If you're you're reading this as a vegan, chances are you made the decision to adopt the lifestyle for one of three reasons: 

Combinations of those, or for another reason, are, of course, perfectly valid too.

It is the last reason for me. I am vegan for the animals. I will do my best to explain veganism based on the concept of being an "animal lover." What does that truly mean, and how is being vegan the only way one can ever indeed be an animal lover without condition?

Here are a few scenarios to consider what it really means to be an "animal lover" or not.

A Questionable Business

For those who call themselves "animal lovers," but still eat meat, really need to redefine themselves. Sure, they may have a cat or a dog in their lives, but they still consume the dead bodies of other less fortunate animals. That's a being a "pet lover" not "animal lover."

Put another way, why is it "OK" to eat one animal but not the other? Maybe Tania knows? But then again, probably not.

It is unfortunate that our society defines which beings are OK to eat, and which are NOT OK to eat. If you live in a western society, chances are you would never eat meat from a horse or a dog or cat.

In some cultures, slaughtering and then eating meat from these creatures is commonplace. How does it make you feel inside knowing that this happens? What's worse, if you have a dog or cat as a pet, imagining them going through this painful process may change your perspective.

If you truly love your pets, you should be vegan.

All Life Should Live

By any study-backed measure, all animals are sentient, pain averse beings. They, like humans, would want to avoid that which hurts or even kills them.

The fact that they cannot articulate this notion is irrelevant – their reactions to pain and pleasure are the same as baby humans who also cannot talk.

Lots of factors are at play when we look at different societies' animal eating and treatment habits around the world, such as history, religion, and culture.

But if you take a step back from those cultural norms, as vegans do, it is all so utterly arbitrary and ultimately so very, very wrong.

At their closest points, England and France are separated by a mere 22 miles of sea. In Calais, France, the frog's legs are very much on the menu.

Just over the sea in Dover, England, the prospect of eating the same would be met with lots of aghast looks and statements about how "we don't eat that!"

At the same time, plenty of anti-animal cruelty charities across England readily put on fund-raising events for their cause and, without any sense of irony, have barbecued meat stands as part of the same event.

And of course, such cognitive dissonance and inconsistencies are not just specific to those two countries – sadly, it spans the globe.

A Sunny Spring Day

The point is, most people would not go out of their way to be cruel to animals, nor would they actively hunt for their sustenance.

Our society has programmed its citizens to choose foods based on price and availability. So, we can thank big agricultural businesses for society's addiction to meat. They make it easy to make the wrong choice, the choice that hurts animals. 

Peaceful Activism Works

Fortunately, there are those of us fighting back against this machine. As vegans, we raise the world's consciousness by exposing human hypocrisy.

This is why peaceful activism is so important.

And we don't have to become violent either.

Sometimes all that is needed is for someone to read your vegan message on a t-shirt to spark small changes in their behavior that day, and perhaps the next day and onto the rest of their life.

Read All About It

What the world needs is a reality-check.

Veganism is the Only Remedy

And we need to hold ourselves accountable as much as possible if we are to achieve our goals to bring about these necessary changes.

Veganism is the only remedy for stopping animal cruelty period.

Veganism values all life, not just the selective lives of those that a particular culture reveres as "cute," "sacred," or as "pets"

Tania, Grant, and Max may think that they are being animal lovers, but on examination, they clearly are not.  Only by choosing a vegan path, and removing all cognitive dissonance and double standards, would they be able to call themselves "animal lovers" truly.

Change is not easy, and that is OK too. That's why we are working so hard to build a community together where the actions we take serve a greater purpose and work toward our collective aims.

Choosing that higher path takes a ton of work and maintenance, but it is worth the effort! You health, the animals, and the planet overall thank you for forging ahead as a vegan human being.

Grace Murray Hopper.  Ever heard of her?  Maybe?  Although possibly not.  Well, Grace was a pioneering computer scientist in the 1970s who is credited with the following:

“The most dangerous phrase in language is:  we’ve always done it this way.”

As vegans viewing an omnivorous world, Grace made a pretty good point.

The Vegan Call

The vegan movement, despite its short history, is now mobilized and on the march like never before.  Millions of people around the world are ditching meat, ditching animal exploitation, and embracing mercy over misery.

From being on the fringe of the margins of society just a few decades ago, veganism is now the ultimate grass-roots, bottom-up movement for not just the twenty-first century, but for every century subsequent to that.  I write that without fear of hyperbole or exaggeration. 

You, I and every vegan are pioneers of a movement that will save the planet, save the animals and, ultimately, humankind.  It will take time, and yes, beyond our lifetime, but that is the call of being a vegan pioneer today.

It's Time to Challenge the Status Quo

History gives us many examples of pioneers who challenged established orthodoxy and the mind-set of “but we’ve always done it this way.”  

Some fundamental things we now take for granted without really thinking about it were, not so long ago, dreams held by others who had to fight, struggle, debate and persuade until progress was made.

In the nineteenth century, opponents of slavery advocated and fought to bring an end to that abominable practice in the US, Great Britain and elsewhere.  That was despite the cries of “what’s the problem - this has been going on for years” or “slavery is the natural order of things.”

On that note, it is remarkable how often the worst of human practices are advocated by those who conjure up “nature” when it suits them. 

Wild to think how many meat-eaters construct the defense of their omnivorous activities on the basis of “being natural” – which it really isn’t – but then have no qualms about using modern aviation.  Because, of course, hurtling through the atmosphere at 500 mph at 35,000 feet up inside a metal tube is perfectly natural.

A further example of what was once deemed to be “normal” or “natural”, is the right of women to vote. 

In the early twentieth century, only about a hundred years ago, suffragette pioneers campaigned for and raised the profile of voting rights for women.  Prior to that, the idea of women voting was scoffed at and derided as being unrealistic, unachievable or, and here we go again, against the “natural” order of things.

The suffragettes advocated, educated and struggled until the eventual culmination of the enfranchisement of women in many countries around the world that we see today.

Away from social and political issues, and returning to an aviation theme once more, humanity had long viewed the skies and envied the birds, culminating in the Wright Brothers making the first powered flight in 1903.  Before that flight, the idea was pilloried and laughed at as being fanciful or a waste of time.

The point here? 

Despite the detractors, and despite the nay-sayers, history shows us plenty of examples of when “what if” becomes “we did it.”

The Vegan Long-Game

The term vegan was first coined in 1944 by British animal rights advocate David Watson.  He arrived at the word by taking the beginning and end of “vegetarianism” – “veg” and “an”, put the two together and gave us “vegan.”

In the immediate post-War decades, if vegetarianism was marginalized, veganism was as good as unheard of.  Animal consumption and products was king, with the meat, dairy and egg industries unchallenged in pushing their products onto consumer markets that really knew no other way.

However, very slowly but very surely, as the twentieth century came to an end, veganism began to clamber out from the shadows of obscurity more and more.  As it did, the inevitable cat-calls started to emerge too – that vegans were malnourished subversives who would undermine the regular, natural order of society.

Well, your author has been vegan 6 years now and has spent roughly three of those years in the UK and the other three in the USA.  Neither societies have collapsed as a result of my veganism or anybody else’s come to that (they may both be looking a little shaky at present, but that’s sure not because of the rise of veganism…)

Veganism moves from strength to strength every year.  There is any number of metrics and studies that back that up. However, there is still a long way to go.  That is why the vegan game is a long game. 

Mountaineering Anyone?

Unlike revolutions or compared to other measures of human social progress, veganism is in for the long haul, despite its recent successes.  That is because, sadly, humanity’s disregard for animals is millennia old.  

Animals have for so long been regarded as nothing more than property or a resource to be exploited. 

It is a case that old habits die hard.  And never was that truer than with humanity’s addiction to animal cruelty and exploitation.  Virtually every human society and culture has held that anthropocentric view-point and that iron grip has always been so tight.

But never give up and never compromise your vegan conviction one fraction.  For every day you stay vegan, every day you promote or get active about the lifestyle, that iron grip on the animals lessens, fraction by fraction, bit by bit, slowly, steadily and surely.

And while the slope to climb is almost unbelievably lengthy and steep for us vegan pioneers take heart from the fact that we have scaled the mountain higher than anyone could have imagined before. So we will be the inspiration for the next wave of vegan pioneers in even greater numbers to continue the vegan ascent to the ultimate goal – a fully vegan world.

Keep climbing pioneer!

“So many questions, but can you tell me answers?”

One of the consequences of going vegan is, without really expecting it, you become something akin to a quiz-show contestant. Expect questions on why you haven’t died of malnutrition within 30 days of going vegan, where you get your protein from and, like a long-lost relative who emigrated to New Zealand, but with a distinctly more dairy slant, don’t you miss cheese?

There are though some more thought-provoking questions for vegans to consider that may not be the most prominent, but will certainly get you thinking – with five of those scenarios below.

Disclaimer:  For the purposes of this article, three things need to be stressed:

Scenario 1: The Pig Valve Dilemma.

Back in 2001, my father went down with endocarditis – an especially vicious bacterial infection of the blood that has its very own party trick of focusing upon, and destroying, the valves of the heart.

The condition took him out so badly that it quickly reduced him to a coma and the threat of demise quickly thereafter.  The heart specialist told us, the extremely upset and disorientated family, that there were two very stark choices. 

The first, was a pig valve transplant procedure. 

The second, in the absence of that, was his passing away.

At that time, artificial heart valve replacement was also available, but we were told in very clear terms that that would not work for my father. It was either pig valves, or death.  So, the pig valves were used and my father recovered and went on to live another 11 years. Another crotchety, Dad-like 11 years, but 11 years nevertheless (love you Dad and always will…)

At that time, I wasn’t vegetarian, let alone vegan.  So, the ethics of that pig valve procedure were of no concern to me then.  But now?  As a vegan?

So, let me ask you, what would you do when faced with the loss of a family member and the only shot they have of avoiding that is by the use of a non-human animal in some surgical procedure? 

Would you do it? 

If so, why?  If not, why not?

Scenario 2: Sorry if This Bugs You

As vegans, the vast majority are overwhelmingly committed to the reduction and ideally the elimination of the killing / destruction of all forms of non-human life.

Spiders in the house?  Well, plenty of vegans have arachnophobia but at the same time will either do what they can to shepherd our eight-legged friends out of the house or at least let them be.

Houseflies though are a different proposition?  Maybe?  Irritating at best, spreaders of stomach-churning diseases at worst, houseflies really need to get in touch with a decent publicity agent as the public’s perception of them is lower than the belly of a snake.

Still, taking them out with a rolled-up newspaper does seem to fly (no pun intended) in the face of what veganism is meant to stand for – if violence and killing can be avoided, it should be. 

So, it comes as no surprise that recently, there has been the launch of a humane house-fly remover for the home.  Which is of course fine.  But let’s take this a little further…

You have bed-bugs and you know that you do because you wake up every morning with the back of your calf reminiscent of braille. How do you tackle this?  Buy new sheets but worry that they are so far entrenched in the mattress that they’ll be chewing on your leg with abandon before the week is out?

Ok, so what if the new mattress doesn’t work?  The infestation is in the bedroom and the only way to resolve it is the insect equivalent of genocide – fumigation.  As a vegan, is this permissible, or not?

Or, as many vegan pet owners will know, their cat or dog can become the home to fleas.  Are they legitimate to stay embedded in the coat of their non-human host, or, alternatively, should they be taken out? 

If so, is it “vegan” to do that?

Scenario 3: To Pet or Not to Pet – That is the Vegan Question

It is to humanity’s shame that large chunks of us think that, in this day and age, with all we know, all we can see with just a click or two of a mouse, that industrial sized exploitation and murder of millions of animals per day still continues (in the time that you just rad that last sentence, three thousand land animals just perished…)

One area of hope is humankind’s relationship with the pets that it keeps. Hundreds of millions of cats, dogs, rabbits and other creatures that have long been domesticated share lives with us in our homes. Dogs were domesticated 15,000 years ago, while cats took a little longer at 10,000 years ago (that’s why cats are that little bit wilder and long ago declared war on all of your curtains.)

Of course, cows, sheep, pigs, chickens and horses have also been domesticated, but have ended up with a very different fate.

But is keeping any animal at home truly vegan? Animals by their very nature are wholly separate entities from humans and pets have been taken out of their true environments. Even more so when we ponder on the real reason why any animals were ever domesticated – to hunt vermin, to pull ploughs, to help us hunt. All very one-sided.

Even the terminology we use with pets, how we “own” a cat or dog, smacks of an unequal possession thing. We would never talk of “owning” a child or step-child, so why do the vast majority of pet owners refer to owning their pet?

So, does pet “ownership” do nothing more then reinforce humankind’s perception of being lords over all who always set the conditions when it comes to animals?

Should we then be fundamentally rethinking our relationship when it comes to Tiddles and Rover?

Scenario 4: Should This Drive Vegans Crazy?

It’s not all one-way traffic when it comes to humankind. On the one hand, while large numbers of them engage in or support wide-spread animal exploitation, they also do neat stuff like fly to the moon, invent i-Phones, build cathedrals and play cricket (give me a break, I’m British…)

Another, arguably, great human invention has been the invention of the internal combustion engine which led to the car.

Pollution and car-related deaths aside, ahem, what an awesome concept we have. Two hundred years ago, to travel from say Washington to New York would have taken days. Now, courtesy of the car, it’s just a matter of hours. The car has been one of the greatest liberating inventions that humankind has come up with in its history.

Just think about it, all you have to do is put gas / petrol in it, derived from animal fossils from millions of years ago, and off you go!

That’s right, your car is fuelled by the remains of dead dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals. And while we are at it, natural gas, the stuff that likely keeps your home warm and lets you cook your vegan meals, is also in part derived from the fossilised remains of prehistoric animals.

With that in mind, isn’t it the case that vegans remove the use of animal products from as many parts of their lives as possible – yes? If that’s the case, then how does that work for petroleum gasoline or natural gas? If either of those two energy sources were derived from say more contemporary sources, like the by-product of mass animal exploitation, would that be any different?

Is your car running on non-vegan ethics?

Scenario 5: Are We Vegan Kidding the Kids?

As a parent to a child, we really should have their best interests at heart at all times. What they do, where they go and, of course, what they eat. And it’s on the subject of what they eat that should be our vegan concern.

As a vegan, you choose to go cruelty-free and want the world to know that you do – right?

When a new-born is raised as a vegan, they know no different. However, let’s change that dynamic somewhat. How about those parents or guardians that choose to go vegan years after the kids turn up on the scene and then implement veganism for all? Put another way, the kids have, rightly or wrongly, a likeness for meat, dairy and egg, but with you as new vegans, that then gets taken away from them.

Does that work? Can vegan parents make that choice for their omnivorous kids?

The vast majority of adults understandably regulate the lives of their kids – the things they do, the things they view online or watch on TV – you get the picture. The rationale being that adults show kids the best way to live. So why would veganism be any different?

But then let’s take this a step further. The kids’ friends are coming around to stay for the night. And they absolutely aren’t vegan and you know that their parents aren’t either. Are we breaching our earnestly held vegan principles to accommodate their non-vegan requirements?

Let’s take this one further. Your vegan kid is staying the night with one of their friends’ family. Do you expect your vegan kid to be fed vegan by their host? If not, should your kid be headed there, even though they really want to go, but you know non-vegan fare is going to be dangled before them?

Or summing everything up, should we be making the kids go vegan?