14 Things Vegans Shouldn't Do

Aug 31, 2020

"Compassion is of little value if it just remains an idea. It must motivate how we respond to others and be reflected in all our thoughts and actions."
-Dalai Lama

1. Call Animals Its/Things

Actually, I find myself doing this often, and I'm very aware of it when I say it. It's so ingrained in us to refer to animals as its, though we'd never do that with humans (except for babies or when being intentionally cruel). This kind of language is a form of depersonification, making animals seem more like unfeeling things in our environment instead of sentient beings. When we take away someone's identity, we can view them as things without the need for respect or dignity or kindness. This makes it easier to force our will upon them because, in our eyes, they're hardly different than inanimate objects.

Though vegans may not be directly contributing to the oppression of animals, we normalize that discrimination by outwardly viewing and speaking about animals in a demeaning manner. Instead, call them he, she, they, them, you, etc. Though you may feel uncomfortable assuming the gender of an animal, it's better to refer to all animals as hes or shes than as its, where you're equating their moral value to that of a footstool.

2. Call Animals Ours

One of the more common anti-vegan excuses -- if you can even really call it that -- vegans hear is that farmers love their animals. And that's the problem we're discussing here: "Farmers love their animals." But the animals aren't theirs. They do not belong to the farmers, no more than slaves belong to their masters. Sure, under the law, animals may be considered property, but the law is far behind social and moral progress. When news outlets publish articles about radical activists stealing animals from a farm, they're really saying that something -- something worth some amount of money -- was taken, not someone.

As vegans, like with the point above, we can't fall into the trap of accidentally using speciesist language. Though it may be ingrained in us, we should be more cognizant of how the words we use influence the way others view animals. Honestly, I hate even saying "my dog" because it sounds like I own her -- this is due to my discomfort with the pet-owner relationship most people assume with dogs, a norm with which I don't want to associate myself -- but there's really no other way to describe such a relationship succinctly. To avoid some of this discomfort, I try to say "my rescue dog" instead, using positive adjectives to describe my relationship with her, attempting to distance myself as much as possible from indicating her as property.

3. Not Be Activists

It seems I've talked quite a bit about activism lately, so I won't harp too much on it here, but every vegan has a responsibility to be putting something good out into the world. We can preach compassion all we want and feel superior to the "unenlightened," but if we're not actively trying to prevent others from committing acts of violence, then we're nothing more than hypocrites.

4. Call Carnists Omnivores/Carnivores

The truth of the matter is that humans are herbivores, and you can check out the very first point in "Standard Arguments Against Veganism, Pt. 6" to see just a few reasons why that's the case (with sources). But if you really want to test it out for yourself, just step outside, hunt down (with your own manpower), kill, and eat (alive) the first animal you encounter. Sound tasty? Didn't think so.

Instead of calling nonvegans omnivores or carnivores, call them nonvegans or carnists. If you're uncomfortable using the term carnist in attempts to be more PC and relatable, then at least call them meat-eaters or vegetarians. When we call other humans omnivores or carnivores, we're perpetuating the myth that humans are biologically designed to eat animals. It normalizes the already ingrained belief that animals exist for us to eat and use.

5. Use Carnist Euphemisms

There are too many to name them all here, but some of the most common ones are meat processing plant, slaughterhouse/abattoir, euthanasia/depopulation, slaughter, destroy, breed, steal, pet, meat, dairy, beef, and pork. The one exception I'll make with the ones I shared is slaughterhouses because it's certainly better than meat processing plants or abattoirs, but it's still a very tame word for what actually occurs. Instead, you can try Gary Yourofsky's "houses of slaughter" or killing factories. Sure, people will bristle when you phrase it that way, but that's only because they absolutely do not want to know the truth about what really goes on in those places.

As far as the other terms, use more evocative synonyms when possible: kill, murder, rape, kidnap, companion animal, flesh, breast milk, secretions, cow flesh, and pig flesh. This kind of language may not make you many friends, but it's sure going to get people thinking about why you would use such descriptive, foul language about foods and products they consume on a regular basis. If nothing else, you're going to make an impact on their perception of those animals.

6. Promote Welfarism for Individuals

In "Animal Rights vs. Animal Welfare," I came to the shocking conclusion -- to myself, at least -- that welfarism isn't entirely evil. In that post, I described how important societal shifts towards animal welfare are a huge win because we can keep pushing for more beneficial animal standards. Sure, it might not matter that a battery hen is crammed in a shed with thousands of other birds instead of in a cramped cage, but once we get that, we can push for bigger sheds and more space and more resources. Because animal agriculture is so resource- and money-intensive, there will be a point when there's simply nothing more these corporations can do to remain profitable. Then, they'll either go out of business or evolve.

However, when it comes to animal welfare for individuals, that's a completely different story. The core flawed principle behind animal welfare is that there's a right way to do the wrong thing. "High-welfare" products are only popular now because they alleviate consumers' consciences. They want to live in a fantasy world where egg-laying hens gladly destroy their bodies for breakfast sandwiches and where cows happily fall asleep in their pastures before being sliced onto dinner plates. It's nothing but marketing. Because the industry knows we're all basically good people, they want to exploit that while scrupulously attempting to hide the evidence of their odious practices. For a vegan to ever promote animal welfare as an adequate step towards veganism is shameful and is nothing but a slap in the face of the animals.

7. Compare Human & Nonhuman Intelligence

It feels good to say that pigs are smarter than dogs, but it's not entirely accurate. From a human perspective, pigs are generally better than dogs at certain tasks we deem to be indicators of intelligence, but that's an incredibly speciesist, narrow view of intelligence. The truth is that nonhumans have levels of intelligence that are impossible for us to fathom because we are completely incapable of thinking or behaving in the same way as them.

For example, people use the term "bird brain" as an insult to another human's intelligence, but humans wouldn't know the first thing about migrating thousands of miles every year as the seasons change. To birds, that might make humans seem pretty stupid, but we simply have no graspable concept of what it means to be a "smart" bird. Intelligence is relative to the species, and even within species, there are different forms and levels of intelligence. The best thing we can say is that animals have different kinds of intelligence than humans, and that's what makes us all unique.

8. Be Vegan for Reasons Other than Animal Rights

I feel like a broken record here, but veganism is fundamentally about the animals. You can be a licensed nutritionist and devote your life to healing people through healthy plant-based eating, but that doesn't automatically make you vegan. Really, I hate talking about this because so many people try to make humans seem like one-dimensional beings that are only capable of caring about one thing. I care about the environment, my health, and human rights, but I'm vegan for the animals.

9. Feeling Superior

I said in "Am I Really an Animal Lover?" that, for a while, I had a bit of a superiority complex because I cared about all the animals that 99 percent of the population didn't. That's not something that is easy to change or can be eradicated through sheer force of will; it takes time, and often, it takes an unprecedented experience. I'm glad to be mostly rid of it -- though I won't deny that the little hateful monster rears its ugly head sometimes -- but at least I'm now more aware of it. There's no purpose in feeling superior to nonvegans other than creating the already immense divide between us and them even bigger. If we truly care about creating change, we need to set aside our egos and think and behave in a way that will most benefit the animals.

10. Use Negative Language About Veganism (let me explain)

Before you get upset, I'm all for candor, and I think vegans need to be more open about the reality of veganism instead of painting it as this perfect lifestyle, but that's not what I'm talking about here. I use the word "negative" to indicate the act of losing something good, like negative reinforcement, or gaining something unsavory, like negative punishment. This is why we should never say that we "give up" animal products because it makes it sound like we've lost something, when in reality, the animals were never ours to take.

Also, I'm very against the idea of "sacrifice" because, again, we're not sacrificing anything to be vegan, and the animals aren't sacrificing themselves for our desires. Instead of this kind of language, it's better to focus on the positives or to at least remain neutral: I often say that being vegan really opened my eyes to how amazing food can be, and I eat way more foods now than I ever did as a carnist, indicating that I've gained more foods in my diet than I've lost. For a more neutral statement, I'd just say that I don't eat animals, indicating that the idea is simply completely out of the realm of possibility.

11. Say All Vegan Products Are Good

We've all had a veggie burger that tasted like cardboard, and while we don't want to give carnists a bad impression of plant-based foods, we also don't want to make veganism seem better than it is. Instead of focusing on the negative part of a certain less-than-acceptable vegan product, compare it to the animal-based counterpart. For instance, you can say that, sure, this veggie burger is pretty bad, but at least it doesn't have cholesterol, isn't full of saturated fat, and -- oh yeah -- didn't cost someone's life.

12. Ask About Breeds

One of the first things we ask someone when we come across a dog outside -- after "Can I pet your dog?" -- is what kind of dog it is. (There I go again, using it instead of he/she/they. It takes practice to change these habits.) This is problematic because it perpetuates the idea that a dog's breed is somehow important or meaningful. If someone asks you what kind of dog you have, try saying "I don't know" or "She's a rescue" or even ask them why it matters. It diverts the attention away from superficial labels and refocuses the attention on the dog as an individual.

13. Completely Refute Ex-Veganism

The truth of the matter is that there are genuine ex-vegans -- Bonny Rebecca, Steve-O -- and to simply write them off as never being vegan in the first place undermines our movement by making us look too strict. (I'm not saying that's right or true, but perception is important.) You don't have to care about ex-vegans or try to make them see the error of their ways, but we have to accept that it is possible, in our very carnist, anti-vegan world, that there will be people that regress.

However, we should also be making clear that most ex-vegans actually were never vegan. We need to share with others that veganism is an ethical belief system, and it's not a challenge anyone can merely try -- and give up -- on a whim.

14. Comment on Ex-Vegans' Appearances

We probably don't want to admit it, but most vegans feel a little bit of schadenfreude when an ex-vegan isn't doing so well on their new animal-based diet. However, we cannot lower ourselves to the level of carnists by commenting on their appearance. We shouldn't say that they look unhealthy or sick or that they've gained weight once they incorporate animal products back into their lives. First, it counters our own point that veganism is about ethics, not food. Second, it makes us seem petty and scorned to make remarks like that. We should practice what we preach and attempt to be kind, even to them.

be conscious, be kind, be vegan