Vegan Living and Compassion
The cruelty and injustices perpetrated against animals often go unseen, but having compassion for other living beings helps open our eyes to their suffering.
In our industrialised world, it can be easy to forget that we’re intrinsically linked to nature – that we, like pigs, cows, sheep, and chickens, are animals. That all of us feel sorrow, suffering, fear, and happiness in the same way – and that we all have the same desire to live free and be with our family and friends.
Most of us believe that it’s wrong to exploit, hurt, or kill others, but in order to live by that most basic of principles, we have to choose not to consume products that result from their misery.
“We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals.” – Immanuel Kant
Animals suffer horrendously at human hands. We exploit and kill them for their flesh, their milk, and their eggs. We tear the skin off their backs for our clothes. We mutilate their bodies in laboratories. And we imprison them and break their spirits for our entertainment.
By its very definition, compassion is “a deep awareness of and sympathy for another’s suffering”. Because all food, clothing, products, and forms of entertainment for which animals are exploited are linked to suffering, choosing to avoid them altogether is the most powerful way we can exercise compassion and end our own complicity in cruelty to animals.
So, where to begin? The great thing is that it’s very easy to make kind choices for animals – and you can start right now:
