Vegan: a person who does not eat or wear animal products or use products tested on animals. But why go vegan?
On Thursday, the Body of Animal Rights Campaign (BARC) and the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA2) gave many reasons when both organizations hosted a virtual simulation event for students to experience a chicken’s everyday life on a factory farm.
According to PETA2, it’s no life at all. A simulation device with a special backpack and head gear gave participants the ability to feel, see, and hear what it’s like to be a chicken on a factory farm before heading to the slaughterhouse.
The non-graphic video cut just as the chicken was crammed inside a truck on the way to the slaughterhouse. PETA members said that the video really does not even come close to portraying the magnitude of animal abuse.
For Kenzie Everett, a junior studying social science, becoming vegan was a whole lifestyle change.
“When I first started I had to make a lot of life changes at once. I had to change my clothes and makeup. I don’t have any health problems anymore and I know it’s because of this,” Everett said.
She said that most people who choose a vegan lifestyle have done extensive research so that when people criticize their choice they can counter it intellectually.
Though passionate about this cause, she said that there are some challenges.
“It’s been hard at times. It can be hard to go out and eat with my friends,” Everett said.
PETA activists are promoting a vegan lifestyle and petitioning for healthier, on-campus, vegan food options.
“We’re going to see if we can get vegan stations set up in the dining halls,” Hunter Menning, president of BARC and business management major, said.
Menning hasn’t always been vegan, but started just few years ago when he was a freshman at UCF. It was then that he became passionate about animal rights.
