poles apart (from a vegan view)

For vegans the perception is exactly opposite. But because we are in the minority and what we say largely ignored, for us it may feel as though we’ve moved to another planet, where the horror of animal life on the farm is highlighted, and we are tormented by thinking about it. ‘Our subject’ is unlike any other subject; it isn’t like a hobby or something we can be casual about, it’s a matter of life and death for us. For us it’s a matter of righting perhaps the most terrible wrong ever known to our society – the mass enslavement and brutal killing of innocent beings. For us, this is not an attitude we can agree to disagree about, because we see it as a dangerous attitudinal disease affecting our whole species. Our stand on animal slavery is something many of us feel must be argued strongly, so that we can drive our central point home - that animal slavery has got to end. If we are ‘abolitionists’ who think no animals should ever be used by humans, if we propose a total ban on animal food, we will almost inevitably come across as being unbelievably radical and confronting. But, to us, that position isn’t violent, it is simply a matter of passionate promotion. It’s as if we were selling soap powder, only unlike soap what we are selling is pivotal to future human development. In our eyes the changes we are proposing are essential. That’s our view.
However, we only need to hold that view, not necessarily force it down peoples’ throats every time we talk to them, or every time animals are mentioned. There a time and a place for our vegan voice. Just as much harm can be done by sounding off at the wrong time as good done by sounding off at the appropriate time.