Most people don't at first, but we all know that the right thing to do is often not what we want to do. It’s important to remember that eating meat, dairy, and eggs doesn’t just affect you, but the individuals whose bodies and secretions we consume as well. Let’s be honest: if you’ve made it this far, you know that going vegan is the right thing. You just need to dive in and give it a shot. Start today, procrastination kills.

For help going vegan, check out challenge 22.

Animals might not have as sophisticated of brains as us, but they have brains nonetheless. They feel things both physically and emotionally. They have a subjective experience. What about them isn't someone? If you disagree, watch a video of animals playing with each other, or a video of them being harmed. Does it look like they aren't feeling anything?

Veganism doesn't claim that non-human animals are worth as much as humans. It simply claims that non-human animals' lives are worth more than our taste buds. What do you value more, taste or life?

It can be harder to empathize with fish because they don’t express pain through vocalization and facial expressions like we do, but they certainly do feel pain. A meta-analysis of 98 studies titled, “Evolution of nociception and pain: evidence from fish models”, published by The Royal Society, found that “there is ample evidence to demonstrate that it is highly likely that fish experience pain…”. Just because they don't express pain the same way we do doesn't mean they don't feel it.

Even on the most humane farms, all animals are killed at a fraction of their natural lifespan. How do we justify killing someone who wants to live when we don’t have to? Is there a humane way to do that? Would it still be humane if it were done to a dog? What about a human? If your pet had to be euthanized, would you be comfortable sending them to a “humane” slaughterhouse?

How do we justify killing someone who wants to live when we don’t have to? Even if hunting causes a painless death, it still takes away years of life from an animal. Additionally, animals have families–they are mothers, fathers, siblings, and partners. When we kill a wild animal, we aren’t just taking their life; we’re taking them away from those who care about them. All of that when we could just eat plants instead.

Imagine someone putting a treat on a hook at the end of a line and waiting for a dog to come along. When one finally does, the hook pierces their tongue, and the person reels them in–only to hold them under water for as long as they feel like. Eventually, they put the dog out of their misery by smashing their head. No one would find catching a dog in this way moral, yet it’s exactly how most pole fishing is done. So why is it acceptable to treat fish in this way but not dogs?

Even if they live a good life, bringing someone into existence does not justify ending their life whenever we please. If that were true, a dog breeder could justify killing and eating their dogs, and a mother could justify ending her child’s life just because she gave birth to them.

When you purchase animals, you create a demand, which tells producers to raise more. The point of going vegan isn’t to save the animals already on the shelf; it’s to keep more from going there.

Plants don’t have a brain or a central nervous system with which to feel. There’s also no evolutionary reason for plants to feel pain–pain motivates animals to escape harm, but since plants can’t move, there’d be no purpose for them to feel anything. Even if plants could somehow feel pain, the amount of plants we feed to animals far outweighs the amount we’d need to consume directly. Going vegan minimizes harm either way.

All this means is that humans are the most powerful. Does this justify causing harm to less powerful species? If “might makes right” is a valid moral argument, then any act of oppression is morally justified, since the oppressor is more powerful than the oppressed and therefore has the right to do what they want. Remember what Spiderman said: with great power comes great responsibility.

The circle of life just means that everyone who is born will die. Does this mean we have the right to decide when and how beings die? Is murder justified because “that person was going to die someday anyway?” The fact that death happens naturally doesn't mean we should actively cause it.

The idea of veganism is not that killing animals is wrong in all situations, it’s that killing (or harming) animals unnecessarily–when we have other options–is wrong. It might be justified to kill an animal when you’re stranded on an island, but if you’re reading this, you’re not stranded on an island. You likely have access to grocery stores, plenty of plant-based foods, and endless resources online on how to thrive without harming animals. Why choose to kill when you don’t have to?

Dominion doesn’t mean the right to do whatever we want–it means responsibility. Parents have dominion over their children, and kings have dominion over their people, but that doesn’t give them the right to harm those in their care. Instead, it means they have the duty to protect and do what’s best for them. In the case of animals, whats best for them is not being exploited and killed. And if God is good, how could he be pleased with his creation being needlessly harmed?

Does something being natural make it moral? Look at all the suffering that happens in nature; animals raping each other, eating their young, eating each other alive– is this really what we should base our morals on? Do we really want to make lions, who by the way have to eat other animals to survive, the standard for our morals?

Our ancestors did lots of things that we would now consider immoral–slavery, rape, and incest for example–are these things moral now because our ancestors did them? Additionally, in many cases our ancestors had to eat meat, but we don’t. Why would we choose to cause immense harm to animals just because our ancestors had to?