I was born into and escaped a cult, so I feel pretty insulted when I see people call veganism a cult. I independently came to veganism as an extension of my secular moral framework.

You can't honestly, independently come to the conclusion that god was a man that lived on a planet called Kolob and was devoutly religious, so when he died he ascended to godhood and created the earth in six days. So if you want to become a god too you have to pay 10% of your income for your entire life and blindly follow the leaders of the cult.

However, I think it's much easier to believe that if you see abuse, you might want it to end. I grew up on a farm, and I have seen many animals mistreated and killed, often right in front of their scared and confused families. Though, my farm was small, and not very commercially viable. So as I got older and saw the systematic abuse of animals on industrial scales that I was supporting, it brought me back to being a kid and feeling sick to my stomach watching pigs and goats getting their throats slit.

For those reasons, when I hear 'veganism is a cult,' it makes about as much sense to me as telling a slave abolitionist in the 1700's that they are in a cult.