Having a strong reason for becoming vegan will make veganism more sustainable for you in the long run. We believe that this “why” should be centered around the animals; it is important to know what being vegan, as well as what not being vegan, means for the animals. To learn more about this, we highly recommend that you watch the documentary Dominion, if you haven’t already. 

Read this before watching Dominion:

There are many popular documentaries that promote veganism or promote a plant-based diet. They are all very informative, and we encourage you to give them a watch after you’ve gone vegan. However, we feel that this documentary makes the best case for why you should become vegan, which is why we recommend that you watch it today before becoming vegan.

Dominion is a 2 hour documentary that shows footage of standard practices (not isolated incidents) in the meat, dairy, and egg industries, as well as animal-based clothing industries and animal entertainment industries.

Yes, this documentary has footage of animals being abused and killed. This is because producing meat, dairy, and eggs requires animals to be abused and killed. If you are reluctant to simply watch this type of footage because you feel that it is graphic and disturbing, that is understandable. If you so choose, you may skip watching this documentary and continue reading the rest of this article. You don’t have to watch this footage to be vegan. However, please read these next few paragraphs first, where we make the case for why it is important that everyone, vegans and non-vegans alike, watches this footage.

The purpose of viewing slaughterhouse footage isn’t to guilt you or scare you into becoming vegan. The purpose is to tell the stories of these animals. It is to get you to recognize the individual behind your food, and to get you to empathize with them more. 

When you walk into a supermarket, all you see is the product. Vacuum-sealed cuts of meat with pretty marbling. Neatly-wrapped packages of cheese. Rows of eggs in colorful cartons. Some of these products may even come with images of happy and peaceful animals living their best lives. Or labels like “free range” or “humane certified.” 

When you watch slaughterhouse footage, you don’t see the products you grew up with. You see the individual that was kept hidden behind deceitful marketing. You see two eyes looking back at you. You see someone who is conscious and feeling. You see someone suffering and in pain. You see someone gasping for their breath as they desperately try to cling on to their lives for just a bit longer. You see someone who was alive and shared this planet with you, once upon a time. 

Reading verbal descriptions of the footage can never be as effective as actually watching it and witnessing what the animals go through. But to be fair, even documentary footage doesn’t adequately portray what the animal experiences. It fails to convey the stench of the slaughterhouse, the mental anguish of being confined, or the sensation of a knife cutting through your throat.

Seeing this footage helps you understand the true cost of purchasing an animal product. The cost is not paid by you; it is paid by the animal. The animal pays with their freedom, their body, their well-being, and ultimately, their life. Having to endure all of this, at the very least, these animals deserve to have their stories told. They deserve to be seen.

Watch Dominion

Alternate Link to Watch Dominion

After watching Dominion: 

If you are reading this after watching Dominion, thank you. Bearing witness to the suffering of others can be very powerful, but can also take a toll on you. Please read this self-care guide from Dominion’s website for resources and help with processing what you’ve seen. But now that you have exposed yourself to the reality of how we treat animals, as painful as that is, you are ready to make an impact.

If you have chosen not to watch Dominion, please take the time to read the industry practices of animal agriculture, taken from Dominion’s website and complete with references. 

Note that honey is not vegan. Consuming honey means exploiting bees for their labor and essentially stealing their food, which they worked very hard to produce. Since the honey industry is not covered in Dominion, please watch this 6-minute video: Why don’t vegans eat honey? You can also read this article instead, which is essentially a transcript of the aforementioned video.

Although Dominion is centered on Australian animal agriculture, these practices are standard across the world. You cannot make an informed decision on whether or not to be vegan unless you understand what buying an animal product means for the animal.

Animals raised for meat are slaughtered when their growth rate declines. After all, why pay to feed and house an animal when you can make more money by sending them to their death and replacing them with a more profitable animal? This infographic illustrates just how young these animals are when they are sent to the kill floor.

While most of us understand that animals are killed for meat, the same is true for animal products that we don’t normally associate with slaughter. Egg-laying hens are slaughtered when their egg production declines. Dairy cows are slaughtered when their milk production declines. Wool sheep are slaughtered when their wool becomes brittle (like what happens to our own hair as we age) and declines in quality. Male chicks are killed when they are one day old because they can’t lay eggs. Male calves are either killed when they are days old, or slaughtered after a few months for veal, because they can’t produce milk.

Even when they are not being killed, animals are still being mistreated and exploited. Bees are often given nutritionally inadequate replacement syrup as food, because it is more profitable to sell all of their honey than it is to allow them to eat some. Dairy calves are separated from their mothers just days after birth, because it is more profitable to sell all of a cow’s milk than it is to allow their calves to drink some.

The common theme here is that these animals are abused and exploited for profit. No matter how “well” an animal is treated while they are alive, the moment that they are no longer profitable, they are disposed of and replaced with another animal. As long as animals are viewed as commodities, the financial interests of farmers will always come before the individual interests of the animals. No animal chooses to be separated from their mother. No animal chooses to be slaughtered at a fraction of their lifespan. No animal chooses to give up their freedom and autonomy to be someone else’s property.

This is why we implore you to become vegan today, and not gradually transition to veganism. Each and every time you consume an animal or something that comes from an animal, you are causing those animals to undergo unimaginable suffering. Take a moment and place yourself in any of these animals’ positions: would you want people to gradually stop abusing you, or would you want them to stop immediately? 

Understand that when you become vegan, you are not merely changing your diet. Here is an example: if you are on a low-sugar diet, you might get cravings for some chocolate or cookies. You might be tempted to “cheat” on your diet a little bit. This scenario, however, is very different when applied to veganism. As a vegan, you may crave cheese, bacon, or some other animal product. It is very understandable to miss some of the foods you grew up loving. But “cheating” on a vegan diet doesn’t just mean indulging yourself; it means causing unimaginable suffering to an innocent individual. It means causing permanent harm to their lives in exchange for temporary taste pleasure.   

Becoming vegan means making a commitment to treat animals as individuals, not as property to abuse and exploit. Most of us already see animals as someone, not something. Becoming vegan simply means that you will be living in a way that aligns with this belief you already hold. Beyond your individual choice to be vegan, you will have a real impact on the world as a whole. The fact that animals are being exploited by humans is an injustice. This unjust system exists because people support this system as individuals. Change can only happen when people decide, as individuals, to take a stand and stop supporting an injustice. Every vegan makes a difference.  

Today, you have the opportunity to not only become vegan and stop supporting animal abuse and exploitation, but also do your part in creating a just world for all animals. Here are some practical tips that will help you make the change: