Love. An incredibly powerful of emotion that has echoed through the ages. It comes in many guises – love of a partner, our children, a country, a football team, a painting or even a favourite meal. Humans just love to express their love of so many things, including animals. “I’m an animal lover” sounds great, but what if it’s uttered by a non-vegan? Can that really hold any water? Let’s see.
You need a babysitter for the night and happen to call a local one you found online. In hiring their services for later, they confidently tell you over the ‘phone that they “love children.” Of course they do! However, there’s a shocker coming. The babysitter goes on to add that they do occasionally eat them, say three times a week, especially around Sunday lunch-time. That clanging sound? Your jaw hitting the floor as fast as you hang up the call.
An “animal lover” that pets some and eats others, is by that logic no animal lover at all. Sure, they may “love cats” or “love dogs” but eating the more “expendable” animals of the world makes you a “cat lover” or a “dog lover”, not an animal lover. Animal welfare agencies that raise funds for their cause by having events with an abundance of burgers and barbecued meat are in the same non-sensical league. Or the guy that’s watching a documentary on the horrors of bullfighting and starts to splutter with indignation as he eats his beef-burger.
The only true animal lovers are vegans. They see all sentient life as worth living and not expendable for the sake of human greed, cruelty and ignorance. Do no harm whenever possible underscores that. Vegan love for animals covers thousands of different animals you likely will never see, but it is a genuine love nevertheless.
