By: Marilyn Ramos
What the hell happened? Ellen! Ellen! Did we really hear you say
on your show recently that you are now eating eggs because those eggs come from
“happy” chickens that your neighbors keep?
From Wikipedia: Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products,
particularly in diet, as well as an associated philosophy that rejects the
commodity status of sentient animals. A follower of veganism is known as a vegan.
Vegans are confused. Just a couple of days before, Ellen’s appearance
on the Katie show (Katie Couric for those out of the loop) had gone viral among
the vegan community to much applause and kudos. However, after I saw the clip of
Ellen saying she eats “happy” eggs, I immediately went to her ellentv.com
website to see if she or her people had taken down her vegan resources,
recipes, etc. etc. Nope, still there. In
fact, that section of the website is still titled, “Going Vegan with Ellen”. So
you can go vegan with Ellen even though Ellen isn’t vegan?! Say what?
Now I know Ellen is a huge celebrity and may be insulated in what
is being said about her in the close knit vegan community. But, as Joe Biden
would say, “This is a big fucking deal!” and I hope some of it trickles back to
her because she needs a reality check. The comments amongst vegan
websites/blogs go from dumbfounded (really? seriously? She didn’t mean it!) to
demanding (we must kick her out of our vegan family until she sees the light!) to
denial (there is no way she is eating eggs!). Here are some comments:
I swear my heart broke
when she said that two days ago. I'm so disappointed.
She went from eating
meat, to not eating any animals products, to now eating eggs. It's a
disappointment because she was such a role model and ambassador for veganism -
and now she is not even a vegan herself, so we've lost this hugely influential
voice.
There is a linear progression
that exists here; a journey that many vegans take: omnivore to lacto-ovo and,
eventually, vegan. If Ellen were lacto-ovo and decided to start eating only
"happy" eggs, you could applaud her, hoping that she'll progress past
that stage. However, she went backwards. Her decision trivializes the ethical
basis for going vegan.
I'm glad she is still
not eating meat, but the fact is, she's no longer vegan. She is an ovo-vegetarian.
… And when someone that has that big of a soapbox starts eating eggs and still
referring to herself as a vegan, it sends a powerful (and wrong) message - that
if you find "happy" animals to exploit, that exploitation is ok. It's
not ok.
Vegan = Vegan. There are
no exceptions, nor should they be. I know people who've claimed to "go
vegan" once or twice a week. You can eat at a vegan restaurant or make a
vegan meal, but that doesn't make you a vegan. Is Ellen a bad person?
Absolutely not. No one is bringing her decency as a human being into question.
And I'm sure she'll continue to represent the cause of animal rights vigorously
and passionately. However, she's not a vegan if she eats animal products or
by-products. It devalues what we as vegan represent, especially when someone
has so much notoriety.
It is always sad to me
when anyone, celebrity or not, stops being vegan. To me, it is like saying to
the world "being vegan really is too hard, I'm missing something without
animal products in my life". Which we as vegans know to be false.
We’ve had few celebrities that we could rely on to tout the vegan
message and do so consistently. Now granted, some of us had an issue with Ellen’s
Cover Girl contract since Cover Girl is owned by Proctor & Gamble and we
know they still test on animals but we assumed it was a contract that would expire
and she would not renew it now that she was vegan. We thought for sure she
would put her vegan ethics and morals ahead of financial gain. Heck, I even
thought she might eventually go down the road of starting her own vegan makeup
line. Why not? There was a rumor that she would either start her own vegetarian
dog food line or buy an existing one (since her Halo dog food line contains
meat). The whole “But, dogs are carnivores” argument is another blog but I will
tell you that I had two poodles – one made it to 17 ½ yrs. old and the other to
16 yrs. old – and they were both vegan for the last 10 yrs. of their lives
which coincided with my own veganism. They were just fine. Anyway, back to
Ellen.
Other celebrities have dabbled in it for a few months or even a
couple of years and we latched onto them with a lifeline. Ginnifer Goodwin was
on Big Love, a huge HBO hit (I watched it religiously, pun intended), and she actively
promoted veganism. She was great. Then what happened? She did a complete 180 degrees
and stopped being vegan. She even got annoyed with family members (who had gone
vegan thanks to her) when they didn’t want to cook or eat meat during holidays.
In fact, she seemed downright hostile towards vegans (maybe it was because her
body had now become a graveyard for dead animals again?) during an interview on
the Jimmy Kimmel show. She came across as disrespectful to those of us who
still cared about animals.
Ginnifer Goodwin was my first, “Ooooh, maybe we shouldn’t put so
much weight on celebrities who go vegan unless they’ve done it for many years
and don’t seem to be doing it because it’s a popular ‘fad’”. (see Russell Simmons, Casey Affleck, Joaquin
Phoenix, Chrissy Hynde, Woody Harrelson). Rosie O’Donnell suffered a heart
attack a few months ago. She immediately went on a vegan diet and tweeted that
she had lost 9 lbs. in 10 or 12 days thanks to her new diet. Of course,
magazines, vegan bloggers, vegan websites, etc. glommed onto this and ran with
it. The problem though is that she went back to eating fish almost immediately
but not before People magazine declared that Rosie had gone vegan. Even dear
beloved Natalie Portman had strayed during her pregnancy (I was dismayed when I
read in an article that she was drinking milk and her hubby was fixing her
chicken dinners) but it appears she may have come back into the vegan fold
after having her baby.
But Ellen seemed different. She felt different. She came across as
different. She seemed unwavering. She came across as sincere and genuine in her
veganism. You could see it was a true life change for her (and her wife,
Portia) and that she “got it”. She was a
real sister in our plight to help animals. She featured on her show vegan chefs,
vegan food, vegan recipes, vegan celebrities, vegan items, animal causes, animal
sanctuaries, people who helped animals, etc.
But now she eats eggs.
Here’s my main issue with Ellen and her eating eggs from “happy
chickens: Will fragile vegans (vegans who are just starting out or don’t know
fully the horrors of factory farming) or “iffy” vegans think, “Well, heck, if
Ellen eats eggs then I can too and still feel good about myself”? Ellen is a wealthy person with access to many
things you and I will never have access to including a neighbor who raises “happy”
chickens and gives you the luxury of consuming eggs from chickens who are
spoiled, enjoyed dust baths, ate the best feed, received veterinary care and,
perhaps, were taken care of until they died, etc.
Unfortunately, that is NOT the reality of 99.5% of chickens and
that is NOT the reality of 99.5% of us humans. Therefore, unless Ellen clearly,
consistently and regularly spells out the huge huge difference between her “happy”
eggs and the standard factory farmed eggs found in our food chain, we will be
stuck with people who think they can be “vegan”, eat eggs and feel good about
themselves. In fact, Ellen may have done us a huge disservice and taken us a
step backwards since animal activists will now have to explain why you can’t
eat eggs and still be vegan. ”But, but, but, Ellen does?” Remember that for a
while many people called themselves vegetarian only because they didn’t eat red
meat or because they only ate fish but we all know that that didn’t make them
vegetarian. That just made them people who rarely ate animals.
I will grant you that Ellen has done A LOT for the animal
community and the vegan community. She may have very well raised more awareness
overnight than what many animal activists have in a year. Nevertheless, can your
website still say, Going Vegan with Ellen” when Ellen herself isn’t vegan? Does
Ellen get to redefine veganism because she has access to “happy” chickens?
(NO!).
I applaud Ellen for all the good she has done but I, as a true
vegan, take huge exception to her calling herself vegan when she is not “abstaining
from animal products”.
Just as I’ve taken issue in the past with people who call
themselves “animal lovers” because they love their cat or dog (but still eat
animals, go to the rodeo or circus, etc.), I take issue with someone who calls
themselves “vegan” while they eat eggs. Ellen will have to be satisfied with “ovo-vegetarian”
because until she eschews eggs, she doesn’t get to call herself vegan again.
I await Ellen’s explanation of her disconnect or her clear
explanation that what she is privy to (“happy” chickens) she knows full well
99.5% of the rest of us don’t have that option and 99%.5 of chickens aren’t “happy”,
and thus, her eating eggs again will only perpetuate the horrors of factory
farming while potentially making people feel good about themselves because they
are just like Ellen.
