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An image to compliment the argument I'm making. You cannot call yourself an animal lover when you're not vegan. It's an image of me kneeling down with my dog, a french bulldog, at the beach. I smile at the camera and my dog looks at the camera too.

You cannot call yourself an animal lover when you’re not vegan

Posted on July 3, 2023July 2, 2023

I am not going to make myself very popular with this post. But that’s okay, most vegans are unpopular. Because we make non-vegans feel uncomfortable. I’ve had conversations where this happened. Why? Because I argue that you cannot call yourself an animal lover when you’re not vegan. Most non-vegans can call themselves a pet lover. Or a horse lover. Maybe a dog lover. However, most non-vegans don’t do this. They call themselves animal lovers. I just think that’s nonsense. Here’s why I think you cannot call yourself an animal lover when you’re not vegan.

Consumption of meat

If you call yourself an animal lover and eat meat at the same time, I think you’re a total hypocrite. That’s like saying you love your kids, but you regularly pay someone to beat them. When you eat meat, you eat animals. And even though you don’t kill them yourself, you pay someone else to do so. How can you love someone and let them be murdered for your food at the same time? Writing this down, I feel like it’s stupid to have to explain this. But people have truly argued that this is not true. They think it’s okay to say they love animals and eat them at the same time.

If you replace the animal with someone else, a human, the hypocrisy becomes apparent. If I say I love my parents but would at the same time be willing to gas them, how can I say I love them? Or if I say I love my friends, but would pay someone to put a pin inside of their head to then be able to eat their flesh? It’s total nonsense. You can’t love animals and eat them at the same time. You choose for them to be killed even though it does not have to be that way. Humans can very well survive on plants.

Consumption of dairy and eggs

And that same thing goes for other animal products like dairy and eggs. Why? Because animals are killed for those products too. A cow has to be pregnant and give birth to be able to give milk. If that baby is born it is checked. If it’s a boy, it will be slaughtered, because it does not give milk. The same goes with baby chickens. And when the female cows don’t ‘produce’ enough milk anymore, they’re killed as well. It’s not like dairy cows can enjoy a peaceful life after they’ve worked for us. They’re killed once we don’t earn enough money from them anymore.

So no, you cannot eat cheese and say you love animals. You don’t. When you eat dairy you pay someone to abuse and kill cows. You pay someone to take away their babies and rape them again. If you love an animal you want them to have a peaceful life, with the least pain as possible. You’d want them to live as long as they can. You’d want them to play with friends. And you’d want them to be happy. If you eat animals, you simply cannot say you love them. You love the taste of their dead flesh, yes. But you’re not an animal lover.

Pets

But you can be a pet lover while being a non-vegan. You can treat your dog or horse like a royal and say you love them. That I believe. Most people treat their pets like a family member. And that’s great! But then you should call yourself a dog lover, a horse lover or a pet lover. You’re still not an animal lover at that point. You don’t love all animals. Consciously, you choose to love one animal, but choose to eat another. You love dogs, but you kill pigs. It’s a small improvement from people who hate all animals, but in a way this is more hypocrite. Why love a cat but slaughter a cow? There’s no difference between the two, other can culture.

Exceptions

I have to say, in some situations I am a bit more mild. Because I do believe that not everyone can be vegan. But mind you, I think this is a very small part of all humans. Some populations in the world simply wouldn’t survive without eating animal flesh (Inuit populations for example). They have no choice (but I believe in the future we can find ways to supply them with plant-based alternatives). And there’s of course a group of people who have or have had an eating disorder. For those people it’s very tricky to eliminate certain foods from their diet. And I can’t judge people who have or have recovered from an eating disorder, because I’ve never had one myself.

But again, these are rare exceptions. Most people have a choice with every meal they eat. And I think you cannot call yourself an animal lover when you’re not vegan.

Yours sincerely,
Romee

1 thought on “You cannot call yourself an animal lover when you’re not vegan”

  1. Wendy says:
    July 3, 2023 at 7:31 am

    Nou ik hou toch echt heel veel van Darco, maar zal dan niet zeggen dat ik een dierenvriend ben.

    Reply

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when a teen goes green

Hi! My name is Romee Hoeksma and I am on a journey to an eco-positive life. An eco-positive lifestyle is a lifestyle in which I have a more positive than negative impact on the beautiful planet earth. On this blog you can follow my journey to a life with only positive impact. At this blog you can find all sorts of things, from tips to recipes to personal experiences, but most of all fun (I hope!). I write about how I want to change the world, but don’t look at it as if I’m judging you. If anything, I like responses from my dear readers the most, so don’t hesitate to contact me or respond to any of my posts!

Yours sincerely,
Romee

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Dit is hoe ik met de trein van Krásná Lípa (🇨🇿) naar Bratislava (🇸🇰) reisde. Dit was reisdag 3/6 van onze duurzame interrail reis. Ik ben vandaag 25 jaar geworden 🥳. Ik hoop heel hard dat dat betekent dat ik ongeveer op een kwart van mijn leven ben. En wat een verjaardag is dit! Ik mag het vieren in Kopenhagen met mijn favoriete persoon @casperchristiaanse , terwijl ik met de trein door Europa reis 🚃. Ik ben een gelukkig mens. Op naar de 50! Dit is hoe ik van Dresden (🇩🇪) naar Krásná Lípa (🇨🇿) reisde. Niet een bijster lange, maar wel een prachtige treinreis, omdat je door het nationaal park Boheems Zwitserland gaat. Dit was de tweede reisdag van onze interrail (2/6). We zijn op de helft van de interrail. Terwijl ik dit typ zijn we onderweg naar Warschau (8,5 uur vanaf Bratislava). Nog twee bestemmingen te ontdekken, maar wat hebben we nu al veel genoten. Elke dag goed en lang slapen, nieuw vegan eten proberen, bijzonder lang wandelen, spelletjes spelen, weinig schermtijd, genieten van de mooie uitzichten en zon: deze reis is genieten 💜. Dit is hoe ik met de trein van Amsterdam naar Dresden reisde 🚃. De interrail is officieel begonnen! (1/6) Vandaag verschijnt er geen artikel op mijn blog. En de komende twee weken hierna ook niet. Dat is voor het eerst, in de 7 jaar dat ik schrijf. Een heel leuk onderdeel van duurzaam leven is tweedehands kleding. Hier zijn 4 tweedehands outfits die ik droeg in augustus 2023 🌞. Je zag het al in de reel van vorige week: ik ben op vakantie geweest naar Gent, in België. Het was een ontzettende aanrader, en daarom verscheen er vandaag een artikel op mijn blog over de leukste en duurzaamste hotspots in Gent 🌆. Check it out via de link in mijn bio Gent, wat was je prachtig 🌆. Dit is absolute een duurzame vakantietip (oh, maar wees niet zo naïef als ik en ga lekker met de trein 🚃). Binnenkort is op Youtube de gehele vakantievlog te bekijken.

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