Sunday, July 27, 2008

Your Mommy Kills Animals

I just finished watching Curt Johnson's documentary "Your Mommy Kills Animals" and I have to say that I mostly really liked it. Except of course for the need to have it because of the horrible things that happen to animals in America every second of every day.

Also, I feel the need to clarify, just in case any non-vegans ever see this page :) For the most part, I don't like PeTA. Lots of vegans and people who are pro-animal rights don't. Animals should not be killed. Or hurt. For any reason. (With of course, the exception of seriously ill animals who are suffering and in pain.)

But for that prick who called PeTA's VP a hypocrite for using insulin . . . You do what you can. You do everything you can. If you have some sort of problem or condition that can't be helped in a vegan way, then you go take/do what you must. But still doing everything you can makes a difference. You can't just do nothing because you can't do one thing.

And I have a confession - I love Annemarie Lucas. I think she's the coolest, and I'm still ticked that I never had the guts to go meet her when I lived in Brooklyn. Alas.

5 comments:

Zmajek said...

I'm an omnivore and i read your blog quite regularly. And i'd like to say there is faulty logic in what you're saying: yes, PeTA's Vice President is an individual doing what she can, when she can, but when she can't, she uses insulin ... the point is, had she been around before it was discovered, she would fought the methods then, too, and if she was successful, she and other diabetics wouldn't stand a chance. This is cherry picking, if you have firm believes, really firm, like PeTA firm, then it is hypocritical that you chose sth because it personally benefits you, all the idealism is swept with that move, and if you are throwing stones around, you shouldn't live in a glass house. I read somewhere that a mere fact that she wasn't alive when insulin was discovered makes her free of any responsability. By that logic i can wear my grandma's furr coats, i wasn't around when those animals were killed. Not to mention, that for the insuline she uses an animal in her present time had to suffer.

Sarah said...

Well for starters I'm glad that an omni reads my blog regularly - that's kinda cool. And secondly, I should actually state that PeTA in general drives me nuts - they make vegans and AR activists look insane. That being said, it is nearly impossible these days to be totally vegan unless you're living out in the middle of nowhere having no interaction w/ anything in the world. So many things have components that make them not vegan. But you do every single thing you humanly can to avoid profiting in some way from suffering. But if you have an illness or some kind of medical problem that requires treatment that isn't vegan, it's understandable to obtain treatment, even if it isn't vegan - should I suffer with a migraine when I have a toddler I have to take care of (and cannot if I am in horrible pain)? Should someone die because the treatment for their problem isn't vegan and they are? I don't believe so. There's a difference between personally benefiting for some vain, unimportant reason (for example, get a coat not made of an animal - I have several and there are lots of options) and personally benefiting by not dying or suffering horribly in some way. Also, PeTA beliefs aren't so firm:

http://www.peta.org/accidentallyVegan/ - "Items listed may contain trace amounts of animal-derived ingredients. While PETA supports a strict adherence to veganism, we put the task of vigorously reducing animal suffering ahead of personal purity. Boycotting products that are 99.9 percent vegan sends the message to manufacturers that there is no market for this food, which ends up hurting more animals."

Unknown said...

zmajek-
I'm not sure if you're referring to insulin being tested on animals, or having animal-derived ingredients in them, but just to let you know, there is indeed human-derived insulin out there. Just thought you should know...

Zmajek said...

@sarah: i totally understand your stance, but my point still is, that some of the things that help us live painlessly or live at all, wouldn't be around if it wasn't for tests on living creatures ... i do support the no uneccessary violenc, though, like killing animals for their furr (unless you live somewhere in Siberia, but then it can fall under neccessary)
@erica: no, i didn't know there was a human derived insulin "on the market", thank you for the information ... i'm speculating now, though, that it's less frequent than the animal one

mysticxian said...

I think anything you can do to better the lives of animals and the environment is one step better than doing nothing at all.
In this day and age it is very hard to keep everything in your life vegan but I feel better knowing that I am helping in some way and the more who do this the better things become.