Veganism+is+cool.

//" They question is not, can they reason? nor, can they speak? but can they SUFFER?" //

My name is **Ariel** and my senior project is on **Animal Rights** and **Veganism**. I chose this topic because i have been vegan for five years now, and animal rights is something i firmly believe in. I never mind sincere questions about it :) Here are the answers to questions i get asked the most:
 * //__Vegan__//: a person who abstains from consuming foods containing animal products, including meat, dairy, eggs, and honey. They also do not buy or use products tested on animals or that contain animal ingredients. **

Q. Do you get enough calcium? A. Yes. Soy milk has the exact same amount of calcium as cow milk. Except it is healthier :) We also get calcium from dark leafy greens, seeds (pistachios, sesame, sunflower) and soybeans.

Q. Do you get protein? A. Yes. Vegans get protein from nuts, legumes, and meat alternatives like tofu, tempeh, TVP and seitan.

Q. What's wrong with milk? Don't cows need to be milked? A. The Dairy industry is cruel. Cattle are artificially made pregnant every year to keep producing milk. Cows only produce enough milk for their calf, so as soon as their calf no longer drinks milk, the production of the milk stops. Dairy cows are hooked up to milking machines and are injected with hormones, forced to produce milk for their entire lives. If a cow gives birth to a male calf, the male calf is then sent to the slaughterhouse or veal factory to become veal. Want to learn more about the horrors of the dairy industry? Click here: http://www.mercyforanimals.org/dairy_and_veal.asp

Q. If the animals in the meat industry were treated humanely and had plenty of space to run around in, would you eat meat? A. No. The main philosophy behind veganism is that //Animals are not ours to eat, wear, experiment on, or use for entertainment.// It doesnt not matter if they are treated humanely or not. Of course, until there are no more animals bred for food, animal rights activists try their best to make factory farm animals' lives as bearable as possible. Animal rights covers //alot// of things. Much of the cruelty against animals that goes on is covered up, so that the public doesn't know much about it. Ignorance isn't bliss for the victims. For example, very few people actually think about where the puppies in pet shops come from. Sadly, they do not come from breeders. Those dogs were raised on **puppy mills**, cruel, disgusting places where dogs are forced to breed for life, until they cannot have anymore puppies. They are then dumped or killed. To see the horror of these "breeders", visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYOFOFYnrFg. Don't support puppy mills: __**ADOPT**__ YOUR NEXT DOG. Many people still do not realize that the majority of cosmetics and household items are tested on animals. Put simply, the tests are USELESS. Take for example, the Draize Test. This test attempts to measure the harmfullness of chemicals to humans by observing the damage they cause to the eyes and skin of animals. In this test, solutions of products are applied directly into the animals’ eyes, which can cause intense burning, itching and pain. Clips are placed on the eyelids to hold them open during the test period, which can last several days, and to keep the animals from blinking away the solution. The animals are placed in restraining stocks that hold their heads in place, which prevents them from moving throughout the test period. In addition to causing terrible pain, the test compounds often leave the animals' eyes ulcerated and bleeding. Please buy products that are not tested on animals. They aren't worth the torture. For a list of companies that do/do not test, click here: http://search.caringconsumer.com/. When someone hears the word "vegan", they immediately think of hippies and alfalfa sprouts. Being vegan doesn't mean that anymore. Vegans are able to eat pretty much anything, as there are vegan substitutes for pretty much anything. There are vegan donuts, cheese pizza, cake, sloppy joes, tacos, chicken, sausage, yogurt, enchiladas etc.