You run into the image somewhere on social media.
A hippy with long Rastafarian hair out in some meadow, hugging and possibly even kissing a cow or a pig or a chicken, or maybe even embracing numerous farmed animals, a scene indicative of what appears to be a prelude to some interspecies orgy.
Below are the words “if you love animals, go vegan”, or something of the sort.
As a vegan myself, I find this message problematic. I also find cliché vegan gimmicks like “friends not food” a bit absurd. I do not have any pig friends. I do not confide my deepest secrets to a cow and as a child I did not have slumber parties with my chicken “friends”.
Yes, I’m vegan, but not because I “love” animals or because animals are my “friends”. My reasons for being vegan are rather simple, I aspire to avoid contributing to the suffering of others as much as possible and practicable, that includes humans and animals.
The same logic can apply to many of our consumer habits. Even though it’s practically impossible to completely avoid contributing to suffering when we purchase something, we can always do our best, and that can have a major positive impact on the world, whether we are willing to acknowledge it or not.
When I buy a new cell phone, I know there is a chance there was some form of child slavery involved in producing the apparatus, in some part of the world. Unfortunately, cell phones have become quite the necessity these days.
Instead of buying a new device, I get a used and refurbished one, and I know I’m at least slowing the demand for something that may be contributing to the misery of a child, not necessarily because I love children from Africa or Southeast Asia or anywhere else on the planet, but because I consider myself a decent person.
The foods we decide to eat can massively contribute to animal suffering in some of the most barbaric ways. For one, most of the animal products people consume these days come from factory farms, which are basically concentration camps for pigs, cows, birds (mainly chickens), and other animals people like to consider as nothing more than “food”, “clothes” or “furniture”.
This doesn’t mean every vegan aspires to have a cow residing in their living room, or to spend every night cuddled up with a pig or some chickens under their covers, petting and kissing these furry or feathered “friends” while asking them for relationship advice.
It just means they acknowledge the sentience and capacity for suffering of these animals, and have adjusted their consumption habits to avoid contributing to this suffering, wherever and whenever possible and practicable.
It’s that simple.
Veganism is less about some bizarre emotional attachment to cows, pigs, chickens, fish, and other animals, and more about the logical desire to reduce the amount of suffering we contribute to the world whenever we make a purchase.
So no, the argument for veganism isn’t about “loving” animals, and it’s definitely not the story of some eccentric vegan with a house full of interesting “friends”.
