this post was submitted on 23 Jun 2023
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Just over a year into going veggie, perhaps as a stepping-stone, and didn't realize the term was that broad. Tentatively I'm of the mind symbiotic relationships can exist, w/ bees & cage-free chickens specifically, though I've yet to research the plight of dairy cows (no enzymes for that, but I am curious). If you have some persuasive materials I could ingest on these creatures handy, I'd appreciate. <3
Well, the thing is that symbiotic relationships between beings of different 'intelligence' levels are difficult to measure.
For me an easy way of understanding this is thinking for example about the relations between adults and children or adults and people with mental issues. It is very easy for an adult to exploit/abuse them and how do we know if the 'exploited' part is being happy about it or if they understand what's happening.
For me this is impossible because like them, animals cannot give us consent and they don't understand what we are doing to them.
And of course the abuse goes beyond the 'rational'. Animals are systematically bred to be tortured during a certain amount of time and then horribly killed. Again and again for billions of animals every year.
Veganism can be summarized as 'Through my actions, I will directly and indirectly avoid to contribute to animal suffering in all the ways and as much as possible'. This means being against anything that was produced as a result of animal exploitation: consumption of animal parts or the result of animal labor, leather, wool, circuses, zoos, horse riding, animal experimentation and many others.
It could be considered an evolution from anti-racism to anti-speciesism.
For these and many other reasons, veganism is vastly different from being vegetarian and putting them in the same sack is a mistake.
Regarding materials, there are a ton on internet but since you mentioned bees:
https://www.vegansociety.com/go-vegan/why-go-vegan/honey-industry
There is also a quick view of the dairy industry in youtube called 'Dairy is Scary'.
But the ultimate compendium of animal abuse is the documentary 'Dominion' narrated by Joaquin Phoenix.
I think there is already a vegan community in another instance, I'm pretty sure that they will answer any questions you may have and provide guidance on how to transition if you are interested.