Vegans are picketing Cafe Gratitude. Because, the owners are suspected of slaughtering cows on their farm. Also, there’s apparently a picture of one of them eating a burger.
My question is: Are you obligated to be a vegetarian when you own a vegan restaurant? Or are vegans shooting themselves in the foot by trying to close down really good vegan restaurants?
Side bar: They also own the delicious vegan Mexican joint Gracias Madre.
I think the protesters would more accurately be diagnosed as animal rights fanatics. Their veganism is just a symptom.
The owners stopped being vegan a few years ago. They have chickens for eggs and cows for milk, and when one old cow had to be put down, they ate her meat.
Sounds logical to me.
Eh, I can see it from both sides. If you’re living the vegan lifestyle you probably want to support people who are like minded. A lot of vegans I know are fine with the vegetarians (those who eat dairy), but eating meat is an obvious line, which the owners crossed.
On the other hand, sure, own your business and cater to vegans but I’m not sure that they should be surprised or ask for sympathy knowing who their clientele are. Actions have consequences, after all.
eh, pace these ignoramuses. there’s a vast difference between supporting the vegan
lifestyle and picketing a business owner who, um, HELPS YOU MAINTAIN THAT LIFESTYLE.
ain’t nobody picketing my place because there’s a can
of anchovies in the pantry and some coach bags in the closet.
not satisfied with their tasty vegan grub, these chumps now protest what the owners
eat on their own time, which is none of their fucking affair.
oh, and if these belligerent douchenozzles think no animals die or suffer to provide
their “vegan” tidbits, they’re simply kidding themselves.
somebody, please, enlighten me: name a vegan with a sense of humour.
I don’t think “vegan lifestyle” is a single thing.
Some people eat that way for health. Maybe they eat some dairy, eggs, fish, or meat once in a while. Maybe they buy leather goods and honey. Maybe they don’t worry about a little fish sauce or lard.
Others eat that way for philosophical / religious reasons. Some of that group don’t worry about the point of diminishing returns. Others have a fantasy that they can achieve personal purity so worry about weird things like whether wine, beer, and sugar might have been filtered with bone black.
Most of the vegans I know choose to be vegan because they believe that slaughtering animals to eat is cruel and unnecessary.Also, many believe that though they live in an omnivorous world they can affect change by supporting people who have similar beliefs. I’m not sure what is hard to understand about why vegans would be upset that a vegan restaurant’s owner is eating meat.
Besides that, vegans are such a minority that getting mad about what they do or choose to believe seems like a waste of time.
i don’t necessarily disagree with you; i was just looking for the proper word.
i find it hard to believe these vegans you speak of ask all of the owners and all the employees of the restaurants and shops they frequent whether or not they’re vegan.
if i was a zoroastrian, i don’t think i would require everyone else be one.
oddly, i also get to waste my time any way i choose. and i’m not mad, just dumbfounded.
they are free to be upset, but once they start picketing and making death threats and in general fucking up someone’s life, that way crosses the line.
You said douchenozzles
That’s a good one.
I read the article @robert linked. I have a lot of respect for animal rights activist. But this behavior is what turns people off. It’s not enough to picket, they want to tell the owners what to do with their property. They want them to turn their farm into an animal sanctuary. Are they going to fund this undertaking?
My sister is a vegetarian for religious reasons. She wouldn’t even eat eggs for a long time, because they were fertilized. She would only eat cheese made w/vegetable or microbial rennet. But, she has never stood on a soapbox preaching to us about what we should do. She is comfortable with her choice and figures everybody else has their karma.
We all have our way of dealing with these things. I won’t buy a pet. The pound is too full of unwanted animals. I’m trying to stay away from conventionally raised pork. The treatment of the pigs bothers me. But my husband still loves his ribs & such. So when I’m picking up food and he asks for something with bacon or whatever I get it for him.
Are they right or wrong? Am I a hypocrite? I don’t know. It’s a tough one.
If we solve homelessness and cancer, then I’ll think about animal welfare.
Not sure if it is necessary to approach problems in the world in a linear fashion and I also wouldn’t try to rankorder them
So you DO know what hipster means! 
heavy sigh.
I find it disheartening to see so much vitriol leveled at vegans. I am not a vegan or a vegetarian, but I have a live and let live attitude about other peoples’ diets. Yes, I’ve met plenty of vegans who have a sense of humor and who don’t care what others eat. I have met many meat eaters who have no sense of humor, especially towards people who don’t eat meat.
Here’s a link to the Cafe Gratitude website. I think if you take a look you’ll see that the owners are marketing a lifestyle and it is surprising to find out that they eat meat. It’s kind of like finding out that the owners of a Kosher restaurant eat pork.
I think the vitriol is directed as these particular hate mongering vegans who are leaving death threats at the doorstep (don’t kill animals, kill people instead?) and demanding the couple turn their farm into an animal sanctuary. That’s flat out ignorant and absurd. If only these hateful vegans had the same outlook as you do, this live and let live attitude, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion and there would be no vitriol against these particular vegans who are more akin to terrorists than vegan philosophy.
I see “organic” and “sustainable” farming. I don’t see anything about vegan on their website.
Porthos,
Do you have as many angry words for Anthony Bourdain who routinely threatens violence against vegetarians and compares vegans to Hezbollah?