[edit] Mankind's final step toward a civilized world
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A vegalitarian is a non-speciesist egalitarian who advocates the right to a free and just life for all animals, humans and non-humans alike.
Speciesism, which like racism and sexism creates an artificial boundary between allegedly superior beings and the rest, leads to a mindset that seemingly legitimizes abuse. As evidenced, a world emanating from this frame of mind hurts both the oppressed and the oppressor.
By changing our attitudes toward all non-human animals we will help ourselves as much as we help them.
And we will greatly limit our destruction of the environment. According to a United Nations report of 2006, meat production is the largest contributor to global warming, more than all transportation on earth combined. Furthermore, turning animals into food is a nearly incomprehensible waste of energy and resources. It takes 2,500 gallons of water, 12 pounds of grain, 35 pounds of topsoil and the energy equivalent of one gallon of gasoline to produce one pound of feedlot beef.[1] In order for a dairy cow to produce one liter of milk it needs to drink nearly one thousand liters of water.[2] Fish suffocate to death, one of the most horrible ways to die, and while that's painful to the fish, the rest of the world will suffer too: if current trends of overfishing and pollution continue, the populations of just about all seafood will collapse by 2048[3], dealing a devastating blow to earth's ecosystem.
Meat, including fish, also damages our health. We absorb any hormones and antibiotics the animal was given, as well as any parasites and manure that the flesh contains. Meat also lingers too long in our extensive digestive system, made to slowly absorb nutrients from plants, and soon starts to rot. Consuming meat leads to health problems including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and an average lifespan 6 to 10 years less than a healthy vegan.[4]
Animal byproducts, which turn up everywhere, may not be what you think they are. Many are derived from the rendering process, where euthanized cats and dogs, road kill, and the parts of slaughtered animals not fit for human consumption find their way into pet food -- and shampoo, toothpaste and chewing gum. Moreover, dairy products, besides being laden with saturated fat, have their own unsavory ingredients -- there is pus in milk, and cheese is made with rennet, usually derived from the stomach lining of infant male dairy cows killed soon after they're born. The red color in lipstick, and strawberry ice cream, more often than not is sourced from crushed female insects.
Then there is the intelligence of the animals we eat; chicken, who live for only six weeks before they're eaten by people who get sick eating them, can learn from television[5]; pigs, before turned into bacon or lard, are not only smarter than dogs, they are as intelligent as three year-old human children.[6]
The Vegalitarian aims to inform every citizen on earth about the power we have to create a significantly better world for everybody alive by changing our attitudes toward the other animals and by increasing our awareness of the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the products we use.