It’s about time I discuss the most popular comments made by animal users. “Vegans constantly try to convert you. They are so in-your-face and never leave you to do what you want. I respect their right to be vegan, so they should respect my right to eat meat.”

Firstly, vegans are barely respected. I can’t make a face at someone’s English breakfast, but they can at my green smoothies. I can’t tell someone how unhealthy McDonalds is, but they can dissect the nutrition of my salads. I can’t show them petitions showing “gross” pictures of tortured animals and ask them to sign, but they can cook gross meat/dairy dinners and laugh when I have to leave the room to be sick.

Secondly, many people forget this is a carnist society. Vegans are NOT truly respected when we aren’t given the choice to live a cruelty-free lifestyle. We might have to ride a bus with pig parts in the tyres, eat something someone wrongly told us was vegan, and watch films where the animals involved were abused to become obedient. Is it any wonder vegans are “in-your-face”? Ever wonder how “in-your-face” animal exploitation is, or do you think “in-your-face” only occurs when something is presented as part of a minority mindset?

Now, did you forget we are taught to exploit animals from birth? How is a racist or homophobe born? They’re not – they are conditioned to live and think a certain way, of which is not a CHOICE they had, nor a RIGHT they had, but a way of life forced on an impressionable child who has the natural instinct to believe positive appraisal means they are behaving morally correct. Children are automatically given the “right” to an omni lifestyle, but where was our right to live vegan?

And, then, to what extent does a carnist’s “right” to eat meat exist? What’s the difference between eating dogs or pigs? Why’s it their right to eat a pig I don’t want killed, but I can’t eat a dog that they don’t want killed? How do we choose which dead animal is eaten and which is buried? If a child can’t bear to watch the slaughter of a pig, when eating meat is meant to be so “natural”, why should they eat it? If everything carnists did regarding animals was instinctual and natural, I wouldn’t even have to ask these questions.

This society teaches people to exploit animals every day, from the makeup we use to biology classes at school. We’re conditioned to exploit animals for our own benefit, and that is something no one can deny. If a child is placed in a pen with a rabbit and an apple, which does the child play with and which do they eat? If the rabbit is replaced with some tidy looking rabbit meat, does the child suddenly see it as food? If they do, that’s because they have been conditioned to eat animals. Though, it’s important to note we still grow up with a big distinction between a cute animal and animal meat, where the rights that each animal is given differ majorly.

Human rights (which should be extended to all animals) are based on the principle that they do not infringe on other people’s rights. We were once persuaded that smoking was good for your health and the planet. Now that the negative link between smoking and health and environment has been proven, the majority of us no longer see smoking as a “right” because we know a smoker affects everyone else’s life, for the worse. We now cannot deny that the same links exist with animal exploitation, especially with the existence of healthy and happy vegans like Carl Lewis and Ellen Degeneres as examples. Therefore, it is no longer a carnist’s right to eat meat when they are negatively impacting the environment and its inhabitants for reasons not necessary for survival. Eating animals because there is no other food source is completely different from choosing to have gammon with your potatoes and vegetables tonight. It is not a carnist’s “right” to harm the planet, animals or humans because they want to.

Why do I have to respect a carnist’s “right” to use animals anyway? Respect is earned, and is another word for “admiration”. Why would I admire someone who exploits animals when I’ve proved to them they don’t have to? I don’t have to admire their choices just because they respect mine; respecting my choice to be a vegan is, firstly, a complete lie because society doesn’t let us be truly vegan, and, secondly, something they can’t have an issue with because it is altruistic in its definition. You won’t find someone saying “I disrespect your choice to love animals and not use them for your benefit.” because meat-eaters already do this with their pets. They already eat all the whole foods a vegan does as well, so they couldn’t possibly argue with what we eat. I think it’s realistic not to admire someone who looks out for themselves before others. No one uses animals for the animal’s benefit because, if no one intended to exploit them, the “care” and “love” they receive in their lifetime before slaughter would not exist. Why should I even be forced to accept a carnist’s choice to exploit animals, when their actions directly affect the land I am living on?

This issue is far, far bigger than your dinner plate. We have fought slavery, gender equality and even animal welfare because these things affect our whole community, even though not all of us are victims. I am heterosexual, but will support someone victimised by homophobia. I am white British, but will support someone victimised by historical racism. I am not a pet, but will support petitions that save animals from abusive ‘owners’. Equally, I am not being exploited by humans, but I will fight for each and every animal that deserves the right to live a life as long as they can in whichever way this occurs.

If you are happy to respect someone who claims the right to use animals for their benefit unnecessarily, and to not feel guilty at the abuse animals, the planet and humans can suffer as a result of their choices, you are exactly the kind of person that scares me. Rather than hate you, I regrettably feel disappointed that you can’t escape the conditioning you have been subjected to your entire life.

We are all victims in this carnist society, but we are also the problem. It’s about time we jumped down from that fence that has made our bums numb from sitting on it too long.

Thanks for reading.