why?

WHY MUSTN’T WE EAT NON-HUMAN ANIMALS OR THEIR DERIVATIVES (DAIRY PRODUCTS, EGGS AND HONEY)?

Mainly because all animals with a central nervous system and thus with the capacity to feel, deserve the right to life and freedom. Humans can be perfectly healthy being 100% vegetarian (getting nutrients of vegetable origin). If you eat meat (the flesh of pigs, cows, tuna, etc) you are requesting that someone kills them on your behalf.

To continue being speciesist (to discriminate against an individual or group on the grounds of the species to which they belong) is unjust, and therefore we must respect the interests of each and every animal, whether human or non-human, regardless of his species, just as we would respect them regardless of their race or gender.

Moreover, by not eating meat or derivatives, you will help to alleviate the hunger of people in the third world since, nowadays, cultivations from those areas are taken by the first world to fatten up non-human animals that will later be murdered in slaughterhouses, even though it would be more ethical to leave the crops in their original areas to feed human beings, and to stop the breeding, fattening and murder of non-human animals.

You will also help the environment, because, in order to obtain one kilo of meat, 15,000 litres of water and 15 kilos of cereals are needed. Feeding from ingredients of animal origin involves a waste of proteins, as some simple figures can show: from the cultivation of 100 square meters of soya beans we can obtain 5 kilos of protein, enough to cover the needs of 70 people for one day. On the other hand, if soya is used to feed non-human animals, only half a kilo of meat will be produced instead, just enough to feed ¾ people for one day. It is usually unknown that, even though there is a world-wide water-shortage problem (most humans lack clean, drinkable water), 80% of water resources are used for consumption by those non-human animals that will end up in slaughterhouses.

Furthermore, you can also avoid health problems (cardiovascular diseases, etc.)

WHY MUSTN’T WE BUY PRODUCTS TESTED-ON OR EXPERIMENTED-WITH NON-HUMAN ANIMALS?

Because experimentation on non-human animals causes agony and death to millions of individuals every year.

Just as the majority of society understands that it is unjust to use some humans, without their consent, to benefit other humans, (as it has been done throughout history when using individuals discriminated against on the grounds of race or skin colour, as in the case of black or Jewish people), so it is unjust to experiment on non-human animals for the simple fact that they don't belong to our species - even when the aim might be very praiseworthy and beneficial to individuals of the human species - because they deserve the right to life, freedom, and protection just as much as we do.

WHY MUSTN’T WE BUY CLOTHES AND ACCESSORIES (SHOES, BELTS, HANDBAGS AND SO ON) THAT INCLUDE LEATHER, WOOL OR SILK?

Because when you buy a product made of an animal's skin (leather or fur), you are requesting that someone kills sentient individuals on your behalf, and that they skin them so you can satisfy a whim to dress up. Moreover, by purchasing skin products (leather or fur), we contribute towards the profitability of the sub-products of the meat industry.

Regarding silk, it is usually unknown that to produce it, the silkworms die scalded when the silk cocoons are submerged in boiling water, with them inside.

Likewise, the use of wool involves not only a lifetime's deprivation of freedom for the sheep, but also their murder in slaughterhouses once they cease being 'productive'. There are numerous alternatives to animal products, like cotton, synthetic products, vinyl, canvas, esparto grass fabric, linen, hemp, banana fiber yarn (a wool alternative that's softer than wool!), etc.

Thus, for the sake of justice, we must not eat/use/kill/test on/mistreat/exploit animals (human or non-human). We could sum this up with the words of the writer Alice Walker:

“The animals of the world exist for their own reasons. They were not made for humans any more than black people were made for whites or women for men”.