Vegans do you feel guilty about enjoying yourself?

Hey, I’m not a vegan and I love my meat. I really do respect your opinion.
I know that some of the animals go through cruel conditions which is why I buy rspca assured meat. It would also be very hard to get my protein as I hate soya beans and lentils. I just love my meat, I’d be hard for me to go without it.
I do agree that some animals are being treated poorly just to fill up our stomach, but there’s not much we can do.

Watched the video through. Some interesting points, but not enough to convince me to give up eating meat.

You'll never be happy in life if you focus on what you cant control. Its not your fault that people do things that you morally disagree with, you dont deserve to suppress your happiness because of other's actions. By being vegan you're doing what you can to help the cause you're passionate for, you should be happy with yourself.

I appreciate you watching it. However, would you mind explaining what reasons you still have to justify eating meat?

The thing is, if humans were being abused on this scale worldwide and our family and friends were supporting this abuse with their money, surely we wouldn't feel that we can just get on with our lives and ignore it.

I dont feel like changing my entire lifestyle for something that is going to have a zero impact on the industry. And I really just dont care enough about the issue.

Well theres not much you as a single person can do, is there? Even in that case, you shouldnt torment yourself about what others are doing. Its okay to be devoted to the cause, but you still should allow yourself to enjoy things.

I'm a vegan and I just can't get over how terrible it is that most "livestock" are raised in such a horrible way and sometimes get tortured so much, and are really not slaughtered humanely in general (not that humane slaughter really makes sense as a concept).

As there is so much suffering, I feel as though it's not right for me to ever enjoy myself as the suffering that all the animals go through surely massively outweighs any pleasure we might get, for example from going on holiday. I also don't feel comfortable going on holiday with people who will trough through lots of meat every day without giving a second thought to what the animals have gone through and just enjoying themselves. I also find it really upsetting that animals are treated even worse in so many countries and it seems crazy that most people who go on foreign holidays eat meat in other countries without giving a second thought to how the animals might have been raised and slaughtered there.

For any non-vegans reading this who feel that they have good reasons not to go vegan, I highly recommend that you watch this really interesting TED talk which I promise will be one of the most valuable talks that you will ever watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=byTxzzztRBU

What are your opinions on hunting meat rather than rearing livestock? Something like our ancient ancestors would have done?

It's barbaric and completely unnecessary as we can thrive on a plant-based diet. The fact that our ancient ancestors did it doesn't justify if - they would have also murdered and raped each other without consequence! And even though meat is legal, that doesn't make it ok. Some countries allow dog fighting but few people would think that it is acceptable.

People are either vegan or omnivore, get over it.

I'm mostly vegan, I just nibble on cheese every now and then, and this is not the way to go about it. Part of the reason people never take vegans seriously is exactly this. Dog fighting is in no way similar to the slaughtering of animals for food. The latter is typically a fast process and conducted humanely in most countries. Dog fighting not only leaves Dogs dying and disabled, but I've seen documentaries that state owners would burn a Dog to death if it was incapacitated enough after a fight. Don't make such stupid comparisons as your credibility gets seriously diminished.

Understand that there are lots of issues in the world out of our control. Do something productive to satiate your own desires to help. Volunteer for charities, help raise awareness etc., but being militant and accusing others will harbour hatred and nothing more. I have never eaten meat, but I'll happily go out with friends who do because I respect their choices as they do mine. Documentaries like Seaspiracy have already done a great job at raising awareness, it's not your job to push people into changing if they don't want to. Harmony!!

It could well have a big impact. It might be that not buying meat as an individual is the tipping point for a supermarket to reduce its order quantity of meat, and this could then be the tipping point for a farmer to raise fewer animals. You can also make a difference by trying to convince everyone you know to go vegan.

In terms of not caring about the issue, there are so many terrible things about the meat industry that you can discover if you do your research but one thing that I think should resonate with almost anyone is that pigs are of a similar level of intelligence to dogs. Now, most people really care about dogs and would be really upset by any cruelty to them. But most pigs are raised in terrible cramped conditions and 90% are "stunned" before slaughter using CO2 gas - this means that they suffocate for up to a minute or possibly more in terror and agony, fighting for their lives. There are videos of this online - I personally can't bring myself to watch one but every time I see pork products in a supermarket, I just imagine the pigs being tortured with CO2 and feel so upset and I feel so angry when I see someone put some in their trolley without giving the matter a second thought.

If nothing else, think of the last point in the video which is that an animal gave up its whole life so that you could enjoy your meal a bit more for just a few minutes. Then very quickly that meal gets forgotten about. Even if you hate the taste of all plant-based foods (which is hard to believe), does the displeasure of spending a few minutes eating something you dislike really outweigh all of the suffering that the animal(s) went through in order to produce your meal? And even if animal welfare wasn't an issue, the environmental benefit alone would be enough of a reason to go vegan, or the health benefits, or even the fact that pandemics are caused by the meat industry so every time someone eats meat, they are increasing the risk of lots of humans dying, as well as all of the other negative impacts of a pandemic, which we all very well understand.

Question to vegans.

Why do you feel the need to stop us from eating things like eggs or meat even if it's free range. A lion shredding a gazelles neck until it bleeds out, or a vulture eating a dehydrated animals guts while it's alive is way more cruel. Why don't you stop them instead?

Sadly free range often still means chickens being kept in cramped conditions indoors, it can be classed as free range if they have access to outdoor space but in practice the minimal amount of outdoor space often means most chickens don't get to use it - they are stopped by the most dominant ones.

Egg producers don't have a use for male chicks so they often put them into a grinder alive. How can anyone be comfortable supporting this? And all "livestock", whether it's free range or not and whether it's for meat/eggs/dairy, will end up at the slaughterhouse where animals are often abused and it's really not very humane. Not to mention all the abuse inflicted on animals by farmers behind closed doors.

It is upsetting to think of animals being killed by lions, however there's not much we can do about it and it isn't a justification for us to eat meat. Lots of non-human animals kill and rape others of the same species, does that make these things acceptable? Or if you think that behaviours are justified because they're natural, do you think we should live like cavemen and do away with modern life?

Fair enough.



Justification is mainly based on whether the benefits outweigh the negatives. Rape has no justification. Eating meat has many benefits, for the body, economy and environment, when done right, and is important in other species for keeping the food chain and ecosystem balanced.

On the contrary, rape gives you pleasure so it does indeed have a benefit. Outright rejecting this means you are in denial. (Not saying rape is good)