Over the years there are three topics I have become increasingly interested in: The environment, Health, and Animal Welfare. I have engaged in these topics in a variety of ways from reading books and articles and listening to podcasts on the subjects to writing letters to government officials to encourage support or rejection of legislature, and donating to not for profits that support these causes. And finally it came to changing the way I lived my life.

Becoming a vegan

I haven’t eaten meat in at least a decade. And I stopped eating dairy several years ago. Changing to a plant based diet. I don’t know how long I have been eating this way because the amount of time I have been doing it has never been the goal or something to brag about. The commitment to keep doing it is all that matters.

Along with this shift in the way I eat has come the desire to eliminate the use of as many products as possible that are associated with harm to animals. I try to avoid products that are tested on animals for example. And I don’t wear clothing made from dead animals.

I tend to call myself a vegan because it is the easiest way for me to convey how I practice the art of living life on a daily basis. And make no mistake, living life is a practice. And in any practice we all make mistakes and no one is perfect.

Why am I a vegan

In my conception of veganism reducing suffering is one of the key precepts. But I am also vegan because it is good for my health. And veganism is good for our environment and a much needed practice to help the planet and all the wild animals and plants that share this world with us.

As someone who believes in the importance of a vegan lifestyle I believe it is important to talk openly about what I think is important and help anyone who is considering eating less meat find a way to get there. I often advocate for vegan causes and share thoughts about the importance of being vegan.

One of the benefits of the online communities that exist these days is that we can more easily connect with others who share our same beliefs and support one another and build coalitions and movements.

I like to engage with my fellow vegans online. It feels good support fellow vegans and encourage others who are thinking about eating more plants and less meat. However, through my dialog with other vegans online I am finding that I don’t really fit into the box of “vegan” very well.

Animal exploitation framework

When I talk to other vegans the focus is on animal exploitation, as veganism is defined if you look it up. But my biggest concern is in animal welfare and suffering. While you could never convince me that there is a humane way to kill and animal that doesn’t want to die. While exploitation carries a negative connotation it is not necessarily a negative in and of itself. We exploit the material world around us to build our lives but it doesn’t have to be done with an explicitly negative impact on the world.

It can be argued that we exploit sheep for their wool to make clothes, but that does not have to be done in a way that harms the animal. And Much of our clothing in our current society is made in a fast fashion model that uses synthetic materials that are cheep and reliant on fossil fuels. And these clothes are purchased on the cheap and then discarded with little regard for the negative impact that has on the planet. Whereas wool is a long lasting durable material that is a renewable resource and does not require as much a reliance on fossil fuels at least not in directly obtaining the material. As someone who cares deeply about climate change and the environment it might be, while not ideal, a worthwhile trade off use wool from sheep to replace materials that require fossil fuels. In a perfect world maybe we wouldn’t need either but that is not the world we live in. I know people will bring up hemp as a fiber that can be used for clothing but I haven’t seen hemp clothing in any mainstream store that I am aware of and especially not in the sports gear sections. Which is probably a segment of the population that is most getable if a hemp alternative sportswear industry could be a thing. But currently it does not seem to be something that exists. We live in ein a world that requires compromise.

Food

On the food side, I don’t actively seek out honey to use in my food, but I don’t go out of my way to avoid it either. If honey is in something that I think is a healthy alternative to other foods I will usually buy it. I make this allowance because I am operating from a model of harm reduction not elimination of exploitation. And I am not convinced that the way we produce honey harms bees. I have not read or heard any research that demonstrates that bees experience pain or suffering an any way that is similar to how we perceive pain and suffering. I came to veganism through an animal welfare lens so this is how I tend to view the world. If there is credible research to demonstrate that bees experience pain I am open to reading it and changing my view on this.

Entertainment

Fishing vs zoos: Exploitation of animals for entertainment. This is a more complicated issue for me. It took a while for me to come to the realization that fishing is not good for animals. And maybe that is more obvious to some than others. I grew up fishing and I always thought that catch and release fishing was fine because you were not killing the fish. But the more I thought of it from a pain and suffering angle I began to see hooking and reeling in a fish as inflicting pain and suffering unnecessarily on animals. But another form of “entertainment” derived from animals that a “good” vegan would avoid would be zoos and aquariums. This is often looked at through the lens of animal exploitation. But as I try to frame it through the lens of animal welfare and suffering even through that lens it becomes blurry. However, a big key to me is that Zoos and Aquariums are not just about entertainment. They are about education and research and trying to protect wildlife as well. While animals living in captivity is not ideal and it is possible that some animals in captivity may suffer from a level of suffering that would preferably be avoided I have a hard time not believing that zoos and aquariums are an overall good in the world. Not least of which because they work to help animals survive in the wild. But for this larger reason, they project the ability for people to connect with and love animals.

Veganism through love

People don’t magically become vegan overnight for no reason. People become vegan because they develop love and caring for animals. And while I love art and photography and I believe they can put enourmous messages into the world, there is nothing like looking into the eye of some animal that you will never have the chance to see in the wild. Going to a zoo and seeing a wolf in real life and learning about them is an experience that can shape a person and it is more accessible than just about any other form of connection to animals. And is probably more powerful. People will want to protect that which they love and understand. People can come to love and understand animals through their interactions with them at a zoo. This is a large part of my own story so I am not just speculating on this. I grew to love animals and want to protect them in large part because I had seen them in person at a zoo. I was able to see up close in person how amazing these creatures are and that they are worth protecting. And a huge way to protect them is by ending factory farming and our reliance on producing meat for consumption.

Companion animals bond us to life outside the human experience

Dogs and horses: The framework for veganism that denounces animal exploitation seems to be against the existence of domesticated animals for companions. Companion animals such as dogs and horses. The most well known Vegan advocacy group PETA has a statement on their website that horses are not for riding. PETA also states that while they would not advocate for taking dogs away from humans who actively have them they also states that they do not support any breeding of dogs. If dogs are not bred then dogs cease to exist. I think our world would be a much worse off place without the existence of dogs.

The connection between dogs and humans is the fundamental connection between human and animal that people can relate to. This is the gateway to having people understand the plight of other animals. Animals that suffer in factory farms or wild animals that suffer from hunting or habit loss. Humans connect with their dogs and can then empathize with other animals. We see how our dogs react and how they feel. That is how we begin to realize that animals have feelings. We see these feelings first hand in our dogs.

I came to be a vegan in large part through dogs and my volunteering and adopting dogs from animal welfare organizations. If as a vegan you want to tell someone who might be sympathetic to the vegan cause that they would not be able to have a dog then you have just lost that convert and they will not come back. Dogs have been part of human culture for tens of thousands of years. Not only is it a losing argument to tell people that veganism is anti dog, PETA in and of itself is hypocritical on this point I have read multiple accounts of PETA killing dogs instead of sending them to rescues and humane societies to be adopted and cared for in loving homes. You can’t argue on one hand that there is no humane death for farm animals and on the other hand kill dogs instead of sending them to shelters. That hypocrisy will destroy any chance to convert someone to veganism.

Talking online

Recently I have been trying to have more dialogue with other vegans on social media. And maybe that is a mistake. But, I don’t know many vegans in real life and I don’t get the chance to sit down with other vegans and have deep moral conversations. So I thought I would try to engage with people online and see how my fellow vegans think about the practice of veganism.

It seems to me that vegans, online at least, really like to proclaim what does or does not make one a vegan. I have also been told that veganism isn’t a collection of behaviors that if you do them you are a vegan. It has to be about why you do it and the answer to why you do it has to be that you are opposed to animal exploitation. But why can’t it be a collection of actions that make you a vegan? If I support all of the fundamental behaviors that make one a vegan and I live my life in accordance with those behaviors but I do that because those behaviors are also conducive to saving our planet then am I not a vegan? Can I not be a vegan whose belief is we should life our life to these standards because it will save all animals by saving our planet? Especially since I can definitely be a person who believe in the concept of animal exploitation and I can say that I am against animal exploitation but not actually live a life that demonstrates those beliefs. It is our actions that matter not our beliefs in the long run. The ends do not justify the means. What you do matters. Why you do it matters less. I would want everyone to do things for “the right” reasons. But if we save our planet and end animal suffering that’s what matters most.

I have been told that veganism isn’t a philosophy that is against animal exploitation. And that if I don’t do all of the things that demonstrate my being anti animal exploitation then I am not a vegan. That sounds much more like an ideology or a religion to me than a philosophy. And even in religion there is room for flexibility. I can be a Christian but I can belong to one of many denominations of Christianity that most closely aligns with my values. But for some reason I cannot do this with veganism.

I have also been told the term veganism isn’t defined by its stance against animal exploitation and that it cannot be anything different and that I cannot change the definition of what veganism is. But maybe it should change and maybe I can help change it. Going back to my reference to religion. Christianity has changed a lot since its inception 2000 years ago. And it still continues to evolve. It seems radical to me to think that a “philosophy” that has only been officially defined since the 1940’s (although I wouldn’t be surprised to learn it was practiced by other cultures since time immemorial) cannot change. It cannot be redefined. Why does it have to be written in stone? Don’t we live in a society that seeks to make progress? Maybe we could make more progress in our vegan movement (I have also been told that veganism is not a movement) if we shifted the focus of veganism from animal exploitation to ending animal suffering.

By ending animal suffering I mean farm animals, wild animals, and human animals. We can create a better world through ending suffering. I think that is the more obvious and the more potent argument. How can a person argue against a world with less suffering? If one chooses to argue for more suffering then the moral detachment become more obvious.

I am a vegan for the animals, for the planet, and for my health. Those are the foundations of my veganism because they work to reduce suffering and they are all interconnected. If I eat a diet that benefits my health as much as possible that means no meat and that will benefit the lives of farm animals. It will also benefit the lives of wild animals as we stop destroying their habitat for farm land to support animal agriculture. And it will benefit the planet because factory farming harms the environment in many ways. And the same gen diagram unfolds if you start at the point of veganism for the animals, or veganism for the planet. While I understand the sentiment that veganism isn’t a diet, if people focusing on veganism because it is a healthy diet I feel like that gets us 90% of the way to ending animal suffering and is a huge step towards saving our planet and I will gladly take it. And I will gladly call you a vegan.

When I think of ideologies I think of religions or political ideologies which are rigid and inflexible. These rules exist and you must follow them even if they may not actually make sense. Not following these rigid precepts can result in excommunication from the movement.

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