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Veganism isn’t about personal benefit – it’s an ethical stance against the unjust use, violent oppression and wholly unnecessary killing of innocent, vulnerable sentient beings. Any ancillary gains one experiences as a result of living vegan are positive, albeit secondary, byproducts and ought never be the focus of vegan advocacy as they only serve to defocus from the ethical issue at hand – when you know it’s wrong to exploit, harm and kill others for pleasure (and we ALL know this), you stop promoting it, engaging in it and paying others to do it for you. That happens the day you start living vegan.
Framed in humans terms, would anyone advocate against spousal abuse by promoting the personal “benefits” of not beating one’s mate? “Think of the money you’ll save on hospital visits! You won’t have sore fists anymore! No more attorney fees! See all the great reasons you should stop?!?”
Consider this passage from a previous essay:
It’s crucial to remember that veganism isn’t primarily about us and how we can benefit from ceasing to participate in the non-consensual use of animals. Personal health and environmental improvements are side benefits of living vegan, and vegan advocates and educators ought to be careful not to erroneously frame them as the goals or primary motivations. Veganism is an ethical position that represents a return to living according to our almost universally shared belief that harming – and killing – others for no good reason is always wrong. “But their bodies taste good!” is as morally unjustifiable a reason for taking a life as “But their bodies feel good!” is for sexually violating another individual. Each represents a terrible injustice that serves only to satisfy the pleasure of the perpetrator to the extreme detriment of the victim.
When the victims of violence and oppression are human, no one compromises or equivocates. The message is always, “This victimization is wrong and it needs to stop now“. When the victims are non-human individuals, suddenly compromises abound. Baby steps become “acceptable” and advocates ask for anything they can get rather than the one thing that matters – the right for non-human individuals not to be used as the property of humans. That’s textbook speciesism, and one cannot effectively advocate for dismantling a form of oppression while simultaneously engaging in it.
A vegan world won’t happen overnight, but if we don’t commit ourselves to dismantling speciesism through clear, consistent vegan education advocacy and instead keep reinforcing it, a vegan world won’t happen at all.
