Feeding Kids Meat is Child Abuse — Change My Mind

Animal rights are not the only rights being abused here…

In my thirty-six years as a vegan, I reckon I must’ve heard just about every excuse under the sun for eating animals and their excretions. I’ve written about some of the commonest excuses that people use in their attempts to justify the unjustifiable, in 10 Reasons NOT To Go Vegan.

I make it clear in that article, in a slightly satirical way, that I’ve yet to hear anyone give a valid reason why they’re not vegan — only poor excuses. In fact, I end that article by stating that the only valid ‘reason’ not to be vegan is that you don’t care about anyone but yourself.

No-one really uses that excuse in real life because no-one wants to be that person. In truth, maybe I was a little harsh in that article. In truth, most people who really take the time to think about the issue actually do care, but they have been so indoctrinated into eating meat, dairy and eggs since infancy that they are literally addicted to it and cannot imagine ever giving it up.

Arguments that being vegan isn’t about ‘giving up’ anything, but is simply about no longer taking what was never yours in the first place, tend to fall on deaf ears when those ears belong to someone who is literally addicted to meat and dairy.

The problem is, you see, that meat and dairy contain three highly addictive substances which get people both physically and psychologically hooked in much the same way as heroin does. Carnism can be hard habit to kick.

Consequently, even though most ordinary people say they would never deliberately hurt an animal, and many even consider themselves ‘animal lovers’, they are trapped in this addictive cycle of paying for animals to be abused and killed on their behalf.

This puts them in a perpetual state of cognitive dissonance — the mental conflict created when one’s beliefs don’t align with one’s actions. It’s a similar situation to a smoker who knows their habit is likely to kill them but feels powerless to change.

Such inner conflict can lead to chronic stress, anxiety and shame — one of the main reasons why people tend to become so defensive about their meat-eating habits.

But try, if you can, to cast your mind back to your early childhood, before the realisation that the meat on your plate was the flesh of another young being who just wanted to live and play and be happy, much like yourself at that age.

Do you remember how you felt about other animals at that age? Do you remember the warmth, the affection, the delight you felt when you met a fellow creature who seemed just as delighted to meet you?

Do you remember the magic?

Most kids naturally love animals. That’s why Disney is so popular. It’s also why many children react like this 👇 when they first discover where their food comes from:

If they are very lucky, children like the little girl above will have parents who will respect and nurture their compassion, empathy and concern for other animals. In reality, most kids are told that’s just the way it is, the way it’s always been and the way it’s gonna be, at least until they are old enough to put their own food on the table.

Sadly, by that time, it’s usually too late. The damage is done, the indoctrination is successful, and the addiction is too far gone. Another broken soul destined to live in perpetual shame and self-hatred due to the old cognitive dissonance.

Is that really what we want for our children? Is that really the best way to show them how much we love them?

Is that really what we want for our children? Is that really the best way to show them how much we love them?

But it’s not just the mental conflict and emotional anguish which makes feeding kids meat and dairy a largely unrecognised form of child abuse. The food itself is proven beyond all doubt to be hazardous to human health.

The top two killer diseases in the western world — heart disease and cancer — are strongly linked to the consumption of meat and dairy products. The World Health Organisation has declared processed meat to be a Class 1 carcinogen. That’s the same as cigarettes.

The World Health Organisation has declared processed meat to be a Class 1 carcinogen. That’s the same as cigarettes.

Even non-processed red meat has been classified as a ‘probable carcinogen’. Dairy, too, significantly increases the risk of cancer. In fact, meat and dairy are responsible for a number of other top killer diseases, including stroke, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease and more.

Imagine bringing your child up on cigarettes, getting them hooked at an early age! Wouldn’t that be classed as child abuse? Meat and dairy (especially processed meats) are just as deadly, yet parents routinely feed them to their kids several times every day.

At the same time, they will cite fears about nutritional deficiency or imbalance as a reason not to raise their children on a plant-based diet, even though The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the largest organization of food and nutrition professionals in the world have stated that well-planned vegan diets are ‘appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, older adulthood, and for athletes’.

Well-planned vegan diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, older adulthood, and for athletes

Yet, these same parents who seem so concerned about nutrition when discussing veganism will happily raise their kids on a diet of Big Macs, Turkey Twizzlers and Fanta. It’s insane.

And finally, of course, there’s the inescapable issue of climate change. Animal agriculture is one of the biggest causes, if not the biggest cause, of climate change on the planet. It’s also the one environmental factor where we, as individuals, can have the biggest impact simply by virtue of our choices.

Top climate scientist, Dr Peter Carter, has stated that unless we go plant-based with immediate effect, the planet will soon be unliveable. Dr Carter is one of the world’s most eminent climate scientists, with more than 50 years’ experience studying the causes and effects of global warming. He is a Director of the Climate Emergency Institute and expert reviewer for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

He pulls no punches, stating earlier this year that unless we abolish animal agriculture pretty much immediately, we’re all fucked.

We may be addicted to consuming animal products ourselves, but we have the chance to break the cycle by not getting our children addicted to them. If we choose to pass up on this chance, and to perpetuate the animal agriculture industry through the next generation, we are condemning our children to a largely uninhabitable planet, to a society in meltdown, and very likely to death by starvation, fire or flood.

How is that an act of caring? How is that an act of responsibility? How is that love?

How is that not abuse?

So, when I say that feeding kids meat is child abuse, I mean every word. Feel free to prove me wrong…