Vegans may be quaint but that doesn't change the fact that they're probably right
Vegans may be quaint but that doesn't change the fact that they're probably right

Video: Vegans may be quaint but that doesn't change the fact that they're probably right

Video: Vegans may be quaint but that doesn't change the fact that they're probably right
Video: Eating less Meat won't save the Planet. Here's Why 2024, March
Anonim
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- “Beautiful party, congratulations. But I wanted to tell you something unpleasant …"

- "Tell me"

- “In the garden, there at the bottom… [my voice becomes a whisper] well, there are rats. Big. With pink tails"

- "Of course, this is our Vitadatopi project"

- "WHAT?!"

- “They are mice born in captivity because they come from laboratories where they were destined for didactic and scientific experimentation. They are living beings, beautiful and intelligent. Here they live free."

- “…”

I adopted my dogs in a kennel on the outskirts of Milan, the ParcoCanile di Arese. If you've never been there, go there: as the name promises, it looks more like a park than a kennel and the commitment and professionalism of the people who run it is commendable. The kennel is just one of the activities of an association called Vita da Cani, which - among other things - promotes vegan culture.

At the ParcoCanile, in addition to the dogs, there are pigs stolen from the slaughterhouse, sheep and, indeed, mice. There is also a small shop that sells reference texts of vegan ideology - I bought us the "DOMINANT FEMALE" T-shirt (which now you want too!). After the adoption of the dogs, I went back often, also to participate in fundraising activities - such as vegan dinners - which they organize frequently.

I have already spoken here of my complex relationship with what I eat (summing up: no meat, yes fish, yes eggs, yes milk and dairy products). A few days ago I read the story of Andrea Scanzi, vegetarian journalist and writer, at the Vegan Fest in Seravezza (Lucca), and many of the things he says resonate with my experience at ParcoCanile:

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“For the first time, I felt different not as a vegetarian, but as a 'vegetarian only'. I was "strange" because I still eat eggs and cheese (less and less, but I eat them) and because I was wearing a (fake) leather jacket. And - even - because I dared to wear shoes. (…) And - to be honest - I hate this mania for going barefoot. Aesthetically it is intolerable to me, especially in men"

I have similar problems: to indulge my aesthetic obsession with shoes, I tend not to consider them in any way related to any animal suffering. What material are the shoes made of? If you ask me, sex appeal extract interwoven with eroticism! On a less frivolous level: when writing about food, my food choices always put me in a complicated position. Not eating meat is a limitation for me from a professional point of view; but my basic feeling remains that of not doing enough, and certainly not vice versa. What I mean is that, using a coherent logic, excluding meat would require eliminating cheese as well: almost all cheeses on the market are produced with animal rennet, which is a by-product of the slaughter of veal, lamb or kid. Of course, you can choose to eat only cheeses produced with vegetable or bacterial rennet but the problem remains: animals that have given birth produce milk, and that milk is stolen from the baby, artificially weaned. Furthermore: if the puppy is female, it can become a mare in turn, if it is a male in the vast majority of cases its destiny will be slaughter. In short, slaughtering is a natural and inevitable consequence of eating milk and milk derivatives; and the same is true for eggs - male chicks serve (almost) nothing.

If you want to live without causing suffering to animals, being vegan (i.e. eliminating meat, fish, eggs, milk and derivatives from the diet) appears to be the only truly consistent choice. Net of bare feet, raw food drifts and devotion to rats, perhaps this is why vegans attract so many dislikes: they confront us with the fact that the only solution to a problem felt by many is - after all - an extreme choice.

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