Why vegan?

I would like to turn this question around the next time I am asked it.  Why do you eat meat or animal products?  I don't know if I will, but I'd like to, without being aggressive, or defensive, or condescending or nervous.

the bees give us their honey, the hens give us their eggs

No, they don't, they make them for themselves, for their young, for their future, for their own needs, not out of the goodness of their hearts for us.

"Veganism is an act of nonviolent defiance. It is our statement that we reject the notion that animals are things and that we regard sentient nonhumans as moral persons with the fundamental moral right not to be treated as the property or resources of humans."


—Gary L. Francione (October 24, 2009)