARM (Farm Animal Reform Movement,) we hope we can make a difference, even if only for a few animals.
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Hello, my name is Eric Jonas. I am a recent high school graduate who is going to attend Carnegie Mellon University during the upcoming schoolyear. I have a variety of interests, but recently I have acquired a growing interest in Animal Liberation activism. Veggie Directory.com is my first big project, and I hope that it will be a great success.
I became a vegan a little more than a year before making this site. My decision to change my lifestyle, in addition to being an internal change, was also expedited by several outside influences. Hearing some vegans speak out about their views was the biggest factor, and without this living advertisement, it is doubtful I ever would have changed. Two other major players were Vegan Outreach's moving online pamphlet: Why Vegan? and the Vegan FAQ section of www.vegan.com. A bulletin board displaying various pro-vegetarian and pro-animal rights advertisements at my school was another significant force in my decision-making process.
Interestingly enough, I did read "Animal Liberation," "Vegan: The New Ethics of Eating," and various other books about veganism and animal liberation/rights, but only after I had become a vegan. This is not to say, however, that these books had no influence on my veganism. On the contrary, they made me even more driven to not only be a vegan, but to get involved in animal liberation activism. Reading the philosophy of Peter Singer as well as learning the gruesome details of factory farming and animal experimentation are very important in the moral development of anyone concerned with or interested in the animal liberation movement.
In conclusion, I urge each and every one of you who has ever felt any sympathy for an animal, anyone who has ever felt conflicted about eating meat or torturing animals, any of you who shudders at the idea of beating a dog or a cat or any animal we commonly recognize as our friends, or any of you who, if nothing else, has a conscience, to look into your heart, perhaps after reading a book or two or visiting a few animal issue-related web sites, and decide when you sit down to your next meal whether you are going to add to the amount of suffering and misery in the world, or choose a better path-the path of compassion.
1: "Animal Liberation" page 8. �1975 Avon Books, Inc.
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