Counter Arguments

Most farmed animals are slaughtered young, often shot in the head with a bolt gun, only to have their throats slit while still conscious. Some are ground alive or scalded in boiling water. These methods are brutal and far from painless. Imagine if your pet were subjected to the same treatment, shot in the head, throat slit, or worse. Would you still argue it doesn’t harm them just because they don’t understand what’s happening?

Egg-laying hens are confined and slaughtered once their productivity drops. Male chicks are ground up alive, as they serve no purpose. Cows only produce milk after pregnancy, and only females are kept for this purpose. Male calves are typically slaughtered immediately, sold for veal, or raised for beef. Female calves are separated from their mothers to be used for milk. Once a cow's milk production declines, she is slaughtered, usually around six years old, even though cows can live up to twenty years. Bees are selectively bred, smoked, and often killed during honey extraction.

Cows, like all mammals, produce milk for their babies, not for us. In the dairy industry, their calves are taken away shortly after birth. With her baby gone, the mother continues producing milk and is then milked by humans. But this only happens because we created the problem. Stealing her milk after killing or separating her calf isn’t a kindness.

Sheep are selectively bred to overgrow wool and often suffer from flystrike. Mulesing, slicing skin off their backsides, is common. Silkworms are boiled alive to extract silk threads. Sheep are then killed when they reach the age at which their wool production declines, typically around 5 to 7 years old.

We don’t use personal enjoyment as a reason to justify harm in other situations, so why should it be any different with animals?

A choice that harms others isn't just personal.

If you care about animals at all, then the logic should follow that you wouldn’t intentionally cause them harm just because it’s convenient in your own subjective worldview.

Traditions change. Slavery was once a tradition. Women's oppression was cultural. Culture doesn't grant immunity from criticism.

Just because our ancestors did something doesn't mean we have to keep doing it. We don’t live like they did, and we certainly don’t follow every tradition they had.

So do gorillas, and their canines are far more developed than ours. Our teeth are nowhere near designed for tearing through flesh. While we are technically omnivores, we’re not obligate ones, meaning we can thrive on plants alone. The ability to survive without causing harm makes our choices a matter of ethics, not biology.

Lions also kill their young and eat prey alive. We don’t model our morality on wild predators nor should we.

So are disease, violence, and predation. Just because something happens in nature doesn’t mean it’s ethical or desirable. Nature is full of suffering, but that doesn't mean we should replicate it. Civilization itself is built on improving upon nature, creating systems that reduce harm and increase compassion. We have the capacity to make ethical choices that go beyond survival instincts.

Even if that were true, why would a god give us the capacity for empathy only to ignore it? Stewardship isn’t exploitation.

Nihilism isn’t a license to be cruel. If nothing matters, then causing suffering doesn’t matter for you but it still matters to them.

We’re not talking about survival scenarios. We’re talking about you, right now, with access to alternatives.

If you were, you'd have bigger concerns. But you're not. You're in a grocery store, surrounded by countless options.

Some people in every group are rude. That’s not a valid argument against the philosophy itself.

Anecdotes about abuse or ignorance don’t discredit veganism. You wouldn’t reject parenting because one parent did it wrong.

Perfection isn’t the point. Reducing suffering where possible is.

You already do with your money, your voice, your choices. Every change starts somewhere.

It’s the fastest-growing social movement for a reason. Consumer demand changes industries and history shows social shifts start small.

No. Animals are bred into existence by demand. Remove demand, remove the breeding.

That’s not a tragedy — it’s liberation. Farm animals exist in perpetual suffering. Letting them fade out isn’t cruel. Continuing to breed them is.

The economy evolves. Slavery abolition hurt certain industries too. Ethics > profit. Plant-based sectors are booming.

Not true. The largest nutrition associations agree a well-planned vegan diet is suitable for all life stages.

From plants, fortified foods, and supplements where needed, just like livestock are supplemented. You're already outsourcing nutrients through animals.

Excess meat, eggs, and dairy are linked to heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. A whole food plant-based diet reverses many of these.

Rice, beans, lentils, oats, and vegetables are cheaper than meat and cheese. Marketing has tricked people into thinking plant-based means fancy.

Plants lack a nervous system or brain. If you're concerned about plant death, go vegan because animal farming kills far more plants (indirectly).

Yes. And feeding crops to animals to then eat the animals multiplies that harm. Veganism reduces crop deaths.

In very specific regions with marginal land, maybe. But on the whole, plant-based agriculture is far more sustainable and ethical.

We live in a flawed world. That doesn’t justify avoidable cruelty. Veganism is about reducing harm not claiming perfection.

This isn’t about pets. It’s about your choices.

A vegan diet uses fewer resources and could feed more people. Going vegan helps, not hurts.

Where no alternatives exist, it may be a grim necessity. But cosmetics and food don’t fall into that category. Veganism allows for exceptions in extreme cases.

Probably, yes. Just because something was tested on animals doesn’t mean it’s an endorsement of that method. We’re constantly working to find alternatives to animal testing, and using something out of necessity doesn’t justify the practice.