Why did you go vegan?
Jan 29th
K. asked on the COMMUNITY list: “What was it that made everyone here go vegan?” I thought it would be nice to have a permanent location for us to share our stories and learn a little about each other. On the other parts of this web site, we use a specific definition of veganism, but please feel free to interpret this question however you like.
So, what was it that made you go vegan?
about 3 years ago
I was a vegetarian for a long time – like a decade – before I decided I would spend more time understand one friend I have, who has been a vegan for several years but never talks about it. He never speaks much in general and sets a profound, quiet example. I actually didn’t even ask him what made him switch over – I first started asking him what websites he read, and then I went out and picked up Making a Killing by Bob Torres. Around the same time, I started volunteering at a farm sanctuary, and meeting pigs and chickens in person made everything came together at once. I don’t remember the exact day, but there was literally one day when I called my partner and said, “Don’t be alarmed, but it’s time.” He said, “To be honest, I’m not surprised. It was never ‘if’ but ‘when.’” That was some pretty amazing support. pattrice jones’ Aftershock is also a book that made me rethink everything I was doing, from animal abuse in the name of psychiatry and how we as human animals need to care for ourselves to care for others.
about 3 years ago
I first went vegetarian (lacto-ovo) about 6 months after seeing “Meet Your Meat,” which an online acquaintance sent me basically out of nowhere (with no comment!). That summer, two of my close friends went vegetarian just to see if they could do it, I think. I felt that I could do it, too. I made the decision very quickly. My mother asked me what I wanted for dinner, and I said, “Ah, not meat; I think I want to be vegetarian.”
I cut out eggs & dairy about 2 years later, almost immediately after seeing another online video, this time specifically about egg production. The next morning I was packing a lunch for the day, and I took out the veggie burgers and saw “Contains Eggs and Milk,” and I just had to put them back. Again it was very spontaneous. I took my stand and never turned back.
Finally reaching our definition of vegan as anti-oppression took another year or year-and-a-half. I wrote about that development in my introductory blog post titled “Who I Am / Why I’m Here” (December 2008).
about 3 years ago
Hi all!
I’d been vegetarian for a couple of years when one day I picked up a black and white leaflet from an animal rights stall.
This leaflet was produced by the Vegan Society and detailed the suffering caused within the dairy industry. After reading that, Veganism was the only choice I could make.
I wish I could tell those stallholders what a difference to my life they made that day (18 years ago).
about 2 years ago
I think I should also say that many of the reasons that I originally went vegetarian – the idealistic reasons, understanding the links between oppression of animals and women and people of color, for example – helped make the step towards being vegan easier. I already had a lot of the intellectual information, but somewhere I read that until we stop oppressing *everyone,* no one is free. It finally hit me more emotionally, though I don’t know why it hadn’t before. Whoever was writing thankfully meant non-human animals in their definition of everyone, and I realized that while I’d been doing activism on behalf of humans for years, it made the most sense to rethink who needed me the most. As I resonate deeply with non-human animals and have always had profound relationships with them, it was shameful when I realized my choices were continuing to hurt many of them despite my claim to love and respect them.
Part of my resistance to going vegan no doubt came from living in a culture that shuns and shames veg*nism, and I’m still struggling against other people’s disrespect for my decision, but owning my choice now more than ever feels authentic in a way I never felt before. It also makes me have much more fulfilling relationships with all beings as I’ve come to respect us all more, human and non-human alike.
about 2 years ago
One day I was sitting with a friend eating vegan pizza. It was delicious, although different than cheese pizza. We started talking about dairy alternatives, and like a lot of people I know, I debated in my mind whether or not I could stop eating cheese. This friend explained how many vegan options exist for all types of animal products. Later on, reflecting on that conversation led me to realize my hypocrisy as a vegetarian. I refused to eat meat because of animal maltreatment, but most of the dairy products I consumed came from animals raised in similar horrific conditions. At that moment, I challenged myself: no more cheese.
After making the decision to become vegan, I began reading more and more about veganism and learning the philosophy behind it. Then it became an issue of animal treatment in relation to humans’ oppression of others. It all just made sense.
about 2 years ago
I wanted to stop eating meat when I was about 15, I think generally in response to the ‘meat is murder’ type of climate in the UK at that time. My mother was reluctant to buy or cook separate food for me (at the time it didn’t occur to me to prepare my own) and it was generally agreed that if I wanted to be vegetarian I would wait until I left home. I left home at 18 to go to University and stopped eating meat. However, like many “vegetarians” in the UK, I only stopped eating red meat and chicken, I still occasionally ate fish (thinking that fish didn’t have as developed nervous systems and didn’t notice), I also ate eggs and dairy (thinking that hens and cows aren’t “directly” killed to obtain the products) and wore leather (thinking that it was a ‘by-product’). I think my overall line of thinking at the time was, I’m doing more than 90% of the population by not eating meat, and being vegan is too difficult. Also, I didn’t have any vegan friends.
My thinking was still incredibly speciesist, I went to zoos, horse-riding, once went fishing even. This state of “vegetarian” carried on for 16 years!!
It was only after seeing Earthlings almost 2 years ago that made me go vegan. I thought at first that there was simply no way to produce animal products without cruelty, but it took another 6 months I would say for the speciesism message to really sink in. I think the anti-speciesist thinking has come bit by bit, with a second viewing of Earthlings and reading essays on speciesism. Now being vegan for me is nothing to do with the “cruelty” aspect, just that the use of animals is wrong.
Many of my “vegetarian” friends in the UK are “vegetarian” because of the cruelty aspect. I heard a disturbing conversation though last week on a vacation back to the UK (I now live in Spain). I overheard my “vegetarian” friend telling her 6 year old niece the following: “when I went vegetarian years ago, the animals were really badly treated, now there are laws to make sure they can go outside and have fresh air and space”. By the way, my friend consumes battery eggs (in prepackaged food etc.) dairy from intensive cows, wears leather, and eats fish.)
I wish WISH I had gone vegan years ago, but we can’t turn back the clock.
about 2 years ago
Hi all,
It’s great what you all are doing here.
Several years ago I had horrible stomach problems. I went to a doctor who told me to stop eating meat. Coincidentally I had just been introduced to my soon-to-be life partner who had been a vegetarian for many years of her life. So, just like that (finger snap), I stopped eating all flesh.
I was a vegetarian for several years but it had absolutely nothing to do with the well being of other animals or fighting oppression and human supremacy. I was actually kind of embarrassed to be a vegetarian but I wouldn’t turn back because I didn’t want to get sick. One day my partner said she was going vegan. I was the person who was all like, “Oh I could never do that. I love cheese!”. She never pressured me but constantly informed me about what I was consuming that could be “veganized”.
Over the next few months I began reading about the entangled oppressions of humans and other animals. I had, for a long while, been a fan of Cesar Chavez and came to realize that he was a committed vegan who understood that all oppressions are connected and that violence is violence no matter who it was committed against.
I already considered myself to be pro-peace and anti-oppression and I remember asking myself if I could justify consuming other animals, who were every bit as entitled to a life free of exploitation and oppression as any human being. I couldn’t do it and was instantly a vegan. I donated my non-vegan clothes to others in need and immediately dropped the “animal products” (for lack of a better term) from my diet.
Here I am three years later and I feel more and more committed to the principle of nonexploitation (veganism) every day. Not only has veganism opened my eyes to entangled oppressions of humans and other animals, it has also dramatically improved the quality of my own life in so many ways. With this renewed sense of confidence I am constantly striving to improve my life as well as the life of other beings.
about 2 years ago
I was vegetarian for some time and at one point became interested in animal rights, reading literature, listening to vegan podcasts, visiting AR websites etc etc. I had no idea that ALL animal products, not just animal flesh, were cruel. I had always thought that I cared about animals, but I learned how much I didn’t really know. So, one day after processing all this new info and talking with my wife, I made one of the biggest decisions I’m grateful I ever did: I became a vegan.
Going vegan was a first step. I’ve since learned that it is an ongoing process of learning and evolving, changing my language, making connections with other social justice movements, figuring out how to be an effective advocate for animals and what I can possibly do to help. It’s as much working on myself as anything else.