Welfare and Abolition

 

The very first time I met my vegan mentor, she explained to me the difference between the terms animal welfare and animal rights/abolition. Thanks to that education, I know how and where to focus my limited energy when trying to help animals. Abolition is my path. I want to end the violence and use of all beings.

While I love networking with fellow vegans, one of the discords on my facebook newsfeed is petitions for single issue causes. Why not sign that petition to make the gestation and farrowing crates bigger for pigs? Yes, let’s try to end eating dogs in China! Oh the outrage of eating of horses, so protest by not going to Europe for vacation. Give me a pen so I can petition to add chickens to the Humane Slaughter Act!

But no, I won’t protest and sign or even share the petitions.

I know that my vegan friends want to save lives RIGHT NOW, and minimize the suffering of animals RIGHT NOW. Unfortunately our efforts to regulate the treatment of animals doesn’t change the end result. The pig, despite a ‘better’ crate, is still being killed and eaten. Other animals in China, just as deserving as dogs, are still on the plate. A cow in the United States is being killed and eaten just as the horse is in Europe. Making a slaughter ‘humane’ still involves slaughter.

I think it’s more effective to focus on promoting veganism rather than regulating use, making conditions slightly better before killing them, or ending the abuse of just one species.