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.

Perhaps vegans and vegetarians should read this book and realise that plants have feelings too:
Planta Sapiens: Unmasking Plant Intelligence: Amazon.co.uk: Calvo, Paco, Lawrence, Natalie: 9780349128436: Books
Of course this does not justify any sort of abuse of animals but it is a real eye-opener.

Of course non-human animals are not people but they do have emotions, pigs have at least as many emotions as dogs and cats do. I know a former smallholder who is now vegan partly because of the grief she saw in the family members of the animals her husband killed. One of the ducks stopped eating and died after his mate was killed. The mother sheep were distraught when their babies were taken and killed. The fact that apparently this one pig didn’t mind when his/ her brother or sister was killed beside him or her doesn’t mean non-human animals don’t experience joy, fear, anger, stress, contentment, companionship and even love.

Plants do not “have feelings”. They respond to stimulus. If they did have feelings, less plants are used for a plant based diet (due to food conversion ratios of animals killed for meat/ used for eggs and dairy).

I'm fine with being a hypocrit, everyone is, vegans included as they too allow and are complicit in animals being slain in some situations.

i do what I can in other ways, which is a lot and will continue to be the animal lover that I am and do the things i do to help the ones i come across ☺️ I just find it interesting that some vegans appear to use hypocrit and "you're not an animal lover" as some sort of argument when surely it's better for a meat eater to care about some animals rather than none.

I liken it to the church/school thing - genuine church goers who feel strongly about their religion and sense of community are usually happy when ANYONE finds their way to the church for whatever reason. We're just happy something has brought the person there and if they leave feeling a connection in whatever way, even if for a short while, that's a good thing. For me (when I was vegan, and many vegans I know) I felt similar about meat eaters calling themselves animal lovers, if that meant they'd save one mouse, frog, spider, bird etc. then that was good enough for me. Because the alternative is they don't care about any animal, which is counter productive.

I don't think my cat would taste very nice. He would be rather fatty.

I eat meat but don't buy from places like Temu and I don't buy Spanish fruit and vegetables grown in greenhouses because of the plastic they use which ends up in the eco system.

Humans are meant to eat meat because of our canine teeth and our eyes are situated in the front of our face.

Really interested about the co-op, where did you find out they don’t use lethal pest control?

The definition of veganism is to avoid animal exploitation as far as possible and practicable as we can never totally reduce harm, however more plants are fed to animals than humans so a plant based diet still involves less animals being killed in “pest control” as well as no animals being killed in slaughterhouses.

Humans can thrive on plants. Plus if you’ve seen the canine teeth of a gorilla (herbivore) or a hippo (herbivore) you’ll see they are not a very good indication of what we need to eat.

I have absolutely no difficulty whatsoever in being both an animal lover and a meat eater, @Milake.

No amount of holier-than-thou sneering is going to change my mind or my eating habits.

Well nothing in my post precludes me from being a vegan does it?

Is this thread really holier than thou vegan sneering or do people just not like being challenged on this facet of their morals?

I'm not a vegan but PPs responses have been interesting.

it can be difficult (and expensive) to be vegan on top of everything else going on in life. And then there’s using completely vegan products - it’s an absolute commitment. We just need everyone to try their best to reduce what they can where they can

Vegan food = no animal products = mono cultures = bad for animals & environment.

Please stop kidding yourself.

@DancefloorAcrobatics i completely agree and find it mind bending that most of the vegan contributors to this thread can’t acknowledge that there might be other sides to this. They seem to think their view is right and the rest of us must be wracked with guilt. No we’re not because we don’t believe being vegan equals kinder to animals. It is not that simple.

There are plenty of vegan sanctuaries too, where farmed animals are rescued, and nobody is killed (other than euthanasia for the terminally ill). If I save a dog one day and pay someone to kill a healthy young dog the next it doesn’t make the killing any less unethical surely, and people would still call me out if I said “I love dogs” after paying for one to be stabbed/ electrocuted/ gassed.

It’s not really about being kind to animals. Me not killing someone isn’t kind, it’s basically neutral and expected. In any event veganism is about avoiding animal exploitation as far as possible and practicable. Most plants grown are fed to animals, due to food conversion ratios we could farm food crops much more efficiently if we stopped killing/ exploiting animals for food. We would also cause less “crop deaths” as less plants would need to be grown.

A vegan who also roasts chickens apparently…

Well no. Because vegans who used to be non vegan can say what held them back from making the switch before?

This. I don't think there is a single human on the planet living without some degree of cognitive dissonance/ hypocrisy.

Ok
Not sure why stabbing dogs is relevent here and its that sort of ridiculous hyperbole that puts people off listening to some vegans.
Not eating meat and animal products does not make you a saint and as I said I am sure that myself and the other people I know involved in animal rescue and rehab have done more and care more and have given up more time and money than the vast majority of people who feel smug just because they knit their own pasta or whatever.

I think live and let live. You sound like a typical judgmental holier than thou vegan.

I can't really castigate people for this since it's exactly what I used to do.

It is bonkers though.

Just out of curiosity, is “hypocrit” the new spelling?

This is the Vegan Board - even if it is in Active. People answering as if they're on AIBU makes no sense its just arguing for arguments sake

Its an interesting question. Vegan + wear sustainable clothing. But, I have a mobile phone; what about its links to Congo genocide? Humans are just as important as animals. Which makes me a hypocrite I suppose, as are many of us. I'll have to ponder on this a bit more.

who cooks chicken in their airfryer apparently.
If so, bit of a "hypocrit"

Surely it's better for an animal to never be born than to live a short life of suffering then get killed?