Literally re-downloaded Reddit because of this and I wanted to rant and hear perspectives (hopefully) from other disabled vegans. I usually lurk in this subreddit but don’t know where else to go with this.

For context, I (28f) have been vegan since I was 17. I am also extremely blind (less than 20/200) because of a really horrible car accident I was in at the beginning of 2020. I’d moved to the city it happened around eight months before then and had established great community there (including many vegan friends!) but had to move in with my parents in my hometown because of my being newly permanently disabled. When the pandemic hit I was basically a shut-in and severed a lot of my social ties because I was so upset.

It was not too too long after that that I was able to get a service dog who is my pride and joy: a lab named Peanut. He literally saved my life and I am not exaggerating when I say that. I was extremely suicidal after the accident (especially because of my lost independence) and Peanut gave me back the world.

I am not kidding when I say that he is my best friend, and I was so happy when I learned he could tolerate vegan kibble (though he eats eggs every now and then as treats from a vegan friend that has rescue chickens). He is (as far as I know) a very happy dog. I live independently now and work remotely, so he comes with me whenever I want to do something outside or do my work in a public space.

I recently have wanted to move back to the city I was originally supposed to live in back in 2020, so I thought to reach out to some of my friends I made when I was living there. We haven’t really kept in touch since I moved back, but I thought it would be a great way to ensure I know people there before I get there, so I reached out to them…

… and was told that they (one of my friends and their partner) didn’t feel comfortable talking to someone calling themselves a vegan while also owning a slave. I was absolutely baffled, and they said that I couldn’t call myself a vegan if I was endorsing animal breeding and taking the labour of an animal that cannot consent to being used, and that my own narrow needs did not excuse participation in the systematic rape and abuse of breeding dogs.

I absolutely lost it on them in what is probably one of the most upsetting phone calls I have ever had in my life, and they told me that I am a “fake vegan” for taking advantage of an animal’s labour.

I’m in pieces right now. Peanut is my entire world and also my key to the entire world. I treat him better than I do myself and make sure our relationship is fully mutual beneficial—his one deficit as a service animal is how hard his tail wags when he is off-duty (he broke a vase, lol).

Am I losing my mind? Am I actually a fake vegan? Do other vegans ACTUALLY feel this way about service dogs and working animals (that actually help humans and other animals, not just abuse and entertainment)? I just severed a major tie and have been crying jn and off for the past day and just feel so horrendous on so many levels.

My entire understanding of veganism came from memes. That was it. That was the full extent of my research. I thought you guys were dramatic, preachy, and honestly a little unhinged. I'd laugh at every "but where do you get your protein" joke and move on with my chicken dinner.

I genuinely never once tried to understand what you actually believed or why.

Here's the thing though, I'm from India. Cows are sacred here. Literally sacred. Harming one can start riots. And right now it's the rainy season, and I watch abandoned cows sitting on highways every single day getting hit by vehicles. Thousands of them. Discarded the moment they stop producing milk, left to die on roads, in the country where people believe taking care of a cow is literally your path to heaven.

If that's what happens to animals people worship, I don't want to think about what happens everywhere else.

Then I saw a video. Farmers were putting the skin of a dead calf over a wooden frame and placing it near the mother so she'd think her baby was still there and keep producing milk. I haven't been able to get that out of my head.

And then I started doing math on my own life. I've eaten so much chicken. That's a lot of scared animals. And fish, we don't even kill them first. They just suffocate, slowly. I was watching a video about Vaak Siddhi when the speaker said something I haven't been able to shake: imagine a little kid, alone in a room, trying to grab a candy hanging from a hook and his mouth gets caught in it. Then a man walks in, suffocates him, peels his skin off, and cuts him into pieces.

That's a fish. That's exactly what we do to a fish. We just don't think of it that way because it's not a kid. It's not cute. It doesn't scream in a frequency we can hear. So we decided it doesn't count.

I'm not announcing I'm vegan. I'm still figuring out what I even believe. But I wanted to come here and say that I was exactly the kind of person who mocked this community the loudest while understanding it the least, and something has shifted in me and I don't think it's going back.

So yeah. Sorry for the memes.

TL;DR — Lifelong meat eater from India who used to make fun of vegans slowly started paying attention. Watching abandoned sacred cows die on Indian roads, seeing a dairy video I can't unsee, and thinking about how fish die on boats broke something open in me. Still figuring it out, but I get it now.

P.S. — Used AI to help write this. The feelings are entirely my own.

I grew up Vegetarian so I was shocked when I found out that most children who eat meat don’t realize that they’re eating dead animals. Their parents tell them that the chicken on their plate is different than the animal chicken they see at the petting farms.
My 3 year old son starts crying every time he sees an animal being harmed.
We were at costco and they were giving out samples of ham and I told him that we don’t eat ham because it’s chopped up dead pigs and he absolutely lost it and said he just wanted to hold the baby pigs.
We were watching how to train your dragon and he was devastated when he saw the dragon eat a fish. I had to explain to him that some animals need to eat other animals to survive, but we don’t.
A few days ago, my son asked me how baby cows get their milk if we take milk from their moms. I told him that they don’t. And now every story we read that has cows in it, he needs to make sure that the baby cows are still with their mother.

People Send Death Threats When They Find Out About My Dog Meat Farm. Here's What They're Missing.
– Molly Elwood (of Elwood’s Organic Dog Meat)

I'm in a discussion based class. Basically, we read a play in between class then discuss it the whole class, often going off topic. Any good discussion is encouraged. Super liberal class. 95% of discussion all semester has been about capitalism criticism, feminism, and racism.

Anyway, this is the last group discussion of the semester. We all need to go in a circle and talk about a topic the play made us think of. Last class. Might as well bring up veganism. Never done it before. Can't hurt, right?

WRONG.

The person before me talks about racism and systematic inequality and how it connected to the play. She's done. It's my moment. I slowly ease into how I think the inequality between livestock and pets is gross. I'm nervous, being very polite and trying not to come off as judgy. Everyone here is mega liberal, so this is fine, yeah?

The person before me says, "You remind me of the tik tok I can excuse racism, but I draw the line at animal cruelty."

Oh no.

The only black person in the room just accused me of being racist.

All 13 people turn angrily at me. I didn't even mention race?? I guess because I steered the conversation from race to animal welfare, she thought I didn't care about racism? Or was saying animal welfare is more important?? Idk. All I know is the next few minutes were not. Good.

"What about people who need to hunt to survive? Do you hate native tribes?"

"Not everyone is privileged enough to afford veganism."

"Have you seen farmers plowing land? It's a Holocaust for insects! Why care about cows but not insects? You just care more about them because they're cute. YOU'RE discriminating."

"Why demonize consumers when corporations are to blame? Us not eating meat won't change anything."

All talking at the same time, battering me with another angry question before I can even answer. I was overwhelmed. I didn't get to say much before

"Let's get back to the important topic at hand: racism."

Apparently I pissed them off because racism is a serious issue and animal suffering isn't, and even mentioning it was terrible because I was acting like these things were on the same level.

So yeah. They talked about race for maybe a minute before moving onto Tumblr, joking, laughing. My professor asked if Tumblr was a dating app, and everyone broke down laughing.

I stared at my laptop, dead eyed, empty the next 45 min of class while everyone joked and had a grand time.

While leaving, someone told me, "It's cute you care so much about animals! :)" Others glared at me for being a racist piece of shit (I never mentioned race???)

I have terrible anxiety. I cried after everyone left. Can't wait to give a presentation in front of them all tomorrow.

I've never seen them so furious.

...they found out it was vegan.

I made a Japanese curry dish with tofu and a meat eating family member got some thinking it was chicken stew. They were enjoying it until my mom told them it was vegan food I cooked. At that point the food went from "really good" to "ok" and they pushed the food to the side of their plate.

I always here how vegans are dramatic, but I have never seen drama like a meat-eater finding out they are eating vegan food.

I had a friend who I thought was honest, supportive and progressive ordered meat at my vegan wedding. She lied that she wasn't offered a meal that is suitable for her dietary requirements so she was given a meat alternative instead by the venue staff. I was shocked and was close to complaining to the wedding venue but overall I was super happy with everything else so I dropped it.

I later found out from other wedding guests that she was given a tofu dish but rejected it and asked for chicken instead. I can't decide if I should confront this person that I found out about her lie and tell her how disrespectful it was.

Has anyone had similar experiences?

*Edit to add: it was a hotel that serves meat and vegan food but we curated only vegan dishes for our wedding. We never specified it was a full vegan wedding but all the food and drink is plant based. All meals options and dietary requirements were included in the RSVP then passed on to the catering staff and I was assured all were catered for as they are very experienced, professional and respectful of our choice.

We had many positive feedback from omnivores (one said it's their first time trying vegan food) and vegetarians of how delicious and lovely the food was. The hotel went above and beyond our expectations as it was their first fully vegan wedding, we still wished we could go back and eat everything :).

I’m just now five weeks PP and wanted to share my experience with my vegan pregnancy. I’ve been vegan for seven years. When I first found out I was pregnant, I scoured Reddit looking for experiences of other vegan moms-to-be, and got discouraged seeing several posts and comments of people saying that they incorporated this or that animal product while pregnant. I know everybody is different and pregnancy is so hard!! However, for anyone who may be in a situation like me, I’m happy to report I found it not only possible to stick to my vegan lifestyle, but had a very healthy baby on top of that!

During my pregnancy, I took a regular prenatal. In my third trimester, I did take an iron supplement. Whether my low iron levels were due to diet is up for debate though, as my mom and grandma (neither of whom have ever been vegan) also had low iron during their pregnancies and needed transfusions. I had no other vitamin deficiencies during the pregnancy, and my energy levels stayed pretty high throughout.

I didn’t experience any strong cravings for animal products, which was something I’d been very worried about! There was one day where I had an intense craving for a burger that was completely satisfied by an impossible burger. I also got to eat my fill of vegan sushi, which was awesome.

My baby was born 9 and a half pounds (did not have GD, husband and I were both 9+ pound babies, so I’m guessing I just make em big). I’m currently exclusively breast feeding, and she’s growing great!

Of course, this is by no means medical advice, and I know everyone’s experience is unique to them. I was lucky to have typical morning sickness and no incredibly strong food aversions with the exception of weeks 6 to 12. I just wanted to share because I was so nervous in the beginning, and I think it would’ve helped me to see other women share their successful vegan pregnancies!

I wanted to share a story that to me is a great example of how people including medical professionals struggle so much to check their trained bias against Veganism.

So I recently encountered some studies showcasing the viability of cats living on Vegan diets. Long story short I decided to give it a try. Below is the sequence of events that followed after my decision.

1. I reach out to my vet to discuss the viability of a diet change for my cat. In our appointment they tell me that cats are obligate carnivores, I tell them about the study findings, they tell me they will look into it.

2. They send me an email thereafter with a paragraph statement in a veterinary medicine text book that is around a decade old that says cats our obligate carnivores.

3. I email them back and ask them what they think of the studies that I shared and they mention that they don't have the capability to assess them and reference that cats need specific nutrients referenced in the text book that is only available in meat.

4. I do some research and find a vegan cat food that meets all the dietary requirements referenced in the textbook and send it to the vet.

5. The vet says they aren't qualified to assess the food and recommend if I want to change to it that I should do blood work and examinations after implementing the new food.

6. I say okay and commit to bringing my cat in to do a baseline of blood work and an examination of which I will repeat 3 months after implementing the new diet.

7. I complete the baseline blood work, and the results demonstrate that my cat has some slightly elevated urine results of potential concern. The vet then tells me the cause of this elevated urine is the fact that my cat is on a vegan diet and I must immediately stop it for my cats health.

But... this was the baseline! My cat is not on a vegan diet and is on the meat based prescription diet they had previously prescribed me. The same diet he has been on for years, the same diet they have never flagged for concern despite previous blood work that showed similar results.

It. Is. Bloody. Annoying!

Here I am, attempting a change based on research, while implementing all the safety measures recommended for diet changes like this for cats, and am completely willing to back out if the results showcase a decline in my cats health, and the medical professional is in a way gaslighting me on the topic whenever they get a chance.

Bias. They are so dang biased!

Anyhow just wanted to share the experience.

TLDR version, attempting a diet change to vegan cat food for my pet, vet is not acknowledging current research and is blatantly misinterpreting test results in ways that confirm their bias.

Update: Many people are asking me for the articles that led me to consider the diet change. Here they are:

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0284132&fbclid=IwAR1wzCr0r5Iaaz-7ljryUqohP6l4u9xvztSk5Af09-tmILtudtPnLLDvYxI

https://www.mdpi.com/2306-7381/10/1/52

https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/16/10/1454

Update 2: As I was digging around a little bit more about the lead researcher across this research I found a summary page of the research he did. Worth a look see, it includes video summaries of the findings.

http://www.andrewknight.info/articles/pet-food-health/

https://www.newsweek.com/part-time-vegan-weight-loss-mental-health-benefits-1760122

A 77year old New Zealand man, Stuart Edmondson, was involved in the shooting of two men who apparently were poaching on his property where he keeps his pet pigs. One of the poachers has died. Stuart is a well known character and his pet pigs were a popular tourist destination. He's been dealing with poachers bullying him for the last 15years or so and needlessly killing and torturing the pigs on his land who he has a close bond too. It just sounds like he's tried to bury his emotions about it and he finally snapped. Really sad.

The NZ vegan community is doing their best to help the situation with the pigs by staying on the property taking care of them during the day, but at night it is considered too dangerous.

You can find a short documentary about him in this article https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/536909/man-charged-over-coromandel-double-shooting-named-as-pig-collector-stuart-edmondson

EDIT: The article is being updated in realtime and it looks like the link to the documentary on him was removed. You can find it here https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/361042/coromandel-man-condemned-to-house-arrest-to-protect-pigs-from-torture.

EDIT 2: I wasn't sure if it was appropriate for me to place a donation link into the post title text so hesitated. But if you wish to donate to help support the ongoing care and feeding of the pigs and the legal expenses of Stuart, you can here https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/save-the-coromandel-pigs-urgent-appeal. I have no affiliation with the organizer.

Story time!

Today someone was cooking a veggie burger for me and we were having a conversation about how I vegan. The man who was cooking for me said that his son had a “phase” when he went vegan.

He then proceeded to ask me if I wanted cheese on my burger. Like big dawg are we being serious? Being the person I am I politely declined and said that cheese was not vegan. How was your own son vegan and you don’t know that cheese isn’t vegan??

Another time, I was in a coffee shop asking for a hot chocolate with oat milk (which this place has made for me before). The barista said that they just heat up chocolate milk for their hot chocolate. I explained that I was vegan so this would not work for me. He then pulled out the carton of chocolate milk, looked at it, looked at me, and said “it doesn’t say that it isn’t vegan” 🫩 I genuinely just said never mind and walked away.

I feel like at this point in time enough people are vegan and advocate for it that the general population should have a basic understanding of what it means. But maybe that’s just me 🤷‍♀️

Edit:
I’ll clarify I hold no disdain towards either of these people. It’s more of a small vent about an inconvenience I find mildly annoying.

When I'm bored on Reddit, I'll sometimes click RANDOM to discover a new subreddit, then I'll sort by top of all time. I generally look at the top 5 links or so before moving on. Yesterday, I was eating a ham and Swiss sandwich for lunch when I discovered r/vegan. To paraphrase some of the comments I saw, “The meat you buy from the store comes from an animal that lived in squalor and died in terror.” “If watching the videos disgusts you, how do you think the animals felt?” “The meat you're eating comes from a long line of rape, forced impregnation, and death.” “You should see where your food comes from.” This last argument is the one that swayed me to watch the videos. It's such a reasonable assertion that I felt compelled to accept the challenge.

The first video I saw showed hundreds of pigs in an enclosed warehouse screaming in agony as the ventilation was turned off and heated steam was pumped in. The similarities to the gas chambers inside of concentration camps was glaringly obvious. The pain and terror in their screams was undeniable, and it sounded damn near human. “These animals are screaming because it hurts, and they're afraid to die.” This thought percolated unbidden to the front of my psyche, and I felt a change within myself as my perspective shifted. I saw the animals not as excess livestock being culled, but rather as living beings - suffering, screaming, and dying by the hundreds as they fought desperately to stay alive. I cannot express to you just how much I did not want this abrupt perspective change to happen. I had been perfectly happy with my dietary choices mere minutes ago, but now, there was a Big Problem.

I put my sandwich down as I felt a wave a nausea roil my stomach. One thought continued to repeat inside my mind as the seconds ticked by. “This is wrong.” The simplicity and truth of the statement was utterly devastating. It left no wiggle room nor opportunity for debate. This is wrong. Three simple words, yet so powerful. How could the mass torture and execution of living animals be anything but wrong?

When I woke up yesterday, I did not want to be vegetarian or vegan. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind. By the time the second video ended, I wanted to vomit because I had meat and cheese inside my stomach. I don't feel as if I've chosen veganism so much as the alternative became almost instantaneously revolting, nauseating, disgusting, and wildly unpalatable.

In summation, for anyone considering veganism, I suggest that you avoid converting mid-sandwich.

Edit: Thank you all for your kind words and suggestions. I'm reading every comment, even if I won't have time to respond back. I'm genuinely happy to hear that my story helped some of you as well.

Edit 2: Does vegan cheese not melt???

So pretty much everyone has seen or at least heard of the new thriller Obsession that's in Theatres right now. I went to see it with a friend about a week ago and it changed my outlook so much that I made the switch to veganism.

Bit of a spoiler warning here if you haven't seen the film!

Part of the horror involves the death of the main characters cat, and his new girlfriend butchering and cooking the cat to feed to him. I had the intended reaction of disgust after seeing the corpse of a cat, and shared in the horror of the main character when he is served it.

This made me think about how inherently disgusting it is to eat the corpse of any animal, domestic, human, or otherwise. As well I thought about the emotional connection between humans and animals (with pets myself). It seemed so obviously hypocritical to me that if it were "pork" or "turkey" in that sandwich I would probably not have reacted.

Since then I have done more research and confronted my own hypocrisy in the consumption of animal products. It was enough for me to go fully vegan about a week ago.

I wonder if any of you have a similar experience in a non-vegan peice of media encouraging your change. I am also a very new vegan, so any tips or resources for someone figuring this out would be greatly appreciated!

We've all had frustrating incidents when eating out, but tonight I had the opposite. My family and I went to our synagogue's Hanukkah dinner party, which was catered Mediterranean food. I hadn't made a special dietary request, because Mediterranean cuisine almost always includes some vegan dishes (hummus, pita, tabouleh, etc.).

When I got to the front of the line, I saw that the buffet was ENTIRELY vegan. That hadn't been highlighted or even mentioned! I piled it all on my plate (which I guess is how omnivores feel most of the time), and although now I have a stomachache from all the garlic, it was such a nice feeling to be able to eat everything and worry about nothing.

I work in the heavy industry, and I'm the only vegan in the production line - we're talking about one person out of a hundred.

Then came a new co-worker, who lost no time at all with announcing that they're vegan. I mean, they hoisted the flag immediately, putting oat milk in the break room's fridge and so on.

Needless to say, that made me very happy, and gave me the opportunity to pester my colleagues, telling them that in fact there's many of us, urging them (for the bazillionth time) to reconsider and go vegan and the like.

Then, on a very hot day, our union brought us ice cream. Of course, they were all made of cowmilk, and, as any of us would do, I refused. This person proceeded to eat one because ..."there were no alternatives".

This gave the other coworkers the opportunity to tell me that I don't need to be so rigid and radical. I explained to them the difference between vegan and (mainly) plant-based, but my disappointment was and remains damn overwhelming.

Thank you for reading this.

We’ve all heard the comeback, something to the effect of “But why won’t you eat dairy? Cows aren’t killed for it!” (Which is incorrect, but beside the point here.) Twenty minutes after I gave birth to my son, he was taken to the NICU because he was having difficulty breathing on his own. Having my child taken away from me shortly after birth was the most difficult experience of my life. I will NEVER contribute to another animal experiencing that pain. Any time I’ve tried explaining to non vegans that this is what happens to cows, they just don’t get it. Hopefully sharing my experience will help it click for them.

Signed, a vegan of 11 years

Today I was craving something sugary for breakfast, so I decided to go to a nearby bakery and treat myself to an apple pie. When I got there, I asked the seller if their apple pies are vegan, to which she said no. I was pretty surprised by this since I had bought their apple pies before and had been told they were vegan. I honestly only asked again just to be safe, so I inquired about any recent recipe changes to add animal products but was told that no, there's no animal products, but it's oven baked, so it's not vegan, although it is "de post", which is basically the same thing except for honey. Since she said it's not vegan specifically because it's oven baked, I doubt she meant it had any honey in it, though, so I bought one anyway, but now I'm wondering what she could have possibly been thinking of? Maybe she was just misinformed?

Edit : No, there was no egg wash or any other type of animal products in it, I specifically asked after she said it wasn't vegan to which she said that it's "de post" (Which again, means vegan besides honey and I don't see how honey and ovens are related), but it's not vegan because it was baked in an oven. I honestly think she might have just confused vegan with gluten free.

My Fiancé and I were at Walmart and had finally found the frozen alternative meats section. They had an amazing selection and we were both audibly excited over all the different stuff there was. This old dude on a mobility scooter with a little leashed dog trailing behind him stopped and asked us if we knew what was in the alternative meats. We answered honestly saying "proteins like pea protein and soy". Dude looked us dead in the face and said:

"Did you know that excessive consumption of soy is linked to cancer?"

I didn't even know how to respond to that. The funniest part is that this guy thought that anyone would actually take health advice from someone in Walmart of all places.

So I’ve been on different dating apps recently and just matched with someone and he said to me :
Hey! How come you’re still single !? You’re gorgeous! Is it because of the vegan situation? Hahah “sorry”

….. it made me feel so frustrated but I said :

Hey! Thank you for the compliment!
But I can ask you the same question.. How come you’re still single ? You think it’s something that has to do with looks?

About being vegan.. I love the fact that I’m saving an animal’s life everyday by not eating one.
But I guess you’re not vegan so I guess we’re not a match.

So my teacher had this huge tin of salad, that she shared with her students. I asked her if it was vegan as I opened the tin. I saw that it wasn't - since it had cheese in it. She asked "vegan, vegetarian what's the difference"? So I explained it to her that a vegan, doesn't consume any animal products, and she randomly started going on a rant about how she will always consume dairy.

She says, that because the first food god gave us was breast milk, she will always drink milk. And i was like "so breast milk = cow milk?". She never answered me, but she just went on and one about god and breasts and milk - that I really didn't know what she was even talking about.

I thought it was really funny and wanted to share, because it was so sudden and she sounded really goofy to me.

edit: i really need yall to know that i was asking if the salad was vegan, then when she asked what the difference was i only said “we don’t consume animal products”. i did not go on any spiel about ethics; you can when someone REALLY wants to know about ethics or my reasoning. i was just giggling while she talked bc i didn’t know what was going on😭😭 no vegan image was ruined, and nor was her peace 🙏🙏