A Response to “Vegan Purists” and “Vegan Police” Who Criticize Vegans with Non-Vegan Cats
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FROM

Steve Best, Ph.D., August 2011

So unless you are like my new “perfect vegan” friend who wrote me the other day, lay off those of us who are good vegans in every way except for the fact that we care for non-vegan cats. Because you probably ain’t so pure yourself.

I’ve been reading on Facebook a lot of criticism against vegans like myself, who have cats (5 rescue cats in my case, who are featured below]) that are not vegan, and also are predators who, if allowed outside, kill birds, lizards, mice, and other animals.

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Willis

First, unlike dogs, cats incredibly difficult to make vegan (although some successfully do), and not only is the science not in on whether or not cats can be made vegan and flourish (and some claim they can).

But that is not my real point, which is rather the argument I recently made on Facebook and in a blog (http://drstevebest.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/the-commodification-of-veganism-and-myth-of-purism/) that “vegan purism” and “non-violence” are social myths and urban legends that require some honestly among vegans and recognition of how systematically non-vegan and violent our world is, such that inconsistencies and hypocrisies are unavoidable. I cop to mine as a non-vegan cat guardian, most people recognize this general point, although the other day for the first time ever a vegan argued to me that his lifestyle was perfect, unassailably consistent, and free of contradiction.

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Shag

But rather than repeat what I already argued in the above link, I have two new thoughts. You are not a vegan purist or “true vegan” if you eat in restaurants that also serve meat because, just me and other non-vegan cat sinners, you are supporting a business that supports the meat/dairy/egg industrial holocaust complex, and so you too give your dollars to agribusiness and the killing machines of the carnist lifestyle. Unless you live in LA, Seattle, or such cities (I live in El Paso for Christ’s sake), you do not have the choice or luxury to eat vegan meals at a vegan restaurant, and so my hunch is that most other vegans are also impure and inconsistent at some level.

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Kitty Baby

Second, similarly, if you buy vegan food from any kind of food store (including Whole Foods and their “HSUS-certified humane meat”!), you are contributing to a business that supports the meat/dairy/egg industrial holocaust complex, and thus again sustaining the torture and murder of billions of animals. This is not a “boycott,” but a contradiction.

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(The Real) Slim Shady

So unless you are like my new “perfect vegan” friend who wrote me the other day, lay off those of us who are good vegans in every way except for the fact that we care for non-vegan cats. Because you probably ain’t so pure yourself.

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Koko


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