When we’re little, we’re taught to love animals – we sleep with stuffed cows, watch movies about brave pigs and loyal dogs, and cry when the baby deer loses their mother. But somewhere along the way, we’re also taught something else: to look away. To silence that compassionate voice within us.
Here are five of the biggest lies we’re told as children about animals, and how they shape the way we see the world.
1. “It’s Sad… But It Has To Be Done”
We’re told that eating animals is a grim necessity – that it’s simply “how life works.”
However, the truth is that we don’t need to harm animals to live or thrive. We have an abundance of delicious and nourishing plant-based foods all around us. This “sad necessity” isn’t a fact of nature; it’s a story we’ve been repeating for generations to make ourselves feel better about something that doesn’t sit well with us.
2. “It’s The Circle of Life”
You know that line from an incredibly popular film? It’s one of the most powerful emotional defences ever created for animal exploitation. It makes people believe they’re part of something beautiful when they’re paying someone to send an animal to a slaughterhouse. The statement falls apart when we realise we wouldn’t use that as a reason to kill a human. Why would it suddenly be okay to use against another animal?
3. “It’s Done In The Nicest Way”
We’re shown cartoon farms with smiling cows and happy hens, not the reality of how the vast majority are forced to live. And it’d be absolutely normal to bring your child to the fields to pick strawberries. However, it’d be concerning if a parent brought their children to the slaughterhouse.
There’s nothing nice about cutting a life short for our use. “Humane slaughter” is an oxymoron – there’s no kind way to kill someone who doesn’t want to die. This is incredibly simple to understand, but the denial is drilled into us from a young age, to the point where once we’re older and are confronted with a vegan, there’s a discomfort when met with the truth.
4. “It’s Their Purpose”
As kids, we’re told that cows are “made for milk,” chickens are “made for eggs,” and pigs are “made for meat.” But animals aren’t objects with assigned roles; they’re individuals with their own purpose, families, and desires. The idea that they exist for us is not true; it’s a convenient myth that turns sentient beings into products.
5. “You Can Still Love Them And Eat Them”
We’re encouraged to love dogs but eat pigs, to care about dolphins but ignore the experience of a fish. We grow up believing that kindness need not be applied consistently, that compassion can stop where culture is more interesting. But love and violence can’t coexist. When we say we love animals, it should include all of them.
The Truth We Unlearned
Children don’t want to see animals hurt, they cry when someone gets left behind, and if they really take pleasure in watching others get harmed, we as adults worry about their future behaviour.
It’s not that we’re born without compassion – it’s that we’re taught to suppress it.
Becoming vegan isn’t about gaining new values. It’s about remembering the ones we had before the world taught us to forget.
