OPINION: Vegan activists hurting the animal rights cause

THERE are multiple factors at play when it comes to extreme vegan activism.

Animal welfare is a very real issue but not one that's helped by violent activism. Picture: ALI KUCHEL

THERE are multiple factors at play when it comes to extreme vegan activism.

As a vegan-ish vegetarian I can't help but feel hoards of vegans breaking into a goat's milk cafe and taking the animals, who looked quite frightened by the encounter, will ultimately have a negative impact on animal welfare as it will discourage people who want to get involved with animal rights (done the right way).

The Victorian cafe was forced to close because the owners no longer felt like it was safe.

No one should condone busting onto people's properties and threatening farmers and others involved in animal-related industries.

There is, however, a need for more discussion on animal welfare.

How many people walk into a supermarket and pick up any given number of animal tested cleaning and beauty products without a second guess as to the suffering of the creatures that died for them?

How many people care that, overseas, there are beagle farms that exist solely for the purpose of testing chemicals on innocent dogs?

Thankfully, the Federal Government has done a wonderful thing and cosmetics companies will be banned from using animal tested ingredients after an initial grace period.

Many hard-working animal rights groups campaigned the right way to make change and get this Bill into government.

Busting down doors won't effect the change we desperately need.

Originally published as OPINION: Vegan activists hurting the animal rights cause