Why I am not a vegan

[Diana]

Even someone like me, who has been a vegetarian for decades, the term vegan has been changing. Until recently, I thought a vegan was a vegetarian who also didn't eat eggs or dairy, and didn't wear fur or leather. That was pretty much it. It wasn't until a few years ago that I learned that they didn't eat honey either. Ok, got it. That makes sense. But now, I am learning that many vegans also think that horseback riding is off limits, training service dogs is taboo, and some won't even have pets at all!

I think vegans in general are thinking, intelligent people, as is stated and shown in the quotes I posted above. There are those who may take it too far in tone, but perhaps we can cut them some slack. I remember seeing a show on PBS about animal testing. The "activists" filming had snuck into a lab and filmed the horror in there. A rabbit was contorted and spasming and trying to crawl across the floor, just left there to die in agony. The two "activists" filming were sobbing (as was I), but they did it because they wanted to raise awareness of what is actually going on. Can anyone blame them for being vehement about wanting to change it? I absolutely honor their courage, because I am too much of a coward to do something like that. My heart would break so badly I would want to die, just as that photographer did who photographed the starving child in Africa who collapsed a short way from the food wagon, then took his life.

I sort of fit into the description above, though I am not rigid or do anything because I am "a vegan." I don't eat honey in general, but I have found products from responsible beekeepers who jar honey. I don't keep pets (though I have and I have loved them enormously). I would not support horseback riding. Most of those horses are miserable. I live across the road from a horse property. The owners don't even live in the house there. The horses are well cared for as far as structures, shade, and food (thank goodness for that at least). But all those poor horses do day in and day out is stand around in their dirt plots. Twice a day they whinny loudly when they hear the vehicle coming up the road with their food, because that is all they have to look forward to or do is eat, and since horses would normally graze all day, they are being unnaturally fed too. And as everyone here probably knows by now, I don't kill anything, including insects. There is a young rattlesnake who has lived in my yard all summer, named Severus. I'm not stupid enough to think I could interact with him physically, and one needs to be careful anyway all summer in the desert not to step on or inadvertently come upon a rattlesnake, but he has the right to be here just as much as I do, and he is part of the ecosystem.

I had a disagreement with a publisher some years back because I didn't want to illustrate a working dog. I also gave up 2 huge clients back in the early 90's because I told them I would not illustrate meat anymore, and they respected my convictions. 

The wildlife that visits my property is amazing and I think this is at least in part due to my tolerance of them. Last week I actually saw close up, in my little pond in the back yard I keep as a water source, a baby owl. We stared into each other's eyes and the owl just stood there calmly. It was incredible. I felt so honored. I've been close to an owl before, when one came down my chimney the night I moved onto this property. 

The reason I say all this is because I want to point out that I am in no way an extremist. I do or do not do these things because of what is in my heart. The way I live seems extreme to many. I am not vocal about any of it in general, or I would likely be labeled as such. A huge gap can form between those not adhering to typical and accepted ways of life and the majority of humanity—a path along which a person may traverse to get to where they are, and if this point they reach is too far from normal, they may be seen as extreme.

And those who are activists have convictions for a reason. The term "activist" is not synomynous with "extremist or zealot." We can't be aware of everything, even in this digital age. So activists raising awareness of animal and wildlife infringements is vitally important, just as it was vital in initiating change in women's rights, slavery, gay rights, etc.