1) VEGANS ARE PREACHY. It's 2007. The situation of the planet is reaching catastrophic levels and there are more and more animals being slaughtered around the world every day as americans bring their factory farming methods to the rest of the world. There was no time in the history of the world in which more animals were killed regularly and without thought than today. Vegans NEED to be preachy. The animal rights movement and the vegan movement have been around as an organized movement since the late sixties, but not much has changed and in fact things have gotten worse. The polite vegan sitting in the corner eating his tofu and apologizing to the meat-eater for being different does not do ANYTHING for the movement. Since PETA and "preachy" vegans things ARE changing. we even need to step it up!

2) BEING VEGAN SUCKS. I am a wonderful cook. It is important for vegans to be wonderful cooks. I know it isn't fair, but it's like when you are the the only black lawyer in a racist law firm, you have got to be the BEST lawyer. By knowing about food and nutrition, we can prove these people wrong. Most of it is ignorance. Most meat-eaters eat meat and potatoes all day every day, white bread ham and cheese sandwiches (I am still pinching myself whenever I see ads for Arby's on TV, I can't believe people PAY for sliced deli meat and cheez whiz!!! ;-) most of them wouldn't know good food if it hit them in the face. I have had many coworkers of my wife think this, and then they came over to eat at our place, and they changed their tune ;-) If you encounter meat-eaters at work bring impressive lunches.

3) VEGANS ARE PRETENTIOUS. There is nothing pretentious about compassion. And you should not allow someone else's inconsistencies and defensiveness make you feel that your reactions to a dead animal is pretention. IT IS MORALITY. and more importantly it is honestly HOW YOU FEEL and you should never be ashamed of your feelings. I am sure that the abolitionists and the suffragettes were seen as pretentious by the sexists and the racists, but next time you get affected in this way by peer pressure I suggest you visit a sanctuary either in person or online and actually look into the eyes of that cow, that hen...when someone makes a joke about a dead animal, I do not go along with it, out of respect for that animal. Because I can't anymore then I could laugh callously at the demise of a child or my best friend. When meat-eater put a carcass near me, I do make a point to say something and to turn my nose, out of respect for the poor soul who is lying dead on the table between us.
And for that matter I speak with meat-eaters and educate meat-eaters. I am very supportive and polite. But I do not sit at a table to eat if there are animal products on the table. If meat-eaters whish to eat with me, they must eat vegan. To me sitting to eat is sacred and a sign of peace and communion, there is no peace and can be no communion if someone is dead on the table.


4) VEGANISIM IS RADICAL AND EXTREME. Everyday veganism is becoming more extreme. but for now it is extreme for many people. I suggest you direct them to vegcooking.com , peta is really good at mainstreaming vegan cooking.

5) VEGANS ARE BLEEDING HEARTS. Well there are worse things to be called. Gandhi, Mother Theresa and many others were "bleeding hearts"
What I say to those who claim to care more about humans than animals is "what are you doing for humans then?' chances are they are doing nothing. I also ask them "how does eating meat HELP humans?" the only answer they can give me is that it provides jobs to humans. But jobs in the meat industry are among the worse jobs in the world. injuries, long hours, poor pay and no job security...no child gets up in class and says I want to be a slaughterhouse worker when I grow up.
Plus not to mention that OUR water is being depleted FAST by animal agriculture. The largest underground aquifer in North America running from the Canadian Prairies to the Southwestern US, is more than half empty. Less than 50 years ago farmers used to be able to hit water vy drilling 4 feet down, now in some cases they have to drill over 80 feet.
and it is not being replenished.
Our crops and our soil are close to being dead because of chemical agriculture and GMOs, amd those were introduced by the animal industry.
more than 60% of ourt crops are being fed to animals.
more than 70% of our drinking water are being fed to animals,
Plus animals "farms" produce more waste than large cities, but they have no sewage system.
OUR public land is being destroyed by cattle grazing. OUR rainforests (necessary for us to breathe) are being clear cutted to make room for cattle.
Plus meat consumption is causing so many ailments that our health care systems are falling apart.
and I'm not even mentioning greenhouse gasses and the destruction of our ocean (we are a blue planet after all, if the oceans die, we die!)

so when meat-eaters say that we care too much about animals, well, you could ask them "what is it about your choices that is helping humans?" Because animal production is very quickly leading to the destruction of OUR human species.

And as for the kindness towards other species, perhaps you could tell them that if people were able to be compassionate towards other species, maybe it wouldn't be so easy to be uncompassionate towards feloow humans. Compassion is compassion. And kindness towards all leads to peace. When we pick and choose who is deserving of compassion that can easily lead to war.

Be proud to be vegan, we are the warriors of the rainbow. It is hard at times and others may laugh at you or turn away from you, but we are right and we will overcome.

Everything that has been said makes perfect sense. I actually believe that meat eaters fail to see that thier chosen lifestyle is the one that is more extreme. Anyone who has lived next to a farm where there were so many cows surrounding their property that the cows defecation came oozing out of the faucet in the tub when the poor house owners went to take a bath is perfect evidence of meat eaters being the extreme. All of the environments that are created from using and mishandling animals including the spca are extreme. I agree with saying something and not saying something. There is a right time to say something and that time is not never. I lost a friend once because i told her the opposite of what commercials told her about milk. I said it is unhealthy and actually causes osteoporosis. I don't care I lost her as a friend because we weren't on the same level at all. There were in fact alot of things I didn't respect about her and to top it off she didn't try as a friend. If I'm at a bellydance class for instance and if someone finds out and calls me on it at the beginning or end of the class I will hold my ground and say something to shut them up. I fully expect this to come up eventually for me but it hasn't yet as I just started at a new class with people i don't know. I prefer to be prepared than downtrodden. And I prefer to not apolagize either for my lifestyle and or beliefs. I'm not sure exactly what situation I would feel the need to not say something and stand up but I know I truly hate having to be silent! But if your involved in alot of things and know alot of people then that would mean standing up all the time about veganism because there are alot of meat eaters, when what your there for is not about being vegan but could be a group or class of some kind and would get rather difficult when you need to beable to still work with these people. For me I want to stand up as much as I can which would be I hope most of the time. But there are some cases where I would need to develop a good rapport with the people involved to acheive my goals outside of being vegan. I after all do not live in a vegan community but I am in a city where people have heard of it and know what it means where in fredericton they don't. I wasn't exactly put ina very good situation one year at xmas when I told her about my first xmas vegan dinner. I figured I then should've kept my mouth shut as she made a discussion onfront of the class with me being one against a whole room full. It was pretty embarassing along with the fact that I had to tell the whole class that I actually don't have contact with my family when she asked me if I did xmas with my family. And because she was my teacher for the whole semester and i had been newly vegan i didn't know enough about it to keep going so I fell of the wagon of being vegan but I now have been back on and know more and am a healthier vegan than I was. I totally wasn't getting enough b12 before and I have this great book called Becoming Vegan. I admit that I have cared too much about what others have thought of me before and tried very hard not to when it shouldn't of had to veen be a question of trying to not let it get to me. one of my goals is to be an ultimate bad ass with my beliefs and to look them in the eyes without flinching and becoming silent. I want to wear clothes that carry the message and any other ways I can when I have the money to do it or can think of ways to make them myself. We should be proud of what we are and stand for the truth even if it might mean losing a friend that wasn't that good of a friend anyway. Yeah i've been kind of preached at by a vegan even after I became vegan and I did resent it but I could still respect that it was the truth and that they cared for what they believed in enough to face me on it. I still believe in veganism as an ongoing process. More so for some than others with money,resources and locality being an issue. Right now I can only honestly call myself near vegan for two reasons. Research takes a long time to find out what is in all the products u use and then what do u buy when what u normally buy isn't available and u don't know what such and such is. Second reason is that I grew up very very poor and don't believe in wasting food or shoes. We also just went through a very difficult move to another city and have to wait an entire month for the first cheque and after that to undoe the credit we've used up in the move and eating. So the next step is to replace shoes and boots when the money is available. Actually most of my boots are a faux leather but they were most likely glued together with a substance that has animal products in it. I'll be asking question about what is in certain products in another discussion or even in another vegan tribe so please respond because I don't know everything and need your help

Thank u