Animals are on this earth with us, not for us!

Imagine being born just to be someone’s lifelong slave, or to be tortured & killed for their avoidable wants. That’s the story of the tens of billions of land & marine animals that we yearly exploit for food, clothing, entertainment, experimentation, labour, etc.

Linked to this unimaginable misery is an unjust attitude similar to casteism, sexism and hetero-sexism. It's called species-ism - the discrimination that leads to the exploitation of sentient beings on the ethically irrelevant basis of their species.

We know that it's unfair to discriminate on the basis of gender, caste, sexuality, etc. Then, how is it fair to exploit or otherwise hurt animals merely because they belong to different species? Why should justice and kindness be confined to humans when animals too suffer acutely?

Animals raised for meat (such as chickens, pigs, goats, fishes) and hens raised for eggs are subjected to a lifetime of enslavement and premature death. Like meat and eggs, milk production also leads to the torture and killing of cows and their babies. Similarly, leather, wool, silk, honey, pearls, entertainment avenues like zoos and circuses, animal-tested products, etc. also involve a lot of barbarities towards innocent sentient beings.

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Animals exist for their own reasons. They are NOT objects or slaves. They are NOT ingredients or fashion.

Animals can feel love, pain, fear and joy just like you and I can. Every sentient being - human or not - deserves not to be hurt.

Being vegan (avoiding all forms of animal use and exploitation) is the least we owe to the innocent animals, whose enslavement, torture and killing are caused by our choices. But, avoiding animal products does not mean giving up yummy food or clothing needs. Sweets, cakes, mock-meats, chocolates, ice creams, curds, paneer, cheese, tea/coffee - pretty much everything - can be enjoyed vegan! Plant based milks made of soy, coconut, cashews, rice, peanuts, almonds, etc., can veganize any dish you love! Tofu works wonders as paneer and as an egg-replacer.

Ample alternatives are available for wool, leather furniture/accessories, silk, honey, pearls, fur, etc. Shampoos, soaps, cosmetics and other lifestyle products involving no animal testing/ingredients are also readily available. To sum up, veganism involves no deprivation at all! Find more at: https://indiaagainstspeciesism.wordpress.com/being-vegan/

Crucial for the environment and food sufficiencyAnimal products use up resources like land and water massively, since the tens of billions of animals that we breed every year have to be fed and hydrated daily all through their lives. The UN finds that animal agriculture uses up a whopping 50% of the world's grains, and causes enormous deforestation, greenhouse gas emissions (significantly higher than that of the entire transportation sector - planes, boats, ships, cars, trucks, buses, etc.) and energy depletion! It also causes a lot of air pollution, water pollution (through farm runoff) and soil degradation.

Excellent resources Award-winning documentary “Earthlings” Comprehensive FAQs: http://www.vegansidekick.com/guide

Contact detailsFacebook groups: ‘Vegans in India’ and ‘<name of city fb group>’Email: indiaagainstspeciesism@gmail.com,<city contact person’s email>Blog (India): https://indiaagainstspeciesism.wordpress.com/Blog (City): Phone number: <contact number 1>, <contact number 2>

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Myth: Cows “give” milk to us. Fact: The only thing that a free cow in the wild would give us, if we tried to milk her, is a kick.

The cow’s babies, the rightful owners of her milk, are largely deprived of it. Since male babies are useless for milk production, they are either starved or sold to be slaughtered or skinned (often alive for soft leather)! Like humans, cows are deeply attached to their babies. Yet, calves are separated from their mothers, who are subsequently seen letting out cries of anguish for weeks!

Chickens raised for eggs and meat are stuffed awfully in tiny cages or a stinking compound containing scores of birds. To reduce the losses caused by the agonized birds’ pecking, they are de-beaked without anesthesia at a very tender age! The egg hatcheries brutally kill all male baby chicks, since they can’t lay eggs and don’t grow fast enough to be raised for meat.

‘Humane milk’, ‘humane eggs’, etc., can NEVER exist!

Why do we demand abolishing human slavery, instead of making slaves’ treatment ‘humane’? It’s because robbing a being of the freedom to make her own choices in itself causes immense suffering. Besides, a lot of cruelty is inherently attached to the very economic and environmental viability of animal products. For example, countless male chicks and hens are killed in free-range egg hatcheries.

“But, don’t plants feel pain too?”Eating animal food (indirectly) consumes a whole lot more plants than eating plants directly. A person consuming animal products also consumes the plants fed daily to those animals for their entire lifetimes! Up to five times more grains are required to produce the same amount of calories through animals as through direct grain consumption. Besides, the majority view among scientists is that plants cannot feel pain because of a lack of a central nervous system.

Plant-based food is nutritious and healthy All our nutritional needs, like calcium & protein, are easily met with plant based food.*

It’s scientifically accepted that animal products like dairy, meat and eggs significantly increase the risk of heart attacks, diabetes and cancers (like colon, breast, ovarian and prostate cancers). On the other hand, a plant based diet not only reduces the risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancers drastically, but can also reduce hypertension and help reverse heart disease and diabetes.**

Animal foods also come with antibiotics (fed to animals to fatten them), hormones and toxins like mercury (in fishes), etc.

Many body-builders and Olympic-winning athletes are long standing vegans.

*Vitamin B12, an essential vitamin produced only by bacteria, is affordable and easily available and should be supplemented.**: See http://www.pcrm.org and http://www.sharan-india.org

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For any tabela/dairy to be financially viable, every cow needs to produce milk continuously. Hence, she has to be forced into a constant, body-breaking cycle of forced pregnancies, birthing and milking! The impregnation is done either through a common bull, or an equally torturous process called artificial insemination, exposing the cow to pain and diseases.

As far as freedom is concerned, the question is not whether they can talk or reason, but, can they suffer?

Behind every slice of cheese & glass of milk, every box of eggs, every chunk of meat, every jacket of leather, every cage in a zoo/circus - there are cries of

tortured animals who are separated from their families.