Standard Arguments Against Veganism, Pt. 2

Nov 07, 2019

"Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible."
-Frank Zappa

1. Vegetarians

Most people still don’t understand the difference between vegetarian and vegan, when the only thing they share is exclusion of meat from the diet. (And sometimes “vegetarians” don’t even do that, as apparently fish are actually vegetables floating through the sea. Just call yourself a pescetarian, then.[1]) The reason vegans exclude all animal products from their life is because there is always some level of cruelty when a business is founded on the principle that animals are made to provide humans with something.

When we compare this to slavery, we would never say that owning slaves, even if they were treated well or harmed less than others, is in any way ok. That’s because we recognize that slaves are human beings, and their race does not make them morally inferior to the slave masters. Let’s look at the egg industry for a moment. There is a standard procedure known as "chick culling." This is the routine murder of male chicks (along with sick, disfigured, or surplus females), but it’s even worse than it sounds. The most common way of killing the day-old babies is to either put them in a gas chamber, throw them in a garbage bag to suffocate, or – brace yourself – grind them up alive. It’s basically a real-life horror movie, and billions of chicks are killed every year, estimated around seven billion in 2018.

This process also occurs with ducks and geese in foie gras production, with mostly females being the ones killed.[2] This happens with calves in the dairy industry too, as mothers – like humans – produce milk solely for the purposes of feeding their baby. They are unable to do so because humans have to drink her milk, so the male babies are of no use to the industry as they will never be able to lactate. They are slaughtered within 72 hours or raised six months for veal.[3] Most vegetarians are good people who made that decision for ethical purposes, not realizing the extent of the cruelty. It's time to take the next step.

2. Personal Choice

Also known as, “Back off, vegans!” This excuse is basically like a child saying that you can’t tell them what to do, and it’s a cop-out. For instance, I could say that it’s my personal choice to kill my neighbor’s noisy dog, but most people would, understandably, object to this. Why? Because it’s wrong. Because that’s not my dog. Because I don’t have the right to take away someone else’s life. A personal choice is deciding where to go to college, if you want to go to the movies tonight, or if you should actually eat that last slice of (vegan) pizza. Your personal choice ends when the life and wellbeing of another sentient creature is involved.[4]

3. Lions

I’m not sure why lions specifically are so often used, but this is the argument that wild animals eat other animals. And that’s valid, since it’s true. But are we wild animals? I live in a nice house, shop at a grocery store (but mostly on the internet), am too attached to my various forms of technology, use a clean toilet, and wear clothes on a daily basis. I have never seen a wild animal do any of those things (of their own free will). We have completely removed ourselves from the natural order of life, so that excuse is invalidates itself. But if we do want to live like wild animals, we should be prepared to fight to the death, run from predators that want to eat us, rape or be raped, and eat our children if necessary. Um, no thanks. I’ll keep my house, vegan snacks, and toilet paper.

4. Humans > Nonhuman Animals

Speciesism is the false belief that humans are morally superior to other species of animals for reasons x, y, and z. Unfortunately, this seems to be related to religion in many ways because God gave us dominion over the earth and all its creatures. However, this dominion is meant to be in the way that God has dominion over us. God does not enslave us, have us raped, tortured, and killed all for His own perverted pleasure. As Uncle Ben said, “with great power comes great responsibility,” and we can either continue to use our power to destroy the planet and everything on it or we can use it to heal our past mistakes and leave a beautiful world for our future generations.

Speciesism has been ingrained in us as a coping mechanism to deal with what we do to animals. We need to think they are less valuable and significant than us in order to commit such atrocities upon their lives. It’s twisted and horrific, but we can change. We must understand that when it comes to equality, the only thing that matters is that we all experience the world and we all have the ability to feel pain. We would not inflict this torture on dogs, cats, turtles, or endangered species, so we should not do so to cows, fishes, turkeys, or sheep.[5, 6]

5. Plants, Though...?

When you’ve reached this point in a conversation, you’ll know they’re scraping the bottom of the barrel. The general consensus among all human beings (and, most importantly, scientific research) is that plants are not sentient, meaning they do not have a central nervous system and therefore do not feel pain. Animals, on the other hand, do. Either way, farmed animals eat many times more plants than humans do, so if plants do somehow feel pain, it is actually better to only kill and eat them as it contributes to less “plant slaughter” overall.[7, 8]

6. Ad Hominem Attacks

This is the most difficult kind of argument, not only because it’s a personal attack, but because it completely disregards the animals. People may say, “vegans are stupid,” or, “I hope you die,” or, “I love eating baby cows,” just to be cruel. I firmly believe this should be considered hate speech, because we would never accept this form of language if it were about any other class of people. Let’s examine it: “Black people are stupid,” or, “I hope gay people die,” or, “I love eating puppies.” It sounds barbaric and disgusting. If you’re ever in a conversation with a person like this, it’s probably best to just leave. Their minds clearly are not ready for veganism, and they will need to find their way at another time. You have done what you can, and that’s all there is to it.

The End (For Now)

Hopefully this has been helpful to you, especially with the holiday season approaching and those harrowing conversations with extended family looming. (I feel your pain.) I so wish I had this information when I first went vegan (but it’s my own fault, really, for never looking it up). I’ve linked to tons of information below and in Part One, and they are all great resources for yourself and for people you may come across that are interested in veganism.[9] Sometimes it’s easier to just send a ten-minute video than try to explain all the reasons against carnism. Next week will also (hopefully) be helpful for the holiday season, so don’t miss out!