I'm vegan and I don't love animals.

I’m vegan and I don’t love animals. And I'm (sometimes) not afraid to admit it.

Yep. People find this weird, but I don’t see any inherent contradiction in this statement. I've been meaning to write about this for quite some time, so here we go.

I don’t really like animals that much. They’re ok, sometimes. They’re all individuals – I can’t lump them all in one category. I wouldn’t say I like cats, or I like dogs, or whatever. Some cats and some dogs are awesome, but given that I haven’t met most of them I can’t make this blanket statement. They are individuals, not a category of things. This is a fairly usual thing for vegans to say, since we see animals as beings rather than commodities.

But for me, it's more than this. I don’t really like most animals particularly much. I don’t get excited over cute cats or dogs the way a lot of people seem to. Well, not that often. It’s cool having companion animals around, but I wouldn’t like the responsibility of having to feed one. I just can’t really be bothered. There’s also plenty of humans I don’t like at all either. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, it’s just an aspect of my personality.

Anyway, so when I tell people I’m vegan, apart from all the “don’t plants have feelings” bullshit, a lot of people say “you must really love animals.” Sometimes the answer is “yeah.. I guess” but other times I bother to explain my position.

You see, for me veganism is about respect. Like the rest of my politics, it’s about respect for the dignity of individuals. I don’t have to like them to respect their fundamental rights. I don’t know every person on the planet, and of those I do know, there are plenty that I don’t like at all. Lots of them are dicks. Yet I believe we all have fundamental rights that deserve to be respected.

Most non-vegans seem to value different species very differently, depending on societal perceptions of what role those animals should have. Some of them are food, others are pets, others are for testing cosmetics. This is all kinds of problematic, for reasons that I won’t go into here. But further than that, vegans, and “animal lovers”, still differentiate between and within species, based on “cuteness”, personality, utility, whatever. Conservationists, for example, have vastly different respect for different species depending on whether they are valued as “native”, or condemned as “pests”.

Some animals are cute and fluffy, some have awesome personalities, others don’t. Some are more likable than others. Why should they not all have the same fundamental rights? It is no longer socially acceptable in most circles, overtly at least, to recognise different human rights based on gender, race, sexual orientation, nationality, or any other arbitrary factor. Why should respect for animals depend on species? And why should I have to “like” animals in order for them to command my respect?

I’m not advocating that animals should have the same rights as humans, of course. Humans and non-human animals are different, and it would be nonsensical to argue that they should be treated exactly the same. I don’t know exactly what rights non-human animals should be entitled to, but the right not to be needlessly tortured and killed is a good start. And I think this right should absolutely apply to all animals, regardless of human projections of their value or worth.

Anyway this is basically just a way of me trying to rationalise something which is an essentially an emotional thing. For me veganism (and I guess most of my politics) is entirely emotional and intuitive, and doesn’t really need some kind of rational explanation. But other people seem to find it interesting and helpful, so hopefully that’s the case. Would love to hear anyone’s thoughts on this.