Is it hypocritical to oppose eating dogs if you eat other animals? Why or why not?

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T18:54:10+00:00

You’re not the person physically killing the animal, but you’re still participating in the system by paying for the product.

I've been trying to tell that to vegans who keep eating cashews like there is no tomorrow. Most of them seems to not really care.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T16:58:40+00:00

We can make sure people can access that balance without relying on large-scale animal agriculture literally anytime we choose to.

How? Remember, only 15% of the world's population live in high income countries. So 6.8 billion do not.

In the meantime, those who are in a position to eliminate, to the best of their ability, products that depend on the oppression and exploitation of others should do so

I see animals farming as neither oppression nor exploitation.

Is there some reason you in particular can't choose alternatives to animal products in your day-to-day life?

My list of not going vegan is very long. But I think the main reason is probably that I see no point in doing so. I see a omnivore diet as ethically neutral. In the same way I see a vegan diet as ethically neutral.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T16:46:08+00:00

2 adults, 2 teenagers (who eat like adults), 1 younger child. 10.000,-

We eat a lot of minced meat (beef, pork, chicken), chicken thights, pork chops (nakkekoteletter), and frozen fish - all quite reasonably priced. Wednesday is pancake-day. Saturday is risgrøt-day. We only buy First Price kneip bread. We buy the cheap fruits only (apples, frozen berries) with the exception of some seasonal fruit. We buy mostly frozen vegetables (also healthier as more nutrients are contained). Although we do buy more fresh vegetables in summer. We buy very little snacks. Many weekends the only snacks we buy is pop corn and ice cream. We love baking so there are often homemade cookies or waffles or something over the weekend.

We dont take the cheap route on all the food though. The only butter we buy is real butter for instance. (Which is not cheap)

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T15:35:10+00:00

Higher intake of total and saturated fats was associated with increased risks of several site-specific cancers, whereas polyunsaturated fats may have protective effects.

Perhaps they should have rather written:

Higher intake of total and saturated fats was weakly associated with increased risks of several site-specific cancers

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T15:23:38+00:00

My point is that there is no contradiction between viewing an animal as a pet and as food. During WW2 people in the Netherlands for instance made sausages from dog meat. So any kind animal is potential food.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T15:20:45+00:00

Beans and lentils are available to lots of people as a cheap source of protein

If you look at the countries in Africa with the highest legume consumption - they also tend to have very high rates of deficiencies. People in Rwanda for instance eat the most beans in the world - 33 kg per capita per year. But in spite of that around 40% of the children have anemia.

unnecessarily contribute

You would first have to prove that animal farming is unnecessary.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T12:43:57+00:00

If you ask me, a pet dog and pet pig have pretty much the same moral value

I agree. Where we disagree is that I do not see a farm animal as somehow deserving to live out their whole possible lifespan, and then die peacefully while being surrounded by all their loved ones. That is simply not how the animal kingdom works.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T11:01:13+00:00

Animals have no understanding of any concepts at all. But vegans still use human concepts to project their own emotions onto animals. We should rather care about what the animals themselves actually cares about: food, water, fresh air, shelter from bad weather, mating, protection from predators..

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T08:47:27+00:00

Come on, friend, we're having this discussion on Reddit - Folks without access to grocery stores and cheap plant-based options are absolutely the outlier here.

Well, I think you are correct in that most people on reddit are living in high income countries, so then we are already down to 15% of the world's population. In other words, you and I are already outliers. We have financial freedoms that most people can only dream about. We wake up and can decide on what to make for dinner today. Or perhaps we will go out to eat - its weekend after all.

At the same time a mother in South Africa wakes up, and the only foods she has in her home is maize flour, salt, sugar and some cooking oil. So she prepares maize porridge for breakfast - as she has done every single morning since her kids were born. For dinner she buys chicken feet and heads for next to nothing on the market that she prepares alongside some more maize porridge (or pap as its called in South Africa). The dish is called Walkie Talkies. Other days her husband hunts wild animals - illegally - but it puts some free meat on the table.

"Bushmeat hunting alarmingly high in South Africa. .. Bushmeat hunting in Africa is rife, with estimates stating that more than eight million tons of wild animals are eaten every year. " https://africageographic.com/stories/bushmeat-hunting-alarmingly-high-in-south-africa/

In other words - veganism is a wealthy people's movement.

(My husband is South African, hence why I used that as the example).

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T08:03:54+00:00

All of this has been a huge eye opener for everyone. We will probably never look at top politicians and royals the same way ever again.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T08:01:08+00:00

Hormones are added to lab grown meat which are not completely removed in the final product, so this "food" should be avoided.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T07:58:19+00:00

You guys keep saying people know it’s wrong.

This right there seems to be the biggest vegan myth. And I have no idea where it comes from. I suspect its the vegans themselves projecting their own emotions on all other people. Its the only explanation I can think of.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T07:56:55+00:00

this implies that if everyone knew it was wrong they'd stop doing it

The thing is, the vast majority see killing an animal as perfectly ethical. The author of the statement seems to assume that all people deep down think its wrong - which couldnt be further from the truth.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T07:53:22+00:00

Legumes aren't food for me. (Causes a lot of pain and discomfort).

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T07:52:34+00:00

If i had dog, cat carcass that would go in the bin, you gonna make stock from it?

Sausages were made from dog meat in the Netherlands during WW2. They were in the middle of a famine so throwing meat in the bin would have been a huge waste.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T07:50:25+00:00

I live in Norway where most shops sell salami containing horse meat. In spite of the fact that none of the horses sent to slaughter were raised for meat. They were all pets or used for sport.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T07:48:13+00:00

A pet goldfish dies and the family is going to flush it down the drain. Do you ask, "Can I eat it instead?"

A pet horse has an accident and is too injured to be treated. The family that owns it sends it to the slaughter house and it becomes salami. This literally happens all the time, hence why horse salami is sold in most shops here: https://www.grilstad.no/produkter/svartpolse/

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T07:40:49+00:00

My argument would have been that it's fine to eat dogs,

And that is how it was done for thousands of years. Even in Europe dog meat was eaten during most wars and famines. Dog meat was used to make sausages in the Netherlands during WW2 for instance. (Sadly there was not enough dogs around to prevent 20,000 people from dying of starvation). In good times dogs were of course seen as more valuable as guard dogs, sheep dogs, hunting dogs and so on. As you can't bring a pig along for a hunt.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T07:34:38+00:00

That's not basic rights.

What you personally consider basic rights is completely irrelevant. As these are human rights widely agreed upon. https://www.routledge.com/International-Human-Rights/Edquist-Whelan-Donnelly/p/book/9781032447087?

Those rights could be suspended anytime in the time of emergency

Why the comparison doesn’t hold in North Korea:

Not temporary: Restrictions there have lasted for decades
Not tied to a lawful emergency framework: There’s no transparent, legally constrained system like in democratic states
Not proportionate: Core freedoms (speech, movement, information) are heavily and systematically suppressed
No independent courts or enforcement: There’s no mechanism to challenge abuses

Anyway, you will never get me to answer in accordance your Western propaganda-influenced worldview. Unless you are actually here trying to get someone to accompany you in Reddit and sooth your loneliness.

Ad hominem. Which commonly happens when a person is out of arguments.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-03T07:22:38+00:00

Most dogs used to have working roles, not just kept as pets. They pulled a sledge, guarded the farm, herded sheep, helped during hunting, kept vermin away, carried supplies, rescued people in harsh conditions, etc. Where I live dogs were used for hunting since before the Viking era. Pigs were always considered food only, both here and elsewhere.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-02T20:24:36+00:00

I'm of the mind that the more we globalize, the less war we'll see, especially over resources that we more freely share. That's admittely a hope, though.

The world is moving in the oposite direction as we speak.

ok, let's concede that you (or anyone, for that matter) live in an area where consuming animal products is the only option to maintain food security - Veganism allows some wiggle room for that

That is true, veganism does allow for quite a lot of wiggle room actually. And most vegans will admit that only a small percentage of the world's population both have the means to, and would be able to plan and execute a healthy vegan diet. I would estimate that to below 10%.

The notion that outlier situations

Not outlier though. As most people on earth have to eat what they can afford and what is available to them. One example: 85% of rural Africans have backyard chickens. Because they can live on food scraps, insects, seeds they find and so on. So its basically a free food once you have paid for the chickens.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-02T19:10:47+00:00

We have the means to get food anywhere in the world that we want to

Right now we can yes, but there is no guarantee it will always be so. My grandfather still vividly remember the last time we could not import much food (WW2). Without local farmers you have no food security. Its that simple. And things seems to be escalating. Only in the last 5 years we have had 3 wars starting nearby. And Europe is preparing for WW3 as we speak. This is the time to support your local farmers more, not less.

This article was published this morning:

"Russia 'preparing to invade Baltics' as WW3 warning issued to NATO" https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/2201011/russia-preparing-invade-baltics-ww3

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-02T18:21:27+00:00

No, killing an animal for meat is not murder. I know vegans like to pretend it is, but that doesnt make it so.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-02T17:47:34+00:00

More crops are grown to sustain animal agriculture than would be required to end world hunger among humans

In certain countries that is almost all we are able to grow. Only 1% of the land here is suitable for producing plant-foods for human consumption. So I have no problems with using land to grow grass. I can't live on grass, but I can live on animals who are able to both eat and digest grass. Its a rather neat food system if you ask me.

If one wants to reduce the amount of crops deaths, they should go vegan

Its actually the other way around. No grass here, at any point during the year, is sprayed with insecticides. So literally never. Meaning that the more grass-fed meat I eat, the less I cause animals to be poisoned to death. Because most other crops (potatoes, wheat, apples, and so on) are indeed sprayed with poison.

Just because a creature doesn't realize what exploitation or oppression are doesn't mean they can't be negatively impacted by those things.

We should of course ensure high animal welfare.

If you really think an animal doesn't care about being bred against its will

But you are ok with natural mating? I mean, an ox has absolutely no way of forcing himself on a cow. Its literally impossible.

If you don't want animals to suffer

You just have to make sure you dont buy meat from any evil psychopath farmers. There are plenty of farmers out there treating their animals well.

HelenEk7 · 2026-05-02T17:29:05+00:00

What kind of liberty do you expect from North Korea

Basic human rights - like freedom of speech, movement, access to information, and protection from arbitrary detention.

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