I Think I Might Always Have Been A Vegan.

Are we all born vegan?

I officially became vegan around Christmas and New Year of 2016. It was cemented by Veganuary the following month, but was preceded by almost lifelong vegetarianism. But in hindsight, I feel like I was always vegan. It just took me 34 years to realise it.

Photo by Tino Rischawy on Unsplash

I remember going horse riding on the weekends when I was a child. In fact, I think I requested lessons, having seen my sister enjoying spending time with equine friends. But I must have mistaken my need to have close contact with these beautiful creatures as the need to get on top of them, ride, and domineer them. Because it felt wrong almost as soon as I started, and my foray into horse riding only lasted a few weeks before I realised that I was very, very uncomfortable with all of it. I struggled with placing the metal bit into the mouth of whichever creature I would be riding that day, and I felt very guilty climbing on top of the horse, and even worse digging my heels in to direct their movements, or using a riding crop to persuade them to do what I wanted. Looking back, I’m horrified that I did any of this, but part of me knew at that time that none of it was right.

Another warning sign that I was a vegan-in-the-making was my feeling about keeping our dog, Sam, on a leash. I could never get my head around the fact that humans did this to dogs. I didn’t understand what gave us the right to control another creature in this way. And when I found out how animals are often house-broken, well I think that broke me. We had a cat, too, when I was young. His name was Bruce and he was one of my favourite beings in the world. On the day he died, I couldn’t bring myself to attend his funeral. Yes, he had a funeral. Our family gathered around the little grave my dad had dug for him, but for me, the loss was too great. It was like losing my big brother, because he had been around since before I was born, and for most of my life up to that moment, he’d slept on the end of my bed.

Today, my feelings and behaviours towards even non-domesticated creatures reflect that of a vegan. I’ll move worms and snails off footpaths, to make sure they don’t get trod on by less careful passers-by. This was instilled into me from a young age, when my mum would give us buckets of snails she had collected from her vegetable patch instead of using deadly snail pellets, asking us to take them down to the grassy area at the end of the lane we lived on. Of course I have always picked up spiders and popped them out of the nearest window, rather than allowing anyone to squash them or vacuum them up. But even as a young person, I felt bad doing this, despite knowing that I was helping to keep them alive. I wondered why I had superiority to them that gave me the right to stay indoors in the warmth when they were being put out into the cold.

As a vegan, I now recognise these thoughts and sentiments as being anti-speciesist. I didn’t know it at the time, but it’s what veganism is based upon. It’s the philosophy that no species is superior to another, and that humans do not have the right to control, use, or exploit other species. It’s the idea that we don’t have the right to dominion over other beings; they are here with us, not for us. So, yes, I think I probably always was vegan. But I’d go one step further and argue that we all are, by nature.

“We don’t have the right to dominion over other beings; they are here with us, not for us.”

Humans are omnivorous, meaning that we can eat anything, animals or plants. But isn’t it easier to pluck fruit from a tree when you’re hungry than it is to find the equipment to hunt and kill an animal, before skinning, gutting and cooking it? Although it’s easier these days, when meat is presented to us, already processed and looking nothing like the part of the animal it came from. Modern living has blurred not just what good nutrition looks like, but also where our food comes from. Yes, most people understand that when they’re eating meat it has come from an animal. But they probably don’t understand the process that goes into it, the unnatural way in which farmed animals are bred and slaughtered. We’ve completely lost our connection with those beings. I think at the same time we’ve lost our connection with other animals, too. We forget that our companion animals are just that - companions, or friends. We don’t own them. Or we shouldn’t. Children seem to get this. They’re far more compassionate to animals than adults, until they are taught that animals are ours to use as we wish.

So, I think, yes, we are all born vegan. We just need help to keep remembering this.