I HATE VEGANS

I HATE VEGANS

 

 

Often I hear the comment “Keep your vegan propaganda to yourself” from non-vegans. Vegans are trying to promote compassion and empathy for all beings. We are trying to end animal cruelty.  So when you call it propaganda, does that mean you are for animal cruelty? I should hope not. Most vegans were born to non-vegan families.  We grew up learning it was commonplace to abuse animals for food.

 Myself, I grew up in a time when it was considered proper to take a belt and whip your children with it.  It was considered proper to slap your child in the face. We, thankfully, no longer accept that. We looked at the belt whippings and decided it was wrong. Now it is considered child abuse. It took a while for that change and a lot of parents resisted it, insisting the only way to discipline children was with a good spanking. My brother continued to hit his children with a belt, because that is what he was taught.

I grew up in a time when smoking cigarettes was cool. We did not know how harmful cigarettes and second-hand smoke was.  Even when the truth came out, it was met with opposition and resistance. It was a battle just to get cigarette labeled with warnings. It was a battle to get smoker’s to stop poisoning non-smokers. Many people my age still do not believe cigarettes and second hand smoke are harmful.

And that’s how it is with veganism.  Vegans looked at how animals in the food industry are treated, how animals in general are treated and considered it abuse and wrong. We see how animal agriculture is destroying our planet.  We opened our eyes. Most vegans do not make any money promoting veganism.  We just are trying to educate people, in the same way people in the past educated parents on hitting their children, or scientists educated the public on cigarettes. We want to end the abuse and cruelty. We want to stop global warming and pollution. We want to give our children a healthy, peaceful planet for their future.

The next time you think “oh, not another vegan” or “I hate vegans” think why? Why would you hate someone who is trying to end cruelty? Why would you hate someone who promotes compassion and empathy?  Ask yourself, is it the vegan you are angry at or is it the fact that they are making you look at your part in animal cruelty. All vegans have faced the role they had in animal abuse, in their pre-vegan days. It is a burden we carry. Promoting veganism is what we are doing to make amends for our past deeds. It takes courage, strength, and conviction to change. Ask any vegan, our only regret is that we didn’t go vegan sooner.