When I come across vegans versus vegans

Vegans attacking other vegans. Yes, it’s a thing. Over the last few weeks I’ve written about some of the questions I’m often asked and the vegan responses I give, with supporting evidence where possible. But interactions on social media are not just confined to arguing debating with the carnists. Often I come across conflict with fellow vegans who seem to think that there’s some sort of vegan hierarchy and that anyone who does not perform to their high standards is ‘not vegan  enough’.

Is it possible to be 100% vegan?

There is actually no official definition of a vegan, so it’s open to interpretation. Recently, I’ve seen a number of articles espousing the difference between a plant-based diet and the vegan lifestyle. The plant-based folk tend to come at it from the health angle, so initially they may be less concerned about activism or eradicating animal products from other areas of their lives. This isn’t good enough for those on the moral high ground, but at least they’ve taken the first step, and in my experience, often go on to embrace all the aspects of the vegan lifestyle. So, a vegan will try not to consume or use anything that harms an animals, but is this really possible? I’d argue that at present it isn’t possible to be 100% vegan.

Moral grey areas

Despite our best intentions, there are still moral grey areas: what do you do if you need to take a life-saving drug that’s been tested on animals? (I’d say only answer this question if you have actually been in this position, because you don’t know for certain how you’d react if you were looking the grim reaper in the face.) What do you feed your pets? OK, so some vegans don’t think you should even have animal family members, but I’m not even going to consider this until all the cruelty, abandonment and welfare issues have been resolved. Should you impose your vegan choices on a dog, for example? We did try both of our dogs on a vegan diet and it was successful for a while. But then one day Dylan decided he was not going to eat vegan dog food any more. He’s thirteen years old and suffers from arthritis. Would it be cruel to deny him the meat-based food he was used to and had eaten all his life, or indeed deny him the painkillers he needs because they have, no doubt, been tested on other dogs?

Do your best

The Vegan Society defines veganism as:

 “A philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of animals, humans and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.”

This recognises that we can only be vegan ‘as far as is possible and practicable’. And so all we can do is to do our best. Sometimes we will make mistakes, buy something that turns out to have milk powder in it, for example; sometimes we will have no choice. It also recognises that there needs to be development of animal-free alternatives to, well, just about everything. This is not going to happen overnight, but we can play a part by supporting those businesses, whether they be small enterprises or multi-nationals who are developing vegan-friendly products. As I wrote in an earlier post, the capitalist society operates on the basis of supply and demand. If demand for vegan goods goes up, so will supply.  That’s my excuse for eating the vegan Magnums.

To those vegans who think that we are not vegan enough because we have animal family members, because we feed them meat, because we may have some leather shoes lurking in the back of the wardrobe just in case we need to put on suit and attend a funeral, because sometimes we don’t have the time to examine every single label in the supermarket, because we are not promoting veganism actively enough … the last word goes to a quote from a Twitter follower:

“Vegans attacking other vegans! This is not helping with fighting for the animals. We are not going to agree on everything and that is OK. This is what makes us unique. Arguing with each other is ultimately time wasting” [@hippydippyvegan]