The number and proportion of vegans, as well as the general acceptance of veganism, are slowly but inexorably increasing in our world—even here in meat-loving Texas. Prominent examples include Paul McCartney, Venus and Serena Williams, Bill Clinton, actor Woody Harrelson, Senator Cory Booker, NBA players Kyrie Irving and Chris Paul, and several members of the Tennessee Titans. Twenty years ago, the only likely mention of veganism in the Houston Chronicle would have been in connection with a controversy or an attempt at humor. Now there are frequent vegan recipes, and positive references in articles, columns, and comic strips.
I began exploring veganism in a less welcoming era. I don’t remember when I first developed a feeling for animals, but that was long before I did anything about it. I don’t recall, at ten, being especially sorry when my grandfather shot a calf in the head with a .22 before butchering it, or at watching him chop off the heads of chickens, though I did wish we could keep the chicken-killing owl that he caught in a trap rather than bashing in its head with a hammer. My attitude has gradually evolved. For years, I was a kind of closet semi-vegetarian, loath to kill anything, although I have had animals euthanized in what I considered their best interest. But where do we draw the line? Do we kill yellow jackets? Termites? Bacteria? It is said that Albert Schweitzer would not kill a mosquito. I don’t go that far. If I find a roach in the house, I take it outside and let it go, but I still use exterminators. I don’t like poisoning fire ants, but I do.
As a kid, I shot squirrels and rabbits and pheasants and pulled catfish out of the creek. Today, I would sooner feed a deer than shoot it, though I understand the inadvisability of feeding wild animals. Yet I cannot uniformly condemn hunters. Some have a fairly well-developed idea of what is “sporting,” some do not kill anything they do not intend to eat, some consider it unacceptable to wound an animal without killing it, etc. I have friends and acquaintances who hunt, and the fact that I do not share their views does not make them evil. Moreover, hunting what you eat and killing it quickly and humanely is better than supporting the commercial meat industry, where millions of animals every day are systematically abused.
