30
votes
Accepted
If vegans don't drink milk, why are they okay with breastfeeding?
Consent is one issue, Mothers have a choice, animals don't, we can't ask them whether they want to participate.
Milk production involves female cows and to get them you need male cows. Male cows are ...
- 2,420
25
votes
If vegans don't drink milk, why are they okay with breastfeeding?
Vegans do not have a problem with 'a mother cow breastfeeding their babies'. Vegans have a problem with humans consuming a cow's breastmilk. It is natural for a woman to breastfeed a child. It is not ...
- 761
17
votes
Accepted
Plants show intelligent behaviour, is this sufficient for moral consideration?
The 'intelligent' behaviour that plants exhibit is not evidence for the capacity to suffer. Very simple organisms can show some kind of intelligence in their behaviour, and some think plants might ...
- 2,384
12
votes
Could wool from sheep living in an animal sanctuary be considered vegan?
A lot of the questions asking about something being considered vegan can be answered by asking Considered by whom?. While there are some clear-cut rules that comprise the core vegan ideology, many ...
- 6,009
11
votes
Accepted
Are there any farms that sell "cruelty-free" eggs (i.e. that don't slaughter older hens)?
There are probably not commercial farms that sell cruelty-free eggs as described by you, but it's likely that there are many individuals who keep a few chickens as pets and do not kill them after ...
- 688
10
votes
Plants show intelligent behaviour, is this sufficient for moral consideration?
Plants don't have feelings as we know them
So a scientist infests one plant with a bug, and finds out that another, non-infested plant has "communicated" with the first plant and starts bracing ...
- 2,275
9
votes
Accepted
Traces of non-vegan ingredients
The fact that such products may be labelled vegan and receive, for example, the UK Vegan Society (an ethics-based organisation) trademark indicates, in my opinion, that the consensus insofar as there ...
- 11.9k
9
votes
Accepted
Should I eat meat mistakenly served to me at a restaurant?
There are a lot of dimensions to this question, and you've done well to narrow it.
I'm going to assume that you want to balance the pragmatic results of your actions with not increasing the overall ...
- 272
8
votes
Would a vegetarian or vegan eat an animal killed by accident?
This is the kind of tiring hypothetical omnivores throw at vegans just to troll us, but I find it is usually better to answer them seriously, so:
Why it's probably better not to eat the pig
If I do ...
- 11.9k
8
votes
Would vegetarians eat an animal that died of natural causes?
Another factor is disgust.
When you are used to not eating animals, it becomes difficult to see animals as food, even if you did eat them at some previous time. I do not even walk in the "meat" aisle ...
- 11.9k
8
votes
Does a live animal tracking system for vegetarian products exist?
There are no live animal tracking systems like what you describe.
I tried looking for live video streams from farms and I was able to find one video feed from a farm sanctuary in NY but of course ...
- 7,108
8
votes
Accepted
Are vegans allowed to kill mice or beetles in their houses? Why or why not?
Short answer: avoid it, unless you can't. Safety/health matters more than trying to be perfect. Be compassionate.
Longer answer:
Disclaimer: I'm a beginner flexitarian, approaching veganism, the ...
7
votes
What should someone who became a vegan do with their non-vegan possessions?
Ask yourself, in the end it is you who decides.
Keeping the old non-vegan stuff but not getting any new; you find it ethical and sound to keep wearing your leather jacket because you are honoring the ...
- 171
7
votes
Accepted
Is using bee's wax OK for vegans?
In general vegans avoid all animal products. Beeswax, used in some cleaning products and cosmetics, is not permitted in products labelled vegan, for example by the UK Vegan Society (and, to the best ...
- 11.9k
7
votes
Could wool from sheep living in an animal sanctuary be considered vegan?
Short answer: it depends on the "brand" of veganism you are talking about.
Even the way the sheep has been saved can influence the view one can have on the subject.
If the sheep that has ...
- 463
7
votes
Accepted
Why is keeping backyard hens inconsistent with veganism?
One of the philosophies vegans use is that it's wrong to use animals. This relates to other ethical philosophies that advocate treating people as ends in themselves and not as means to our own ends.
...
- 11.9k
7
votes
Are vegans allowed to kill mice or beetles in their houses? Why or why not?
You are right that keeping the mouse inside is not hygienic: they poop everywhere, almost continually. As mentionned in comments, there are "different approaches for different vegans" (@Erica). Vegans ...
- 406
7
votes
How much money do I need to donate to charity to justify not being vegan?
It would certainly be an amount greater than you spend on animal products, and even then, that money donated to whatever charity you choose doesn't cancel out the effect of your vote for the things ...
- 1,172
7
votes
Does eating insects save lives compared to eating plants?
There's a lot to talk about here and I'm sorry for this long answer so, here's a TL;DR:
Given what we know about veganism, biology, entomology, philosophy and agriculture, we shouldn't aim at eating ...
- 476
7
votes
Accepted
Eggs from free chicken
I think Reddit's r/vegan explains the issues with eating eggs from pet chickens well. To summarize:
Acquiring pet chickens is problematic because hen breeders kill male chicks (~50% of the chicks ...
- 688
7
votes
Accepted
What do anti-vegetarians mean when they say "Any consumption under capitalism is unethical."?
The idea here is that exploitation is inherent in capitalism, and that buying or using (i.e. consuming) a product marketed as ethical, such as vegan sausages or fair trade chocolate or organic cotton, ...
- 11.9k
6
votes
Is there an ethical alternative to mulesing? (Removal of wool-bearing skin from the breech of a sheep)
The Wikipedia page you reference also lists more ethical alternatives:
Breeding programs to reduce susceptibility
Insecticides
Topical protein-based treatments which kill wool follicles and tighten ...
- 707
6
votes
Accepted
Is the use of pesticides considered vegan?
general consensus...hahahahahaha ;o)
Steve
I'm afraid there will be no consensus any time soon. While food produced with pesticides kills animals in the process, it usually doesn't contain animal ...
- 2,275
6
votes
Accepted
How to avoid being part of the slaughter of cockerels on the free-range egg farms?
Buying organic free range eggs does nothing for protecting the cockerels. This is for example critisied here (in german) by PETA.
There are organizations, which do raise the cockerels for meat (e.g. ...
- 318
6
votes
Do bivalves such as oysters feel pain or fear?
It's highly unlikely, due to them not having any brain or central nervous system. All they have is a small nerve network and two ganglia near their esophagus.
The whole nervous system is basically ...
- 2,400
6
votes
COVID-19 vaccine considerations for vegans
I was impressed by this panel of 8 vegan doctors explaining why they recommend that even vegans should receive a COVID-19 vaccine: https://youtu.be/GxzereyQPeQ?t=3250
They did not answer all of my ...
- 351
6
votes
How should we handle a situation where someone says that vegetarians shouldn't say that eating meat is unethical?
The person in your story seems to ask that others behave in a certain way towards them:
the vegetarians must not to say to me this is not ok
I would be happy to grant my friend's request that I not ...
- 11.9k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible