Vegan Anarchy (Part II) The Non-Aggression Principle applied to animals

My first post on Steemit was a brief introduction to veganism and anarchy, and how both philosophies, in theory, are almost identical. I argued that we ought to extend our philosophy of freedom -- no masters, no rulers -- to the animal kingdom, and in this post, I'm going to explain why. 

The Non-Aggression Principle

It all boils down to the non-aggression principle, an ideology -- no, a truth -- that most anarchists are already very familiar with. 

The application of the non-aggression principle is simple: Do not initiate violence against others that have not initiated violence against you. 'Others', I would argue, also include our non-human neighbors. If an animal has caused you no harm, why violate the non-aggression principle to satisfy your sense of taste and smell?

Every time you sit down to eat a steak, KFC bucket or bacon sandwich, you are violating the non-aggression principle and engaging in a behavior that goes directly against your moral values. The non-aggression principle is violated, in the most obscene of ways, every time you decide to eat meat or purchase dairy products.

Cows, pigs, chickens, goats and other creatures that have caused us absolutely no harm whatsoever, are tortured and murdered simply to fulfil our hedonistic pleasures. If we look at this issue objectively, we will see that not only does it contradict our core values, but it is also psychotic.

The tyrants at the top, who violate our rights on a daily basis, do so because their lust for power and control outweighs any sense of decency they have left. When we, as supposed beings of conscience, purchase meat from the supermarket, we are valuing our temporary pleasure -- derived from taste and smell -- over the life of another sentient being. Not only is this a gross violation of the non-aggression principle, but it is also fucking insane.

Milk, Cheese, and Torture

Many people, including myself, ignorantly assumed that there was no harm in drinking milk and eating cheese. I soon realized, however, that this couldn't be further from the truth.

Every single living female animal on this planet, including humans, produce milk to feed their offspring. They ONLY produce milk when they are pregnant; cows don't just magically produce milk, as surprising numbers of people still believe. 

In order to take -- steal -- the milk from cows, we rip the calf away from its mother (remember, milk is only produced to feed babies, not adult humans) and send it off to slaughter, or, if it's a female calf, it will suffer a similar fate to its mother. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the cows are artificially inseminated with bull sperm, or in other words, raped, to produce the milk in the first place.

If we, again, look at this issue objectively, we will see that not only does it make a mockery of the non-aggression principle, but it is also a form of torture. No baby, of any form, should be ripped away from its mother to satisfy the taste buds of a 'superior' species.

I hope that, after reading this post, you will become more open to extending the non-aggression principle to animals. They are every bit as sentient as us, and they deserve to live a life free from human rulers.

Thanks for reading,

In'Lakech