Outline:Notes on the notion that we should be helping humans first

• Context
  • This objection is one that vegans and animal rights activists hear a lot.
  • It is often expressed something like this: "There are so many problems in the world and so much human suffering, we should focus on these pressing human concerns rather than spend our time and energy on animals. Maybe after we make real progress on human problems, we can then help the animals."
• Living vegan does not take more time.
  • Context
    • Insofar as this objection is addressed to vegans who are not also animal rights or vegan activists, it assumes that just living a vegan life takes an inordinate amount of time—time that could be spent helping humans.
  • Vegans go about their lives in the same way as everyone—going to work, preparing recipes, eating out, buying groceries, and embarrassing their children in front of their friends.
  • Once you learn a few new recipes (or adapt your favorite ones) and choose brands of underarm deodorant and toothpaste that are not tested on animals, it takes no more time to be vegan than to not be vegan.
• Vegan activism does benefit humans.
  • Context
    • Animal rights and vegan activists do spend time helping animals, but that time is also helping humans, as well as helping the earth that sustains both human and non-human animals. To the extent that vegan activism succeeds, humans benefit in a number of significant ways. There is perhaps no other cause that embodies so many benefits on so many fronts.
  • Peace of Mind
    • By embracing veganism, you gain the peace of mind that comes from knowing you are living your life in accordance with your own values of justice, fairness, and compassion.
  • Human Health
    • The suffering and expense humans encounter due to health problems, including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, and early mortality, can be mitigated and sometimes eliminated by a whole-foods, plant-based vegan diet.
  • Human Equity and Impoverishment
    • Because animals are so inefficient at converting the calories in plant feed to calories in meat, dairy, and eggs, many times fewer impoverished people can be fed by animal-based agriculture than by plant-based agriculture.
  • Preventing Violence
    • Educating others, especially children, to show civility toward animals can help in preventing violence to humans.
      • Studies show an undeniable link between cruelty to animals and violence toward humans.
      • This could be particularly applicable to workers engaged directly in the slaughter of animals, but it's not unreasonable to think that consumer awareness of the violence intrinsic in our food might have a similar detrimental influence.
  • The Environment
    • We should do all we can to minimize harming the environment that sustains us all. The significant contributions of animal agriculture to climate change, depletion of fish, destruction of wildlife, deforestation, water depletion, and other environmental issues would all be eliminated.
• All oppression has the same roots.
  • One of the problems plaguing the world is the oppression of others based on color, gender, ethnicity, or sexual identity. These problems are all rooted in the indefensible notion that others are less valuable because they differ in some way that is not pertinent. It’s the same with our exploitation of animals.
  • All forms of oppression are interconnected. If we taught our children at an early age to value the lives of all sentient beings, it is unlikely they would grow up to hate and oppress other humans because of these irrelevant differences.
• The objection is disingenuous.
  • The people who raise this objection would not raise the same objection to people who:
    • Volunteer at the local humane society for the benefit of companion animals.
    • Volunteer to organize gratuitous events, such as a game-day tailgating party.
• The objection presents a false choice.
  • There is no reason why one cannot work both for humanitarian causes and for animal rights causes.
  • Many vegan and animal rights activists, if not most, are engaged in other causes that directly help humans.
    • They volunteer to feed the homeless, deliver meals to the elderly, work with drug addicts, and work with a variety of issues, such as civil rights, women's rights, and other causes of which humans, not animals, are the beneficiaries.
  • As Tom Regan said, "We can do both; we should do both."
    • When presented with the objection that we should spend our energies helping humans instead of animals, Professor Tom Regan very simply and eloquently said, "We can do both; we should do both."