Vegan Raincloud

I know, right?! It's baffling. I think sometimes it's because they are confused about what veganism actually means though. Many seem to think it's like Jainism - doing no harm to any organism, being pure, etc. When no, it's about rejecting cruelty and exploitation as far as possible, starting with saying no to meat, dairy, eggs, honey, leather, wool, animal testing, palm oil, etc. Not knowing or understanding this, they think they're being original by calling vegans out on accidentally squashing a bug or eating commercially harvested grain. Even worse, they use these things as *reasons* to keep eating animals themselves. Sometimes it's because they're trolling, sometimes they're being wilfully ignorant, but I do think (and hope) that sometimes it's because they're confused about veganism.

Hi, sorry to hear you have anemia. From what you say, I'm assuming it's purely the iron-deficiency kind? I would recommend this article: http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/iron.htm if you're wondering where vegans get iron from. The red meat thing is unnecessary but doctors have a knack of making bad nutritional calls based on outdated information; many nutritionists aruge that meat-sourced iron is actually harder to digest / absorb than plant-sourced iron, especially as high-iron plants tend to be also high in Vitamin C, which naturally aids iron absorbtion. I'm not going to pretend I'm an expert in nutrition as I'm not, but vegan diets are demonstrably healthier than those that contain red meat, whether you are anemic or not. I hope you feel better soon anyway, anemia can be a horrible drag.

Yep, but there's such a thing as a supply / demand ratio. I kept eating meat for years on the basis that 'it's already dead', but it's a crap argument. Nothing would ever change if everybody thought that way.The cow may be already dead but by eating her I'd be showing total contempt for her, as well as benefiting from and paying for what was done to her.

Thanks. Yeah, I went vegan because I could no longer just accept the way animals are treated simply so that we can use their bodies for ourselves. I hate all kinds of exploitation and violence, but it seems like violence against animals is one of the few kinds of violence that's not only tolerated but promoted, celebrated, and profited from.

Loads of people are giving me respect, actually. If some (or a lot of) meat-eaters want to be hostile to be, I don't really care: there's a lot of it going around on the internet, and besides, it's nothing compared to what the animals go through. I can respect someone's opinion even when I think it's wrong, if it's cogently argued and sincerely felt; but I can't respect eating meat, and I'm not sure why I should. My respect lies with the animal who died for no reason.