The Truth About Ex-Vegans: A Shift We Can’t Ignore
Why some committed vegans turn back to eating animals, and our response as a movement.
When you read my Substack articles, you’re getting a window into my evolving thoughts—some freshly formed, others rooted in years of experience. I don’t claim to have all the answers (even if it seems that way at times), and I invite you to engage with my ideas as just that: thoughts worth considering.
“There’s no such thing as an ex-vegan”
“They were never vegan”
“Real vegans never go back to eating animals”
“They were clearly just plant based”
Sound familiar? These phrases often come up in the vegan community when someone announces they’re no longer vegan. I’ve also said things like this during my years of activism. In today’s article, I’m going to make the case that we could well be wrong, and that ex-vegans do exist.
Vegan or Plant based
Let’s clarify what being vegan really means. From my perspective, a vegan is someone who actively avoids supporting animal exploitation in all its forms. This includes, but isn’t limited to, funding animal agriculture (meat, dairy, eggs etc), funding animal testing, funding animal sports, or engaging in any behaviour that directly exploits animals, such as harming animals for entertainment.
A vegan is not just someone who eats plant-based. That’s why we use the term "plant-based" to describe dietary choices that don’t necessarily include ethical considerations. The reason we wouldn’t call someone eating a plant based diet a vegan is that they could well be out shopping for wool, leather and fur, attending their local dog or horse racing events, hunting deer at the weekend, you get the idea. This wouldn’t be veganism, as veganism rejects those exploitative acts.
Defining Ex-vegan
Now that we’ve clarified the difference between vegan and plant-based, we can move on to tackling the question: How can someone be vegan, and then not be vegan?
It is likely the case that many ex-vegans who claimed they were vegan were in fact just eating a plant based diet. You can usually see this by looking at their social media content, if they share their personal life online. In many situations, the person calling themselves vegan will be discussing the health benefits of their diet, or how environmentally friendly their diet is, while never mentioning any of the moral reasons to avoid animal exploitation.
This isn’t always a clear cut case, some people just don’t post everything they believe or do on social media, but it’s definitely an indicator that someone is/was most likely a plant based dieter rather than a vegan. In those cases, I’m more likely to agree with people who say “they probably were just eating a plant based diet but weren’t actually vegan”.
But what about the people who actually do do animal activism? Take Peter Dinklage for example, the actor who famously played Tyrion Lannister in the TV series Game Of Thrones. Peter Dinklage, who recently admitted that after being vegan since 2014 and vegetarian for decades, is now eating chickens and fish again. Peter Dinklage, who partnered with PETA and delivered powerful messages about the ethics of eating animals. Peter Dinklage, who spoke out and asked fans of Game Of Thrones to stop buying huskies after sales of the dog breed increased due to their similarities to the wolves in the show.
It’s difficult to know Peter’s motivations for working with PETA and speaking up for animals as he did, but there’s no denying that all the signs were there to say that Peter Dinklage opposed animal exploitation, and was in fact a vegan.
A less tricky example would be looking into the vegan and animal rights activism movement. There have been a handful of vegan animal rights activists who, after years of animal rights activism, become ex-vegan. I don’t want this article to become a discussion of the excuses made by ex-vegan celebrities or activists, but I’ll just say that none of them are logical. I would say that their decisions to abandon veganism are usually driven by personal issues such as relationship problems, peer pressure, and possibly mental breakdowns at times. As committed vegans, sometimes we overlook the fact that not everyone is strong-minded, and society is still quite hostile and inconvenient for many vegans.
So, would it make sense to claim that a vegan animal rights activist of multiple years who now is no longer vegan, was never vegan? That would leave us with the conclusion that the only way to ever truly be vegan, is to die as a vegan. I don’t find that to be a useful way of seeing it.
As vegans, we accept that people can change. Just look at yourself, I assume you went from being a full on meat eating, dairy downing, eggs for breakfast, leather shoes are best, zoo loving individual, to an animal friendly, conscious, caring vegan. You had what could be called a paradigm shift. Why then would we believe that someone couldn’t have a shift the other way? Actually, it’s far more likely someone would shift the other way than the vegan way.
For example, it’s clear that children aren’t born racist. Actually, many children in the West receive schooling that focuses explicitly on equal rights and being kind to one another. Yet I would bet that there are probably 1000 times more racists than there are vegans in the West, why is that? Because people are just as capable of changing for the worse as they are of changing for the better. People are just as capable of having a shift that takes them from indifference to animals to deeply caring about their suffering, as they are of having a shift that takes them from being a kind, empathetic member of society to a hateful, spiteful racist. It’s all about our environment, the rhetoric we’re exposed to, the influence of those around us, and a whole myriad of factors that can and do influence people’s behaviour.
“It doesn’t make sense!”
Human behaviour isn’t inherently logical, logic is something we learn. I’ll say that again because it bears repeating: human behaviour isn’t logical by default. We learn logic.
When we try to add logic to these baffling situations where people seemingly do a u-turn on their beliefs for the worse, we become frustrated. “How could they do this?! I don’t understand!”. I’ve said and thought this many times. Take the example of the animal rights activists who suddenly turn their back on all the animals they were trying to save, and start eating them, with some of them going so far as glorifying the consumption of animal bodies. Where is the logic here? How could this happen? We’ll struggle to explain how they went from protecting and defending these animals to hurting them in a purely logical way, because they aren’t operating logically themselves. As I mentioned earlier, I believe in most cases these changes are driven by emotion and personal issues.
And I find that when we try to apply logic and reason, we end up at the conclusion “well they were never vegan” and in many cases, that is probably an incorrect conclusion. They were vegan, and something made them change. Something made them reject their current belief system, and revert back to an old way of living. Or worse, they something pushed them beyond their old ways to become the polar opposite of everything they were.
This is why I mentioned earlier that I believe in some, and possibly in many of these cases, people are having a psychological break. It’s not uncommon for people to revert to old behaviours and habits due to various social, emotional, or psychological pressures. These shifts are rarely logical, and they remind us how complex human behaviour can be.
Here’s an anonymous example of a passionate vegan activist. This person worked with an animal rights organisation for years, attended activism events that risked arrest, and was fully committed to ethical veganism. There was no “eat vegan for your health”, no “vegan for the planet” messaging. This was an all in, animal rights vegan. And not only did this person become an ex-vegan, they became an anti-vegan going on vegan social media accounts to harass them and their vegan followers with anti-vegan comments. This person even went so far as to create anti-vegan content.
I know you’re asking, “how the hell could they do this?!”. The answer? It’s not logical, remember. And in this case, it was far from a logical decision. The truth is this individual had fallen for another vegan in their community, but had become firmly lodged in what some call the ‘friend zone’. When they revealed the truth about these romantic feelings, the feelings were not reciprocated. It appears this rejection led to the individual seeking comfort in old habits with old friends, friends who provided acceptance that countered this severe rejection.
This also meant consuming comfort foods with said friends, who weren’t, and had never been vegan. These same friends had most likely mocked this person in the past for all this “vegan nonsense”. Here’s my opinion on what was happening here:
The person turns to old friends for comfort after a harsh rejection.
The friends were previously critical of veganism, and veganism at this point is acting as a proxy for the source of the pain (the actual source of the pain was the vegan who rejected the individual).
Rejecting veganism felt like reclaiming control.
Fitting in with old friends helped to soothe the rejection, which meant giving in to peer pressure and returning to eating animals.
The Vegan Response to Ex-vegans
I would like to clarify that the information in that previous story is factual from what I know, but it was never publicly acknowledged, and most of the vegan community didn’t know the full story. When the news of this person’s lapse in veganism got out on social media, you can guess what happened next…
The vegan community was understanding, and hundreds of people calmly and gently messaged the individual to check everything was okay. They understood that this was out of character, and that something must be really wrong for such a thing to be happening. This incredible response from the community made the individual see sense, and come back into the community again as a vegan. They committed to learning from this experience, and being tougher in the future, for the animals.
Or at least, that’s how it could have been.
Instead, hundreds of vegans publicly shamed this person. “Animal abuser”, “scum”, “pathetic”, “you were never vegan”, “sick”, “disgusting” etc. Vegan rejection turned into even more vegan rejection, which turned this person into probably the worst enemy for both animals and vegans - a person who was once in our movement, who knows us inside out, now motivated to fight against us and everything we’re fighting for.
I don’t think we did a good job here. I’m not saying we as vegans caused this person to become who they became, but I am saying we didn’t help in stopping it from happening.
This person was a vegan, there is little doubt about that. But overwhelmed by the shame and embarrassment of rejection, consumed by emotion, a terrible decision was made. There was no logic here, this was human flaw in its purest form. This doesn’t justify their decision, but it does explain it, and that helps us understand it so we can learn from it.
Some vegans will say they act in this way as a form of pressure campaigning, to hold the individual accountable through a barrage of shaming via comments, video responses, direct messages and any other way they can reach the person. A pressure campaign, also known as pressure politics, is defined defined by Wikipedia as “generally referring to political action which relies heavily on the use of mass media and mass communications to persuade politicians that the public wants or demands a particular action. However, it can also refer to intimidation, threats, and other covert techniques as well.”
I understand pressure campaigning at an individual level when that individual is responsible for a business, political decision making, or something of that nature. But pressure campaigns against individuals who have, as we identified earlier, possibly had some form of a mental breakdown or other stressor that has led them make out of character decisions, is probably not the best course of action.
In my view, many “pressure campaigns” like this seem less about achieving tangible outcomes for animals and more about what I call “vegan porn.” I’ll have another article on what I believe vegan porn is, but for now I’ll summarise it as actions taken by vegans, for vegans, for entertainment, validation or possibly for social reinforcement from a feeling of superiority (this is quite common in the comedy world for example).
I should know, I’ve engaged in this sort of behaviour many times over my years in the vegan space. Some of you will remember back in 2021 I even did a ten hour livestream reacting to ex-vegans. In that stream I believe I did just about everything that I’m now making a case against in this article. Introspection is rough!
So we’ve established that people are 100% capable of going from doing good things to doing bad things, and becoming entirely different people than who they were before. We’ve established that just as it’s possible for someone to have a paradigm shift from good beliefs to bad beliefs as it is to shift from bad beliefs to good beliefs. We’ve established that just as someone can become vegan, a vegan can become an ex-vegan. What next? What do we do when someone becomes an ex-vegan?
That question deserves its own article. Subscribe and stay tuned for a deeper dive into how we can better handle these situations.
Q&A
Shouldn’t we be focusing on converting non-vegans instead of worrying about ex-vegans?
It’s a fair question. But as such a small minority, we can’t afford to lose people. I believe understanding why people leave veganism, how to prevent it, and how to bring them back is crucial for the movement’s growth and strength.
Are you saying that ex-vegans don’t deserve criticism for their actions?
I see how someone might think that, but no. I’m saying the delivery matters. Shaming someone with, “You’re disgusting, how dare you do this to animals,” is likely unproductive and a way for the commenter to cope with their overwhelming emotions. On the other hand, saying “It’s shocking to see someone with so much compassion start hurting animals again, but it doesn’t have to stay this way. You can still change for their sake,” expresses a similar emotion but focuses on solutions and encouraging change.
Doesn’t being overly compassionate weaken the vegan movement’s message of accountability?
Possibly, if compassion isn’t paired with accountability. For example, saying “I understand how you feel and I’m here to help,” without addressing the the action could weaken the movement. But combining empathy with accountability, saying “I empathise, but I don’t agree with your decision to harm animals, and I want to help you change” is a stronger approach. Done right, this could even strengthen the movement.
Do you think the way we label people (e.g., "ex-vegan," "anti-vegan") influences their behaviour or identity?
Yes, I believe these labels could influence people negatively. It might be better to avoid them and focus on actions or behaviours rather than fixed identities.
Do you believe that someone who returns to eating animals can still come back to veganism, and how should the community support that transition?
Yes and yes. The world is anti-vegan by design, and I believe the movement could benefit by remembering that and approaching these ex-vegan situations with understanding. Please don’t confuse understanding for acceptance, we should still clearly oppose the decision to exploit animals, but understanding how society and circumstance leads to someone ditch veganism is important. With empathy and clarity, we’re more likely to bring them back.
When you read my Substack articles, you’re getting a window into my evolving thoughts—some freshly formed, others rooted in years of experience. I don’t claim to have all the answers (even if it seems that way at times), and I invite you to engage with my ideas as just that: thoughts worth considering.