Thank you for sharing this conversation with me, Arwyn! I was happy I even brought it up. :) The point about hardship in nature is probably what I think about the most as a vegan, haha. It is on my mind a lot! It makes me grateful for how lucky I am. It definitely forces me to admit that it is necessary to have some degree of acceptance of and separation from the harsh realities that happen between baby wolves and hawks.

What gets me is when we use this reality to justify the hurting of animals in non-natural, potentially non-inevitable settings (such as in factory farming). We avoid using this logic to justify anything horrible that happens to humans. For example, we take it for granted that humans, whenever possible, deserve protection from sickness, violence, and so on, even if we might suffer these things in nature. We also try to grant this to dogs and cats somewhat. But when it comes to many other animals, we tend to take on a more indifferent attitude. One of the things I hope to do in my animal advocacy writing is to help people feel less apathetic, and more passionate, about helping nonhumans, or at least causing them as little harm as we can and being excited about finding win-win solutions that reduce their suffering. Most of all, I want to focus on the positive side of this passion, so that the passion can feel good to sustain!

I welcome your feedback on any vegan or animal stuff I write, including any critiques or objections you think of. I mean, obviously I do get feedback from other people, but I trust your mind a lot! I am super receptive to your words. Pretty soon I will be putting up a list of all my articles which will make it easier to find any ones on veganism or other topics that are of interest. Now time for me to catch up with yours!