Actually… I’m Not Really Compassionate
Vegan Lifestyle Articles From All-Creatures.org

Vegan lifestyle articles that discuss ways of living in peace with humans, animals, and the environment.

---

FROM

Catherine Burt
June 2013

When a person has that “AHA!” moment, we see it so clearly that we wonder how we missed it before. We missed it mainly because we were conditioned from childhood that it’s acceptable to treat certain animals in certain ways....

I honestly think sometimes the use of “compassion” to describe the act of not inflicting (or paying someone else to inflict) violence on other creatures is actually counter-productive, by making veganism seem out of touch, heroic, and difficult.

OK just kidding… anyone who knows me would probably say that isn’t true. But I really don’t like being called compassionate for being vegan.

Sometimes when people say that, I go out of my way to chop my spinach extra brutally, and take on an extra sinister laugh as I watch so much lovely fruit getting mauled in my blender as it becomes a smoothie.

Not long ago I was venting to a friend about the situation with the wild horse roundups and the removal of the ban on horse slaughter. It came as no surprise – having rounded up tens of thousands of wild horses, we need a “solution” for long term holding and the cost of feeding them. It was very distressing to read about. My friend’s response:

“Your compassion has always been amazing.”

A few weeks later, I shared a Facebook post about a turtle who was severely beaten (ultimately to death) with a golf club on a golf course, while looking for a place to lay her eggs.

Another friend agreed this was, in his words, a depraved thing to do, and offered the following quote in his comment:

“The possibilities for compassion are extremely limited, far inferior to the possibilities for evil. What’s astounding is that we ever get around to doing the good. The good is the real mystery of our world.”

And indeed, the description on this very blog is

“Catherine Burt is the active voice for compassionate causes.”

I do love and appreciate all of my friends and you, the lovely readers of this blog. I understand that being vegan may seem… extraordinarily compassionate to some. It would have seemed that way to me 15 years ago. I get you, I really do.

But I’m sorry, it just isn’t true.

Imagine if someone said to you,

“So… you don’t think it’s right to slaughter and eat your puppy? Wow. Your compassion is amazing. What about kittens, wouldn’t you like a nice tender kitty-sirloin? No? You are so compassionate.”

I think most people’s reaction would be something like, “Um… duh… what kind of miscreant would do that??” Most people don’t pat themselves on the back every day when they come home from work and decide not to kick (or eat) the dog.

I don’t think it’s particularly “compassionate” for a person to refuse to do the same thing to a chicken, pig, cow, or other animals.

To be fair, I think many vegans actually are very compassionate people, many really do empathize with others at a heightened level — but I don’t think it takes some heroic level of empathy to decide to let wild horses exist without turning them into steaks, or to let mama turtle go her way and lay her eggs.

On the contrary, veganism is about being fair, and having respect. And at risk of offending anyone… it’s about common decency that is unfortunately not common at all. A vegan recognizes that other beings have their own purposes for existing, and respects those purposes — and the wants and needs other creatures have. Starting with the fact that they really don’t want to be farmed, caged, rounded up, slaughtered, beaten with golf clubs, or otherwise subject to humanity’s greed and violence.

I don’t believe that vegans are special in this way, I don’t think we are “better” than other people. I think we are merely consistent.

COMPASSION : sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it

Alleviating distress… no. We don’t want to rescue the suffering masses… we want to leverage the position we are in as the dominant species on Earth – not to cause needless suffering in the first place.

When a person has that “AHA!” moment, we see it so clearly that we wonder how we missed it before. We missed it mainly because we were conditioned from childhood that it’s acceptable to treat certain animals in certain ways.

When a person refuses to have the “AHA!” moment which is staring them in the face, I don’t think it’s because they necessarily lack “compassion.” They are simply not being rational.

And the person who beats a turtle to death on a golf course isn’t merely “uncompassionate,” let’s be honest… he or she needs professional psychiatric help. And probably to be kept away from vulnerable humans as well.

I honestly think sometimes the use of “compassion” to describe the act of not inflicting (or paying someone else to inflict) violence on other creatures is actually counter-productive, by making veganism seem out of touch, heroic, and difficult.

I promise it isn’t. It’s about being in touch and human. So easy even a child understands it.

Return to Articles Reflecting a Vegan Lifestyle