To think you shouldn't ask a vegan to buy you meat/animal products?

[Ragnasath]

A younger relative told me yesterday in casual conversation about how her housemate at university often asks her to pick up meat or animal products from the supermarket for her.

There's a few of them living together and all buy their own food but will all take turns buying loo roll, fairy liquid etc that are communal. My relative said that often when it is her turn to go and get these things, a particular housemate will often say 'can you pick me up some ham slices/ Cadbury chocolate' etc whilst you're there. This relative is a passionate vegan and feels very strongly against animal cruelty etc and has been vegan for 5 years as a result. She said that she'll usually say no to the friend because she doesn't want anything to do with the purchase of animal products but will offer her a vegan alternative (i.e I don't feel comfortable buying you cadburys but am happy to get you oreos or bourbons instead etc). Apparently the housemate often gets annoyed at this response and will roll her eyes about how she's being ridiculous because housemate offers to give relative the money to buy the items so it's not coming out of relative's pocket. Relative still says she wants nothing to do with the purchase of animals or animal products.

The relative says she never asks her friend to pick her up any snacks or food because she doesn't want to feel like she has to reciprocate by buying her housemate food which goes against her values.

I think it's pretty awful of the housemate to put her in that position tbh. You wouldn't ask a committed Muslim to pick you up a bottle of wine would you and I don't see much difference in this scenario

If this were for religious reasons and the flatmate still kept asking and rolling her eyes it would be bullying and discrimination and the flatmate may well be asked to leave the flat, veganism is no different.

Veganism is not a religion!

We are muslim but still buy and cook bacon and sausages in our place of business. Shes being silly

Veganism is not a religion!

Have you met any ...

I'm neither a vegetarian or a vegan, but there is no way I would ask a friend who was either of those to buy me meat! It just seems totally wrong to ask someone who has sincerely held beliefs to buy animal products. I don't think she's being silly or precious at all.

Ethical veganism fulfils much of the criteria (which can be disputed) of a religion, even before you consider that many people who are vegan already have a religious affiliation such as Buddhism or Hinduism. It's certainly a full blown belief system.

Why get so angry about it? She believes it's wrong, so she won't facilitate it. Her choice.

Veganism is not a religion!

Religion is faith based. Religious principles are often based on something written 1000s of years ago by someone claiming they were hearing the word of god, although personally I suspect some sort of hallucination or psychosis was at the root of it. Some of it may have been logical at the time, much of it no longer is. Veganism is based on a set of logical principles.

I don't always fully agree with veganism but I do respect the principles on which it is based and have much more time for it than some woolly nonsense that's generally just used to justify patriarchy and misogyny.

“Veganism is not a religion!”

Judging by this thread, meat eating is, though!

I'm a vegetarian and have bought meat for family members in the past. I also cooked meat products when I was doing volunteer work visiting very elderly people. I had a big ethical wobble over the latter but decided that someone who wasn't able to cook for themselves had every right to make their own ethical choices about food and not have mine forced on them, so I got over my squeamishness about it.

That said, if I had a vegan housemate who told me that buying eggs for me made them really uncomfortable and they didn't want to do it, I'd privately be rolling my eyes about it but I'd respect their choice and not ask them again. So I think both parties are equally unreasonable here.

Would the meat eater get angry if asked to buy vegetables or vegan products?

Veganism isn't the same thing as a plant-based diet. It's the practical implementation of the philosophy of anti-speciesism

Ehhh? What do vegans eat then if they don't eat species?

Some do, @Zippey. Or feel compelled to put animal products secretly into vegan or vegetarian items (as per Gordon Ramsey's claim of deliberately using chicken stock in vegan meals).

Only if they're weirdos that react bizarrely @zippey. Because last time I checked, vegetables are part of a meat eaters diet and there's nothing stopping them from choosing vegan products if they happen to like them. So it's not in any way similar, not even slightly.

I eat meat at the moment(Though cutting down) and even to me having pieces of animal body parts in one's fridge can see rather weird, and I'm not squeamish. I've hunted.

That is nothing to be proud of, believe me, admitting to hunting won’t go down well on this thread.

Find out if the flatmate is - I dunno - a Born Again Christian (for example) and get your relative to ask her to pick up some hard-core porn from a sex shop. Possibly not the best example but ask for whatever Exact Opposite of whatever moral/belief system the flatmate has.

My dad will almost point blank refuse to eat a vegetarian meal, with the possible exception of breakfast. He doesn't seem to regard it as an actual meal, unless it's got meat in it. He will eat vegetables, and will buy them, obviously. They are a part of his diet so he has no reason to object. But he appears to think he will expire if lunch and dinner do not contain some form of meat every day. Drives my mum nuts. She'd happily eat a lot less meat.

That is nothing to be proud of, believe me, admitting to hunting won’t go down well on this thread.

Depends on the form of hunting. I'm not a fan of fox hunting or big game hunting. Hunting for your own food is different, so long as what you catch isn't an endangered species. Or doesn't become one because you keep catching it.

I wouldn't ask just out of consideration, but I have a vegan friend who has offered to and doesn't mind.

I think that's what it boils down to. Would assume people might mind and not ask.

It wasn't a boast. I stated it so that no one could say why are you eating meat if you can't face the reality? I can, I have hunted deer before, which I ate. I'm actually trying to go vegetarian/vegan for various reasons but I'll probably have to call myself plant based because I really don't have a problem with anyone humanely killing a deer/rabbit etc and eating it. There are few easy deaths in the wild. Trophy hunting is a completely different matter though.

Or a problem with anyone eating eggs from their pet chickens.

If she’s refusing to do the shop for her meat eating friends then she shouldn’t benefit from people doing the shop for her. (FYI offering ‘alternatives’ isn’t the same unless she’s going to check they contain the all the essential amino acids the housemate would be getting from her meat products) FWIW I think attempting to deprive housemate of nutrition is more unethical than buying meat products.

Not being able to buy a bar of Cadbury’s choc is a bit precious.
I would understand them not wanting to buy a raw steak though

Attempting to deprive them of nutrition? The OP should really have mentioned that her relative had locked them in the basement and left them to starve.

Essential amino acids? They're probably living on pot noodles, crisps and chocolate.

'attempting to deprive housemate of nutrition' is possibly the most ridiculous comment on here so far. She's refusing to buy her housemate a packet of Ham slices which the housemate can easily get up of her arse and buy herself if she desperately wants it. Its not as if relative is chaining housemate to the couch and watching her starve to death!

Also, if you had read my op you would clearly see that I said relative never asks housemate to buy any food for her, so she isn't 'benefitting from others doing her shop'.

Also, god forbid the housemate goes one meal without meat in, she'll probably have starved to death by morning!