Ambassadors for animals

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For me, being vegan and going public is a bit like the advocate representing a client. I like to think I’m following the instructions of the animals themselves, acting with their approval. As animals themselves aren’t gratuitously violent I imagine they wouldn’t encourage me to be hostile with my adversaries. I like to think animals know the human better than humans know themselves, since they’ve seen the very worst of human behaviour and learnt how to survive it. I like to think they’d advise me to work on my fellow humans in a slow and steady way.
I learn a lot from animals. They don’t draw attention to themselves so neither should I, especially when I’m dealing with hard-rump meat-eaters. I wait, as animals do. I prefer to encourage dialogue by letting others have their say first, if only because I need to earn their go-ahead to have my say ... which might, just might persuade.
Why be so indulgent with the rump? I’d say, because they constitute 99% of our population, most of whom need to be brought on-side. Most of them still love their animal foods, and their leather shoes and much more. Omnivores aren’t going to roll over easily, and are even less likely to if they’re made to feel like cornered rats.
It’s easy to forget just how aggressive otherwise-peaceful people can be when it comes to this subject. But it’s understandable. None of us likes being placed ‘in the wrong’, which is precisely what I find myself doing when talking to non-vegans about using animals. I feel I have no other option … but to be fair, putting people right is also partly me showing off, proving that in this one way I’m superior.
Even though I’m sure I have watertight arguments, I put peoples’ backs up when I start talking about this subject. It’s likely they’ve never heard of ‘abolition-ism’ before and it makes them uneasy, and they negatively react, as a first line of defence. I have to get past the shock of this, by understanding why it comes about in the first place.
They feel insulted by having what has been, up to now, an accepted part of their life made into something wrong. Their aggressive reaction (or pretend naivety) is often a cover-up, because there’s nowhere else for them to go. They can’t get past the ugly facts and there’s pretty much no good arguments for them to use to defend their position. They feel uncomfortable. They feel cornered. They take umbrage. They storm off. And we might think we’ve won the day, but in truth the greater damage has been done ... in that we might have lost them altogether.