Target consumers, but don’t bash them

When starting to seriously contemplate veganism, as soon as one considers a whole new attitude towards animals, it immediately affects shopping habits. A young vegan woman I knew once told me that people should think of their beloved cats and dogs at home while they strolled down the aisles of the supermarket – it would help them remember similar animals who are not so well loved, notably the ones living on farms.

As vegans, however we approach others, we must try to touch their hearts. And once we have succeeded in this they must be given the support they need from us, to help them make the transition from meat eating to plant eating. If we fail to reach them, they won’t think they have anyone they can turn to, and they won’t feel strong enough, without support, to fight for anything different even if they wanted to. And many do want to, because they see the trap people have fallen into; they see how desperately those who depend heavily on animals, how they have an attitude problem –refusing to even consider animals as sentient beings.
The people who are employed by the animal industry, who obviously have the greatest interest in it, the killers, packers, processors, producers and retailers, have to be indifferent towards the feelings of the animals to safeguard their livelihoods. They never think of sparing the feelings of animals anymore than wood chippers think of sparing the forest. If their business fails they will personally be ruined. It is widely thought that the country would be too – that if the animal industries became discredited there would be enormous repercussions to the economy of the nation. For anyone convinced of this, any talk of cruelty to animals must be quashed, ethics mustn’t be allowed to enter into it and farm doors must be kept firmly shut from the public gaze. Since animal farming is still legal and by way of customer loyalty it remains in a numbers-strong position, the industry is still secure. Secure enough, especially when helped along by tame scientists who tell people that “we must eat meat” and spiritual leaders who say that what farmers and vivisectors do to animals is essential and therefore not morally wrong. The customer is sucked in by all this. So many customers that they represent some 95% of all adults in every country of the world. There’s an urgent need for vegans to target the customers of the animal industries, to help reverse their desensitisation and challenge the industry’s misinformation. We never know when a person is ready to make the move, so we need to be ready to be there for them, rather than being ready to bash them.