Animals are sentient, living, thinking, feeling beings who experience life subjectively and who are capable of experiencing all of the same emotions as human animals. In their capacity to feel pain and experience fear, they are identical to us. Believing that humans hold higher moral value than non-human animals and that we have the right to enslave, abuse, oppress and exploit their bodies with impunity, is to believe in ‘speciesism’ (species~ism).
Veganism is not a diet, it is an ethical position against the exploitation of animals. If you really love animals, you’ll stop eating babies and their mothers and go vegan.
Just because we choose to deny animals their right to freedom and bodily autonomy, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have rights; and using “tradition” and “convenience” as a justification to deprive them of their rights is not a morally valid argument to continue this abuse of our power over animals.
Which side of history do you want to be on?
What will your answer be when your great-grandchildren ask what you did to help bring and end to speciesism?
I hope you will be able to tell them that you did absolutely everything you possibly could.
The only thing we need from animals is their forgiveness.