Its preparation
degrades thousands of human beings. The
slaughter of animals kills the finest human instincts
in those who do it and exerts a terribly degrading
influence upon their character. Study the men, women
and children who work in any slaughterhouse or meat-packing
plant and you will need no further arguments to realize
that killing is wrong. In some states the occupation
of a butcher bars a man from serving on a jury in
a murder trial. If we shrink from cutting the throats
of terror stricken animals and being splashed with
their blood, we should not allow other men to do that
dirty work for us. If we eat flesh we share the responsibility
for the murder, which provided it, and for the moral
degradation of those who did the killing.
It causes terrible
suffering. The long trains which carry
their suffering freight of living animals through
the blinding glare and suffocating dust of the plains
in summer and through their piercing winds in icy
winter; the unutterable horrors of the cattle-ships
which ply the oceans, the stifling and fetid air in
the holds of the vessels, the broken limbs, gored
sides and flayed skins of the agonized animals during
a storm, the tail twisting, the reeking stench of
the cattle-sheds, the terror of the victims while
being dragged to the shambles, the crushing blow of
the poleax which does not always kill, all this and
much more shows how callous we are to the awful cruelty
which is inflicted in order to supply us with unnecessary
flesh.
It increases
the consumption of alcohol.The
use of flesh as food stimulates the desire for alcoholic
liquors and doctors have found that one of the easiest,
but most efficient and effective ways to stop the
craving for drink is to prohibit the eating of meat.
Vegetarians are almost wholly abstainers from alcohol,
tobacco and drugs, and it is said that a vegetarian
drunkard is unknown.
It intensifies
sexual passion. When one adopts a non-flesh
diet one is surprised to find how much easier it is
to control sexual desire and to live a pure life.
It is generally agreed that one potent cause of prostitution
is luxurious and intemperate habits of eating and
drinking and we have just seen that the desire for
drink often arises from the stimulating effect of
flesh eating.
THE
DEFENSE
No
logical defense of flesh eating has ever been offered;
apparently it is the only case where the evidence
is all on one side. As might be expected however,
a few tottering arguments have been advanced, but
their weakness is manifest.
Vegetables are more
difficult to digest than meat. They are
for those who are accustomed to an exclusive meat
diet, because while meat is digested in the stomach,
vegetable tissue is digested in the intestines. There
are a few rare cases in which a person has become
so abnormal that he cannot assimilate any food except
animal tissue but the great majority of people will
find that after their diet has been modified for a
few months until another set of intestinal glands
becomes thoroughly active, they can digest vegetable
tissue just as easily as they did flesh. The experiments,
which have hitherto been made upon the digestibility
of vegetables, have been tried upon those accustomed
to a flesh diet. Naturally such evidence is valueless.
Try the same experiment upon a vegetarian of some
months and with properly cooked vegetables, and the
result will be different. Meat gives the spurt of
energy after it is eaten, because it is a stimulant,
but a few hours later the reaction sets in and one
either feels exhausted or has an unpleasant craving
in the stomach. Vegetable tissue is absorbed more
slowly but it gives more staying power and a vegetarian,
if necessary, can abstain from food all day without
serious discomfort.
Flesh eating is a
natural custom. This is not true. More
human beings are vegetarians than flesh eaters; the
custom of living on flesh is only common in Western
lands, and indeed is of recent growth even there.
In England in the middle of the eighteenth century
the slaughter of bullocks for the public market was
practically unknown. While the lords of the land and
the more wealthy people may have had meat upon their
tables, the peasants, practically have always been
vegetarians, living largely on potatoes, oatmeal,
brown bread and milk. We have drifted into the habit
of flesh eating because of increased wealth and love
of luxury and quicker means of transporting freight,
and as a result, our physical stamina is deteriorating
even as it did in the days of the decay of Rome.
The most powerful
nations of the world are those which live upon flesh.Surely other conditions, i.e., geographical, economical,
political, social and above all temperamental...and
not dinner table are accountable for this supremacy.
As these nations arose from sturdy peasant stock that
ate sparingly of meat, it is perhaps truer to say
that they are powerful in spite of their diet. Instead
of waning as at present, is it not probable that their
strength would become still greater, if their citizens
turned away from a disease-creating diet?
If we did not eat
animals the country would be overrun by them.Is not the breeding of domestic animals entirely
under human control?
If slaughterhouses
were abolished there would be a shortage of leather,bone, soap and other products made from animal
matter. There is not the slightest reason
to fear this, because as soon as there is any incentive,
satisfactory substitutes will soon be found by the
inventive genius of man. Already an excellent and
cheap substitute for leather is being manufactured
in Belgium, while artificial bone is quite common.
Splendid soap made entirely from vegetable oils is
also on the market.
If it is wrong to
kill we should not take the life of plants any more
than that of animals.The question of
diet does not center upon whether it is right or wrong
to take life, but upon the unnecessary killing. It
is sometimes necessary to destroy lower forms of life,
as witness the case of the farmer who must protect
his crop against worms and insects. But the slaughter
of highly evolved birds and animals for food...unless
we live in the Arctic regions or on a barren isle...is
wholly without justification because it is unnecessary.
Besides, when we kill an animal we often inflict pain,
which is not the case when a plant is destroyed. When
we take the life of an animal, we cut short its existence
and stop all further growth, but those plants which
form the most nutritious food...cereals, pulses, nuts
and fruits...have already completed their cycle of
growth when they are ripe and fit to eat and so even
though we use such plants for food we are not handicapping
their evolution.
Animals, birds and
fish were made for the use of man.This
idea is a remnant of mythology. The human evolution
is but one among several which are taking place upon
this planet and its members were not intended to prey
upon the rest but to co-operate in the Divine Plan
of evolution which seeks to assist the growth of every
living creature. We are fulfilling our destiny when
we help, but not when we kill. --
Editor's
Note: Not to say there are none, but the editor knows
of no vegetarian alcoholics.
Factoid
In
each and every environment, good
health and sustained wellness is dependant
on the rapid removal
of waste. In terms of your
personal health, you need to void solid waste two
to three times a day or once between each meal,
without straining, to maintain basic health and wellness.
Toxins can be harmless if removed quickly from the
body.
*Consultation
with a health care professional should occur before applying
adjustments or treatments to the body, consuming medications
or nutritional supplements and before dieting, fasting or
exercising. None of these activities are herein presented
as substitutes for competent medical treatment.