Kay wrote:
> I have been lurking and lurking and thinking. I have read about the cds
> and food processing. I have read some vegans eating eggs, cheese and
> animal products. Which I thought was vegetarian.

Eggs, cheese, and animal products aren't vegan, nor are they CDs. CD is
short for collateral deaths. Those would be the animals killed (and even
injured) in the normal course of food production. They include all the
rodents, birds, amphibians, reptiles, or even larger mammals like deer,
that are run over, sliced and diced, left vulnerable to predation,
poisoned, etc., during planting, harvesting, transportation, and storage.

Some will argue that such animal deaths are accidental. The fact
remains, though, that commercial food production (including crop
production as well as storage and processing facilities) uses pesticides
-- and those deaths are very much intentional.

Most vegans cavalierly dismiss the entire issue of CDs, either outright
or through a game of moral relativity. I've explained the latter as
"objecting only to the 1001st death" because vegans object to the death
of one cow but seem to have no problem with the first thousand so long
as they don't end up on plates.

> If being Vegan is avoiding Cds, then of coarse its more than just food.
> So I have questions. If anyone wants to answer them I will throw out a
> few questions.
>
> Pet Ownership.
>
> Cats - Food = cd I read the ingredients in my cat's food and now
> realize that cat food = cd cd cd
>
> Dogs - Food =cd I have read my dog's food ingredients and I realize that
> dog's food = cd cd cd
>
> Keeping Aquariums = cd I keep and breed aquarium tropical fish. I know
> that if you buy a fish that some are caught which is cd, and some are
> raised on fish farms. Fish farms sort the fish on a sorting table and
> any that don't seem quite right are put in hole B and the ones that seem
> right are put in hole A. Hole B is shredded and fed to hole A's Fish so
> thats cd cd cd cd cd cd cd to infinity!
>
> With the Dogs and Cats am I to assume that because they are animals they
> deserve meat? and the Cds don't count?

Actually, some very cruel vegans try to force their peculiar values onto
other species. You can do your own Google search on "vegan pets" and see
how these people abuse their own pets and advocate others to do likewise.

> There is also other things on my mind. Like paper. wouldn't paper be a
> cd because of chopping down trees and taking away homes of animals?

That's true, but it can also lead to immediate CDs of fledglings and
baby squirrels and other animals nearby. Don't forget to count up all
the skunks, possum, deer, and other animals run over by all the trucks
carrying trees out of the forest for processing, nor all the animals
killed from pollution of paper mills (another Google search: "paper mill
pollution).

> Or Cars, wouldn't cars cause cds by using gas made from fossil fuels
> that cause cds where they drill or oil spills?

Cars run over animals. They pollute, and the pollution kills animals. Etc.

> If people think that being totally vegan is doing the best you can then
> wouldn't that mean picking and choosing parts of vegan?

Being vegan does nothing to benefit animals or protect animal welfare.
It means more animals die needlessly because, with respect to diet
anyway, more animals are killed than are ever eaten. Many animals are
killed due to production of a field of grain or legumes. If one eats
meat, otoh, the death of one animal feeds many people. One professor,
Steven Davis formerly of Oregon State University, concluded that what a
diet that causes the least harm to animals would consist of grazed
(rather than grain-fed) meat and locally-grown produce; one would also
avoid or minimize use of grains and legumes.

> Wouldn't
> choosing certain parts (the easy parts) be unfair to say Tropical fish
> cds? If everyone does the best they can picking certain things I would
> think that as a movement it would be chaos and confusing.

All that picking and choosing should tell you a lot about a group of
people who are best known for making categorical statements about their
own moral superiority. It shows them to be rank hypocrites.

> Is being vegan against having pets like peta? Or are they one and the same?

Many vegans refuse to use words like "pets" because it demonstrates
ownership, slavery, etc. Vegans and other animal rights activists are
the loons who coined the more politically-correct term "animal
companion." You'll find a range of thought on the issue among vegans and
ARAs, with some thinking the idea of having pets (regardless of what
they're called) as a social ill and some thinking it's mutually
beneficial. And as noted above, you'll find many who think it's laudable
to force a peculiar human diet onto another species for which it's
entirely foreign. It's nothing but misguided bullying of the natural order.

> The more I look around my house, city and such it seems to me everything
> causes cds. And if that is true, then there is no total vegan only parts
> and pieces.

That's because veganism is a big, stinkin' load crap. There are valid
reasons for having a vegetarian diet, particularly a well-planned one.
But the self-righteousness and sanctimony of veganism are a false piety,
and for many more reasons than the ones you've rightly noted.

> I am not trying to start a fight, but am really wondering these things.
> I wonder if a vegan is proud not to eat meat or use any animal products
> and own an aquarium or a dog or cat, if they do, isn't it like one
> canceling the other out?

Yes, and you're too sharp to ever be a vegan.