A disturbing illustration has been doing the rounds on social media recently. As soon as I see it I feel a little sick. On the left, it’s a familiar image, although one that will always be disturbing: a man, presumably African-American, hanging from a tree. But next to it is a pig strung up in the same way. The caption reads: “Then we had racism: Now we have speciesism.”

I became vegan three-and-a-half years ago, and it’s the best decision I've ever made. I’ve always been disgusted by the abuse of animals within the food industry, and as soon as I realised its full extent I stopped supporting it. That said, images that juxtapose the era of black slavery with animal farming deeply disturbs me. Yet the tree hanging image isn't an isolated incident or accident. There are a number of images I've come across online that all make the same comparison, and are alarmingly common within the vegan community's activist groups, which I've now began to avoid.

On one hand, there is a fair argument to be made that the treatment of animals within the food industry resembles a form of slavery, and everything that usually accompanies it: murder, torture and abuse. Female cows are forcibly impregnated on a routine basis, and separated from their newborns. When they can no longer produce milk they're then disposed of, which is at a relatively young age. If they're female, newborn calves are born into a life of being harvested for their milk. And if they're male, they're killed. This horrific process is solely for the production of dairy, when there are plenty of delicious and healthy non-dairy alternatives.

A tweet from a vegan activist Twitter account, which has since been deleted (Photo: Twitter) (Twitter)

The fate of chickens is also no secret: images of emaciated birds trapped in battery farm pens are circulated pretty regularly. Perhaps not so well known is that so-called “free-range” farms are little better than battery farms. And you’d be hard-pressed to find someone in this day and age that openly endorses animal testing.

So if you think about the gruesome realities of the meat, dairy and cosmetics industries, then it’s pretty clear – if you consume animal products in any form you contribute to the captive breeding, forced labour and murder of millions of sentient and loving creatures. It’s not entirely wrong in itself to say that this is a form of slavery.

In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade Show all 13 1 /13 In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China A cat climbs up the cage at the slaughterhouse, trying to escape. This cat was later rescued by Peter Li In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China A slaughterhouse butcher transfers a cat to a cage, to be handed off to Peter Li. Shortly after, Li rescued the cat from the slaughterhouse AP/Humane Society International In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China Two kitchen knives are shown stuck in an iron cage, which are used to butcher dozens of dogs and cats every day. These knives have to be sharpened daily due to the number of animals they're used to slaughter In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China Caged dogs sit on the side of Renminzhong Road, waiting to be transferred to a slaughterhouse in a narrow alley AP/Humane Society International In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China Workers are shown getting the day's dog and cat meat prepared for sale in the morning In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China Dog meat is displayed in the marketplace In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China Residents pick their dog meat from a stand on Riverside Road In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China A woman on her moped transports more than 10 dogs, which had just been slaughtered, to her market shop for sale AP/Humane Society International In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China Hundreds of pet dogs await their own death in a slaughterhouse, while they watch as their companions are slaughtered in front of them AP/Humane Society International In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China A group of cats from Sichuan Province arrive at Renmin Middle Road on a truck, and wait to be transported on carts to a slaughterhouse in a narrow alley In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China A truck arrives in Yulin with nearly 1,000 dogs of various breeds crammed into narrow wire cages with no space to extend their limbs. According to the driver, the truck came from Sichuan, 800 miles west of Yulin. The traumatized dogs waited in silence for the next stop on their journey In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China Dogs are hung up for sale for meat in Dong Kou market, as a dog looks on In pictures: Inside the Yulin cat and dog meat trade China Peter Li holds a puppy's collar found at a slaughterhouse AP/Humane Society International

However, there's a moral limit to how far you can take this argument. Or more specifically, where you can take it. No matter how strongly you feel about the rights of animals, it’s still so wrong to use images of other people's slavery to make your point. This isn't because it’s offensive to compare a human to a cow – the whole point of veganism is that animals are equal to humans, after all – but it's hugely offensive and insensitive to co-opt another group's history of brutal oppression.

And aside from offending people, what do the vegans behind the images even think they're achieving by making such comparisons? Veganism is a long and difficult process. I was fortunate to have had a head start, being a vegetarian already. But meat is a huge part of many cultures and religions and it is very hard to move away from that. For anyone thinking about changing their eating habits, it’s not going to help if they see vegans circulating sick memes with lynching comparisons. Also, no matter how much you disagree with the meat and dairy industry, it's important to keep in mind that comparing black slaves will only insult and hurt a hell of a lot of people.