Vegetarian Defensiveness

Things we vegans hear over and over from (some) vegetarians when we bring up the ways in which being vegetarian still exploits animals and causes them to suffer and be killed are very much the same as what we hear from meat-eaters: "You're attacking me"; "You're mean"; "You're rude"; "You're holier than thou/you think you're better than me"; "You're shoving your views down our throat"--a bunch of stuff about either the supposed character of the vegan or how they're not being "nice" or "polite," usually merely because the vegan brought these issues up. Anything to change the subject away from the animals, anything to not talk about what's happening to THEM. It's remarkable how similar it is to what we hear from meat-eaters.

Yeah, most of us animal rights activists ARE pushy about our views even though we are generally polite about it, because we really, really want people to stop hurting animals unnecessarily. But does it ever occur to non-vegans who object to our "shoving our views down their throat" that when people eat animals or dairy products, eggs or honey, wear their skin or fur, go to animal circuses, etc., those people are imposing their views on the ANIMALS? And it's no mere matter of somebody's feelings being hurt by having the ethics of their behavior questioned; it's a matter of being caused immense physical and emotional suffering and, ultimately, an early death. Vegetarians, think about that the next time you get the urge to object to vegans bringing up the fact that even vegetarians still cause a great deal of unnecessary harm to animals.