There are different paths to becoming vegan. While some people first go vegetarian and then continue to cut down on animal products, there is no reason to assume that vegetarianism is a logical phase before veganism. In fact, if the idea is to reduce the harm caused to nonhuman animals, then a dairy-free meat eater is probably doing more for animals than a dairy-heavy vegetarian.

Although it is often a common pattern to become a vegetarian before becoming a vegan, it not a necessary stage and, ethically-speaking, it is not necessarily the best route to veganism. Therefore, for the person choosing to move towards veganism in incremental steps, it is important that they know that the egg, dairy, and honey industries are as violent and exploitative as the flesh industry.

We believe going vegan as much as possible every day is the best way of moving towards veganism. While it is often claimed that vegetarianism is some “gateway” to veganism, this may not be the case in practice. Indeed, many people get stuck, sometimes for many years, in their “vegetarian phase.” We, therefore, recommend that people move towards veganism as much as they can rather than thinking of going vegetarian first.

Veganism is the moral baseline of the animal rights movement and veganism is a philosophy which is in harmony with the theory of animal rights, whereas vegetarianism is not. Because vegetarians consume products that violate the rights of nonhuman animals in their production, Vegan Ireland does not encourage people into vegetarianism as a stepping stone to veganism.

Veganism is much easier now than it has ever been and, in terms of the case for animal rights, it is the morally right thing to do.

Although for many decades, veganism has been wrongly perceived as being part of vegetarianism (lacto ovo), hence the terms “veggie/vegan”, veg, veg*an, they are in fact diametrically opposite.

They should not be confused or associated with each another since they are not based on the same ethical principles: while veganism opposes the use of other animals, lacto-ovo vegetarianism supports some forms of animal exploitation and profits from animal oppression, although individual vegetarians often have a genuine concern for the treatment of animals in animal agriculture and the intentional killing of animals.

For many decades, animal advocates have campaigned mainly against the flesh industry. With messages such as “meat is murder”, “meat is dead” or “meat out days” events, they often neglected products such as eggs, dairy and honey, although these are part of the same sort of exploitative industries. The dairy industry is cruel, and probably causes more animal suffering than the flesh industry does.

Their “omission” has been one of the biggest barriers to the advancement of veganism since it created the misconception that eggs, honey and dairy products are relatively free from exploitation and suffering, and that people who have stopped eating flesh can continue their consumption of such products with a clear conscience.

Many vegetarians believe that it is perfectly acceptable to eat eggs because hens "just lay eggs", or that cows "need" to be milked or they will suffer. Thus, by choosing to ignore or simply by not being aware of the realities of egg, honey and milk production, the result is an even greater number of enslaved animals being used and killed to supply the demand for these products.

Another huge barrier to the advancement of veganism is the promotion of “humane” meat and vegetarianism (ovo-lacto) by most animal welfare organisations.
These organisations and groups often claim to endorse veganism but will not promote it as the baseline of the animal advocacy movement because of the worry that veganism will appear to be too “radical” or “extreme” for the general public. According to them, the public is not ready to become vegan.

However, the co-founder of the Vegan Society in England, Donald Watson, took the opposite view. He suggested that people need to be "ripened up" to new ideas or else progress can never be made.

Thus such organisations offer a diluted and confusing message, that nonhumans can be “humanely” treated, when there is no such thing as “humane” exploitation. This is no different if a human rights group opposing torture, rape or child labour campaigned for more “humane” ways to exploit rather than working directly for the end of injustice. Oppression and rights violations are wrong whether the victim is human or nonhuman - such exploitation and suffering cannot be morally "tidied up" or made "humane."

There is nothing extreme about veganism but it is a radical concept, since it goes to the root of the problem of animal use. If animal exploitation cannot be morally justified and defended, then we should not be promoting or engaging in finding “better” ways to enslave nonhuman animals. Going vegan is the only way we can abolish animal exploitation.

Vegan Ireland encourages all vegetarians to seriously move towards and explore veganism. We are not attacking vegetarians but we are rethinking the traditional view that vegetarianism is 1) challenging the institution of animal use and 2) a required stepping stone towards veganism.