Should vegans refrain from watching movies & TV

Rory17 said:
No. I wouldn’t want to deprive myself of the pleasure of movies and episodes of programmes. Some movies can have good, animal rights messages!
You could, however, campaign to help stop this and make them just use vegan alternatives instead. You could set up a petition and also contact film companies about this. I might also set up a petition about this.
Another thing that I would kindly encourage you to do is to campaign to stop the abuse and killing of animals in the actual making movies, and campaign for them to just use cgi animals (for live-action movies - of course, this wouldn’t be needed for animated movies). I might also set up a petition about this.
Here are some movies that have an animal rights message:
* Bambi.
* The Fox and the Hound.
* Wolfwalkers.
* Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron.
* Charlotte’s Web.
* Babe.
* The Mighty Celt (please be warned - the dog is brutally killed).
* The Plague Dogs (please be warned - an extremely sad movie about dogs that escape from a cruel animal lab).
* Ferdinand.
* Dumbo (the 2019 one delivers a better animal rights message, and they used cgi elephants).
* 101 Dalmatians and 102 Dalmatians.
Thanks.
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Oh, and also Chance (an animated movie about a dog who is used in dog-fighting. Some dogs do die).
 
that would be way too strict. although I have avoided watching certain movies where I know animals died, like the hobbit.
can't imagine saying "no I don't watch any shows or movies, I'm vegan..." lol. That sounds pretty boring, what about video games?
 
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So I came across this thread and re-read it and I'm still puzzled by something. Why did Lou and others bring up practicality in this context? Would it really be impractical to not watch movies?
 
I'm a beginner but No, we vegans do not need to refrain from watching movies and TV. There is no requirement that we vegans avoid entertainment that may contain animal products or animal-based content. Some may even contain helpful messages that raises awareness.
 
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Maybe I am mistaken, but I thought most of the studios had changed over to digital cameras. I heard the questions, by some of the theaters, about the costs of changing over from actual film to digital transmission of the film. This was a long time ago. A lot of the small chains said they couldn't afford the changeover.

I checked and the recommended cameras for movies were all digital.

The question about gelatin in film seems to be a moot point since nobody uses it anymore, and hasn't for a really long time.
 
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I am glad to know watching entertainment from media does not have to be avoided with being vegan. I didn't avoid it with being vegan. But I did just fall away from watching things on television since, and it has been a long while since I have gone to any theater, I now do everything with media with online activity. But I can see other vegans can go on watching media without it being an issue even with things I am not watching now.
 
It is a good thing movie films do not use animal products. There are actually vegan friendly movies to see. There is Okja, Fast Food Nation, The Game Changers, Blackfish, and more.
 
Seems from this thread that even vegans don't care enough about animals to give up their entertainment and do something more satisfying instead. Enjoyment of food is far more tied in with instinct than enjoyment of films and yet we look down on those who eat meat while knowingly refusing to make other changes. The few "animal activism" films that are made do not justify it. The OP said that even with digital media, copies are made on film for archival purposes. I am not sure if this is true but I am abstaining from supporting these companies until I find out. I would find it much easier to avoid films than I find avoiding animal products in my food.
 
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I wonder then if using what we do for being on the internet ever used any animals would you or anyone give up use of internet from now on because of it?
 
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There are things we simply cannot avoid. I find this quite sad. This is why it's not quite possible to be 100000000% vegan - like celluloid films containing eventual animal products, or some century-old books bound in genuine leather... but we should do our best to refrain from eating dead animals, killing even more animals for pleasure, or exploiting animals in any other ways. The main thing is, doing as little harm as possible, and avoid doing harm intentionally.

(TBH I am not a movie enthusiast, my average is watching 2 movies per 3 years... usually online. No extra celluloid got used up.)
 
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It is pointless to beat ourselves over things that involved use of animals that we just can't avoid. Veganism seems to mean choosing where we actually have a choice to not have something that involved use of animals. I understand there is a long way of discovery, one which I avoided after a comparatively short time. After a little more than a couple of years, maybe half a year more, after I was certainly vegan by choice, I found the way of whole food plant-based eating which is so healthy for us it is the effective way to avoid cancers and circulatory problems that can risk life, and a number of other real issues. So then I avoided most packaged items with processed foods, and get a lot of produce for my food, and few prepared items that I know are vegan, and there's been almost nothing to check since then. Still we use things and do not know entirely about involvement of animals being used, it is so pervasive. I use things, I don't really know about, but I am hardly watching anything.
 
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Should we give our lives up because almost everything we do involves something "unethical" somewhere along the line? Choose the boundaries you can cope with long term and don't worry about what you can't do.
 
Series Of Numbers said:
So....I found a page that says owners of gelatin factories often have their own slaughterhouses that kill animals just for gelatin. However, it's apparently written by the founder of an Indian animal welfare organization. Is gelatin an animal waste product in America but a thing animals are primarily killed for in India?
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That page is saying the slaughter house owners kill the animals mainly for waste products which is bones etc... which makes sense as they want dibbs on the waste but the fact remains the main reason why the farmer raises the animals and sends for slaughter house is for the flesh. It's the flesh which fetches the main bulk of the profits for the farmer. If there wasn't any flesh then there wouldn't be any bones and other 'waste'. If those slaughter houses which you linked discards the flesh for some psycho reason, then the gelatin they produce would cost more than other competitors who use flesh to absorb the bulk of the animal raising cost. So it's unlikely animals are raised just for gelatin. In a parallel universe where no one eats meat but only kill animals for their gelatin, even there I suspect the synthetic ones will be much cheaper than raising an animal just for gelatin and put them out of business.
 
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Rohan said:
Ha ha! Same ... and I don't even remember those :laughing:
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I was watching things, and the television I had and was using stopped working. That was several years ago. Rather than get another television still, I stopped watching it. I actually was then going to things online more, or did sometime after that. But it was years before, thanks to what can become known through the internet, that I went from being vegetarian to being vegan, and made changes still since then, and the internet was involved in those too.
 
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I haven't read all the comments but this is one of those topics that seems to crop up with critics all the time. They argue that vegans are hypocrites (of course they do...) because they don't make any effort to avoid things that involve animal products, such as computers, screens, motor vehicles, you name it. My response always is that the aim is to do what one can (or is willing to do) rather than obsessively worry about every little possible use of an animal, because as has been noted the main reasons animals are created and killed are food and clothing. Once that demand reduces enough that the use of animals in say hydraulic fluid or computer screens drives production, we can worry about this problem.

I do acknowledge the criticism carries some weight because many vegans say they won't touch any food that has even trace amounts of animal involved in its production, yet they seem not to apply the same criteria to many other everyday products. The counter is that motor vehicles, phones, etc are important to living in the modern world, so again it's doing what we can. Of course critics just say where do you draw the line - after all we don't always have to buy a new motor vehicle or phone or computer etc. It seems hard to say I needed that new car when I just liked the idea of it even though I know animals have been involved in its production, while objecting to trace elements of milk in a food.

I confess I don't really know. But I hope my answer is good enough.
 
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