Other than opposition to concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs), consumption of animal products, and the exploitation of animals in general, what do vegans actually agree upon?
For example, I have never really thought of myself as an animal lover and I didn’t suddenly become one when “going vegan” (as they say). I just came to understand the plight of billions of gentle creatures worldwide.
And yet, Karen and I have come to love one “domesticated” animal in particular. A cat who has become a significant part of our lives, a member of our family now, called Cowie (because he has markings that are reminiscent of a cow with black and white patches).
I mostly just want to animals to be free, to leave them alone, rather than having a strong desire to be close to them. I like to hear and see free birds, possums and koalas in trees.
I arrived at the philosophical position of veganism partly through reason, partly through experience.
As was the case for my move away from a religious world view, it changed my world, and not always for the better. I’ve written about that elsewhere and I won’t linger over it here.
To me it really is an issue of justice. A political issue even. Racism and sexism do not together make a big enough ethical circle. Too inward looking. Speciesism encourages us to consider widening the ethical circle beyond the borders of our species.
But is there room for nuance?
Do all who subscribe to veganism have pets, or “companion animals” a term that is often heard now (and which suggests a more equal relationship; see pets to be considered more than just property in family law disputes)?
Is veganism even compatible with having pets? This issue “bites” as soon as you ask the question: what do you feed your cat or dog? We feed Cowie nutritionally balanced vegan dry and wet food products. He also likes spinach and lettuce. Cats are notionally “obligate carnivores” but he is healthy and we know what’s in his food, unlike the average meat based kibble or wet food product.
What about mice? How many vegans kill rather than trap and release them?
Do all vegans feel the same way about honey? Should concerns about how we treat bees be at the same level as pigs?
What about the insect kingdom in general? Can they suffer? It has been established that fish do. But they’re vertebrates, as are birds and mammals.
I prefer to take a huntsman spider outside rather than kill it if I can although I won’t feel so generous towards red-back spiders, flies or mosquitoes.
There’s a continuum of living things, all the way down to bacteria.
How far should the ethical circle extend?
Not all the way to the bottom! I take antibiotics when necessary (although overuse isn’t good for various reasons including anti-microbial resistance).
The vegan “community” is a broad church, as former Australian Prime Minister John Howard famously said of the Australian Liberal party.
Some vegans are misanthropists, at least some of the time. But not only vegans of course.
Some are “antinatalists”, a less palatable position, depending upon how widely you want to apply it. For example, for all animals in CAFOs or those even in more ideal circumstances whose lives will be cut short but are said to have “lived good lives”, would it be better if none of them had ever existed?
What about humans? Given what we have done and continue to do to wreck the world, on my darker days I even wonder about homo sapiens, but then I see what else we do: charity, philanthropy, science, technology, space exploration, art, philosophy. Just imagine what we could become if we just stopped hating and doing our best to kill each other for a little while.
For me, just talking about the contradiction between calling some animals friends or family, and others food or fur, would be a good start.
We don’t have to solve every problem right now, although I understand the sense of urgency to do so. We need to understand the landscape, the larger view. Break the problem down into smaller chunks, solve a problem and move on to the next. Continuously improve.
But we have to accept that there’s nuance, that we all aren’t going to agree, all of the time, about everything, or we will never get anywhere.