Who hates vegans?

On the 25th anniversary of World Vegan Day there’s lots to celebrate. We’re witnessing the rise in popularity of plant-based diets in parts of the world and the British Vegan Society is set to celebrate World Vegan Month — marking 75 years since the society was founded in 1944.

But not everyone is breaking out the vegan champagne. According to a recent article in the Guardian, some people still hate vegans. Really? Who are these flesh-eating party poopers? Since World Vegan Day falls between All Hallow’s Eve and the Day of the Dead, 1 November 2019 seems a good a time for some sombre reflection as well as festivity.

“The war on vegans started small,” writes George Reynolds, naming a few high-profile incidents, from a publicity stunt staged by two brawny blokes who skinned and ate a raw squirrel in front of London’s Soho Vegan Market earlier this year to the magazine editor who resigned after making a churlish and childish joke about how best to kill vegans.

Lest we see these as isolated incidents, the hardcore macho carnivore’s last stand, Reynolds goes beyond the anecdotal to cite some bone fide research in the form of an article published in an academic journal in 2015 that concluded that prejudice against vegans is very real — indeed comparable to that against some ethnic groups.