A Vegan Perspective on Animal Companionship

The issue of domesticated animal companionship is a tricky and controversial one. While human-pet relationships may seem mutually beneficial, one party is clearly in the position of power. Most vegans fight for an animal’s right to live life as they would naturally, yet most vegans also fight for and support animal rescue. How is this not hypocrisy?

Animals became domesticated to serve the purposes of humans. They are created and destroyed simply based on the desire (or lack thereof) of people. Their species have been literally constructed to fit our needs and wants. Take, for example, the American Kennel Club. We have literally altered the genetic makeup of thousands of breeds of dogs over thousands of years to fit into different niches that suit our own demands. This is clearly not vegan-friendly. Using animals for our own purposes based on our own whims to make our lives easier is selfish and anthropocentric. And yet… I will fight to my grave defending the rescue of companion and farmed animals alike. Here’s the reason: humans have created this problem. Humans must be the solution as well. We have created individuals who are now suffering. Individuals who can no longer survive without us. Most vegans that I know place a strong emphasis on the joy and suffering of individual subjects. We can’t ignore that there are hundreds of thousands of individuals who are relying upon us. I therefore believe it is possible and necessary to both fight for the right of the individuals who are already existing, while simultaneously fighting to end the further creation of individuals who must rely upon us. To put it in simple terms: we have to stop breeding dogs, cats, rabbits, gerbils, and so on and so forth. We have to fight to bring to an end the reproduction of these animals that we CREATED- that means fighting for and funding feral spay and neuter programs. We must simultaneously fight for compassion and care for the individual domesticated animals that already exist in our anthropocentric world. We must rescue, we must foster, we must help homeless animals. But we must be adamant about ending the further creation of individuals who rely upon us and who we use to simply fill the gaps in our own lives.