The Harsh Truth About Being Vegan

This Is How It Really Feels...

Mar 10, 2025

I feel compelled to write this, to help people understand. The type of people who call ethical vegans arrogant, or rude, or even extremists.

The kind of people who insist that we vegans want to shove our ideals down their throats, and ruin mealtimes for everyone else.

I’ve heard plenty of nonsense said and written about people like myself, who follow a vegan diet for ethical reasons.

So if you’re one of those people, please learn from this. I’m not talking down to you, I’m not being rude, I’m genuinely writing this for the benefit of others - to help you understand where vegans are coming from.

I’m illustrating this article with screenshots from Bubble Space’s AI-powered music video, also shared by PETA, which powerfully reverses the roles of humans and animals.

That sets the tone for what I’m talking about.

By the way, I’m not going to share any gruesome facts, you’re safe from those...

Why Am I Vegan?

It’s simple. I don’t personally want anything to do with pain, torture and murder of any other sentient being.

So I won’t eat animals, I won’t wear animals, I won’t use any product that has involved the harming of animals.

You might have noticed that I write about the climate crisis, and indeed, much of it is fuelled by animal agriculture. But that doesn’t actually influence my own veganism.

Speciesism is at the heart of it all, which is illustrated by the screengrabs.

A life is a life. Simple as that. Killing a cow is the same as killing a dog. Killing a chicken is the same as killing a cat. Killing a lamb is the same as killing a person.

Woah!! What was that last one?!

Maybe that’s where the ridiculous ‘extremist’ claim grows from, the fact that vegans value all lives as equal.

Of course, in reality, this is the opposite of extremism. We are 100% peace and love, no harm to anyone or anything.

Breeding animals for food, confining them in small spaces, making their poor, vastly shortened lives a torturous experience… now that’s extreme.

And we feel that pain. That’s why you may find us to be less than happy to enter a conversation about how juicy your meat was at mealtime.

And before anyone fires into the comments with ‘but animals are killed when vegetables are grown in fields…. what about the bugs and mice?!’ They are not intentionally killed, not farmed. And the deaths are nowhere near on the scale of the 2.8 TRILLION animals killed on this planet for consumption each year.

Justifying The Cruelty

If you eat animals, why do you do it? I think, because you always have - but after that it boils down to two broad categories.

Either you don’t know the facts, or you haven’t watched the horrendous videos that most vegans have, so you’re living in denial about how the chicken, prawns, lamb, pork or whatever dead animal you have in your refrigerator, got to be there.

Or you do know and you don’t care. I can’t get my head around that viewpoint, but there are clearly millions upon millions in the world who believe we can justifiably cause so much pain, presumably because we are a superior species, or because some god put them there for us to eat.

Please try to bear in mind how we feel. Vegans are not weak - neither physically nor mentally. We are incredibly strong to go against the norm and stand up for our fellow animals who were born without voices, so can’t vocalise their objections.

Saying that, we live in a world where where large populations of cries for help are ignored. Can we really expect the world to have empathy for all other animals, when so many are happy to cause suffering and death to humans?

Please try to understand that when vegans see meat on the table, we see pain, torture and death.

When we pass lush green fields, with newborn lambs skipping around, we see holding pens for slaughter.

When we shop for our food in supermarkets, and have to look for the vegan ‘alternatives’ within shelves of carcasses, we hear the screams of those tortured animals.

That does not make us weak, rude, arrogant or extreme. It means we are loving, caring and empathetic. And empathy is a superpower.

Confronting The Truth

If you’re laughing while reading this, you’re probably the kind of person who will never understand. We vegans just have to accept that there are many people in the world with this attitude. It’s not easy to accept, but it’s human nature - I have been dragged kicking and screaming into the reality that animal abuse will never end.

Perhaps you’re curious about the facts but push them to the back of your mind, because - you know - you like the taste, and you can’t be bothered changing your diet. Too much effort.

I, too, was guilty of pushing facts away. I believed I was doing a good thing by being vegetarian for more than 30 years.

I am ashamed it took me that long to confront the horrors of the dairy and egg industries.

It’s Your Choice…

If you are not vegan, I will leave it up to you to decide if you want to learn the true facts - I have shared several informative links below.

I’m not forcing this on you, I merely ask that, before you next judge a vegan, at least try to understand why we are so angry with the world when it comes to the treatment of our fellow animals.

Thank you.

The Harsh Truth About Being Vegan

This Is How It Really Feels...

Why Am I Vegan?

Justifying The Cruelty

Confronting The Truth

It’s Your Choice…

Dairy

Eggs / Chickens

Prawns / Shrimps

Fish

Pigs

Sheep

Here’s the video…

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