Grey Areas

Vegans are united by belief in the principle that the unnecessary suffering of any species is bad. As Charles Darwin put it:

“There is no fundamental difference between man and the higher animals in their mental faculties.… The lower animals, like man, manifestly feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.”

Like any belief system, subscribers to the ethical vegan philosophy may agree on the fundamentals, but may differ on some of the details. I remember when I first became a vegetarian, it was all so simple. Just don't eat meat – right?! Then it starts getting chilly, summer turns to autumn and those cooler nights are creeping in. So I reach for my favourite leather jacket.

Now this is a dilemma!

My favourite jacket, a gift from my family, and a pretty stylish garment, I thought. However, it did not escape my attention that some poor being was dead because of it. I reasoned that what was done was done, not wearing the jacket would not bring the animal back to life. My decision to wear or not wear the jacket would not result in any suffering.

Yup, I ended up giving the jacket away. Which opens up a whole other bag of worms – if I'm not prepared to do something, then why should I think it's ok for someone else to?

I gave it away because what you wear is a statement. If I want to tell people I'm against killing animals, then I can't very well be wearing part of dead one.

And this was the first of the grey areas!

These issues rise up again and again, the friend who cooks a meal just for you but doesn't get it quite right, the product you want wasn't tested on animals, but the parent company conducts animal tests, the vaccine you need contains egg and monkey tissue (yes really http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_vaccine_ingredients)

If only the whole world were vegan, things would be so much easier!

Nobody can tell you what's right and wrong in these situations, it's a judgement call. The point is we aren't living in a vegan world so we're all going to have to make these choices, and if we make different calls to each other, so what? If we lived in a vegan world, there would be no room for disagreement, so lets not let good vegans fall out with each other because we are put in impossible situations.

As vegans let's strive towards a more perfect and just world, lead with compassion, strength and forgiveness. Including self-forgiveness. 

We are not perfect and we do not always agree, but together we are stronger. Don't worry too much about they grey areas your heart will tell you what to do, just know you are living a life of compassion.