On many occasions I have had the opportunity to candidly express my reasons for not consuming animal flesh. Most of the time it has been in response to a question as to why I make such a life choice. I also realize that genuine questions about this subject provide a great opportunity to make people see clearly how right is the lifestyle which refuses to consume intelligent animals.

Most can relate to their own pets and how they don’t consider them as mere animals but as intricate parts of the family. They love their pets almost as if they were children and their favorite pet’s death brings an intense sorrow not very different from the loss of one’s own child. I venture to guess that the majority of meat eaters would be in agreement with this. Furthermore it is not a great stretch to get them to see that it is an utter tragedy when a hen is forced to live its whole tortured existence with only one square foot with which to move, and that the only time they will be taken out of such a ghastly prison is when they are transported in horrifying conditions to the place where they will be slaughtered in an even more brutal fashion. Compassionate people perceive the injustice of this rather easily.

I have shared these things with sensitive meat eaters and many times I have been amazed at how their whole aura changes so dramatically that they almost appear not to be the same person. You can see clearly that they have a fierce battle raging on the inside. They are able to see, possibly for the first time, the horror that so many intelligent living creatures are subjected to in the name of profit and the bottom line. They appreciate the fact that these animals have just as much right to live and grow, raise their offspring, and thrive in a natural healthy habitat as any other animal. They also see clearly how these sentient beings are able to experience fear and pain just as their own dog or cat would and that they desperately cling to life just like any creature.

When you are privileged to lead a person to this new level of consciousness and they recognize for the first time that their meat and dairy consuming choices are directly responsible for the suffering of an innumerable amount of intelligent and unique animals, imagine if you then shift gears and tell them that you also eschew the practice of eating honey.

In my own case, before I had really given much consideration to my eating habits in relation to my health, the environment, and animal rights, I was a bit uncomfortable around someone who openly claimed to be vegetarian. In retrospect I am able to see and admit that such an attitude was nothing short of prejudice. Of course this disposition (as with all prejudice) was for the most part based on my lack of understanding and had more to do with fear of the unknown than with anything that was acutally tangible.

Nevertheless if at that time I had been brought to a state of enlightenment as to how my choices affected innocent animals and had begun to feel a pang of conscience, or better yet, sorrow over my selfishness which had caused the untold suffering of so many innocents, I would have been quite relieved if the extreme idea of refraining from honey had become the topic of discussion. In my case that would have been like pouring a bucket of cold water over my warm emotions. I would have escaped from the clutches of conscience by pacifying myself with the belief that the person who had brought me to such a heightened level of emotional distress was in reality not a sincere animal rights proponent but rather a lunatic. The championing of the rights of insects would have seemed ridiculous to me and from that moment on I would have lost any desire to continue to give such a person even a fair hearing.

I am not arguing against nor defending the idea of refraining from things like eating honey. I believe this has to be a personal choice after one has searched their own heart to discover the true motivation for their becoming a vegetarian or vegan. But even if such a search results in the decision to refrain from eating honey it is my feeling that such a choice does not need to be vocalized when leading someone to begin to examine a lifestyle that is sensitive to the plight of animals raised for human consumption. In my opinion it would be better to remain silent on deep convictions such as that during the introduction phase when a person is just beginning to feel a sense of conviction towards the issue of animal cruelty. To me, it is the equivalent of “leading with your chin” in a boxing match. This type of error will generally cost you the fight, or at the very least make it unnecessarily difficult to win.

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