On social media, I was asked, not for the first time, why a vegan is allowed to keep pets. Much more could be written about this. But for now, I would just like to give a short answer based on my gut feeling.
I was in hospital, sorry for the late reply. I'll write a comprehensive article about it soon. I hear this question again and again. How can I, as a vegan and eco-terrorist, have a dog? Firstly, you have to differentiate between wild animals and domesticated pets. Wild animals belong in the wild. End of discussion. What I've seen at the reptile rescue centre here in Munich, for example, is that such animals have no place in your living room.
I see a little more room for manoeuvre with domesticated animals. I am against the breeding of animals, so I also think any kind of pedigree dog is shit, but there are hundreds of thousands of homeless dogs (to stay with the dog example) that are just there. So what to do? Shoot them all? That's not a solution.
Let them all continue to roam? Then there will be more and more of them and the suffering will increase. There are animal rights activists who neuter street dogs and people like me who finance such campaigns (I fell ill with ALS seven years ago and am paralysed except for my eyes, unfortunately I can no longer be on site).
Or do I take an Eastern Bloc dog off the street and offer it the best possible domesticated life that you can imagine for me as a human being, which I am? Six days a week with the wife in the stable, off the lead, without fences. All day in the woods and meadows. And on his day off in my office, where the highlight was definitely chasing mice in the warehouse. Or reading the newspaper (sniffing) on the walk. My office is on the Isar river in the centre of Munich. There are always friends and playmates out and about. And after the 18km jog in the evening at the latest, even our Jackie-whatever mongrel was exhausted.
So, yes, I do think that you can keep pets as a vegan.
