Some of you might be sharing this Thanksgiving with a vegan or two, and if you are — and if you would like the holiday to go as smoothly as possible for everyone and be filled with lots of good cheer for all, you might want to know about – and avoid uttering – some of the more common “harmless” comments that are deeply offensive to vegans.

EnJoy the info …

… and may you all have a blessedly Joy-filled COMPASSION DAY!

 

*Comment #01 … “Don’t you miss eating turkey?”

Vegans did not stop eating animals because they stopped liking the taste of meat (or because they stopped liking the physiologically addicting “high” that we humans get from doing the same) … Vegans do not eat animals – in this case turkeys – because they no longer wish to actively support the immense cruelty the meat industry inflicts upon other innocent beings.

*Comment #02 … “Are you sure you don’t want to try some?”

Offering a vegan a piece of turkey (or smiling while you wave it in their face) is akin to offering them a roasted piece of the corpse of one of their human friends – possibly even one of the family members at your this-year’s Thanksgiving dinner table – possibly even yourself.

*Comment #03 … “But its’ tradition to eat turkey on Thanksgiving.”

Actually, more than a few unethical and even downright appalling practices have been sustained by an appeal to “tradition” – including slavery, the denigration of women and child slave labor. Just because something has “always been done” does NOT mean that we should continue doing it. Vegans strongly feel this way about eating turkey for Thanksgiving.

Comment #04 … “Are you sure you will get enough to eat?”

As long as you don’t insist on putting dead animal parts & dead animal secretions into every dish … yes.

Comment #05 … “But our turkey was a local, organic, free range, pasture raised, non-GMO, humanely slaughtered bird.”

These misleading labels mean NOTHING to vegans … Every single turkey that reaches a Thanksgiving table – every single one of them, no matter how “lovingly” they were handled during their perversely shortened lives – got there via a terrifying, painful, bloody death.

Comment #06 … “Why do you have to be so difficult?”

Seriously? There is nothing easier than preparing and enjoying delicious, nutritious, cruelty-free vegan dishes for the holidays. And if the vegan in your midst is “making you uncomfortable” by not eating the animals that you are eating, you might want to look in the mirror before blaming the vegan for that dis-ease.

Comment #07 … “But this turkey is already dead. She won’t mind.”

Yes, sadly, the turkey that is on this year’s table has indeed already had her life snuffed out in her adolescence. AND YET there is always the chance that witnessing my moral courage in the face of heavy Thanksgiving peer pressure might just sway someone else in attendance to go vegan, and every new vegan saves between 100 & 300 animals from lives of brutal suffering every single year. And besides, there is such a thing as acting on principle. If you asked me to eat a piece of your “already dead dog”, I wouldn’t do so either.

Comment #08 … “But you will offend the relatives if you don’t fully participate.”

It is not my intention to offend anyone … It is my intention to display a high level of integrity during the holidays by remaining true to the kinder & more morally consistent person I have chose to become. It is not my responsibility how other people might condemn my values &/or judge my high regard for the sanctity of life.

Comment #09 … “How arrogant! The world doesn’t revolve around you, you know.”

Actually, I DO know, which is why I choose not to place the worth of my own personal pleasure over the worth of another being’s entire life.

There you go, my Friends … There are probably a few others I could have included, and yet these are a good start. Simply avoid making these comments (or any others resembling them) to the vegans at your table, and everyone should get along splendidly and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Peace to ALL – today & evermore … S

(co-inspired by Ari Solomon)

Filed under: Sanctifying Sentience by Scaughdt