Vegan mother wants son’s football club to ditch meat sausages

A mother has called on her son’s footy club to ditch meat sausages and replace them with vegan options at the post-game barbecues.

A vegan mother has called on her son’s football club to ditch meat sausages and replace them with vegan options at the post-game barbecues.

Animal rights activist Sheena Chhabra’s emailed South Melbourne Districts Auskick to make the request.

“I’ve requested that if sausages must be served, which I believe is not essential at a morning event, we swap out the regular sausages for vegan ones,” she said in a statement, 9 News reported.

She said the club advised her she could bring her own vegan sausages along to be placed on the barbecues, however her son declined, saying he didn’t want them to be cooked on the same grill as the meat sausages.

There is no separate barbecue available to cook the food separately.

Sheena, who has her own vegan YouTube channel, gave up meat five years ago after becoming aware of how animals were reared and slaughtered for meat, dairy and eggs.

It has been a decade since she became a vegetarian.

Sheena is calling for vegan sausages at football BBQs. Picture: Instagram/veryveganmom

“I believe that if children knew these realities, they would be asking for vegan sausages,” she wrote.

“Beef sausages and bacon are classified as Group 1 carcinogens.”

Her son, aged 7, had been a vegan for five years.

She told The Age her son felt excluded while his friends ate their sausages as he was “making the more ethical, health-conscious, environmentally friendly choice”.

Should footy clubs serve up vegan snags? Picture: Jenifer Jagielski

She argued that the club had fallen “seriously short” in the food it offers, “which raises significant concerns about the health, ethical and environmental impact of food in a place that is meant to encourage health and wellbeing”.

However, she said while she prefers for only vegan sausages to be served, if the club continues to offer meat sausages it would be acceptable if parents were informed of its negative impact in terms of health, ethical and environment reasons.

“If that was to happen and parents still chose it, then that’s their choice,” Ms Chhabra said.

“Everyone has a personal choice, however children are largely unaware of these issues and what happens to animals, so they rely on their parents to make informed choices, and I think most children would choose to eat differently if they knew about these issues.”

Club president Bryan Zolad declined to comment when contacted by news.com.au.