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If empathy can inspire us, it can also deplete us. We want to believe that things aren’t so bad and that if we have a little empathy everything will be okay. And when we find it isn’t, we crash. We want to enhance beautiful things and downgrade the ugly things, but that’s too shallow. Empathy needs nurture. You have to rise to the expectations of empathy. It’s like momentum that can slow and fade if not kept pace with. Even as we wring our hands with sympathy for the downtrodden, we still need to follow that feeling through; it needs feeding. It needs great effort and self discipline to keep it focused because there is so much negativity draining its strength. It’s as strong as we care to make it, so the hard work of empathy comes down to self-discipline. If negativity doesn’t weaken it then indifference will.

When it comes to animals and food habits there are always commercial interests trying to divert us – “Should I eat that cream cake of not? Shall I have that delicious-looking crab salad?” We’re seduced by the cashmere sweater or the fur wrap or the suede jacket. We want something that we know we shouldn’t want, but we’re not used to denying ourselves things when we see others buying them. Most of us struggle with our ‘little weakness’ even if we know of self-harming consequences, not to mention harm to others in the production of it.

If we’re lacking empathy we need to practice it, to build it up, to do something for the sake of ‘another’. For animal activists, a very specific empathy is required to keep themselves updated. Even for squeamish people like me, we have to force ourselves to watch video footage that shows animal cruelty, since it helps to build empathy and resolve. By watching the atrocities, it encourages us to work hard to help end further atrocities.

It’s important for all of us to realise that cruelty and thoughtlessness are routine in our world, when it comes to animals used in the food and clothing industry. In all societies the treatment of animals is heartless. We humans hurt countless billions of sentient beings for our own convenience. That’s the reality we are dealing with. Even the most intelligent, well-educated people go along with all this, without protest.

This is why empathy is so important, for us to stay in touch with these animals, and maintain an empathetic connection with people who aren’t yet very aware or who don’t care enough.

The evidence is all there, on those difficult-to-watch DVDs. You can watch them, you can go into shock over them, you can be too squeamish to stay watching for too long. I often have to hold my hands over my eyes in a very cowardly way, but then I know when I’ve seen enough, to remind me what is happening behind those closed doors.

It’s not for pleasure I watch this footage but out of respect both for the animal victims and those brave humans who did the filming, often at risk to their own safety. And, of course, it’s important for us to be kept up to date with the latest findings.

I imagine all vegans want to be well-informed, so they’re in the best position to educate others more effectively. But, for my part, I also want to get closer to the mind of the punter, to remember who I’m talking to, and to bear in mind that these are often sensitive people I’m speaking with. I need to keep reminding myself that we’re all at different levels of empathy, and we’re all at different stages in our awareness.