this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2024
50 points (63.3% liked)
vegan
2623 readers
17 users here now
Please also check out vegantheoryclub.org for a great set of well-run communities for vegan news, cooking, gardening, and art. It is not federated with LW, but it is a nice, cozy, all-in-one space for vegans.
We ask that the you have an understanding on what veganism is before engaging in this community.
If you think you have been banned erroneously, please get in contact with one of the other mods for appeals.
Moderator reports may not federate properly and may delay moderator action. Please DM an active mod if an abusive comment remains after reporting it.
Welcome
Welcome to c/vegan@lemmy.world. Broadly, this community is a place to discuss veganism. Discussion on intersectional topics related to the animal rights movement are also encouraged.
What is Veganism?
'Veganism is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude—as far as is possible and practicable—all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals ...'
— abridged definition from The Vegan Society
Rules
The rules are subject to change, especially upon community feedback.
- Discrimination is not tolerated. This includes speciesism.
- Topics not relating to veganism are subject to removal.
- Posts are to be as accessible as practicable:
- pictures of text require alt-text;
- paywalled articles must have an accessible non-paywalled link;
- use the original source whenever possible for a news article.
- Content warnings are required for triggering content.
- Bad-faith carnist rhetoric & anti-veganism are not allowed, as this is not a space to debate the merits of veganism. Anyone is welcome here, however, and so good-faith efforts to ask questions about veganism may be given their own weekly stickied post in the future.
- before jumping into the community, we encourage you to read examples of common fallacies here.
- if you're asking questions about veganism, be mindful that the person on the other end is trying to be helpful by answering you and treat them with at least as much respect as they give you.
- Posts and comments whose contents – text, images, etc. – are largely created by a generative AI model are subject to removal. We want you to be a part of the vegan community, not a multi-head attention layer running on a server farm.
- Misinformation, particularly that which is dangerous or has malicious intent, is subject to removal.
Resources on Veganism
A compilation of many vegan resources/sites in a Google spreadsheet:
Here are some documentaries that are recommended to watch if planning to or have recently become vegan:
Vegan Fediverse
Lemmy: vegantheoryclub.org
Mastodon: veganism.social
Other Vegan Communities
General Vegan Comms
!vegan@vegantheoryclub.org
!vegan@slrpnk.net
Circlejerk Comms
!vegancirclejerk@lemmy.world
!vegancirclejerk@lemmy.vg
Vegan Food / Cooking
!homecooks@vegantheoryclub.org
!veganrecipes@sh.itjust.works
!recipes@vegantheoryclub.org
Attribution
- Banner image credit: Jean Weber of INRA on Wikimedia Commons
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
I’m sorry, you were removed for recommending against a plant-based diet for cats by a non-vegan? I’m not sure I understand the angle here.
No I was unremoving comments of someone explaining how a plant based diet can be safe, who also acknowledged that a whole food plant based diet would be lethal. In explaining why I was I also acknowledging that a whole food plant based diet would be lethal.
Cats can survive on a plant based diet, but only one carefully formulated and processed with additional supplements. If you try to keep mr fluffypaws alive on carrots and lentils he will die.
I point out this acknowledgement as it flies in the face of the alleged action of promoting harm to animals. You can check the modlog for the full hilarity /shrug
Okay, that’s at least more consistent. Still bullshit, but it’s not as confusing.
I just read all that and I'm still quite confused. Before and after reading it, it sounded like you correctly characterized the situation but they claim you got it wrong..
They restored the comments explaining the extremely limited scenario for healthy plant based cat diets. While doing so, they reiterated that this is generally not safe, but the nonvegan mod still felt that the implication that a cat could ever be healthy was still dangerous misinformation.
I personally think that it’s technically possible, but too expensive and precise to be practicable (and probably not enjoyable for the cat). I don’t really see how that’s even controversial, but I’m not surprised that a nonvegan would take it as an endorsement for plant based cat diets (it’s not)
Well personally I do think we have a moral obligation to reduce harm and I don't see a good reason to privilege the life of one animal over another (humans included). Veganism as an ideology however is about what is practicable, and while it appears that cats can be transitioned it is very early days and can only be done responsibly if you are in a position to afford medical oversight and understand how to select correctly formulated foods.
As a vegan I am against pet keeping, but lots of abandoned animals exist and they need care there aren't institutions to provide so they end up in homes. I have a couple of rescue dogs living with me atm for example. In situations like this I think where possible we have a responsibility to juggle their needs and desires with broader harms. Like I don't let the dogs I care for hunt wildlife for fun, and give them enriching search games instead.
Abstracting away that death through food doesn't really change it.
But we're not insane, it's early days and while evidence suggests for cats its possible it isn't trivial and should be attempted responsibly, which nobody involved in this shitshow was claiming otherwise. The only people denying reality are the banned commentator who was saying that cats cannot survive on plant in the face of patient explanations by another user and the lemmy.world admin who tried to remove that user's comments in favour of the science denying ones.
I’m also vegan and nothing I said goes against that. I agree
It's also morally ambiguous to force an animal into a diet they have no understanding of.
Only to the same extent as all pet keeping decisions. Like people breed pets, steralise them, make decisions about where they can and what they can do, decide what degree of medical care they get and so on. Any food is forced /shrug