You Love Animals AND You Eat Meat? Impossible...

I've come across many strange people in my life, but few as mindbogglingly peculiar as self-proclaimed "animal lovers" who eat meat. In my experience, I've found this is a common thing. Many people claim to be animal lovers and go out of their way to promote animal rights to some degree (i.e. boycotting palm oil and adopting pets rather than shopping for them). What confuses me, however, is the fact that they partake in all of this animal activism while willingly and regularly consuming animal products. They say they love animals, and yet they eat them. As a vegan, I honestly can't get my head around the concept of claiming to love somebody, paying for them to die and then eating their corpse. To the people who do this: our definitions of love must be very different.

For the purpose of this article, I'll go with the most commonly accepted and largely universal definition of love:

love
lʌv/
noun

1. a strong feeling of affection.

2. a great interest and pleasure in something.

If this is the definition of love we're all comfortable with, then loving animals while eating meat simply doesn't add up. It's practically impossible. If a meat-eating "animal lover" told me they love me, I'd be seriously afraid, and with good reason. I'm not at all interested in being imprisoned and slaughtered in order to end up on the plate of somebody who "loves" me.

Most people love their parents, friends and partners - their pets, too - but would they pay for them to be slaughtered and then eat their dead bodies? Never! True animal lovers respect all animals in the same way they would a family member. They would never, ever do anything to harm them. 

""Animal lovers" who eat meat are really just some-animal-lovers. They love the "cute" animals, the "pretty" animals... the animals society deems deserving of love, i.e. dogs, cats, and bunnies."

I do understand that there are some people out there who genuinely love animals and still eat meat. These people are different in the sense that they haven't yet made the connection (between meat and animal suffering), but eventually will. After all, most vegans have eaten meat at some stage in their life. I'm one of them - I didn't make the connection between meat and animal suffering until I was six years old. As a true animal lover, I immediately cut out meat for good after my "big realisation". The amount of time it takes for somebody to break free of the meat-eating mould is often largely dependent on their upbringing. Some people have been brought up to believe that meat-eating is completely necessary for good health, so I can understand why it may take them a little longer to break free.

"To truly be an animal lover, you must acknowledge that all animals are deserving of love, respect and freedom, regardless of how cute and cuddly they are."

If, on the other hand, a person knows exactly where meat comes from and also knows that we don't need to eat it, they simply cannot call themselves an animal lover. You can't love somebody and willingly eat them too. "Animal lovers" who eat meat are really just "some-animal-lovers". They love the "cute" animals, the "pretty" animals... the animals society deems deserving of love. You're not an animal lover if you care solely about dogs, cats, and bunnies.

To truly be an animal lover, you must acknowledge that all animals are deserving of love, respect and freedom, regardless of how cute and cuddly they are. To only love animals that make you feel good (through their pure adorableness), in my opinion at least, is quite selfish. All animals - from cows to horses to goats to fish - experience love and pain just as dogs and cats do (some even more so). When compared to each other, for example, cows and dogs are not all that different - they look very similar, experience pain in the same way, and are both able to form deep emotional bonds with their human companions. Why love one and eat the other?

The same is true for many other animals we have been programmed to see as food. Pigs, chickens, goats, sheep, ducks - they are all capable of complex thought and emotion. Even more importantly, they can feel pain. They have families. They can suffer. If you truly loved animals, you would do anything you could to avoid inflicting pain upon them. You certainly wouldn't pay for them to be slaughtered and eat their remains! In fact, that's the complete opposite of what you would do.

The best way to show your love for somebody is to dedicate your heart and soul to granting them freedom and happiness. Veganism is a great way to do this - in fact, it's the best way. Through veganism, we advocate against the commodification of innocent and sentient beings, we promote equal love and respect, and most importantly - we save lives.

If you genuinely consider yourself an animal lover, go vegan. It'll be the best change you ever make.

Why Do so Many Vegans and Vegetarians Go Back to Eating Meat?

If you're a vegan or vegetarian that uses Facebook, chances are you've noticed the latest 'anti-vegan' article currently doing the rounds. This article, from the Huffington Post, claims that vegetarian (and vegan) diets are just phases. Here's the opening line from the article:

"Proving your meat-pushing relatives right, most Americans who eat an all-plant diet really are just going through a phase."

I have a few questions to explore. Is it true that vegans and vegetarians will almost always go back to eating meat? Is it really just a phase? If it is true that so many vegans and vegetarians return to a mainstream diet - why is this?

The simplest answer to the latter question is as follows: I don't know. At least, I can't be certain. I was vegetarian for twelve years (I made the switch at age six) and have been vegan for almost three, so I can't speak from personal experience - I've never gone back to eating meat. I can, however, offer a hypothesis for those who may be interested.

To answer this question, I'll begin by offering you the simplest, most accurate description of veganism I've found to date. This one comes from The Vegan Society:

"Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, as well as following an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of sentient animals."

The second part of this description is just as important as the first. Vegans reject the commodity status of sentient animals. Consequently, we don't use animal products, since doing so would promote the commodification of sentient beings. So, in reality, veganism is much more than a diet. It's not simply plant-based eating, it's a moral and ethical philosophy (or, as some call it, a lifestyle).

People who eat plant-based diets for the right reasons (i.e. to prevent animal suffering or to help the environment rather than purely for their own health) very rarely return to eating animal products. A strongly ingrained moral philosophy is difficult to rid of, and the majority of people would see no reason to rid of their ethical beliefs in the first place.

"Veganism isn't just a phase. It's a lifelong moral commitment."

Let's say you're opposed to murder (as most people are), and have felt this way for your whole life. You hold a strong and deeply ingrained moral belief that it's completely unacceptable to maliciously take another person's life. It'd be very unlikely for you to suddenly pull a one-eighty and decide that murder is A-okay, right? The same goes for vegans. We strongly oppose the abuse and commodification of animals. Most of us have felt this way our whole lives - for some, it just takes a while to make the connection between animal products and animal suffering. Once we make the connection, however, we're not going to go back. The only way you could go back would be if you gave up your moral beliefs - something that, as I mentioned, rarely happens. That's why veganism isn't just a phase. It's a lifelong moral commitment.

But what about vegetarians?

Well - that's a little different. A large proportion of vegetarians do avoid meat for ethical reasons, but others only do it for their health... and they fit the definition of vegetarianism just as well as the ethical vegheads. There are several reasons why health-based vegetarians could go back to eating meat. Perhaps their vegetarianism was only a trial or a short 'health kick'. Perhaps they didn't want to deal with criticism from family members, friends and strangers alike. Perhaps they didn't give their bodies enough time to adjust to the new diet (so they felt sick and thought they needed meat), or perhaps they just sucked hard at making vegetarian food and went back to what they were used to. Ethical vegetarians, on the other hand, usually stick to their guns or move on to veganism. I'm an example of one such individual - as mentioned, I was vegetarian for twelve years before becoming vegan.

I haven't eaten meat in over fourteen years now, and I made the initial decision when I was six years old. So, at least in my case, I can be certain that my abstinence from the use of animal products is not a phase. There are many others in the same boat as me - if you take a look through the comments of the original article, many people have been vegan or vegetarian for ten, twenty, thirty, forty years.

I haven't yet mentioned the sample size of the survey 'proving' that vegetarianism/veganism is just a phase - 11,000. That's quite a meager sum when considering the existence of the 16 million vegetarians and vegans in the USA alone. Similarly, the survey was confined solely to the United States, a country where meat consumption levels are massive, advertising of animal products is rampant, and various companies push the notion that animal products are necessary for good health (which is of course untrue). The 399+ million vegetarians (40% of the population) in India, for example, were ignored.

"There are enough vegetarians and vegans out there who are dedicated to their morals and would never give up on their beliefs to prove that it's the furthest thing from 'just a phase'."

Based on everything I've just mentioned, I think it's fair to conclude that the mentioned article is far from the truth. It's a perfect example of what some would call "anti-veg propaganda". There are enough vegetarians and vegans out there who are dedicated to their morals and would never give up on their beliefs to prove that it's the furthest thing from "just a phase". Meat, cheese and eggs don't even look or smell like food anymore. I can't look at a hot chicken at the supermarket without feeling sick and mournful. It's more than just about the food, though - veganism is an expression of my soul. I, for one, know damn well that's never going to change.