Non-vegan who believe themselves to be animal lovers

[Milake]

How do they ignore the obvious hypocrisy?
How do they live with the cognitive dissonance?

I am almost jealous of their ability to live in such a state that allows them to detach themselves from the reality of the consequences of their choices.

"I don’t see anything wrong with this, if people want to just pretend it doesn’t happen etc. but just don’t claim you are an animal lover."

I don't claim to be an animal lover. I am an animal lover. I've rescued rats, squirrels, pigeons, cats, a lamb that got caught up in a fence, hedgehogs, Bees, spiders, all sorts. I donate to a small animal rescue and once spent £200 of my own money to help a stray cat i found with terrible injuries get back to health and would do it again.

However, I can stop all that in order to not call myself an animal lover. Would you prefer that?

well this came up in active conversations, and until I read the comments I hadn't even noticed it was in the vegan section.

We kept ducks when I was growing up. Hand fed the ducklings, shooed them into the duck house every night. Ate them for dinner on Sunday.
I now do the same with chickens.

I have no problem seeing a difference between eating an animal which has had a good life, and an animal which has been factory farmed.

I think humans are omnivorous and while I am happy to eat a good varied diet, that diet defintiely includes dairy and eggs, and honey.

I also have no problem with ethically produced meat.

That’s your belief… you call yourself that but my belief is you aren’t an animal lover.

You don’t love ALL animals your actions have shown you love some.

I'm not a vegan or vegetarian now, but I used to be both (vegetarian from 2003 until 2014 I think) and I wondered the same. I still do actually.

@MrKDilkington Tasty looking dog for sale in Vietnam you know.

So, if I was the sort of person who took notice of your view and started to agree that maybe I'm not an animal lover, and stopped doing those things because i dont want to be a hypocrit, would that be preferable to you?

Oh stop being so triggered by a vegan please it’s actually hilarious! Why do you even care about the opinion of some stranger on an internet forum saying they don’t think you’re an animal lover it’s actually hilarious now!

edit: you obviously have taken notice of my view because you’re getting so worked up by it 😂

I differentiate between animals bred for food and wild animals
I dislike domestic animals but I am a bit of a wildlife fan

You could also say you like children. This does not mean that you like ALL children

There's nothing wrong with being a hypocrit. It's just a description of the situation.

You display love and affection for animals in some sceneros, and let animals be tortured and slain in others.

That does sound like I'm critizing you so I'll point out I'm honestly not, just difficult to get the tone right with text.

Yes the older generation in some parts of rural Vietnam eat dog meat. What's your point? From my previous post you can assume I don't agree with it.

But thats the point surely... do you know the horrors of forced breeding?

That is literally what vegans are standing against. They don't want those animals forced into existence. I'm not vegan myself but I fully understand and support their logical and factual stance against animal farming, its not hard to understand.

Forcing the birth of animals for torture and death is not 'loving them' same as puppy farming etc... nature would completely control the birth rate of animals itself without us interfering.

This is largely not true.. Animals evolved much the same emotions we do for the same reasons we did. There is an awful lot of research on animal emotions which illustrates this. There is even research with a species of monkeys showing they have a sense of unfairness. All the monkeys were fed banana. Researchers then changed this so that some were given mango ( a preferred food to banana) and others just got the banana. The monkeys given the banana threw it away rather than accept the, now inferior, offering. That's a reaction I think we can all recognise in humans. I mean, Jesus did an entire parable on this reaction in humans!

Nailed it. Especially with the children comment!

I get it OP, and as a carnivore I feel deeply hypocritical about my meat eating.

I absolutely love animals. I relocate worms and slugs from pavements to stop them being trampled. I wait for spiders to cross my path. I check my kids slide for bugs before they go down. When we have the sunset fixed frame pool out I'm contacting rescuing bugs. I give sugar water to bees and relocate ones from the pool to flowers.

Then I go inside and eat dead animal. I actively have to blank out where it comes from but I have a restricted diet as it is and an not prepared to give up meat.

I like animals but I wouldnt describe myself as an animal lover so I guess I can go on happily eating them.

How do vegans deal with knowing their annoying behaviour discourages those trying to eat less meat? Might be nice to try a vegan restaurant - if only there were no vegans in it.

Thank you for acknowledging this

Vegan alternatives do huge amounts of harm to the environment and wildlife - I care about that as much as I do animals. I eat high welfare animal products & continue to check in that they remain so.

Given the damage that vegan alternatives to animal products do, to both flora & fauna, I find principles of veganism to be pretty hypocritical if I'm honest.

Has OP changed her username now based on the air fryer chicken comments?

I'm not triggered at all, having been a vegan, i'm being devils advocate.

I find it interesting that some vegans try to use the argument that meat eaters can't be animal lovers as some sort of gotcha, and when that gotcha is turned round back on to the vegan they refuse to answer it.

So strong is the desire to condemn all meat eaters they'd rather (try to) alienate the ones that do what they can and are prepared to do.

Why?

I've been vegetarian since I was a child, but find the thought of becoming vegan overwhelming because of the time, logistics and expense involved considering DC (also vegetarian ) being a very fussy eater indeed and my multiple food allergies, combined with my awareness of food sustainability issues meaning I know that the more accessible, basic supermarket vegan options aren't necessarily the most ethical if we take food sustainability and climate change into account and cooking healthy vegan meals from scratch takes time, planning and sourcing that requires a level of resources I don't have at the moment.

I try to do what I can and limit dairy and only buy the less unethical range of eggs available or go without.

This!

Maybe similar to those who profess to support feminism and gay rights but happy to wear a badge 'stating pronouns'. Nobody needs to do this, it's pointless and we shouldn't support diminishing people who don't meet sex based stereotypes as needing their biological sex hidden. People are are animal conservationists often love and deeply respect animals while culling large numbers of them. Mostly the meat is consumed and not wasted. Commited vegans don't need to be peurile and shout, nobody needs to know.

The ability of some people to insert the trans debate into absolutely everything is astounding.

Gustatory pleasure is a very powerful motivating force!
I'm a vegetarian, I tell myself that this is for health reasons but I think really it's because I find meat extremely unpalatable. If I loved the taste of it I'm not sure if I would be a vegetarian 🤷🏼‍♀️

😂😂
I was thinking the same thing