People call vegans judgmental, but why shouldn't we judge you if you are engaged in what we see as mass murder?

When the head chef of a restaurant in Shropshire recently boasted on Facebook that she had “spiked” the meal of a “pious, judgemental vegan”, the resulting outcry was so great she had to resign.

In such a clear-cut case, even most non-vegans sympathised and said that the chef should have respected her guest’s preference. Omnivores might not believe that meat is murder as vegans do, but most people believe that we should at least make room for each other's beliefs.

The chef’s "judgemental" accusation is familiar to vegans. They say we are dogmatic and that we think we’re better than other people. But, fashionable as it is in these millennial times to pretend that all opinions and positions are equal, as a vegan I’d argue that the simple, obvious truth is that our position is right and the position of omnivores is wrong.

I believe that animals should not be tortured and slaughtered. I wouldn't politely agree to disagree with someone who sanctioned slavery. Why would I agree to disagree with someone who defends the meat industry?

Laura Goodman has offered to resign after claiming to have 'spiked' a vegan diner

These are not merely two different sections on a restaurant menu. People who eat meat and consume animal products are responsible for 56 billion farmed animals being slaughtered every year. The scale of this horror is staggering for anyone willing to reflect on it. And the majority of those poor animals endured brief, horrible lives on intensive factory farms.

Vegetarians are not exempt from the guilt. Many vegans consider the dairy industry the cruellest of all. Even on the smaller farms with higher welfare standards, for a cow to produce milk for sale she must be made pregnant and then her calf must be separated and deprived of the milk. The separation is often violent and traumatising for both mother and calf.

The boy calves can’t be milked, so farmers usually either sell them for veal or kill them soon after birth. The girls follow their mother through cycles of forced pregnancy and milking until, around five years of age, they are too exhausted to go on and are sent for slaughter. In natural circumstances they could have lived to 25. Personally, I love the taste of plant milks, but even if I didn’t I can’t imagine valuing my tastebuds so highly I’d pay for animals to be treated in this way.

View more!

The picture becomes darker still at slaughterhouses. Undercover investigators have filmed workers in UK abattoirs stubbing out cigarettes in pigs’ faces and lame animals being attacked as they dragged themselves along the floor. Screaming sheep were smashed headfirst against solid structures.

It is hard to accept what goes on behind the deliberately high walls of these establishments, especially if you are a meat eater. So all too often people's defences shoot up, and they try and make the problem not the cruelty, but the person pointing out the cruelty. Vegans are sometimes accused of being sensationalist or emotive but it’s hard to paint a pretty picture of industrial killing.

The legality of animal slaughter and social acceptability of eating meat are irrelevant in moral terms. Slavery did not become unethical only after it was outlawed; those who used slaves were always wrong. Even though marital rape only became illegal here in 1991, it was always wrong for a husband to rape his wife. Child labour is not conscionable just because it’s allowed in some countries.

That chef is far from alone in describing vegans as “judgemental”. But when people say that they are generally shooting the messenger because they don’t like the message.

Eating meat leads to tremendous suffering and horrible deaths for millions of animals every day. How can anyone argue that supporting this carnage and funding it at the checkout is equivalent to boycotting it and speaking out? For anyone who values ethics, cares about the environment and has compassion for other living creatures, surely it follows that’s it’s better to avoid hurting and exploiting animals than to go along with it.

So let’s drop the pretence that all views are equal – or at least concede, to paraphrase Animal Farm, that some are more equal than others.

If you eat meat, then yes, as a vegan, I do think I'm better than you. And I suspect that deep down you agree.