Easing Into Veganism Doesn’t Make You A Bad Person

While not all vegans share the same opinions about everything, this topic is one in particular that many disagree on. Some vegans will tell you that once you learn about the realities of animal agriculture, you should cut all animal products out cold tofurky. Other vegans realize that this can be a difficult switch at first if you are used to eating mainly animal-based foods and appreciate all efforts toward living a kinder lifestyle for animals. It can be hard to immediately jump right in. I know this from experience. My first year of attempting to go vegan, I wasn’t perfect, and I got discouraged so I just stuck with vegetarianism. However eventually, I went fully vegan and stuck to it.

Many vegans believe that by being vegetarian you are staying stagnant. However it is a step in the right direction, and being vegetarian does not mean you will consume dairy for the rest of your life. Making people feel that you have to be perfect all of the time will easily discourage people who are attempting to go vegan and deter them from the lifestyle. It’s important to be understanding and keep an open mind when you want people to listen to what you have to say and take it seriously.

Someone that wants people to do better for the animals should appreciate any and all efforts to do so, no matter how big or small. Could more be done? Sure. However, making someone who is trying feel like they aren’t doing anything at all isn’t exactly encouraging and won’t help the animal rights movement in the long run. It’s simple, if someone gives you positive reinforcement, you are more likely to keep it up than if the response to your actions was negative. Keeping this in mind will make people feel much less intimidated by the vegan community.