Mission
The Vegan Society of Ireland is dedicated to promoting veganism as an ethical and sustainable lifestyle choice, advocating for animal rights and educating the public about the impact of their choices on other species and the environment. We strive to be the authoritative voice on vegan matters in Irish media and work towards policy changes to enshrine animal rights in Irish law.
Vision
The vision of the VSI is to foster a compassionate, sustainable lifestyle that benefits all species and the environment. We envision an Ireland where veganism is mainstream, animal exploitation is eradicated and the government supports a transition to plant-based agriculture, making Ireland a hub for plant-based start-ups and a major producer and exporter of plant-based foods.
Values
Justice
Kindness
Compassion
Anti-Exploitation
Inclusion
Collaboration
Sustainability
About Us
In 2022, the Vegetarian Society of Ireland held an AGM at which it was unanimously decided to change the name of the charity to The Vegan Society of Ireland. The Vegetarian Society of Ireland had originally been set up in 1978.
Most of our work is done by volunteers and by a board of trustees who represent the charity.
Registered Charity No: 20035389
LATEST NEWS
VSI’s Response to Budget 2025
vegansocietyofireland_m2g987wd2024-11-02T13:09:26+00:00
VSI’s Pre-Budget Submission
vegansocietyofireland_m2g987wd2024-11-02T13:10:20+00:00
Press Release – Irish Horses
vegansocietyofireland_m2g987wd2024-06-16T14:05:04+00:00
Press Release – International Women’s Day 2024
vegansocietyofireland_m2g987wd2024-06-06T11:08:49+00:00
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“Veganism is not a sacrifice. It is a joy.”
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"While writing ‘Sapiens,’ I became familiar with how we treat animals in the meat and dairy industries. I was so horrified that I didn’t want to be a part of it anymore.”
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"Chickens outnumber all the wild birds in the country but we never see them – because they’re suffering behind the closed doors of factory farms."
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“If we accept a mere tenth of what animal-rights activists are claiming, then modern industrial agriculture might well be the greatest crime in history. When evaluating global happiness, it is wrong to count the happiness only of the upper classes, of Europeans or of men. Perhaps it is also wrong to consider only the happiness of humans”
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“If we shift away from eating meat and dairy and move towards a plant-based diet, then the sun’s energy goes directly into growing our food. And because that’s so much more efficient we could still produce enough to feed us, but do so using a quarter of the land. This could free up an area the size of the United States, China, the EU and Australia combined. Space that could then be given back to nature.”
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“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
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“Whether we’re talking about gender inequality or racism or queer rights or indigenous rights or animal rights, we’re talking about the fight against injustice. We’re talking about the fight against the belief that one nation, one people, one race, one gender or one species has the right to dominate, control and use and exploit another with impunity.”
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“I don’t feel superior because I’m vegan. The truth is… I am vegan because I don’t feel superior to others.”
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“If a man aspires towards a righteous life, his first act of abstinence is from injury to animals.”
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“The bottom line is clear: we are facing imminent disaster. If we really want to save the planet from climate catastrophe, we must promote a grassroots effort with a clear normative directive: stop eating animal products and adopt a vegan diet.”
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“You either approve of violence or you don't, and nothing on earth is more violent or extreme than the meat industry.”
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“Our task must be to free ourselves... by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its beauty.”
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“Animal rights is now the leading social justice issue on the planet. Your decision is whether you support either the butcher or the butchered. It cannot be both.”
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“There is no fundamental difference between humans and animals in their ability to feel pleasure and pain, happiness, and misery.”
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“Cruelty begets its offspring – WAR.”
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“To face animal suffering is to face our responsibility in their suffering.”
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“We believe in justice for animals, the environment and people. That’s why we support the Plant Based Treaty and urge individuals and governments to sign it.”
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"Vivisection is a social evil because if it advances human knowledge, it does so at the expense of human character."
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“Humanity is now standing at a crossroads. We must now decide which path we want to take. How do we want the future living conditions for all living species to be like?”
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“Perhaps in the back of our minds we already understand, without all the science I've discussed, that something terribly wrong is happening. Our sustenance now comes from misery. We know that if someone offers to show us a film on how our meat is produced, it will be a horror film.”
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“I made the choice to be vegan because I will not eat (or wear, or use) anything that could have an emotional response to its death or captivity. I can well imagine what that must feel like for our non-human friends - the fear, the terror, the pain - and I will not cause such suffering to a fellow living being.”
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“If you look at the climate crisis or the violence of our food system and feel helpless, thinking ‘I wish there was something I could do’ – you can, right now. Go Vegan.”
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“I’ve been vegan for 7 years. Once you know, it’s really hard to go back. I just can’t go on in my life knowing what’s going on in the animal world and not doing anything about it.”
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“We can think of our atmosphere as a budget and our emissions as expenses: because methane and nitrous oxide are significantly larger greenhouse expenses than CO2 in the short term, they are the most urgent to cut. Because they are primarily created by our food choices, they are also easier to cut.”
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“Needless to say, jamming deformed, drugged, overstressed birds together in a filthy, waste-coated room is not very healthy. Beyond deformities, eye damage, blindness, bacterial infections of bones, slipped vertebrae, paralysis, internal bleeding, anemia, slipped tendons, twisted lower legs and necks, respiratory diseases, and weakened immune systems are frequent and long-standing problems on factory farms.”
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“This is a message to all those out there who think that you need animal products to be fit and strong. Almost two years after becoming vegan I am stronger than ever before and I am still improving day by day.”
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“We don’t know the spiritual advancements that long term veganism – I mean not over years or even decades, but over generations, would have on human life. It would be certainly a different civilisation, and the first one in the whole of our history that would truly deserve the title of being a civilisation. Full stop.”
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"All beings tremble before violence. All fear death, all love life.”
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“Ethical veganism results in a profound revolution within the individual; a complete rejection of the paradigm of oppression and violence that she has been taught from childhood to accept as the natural order. It changes her life and the lives of those with whom she shares this vision of nonviolence. Ethical veganism is anything but passive; on the contrary, it is the active refusal to cooperate with injustice.”
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“Veganism is not about giving anything up or losing anything; it is about gaining the peace within yourself that comes from embracing nonviolence and refusing to participate in the exploitation of the vulnerable.”
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“After seventy years we can now offer a lifestyle that is humane, healthy, aesthetic, economic and sustainable. No other movement can offer all these together, or indeed separately. We are the first to show that they are all related and that they will be achieved together or not at all.”
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“Why are vegans made fun of while the inhumane factory farming process regards animals and the natural world merely as commodities to be exploited for profit?”
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“Animals are not here for us to do as we please with. We are not their superiors. We are their equals. We are their family. Be kind to them.”
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“Veganism is the Swiss Army Knife of the future. A profoundly useful instrument to help solve our ethical, economic, environmental, water, health problems – and end animal cruelty forever.”
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“Is it not strange that we call those who kill dogs animal abusers, those who kill pigs normal and those who kill neither extremists? Is it not odd that someone who smashes a car window to rescue a dog on a hot day is viewed as a hero but someone who rescues a piglet suffering on a farm is a criminal?”
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"In 100 or 200 years time, we may look back on the way we treated animals today as something like we today look back on the way our forefathers treated slaves."
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“I urge you, to do some research, find the compassion I know you have within you to recognise what you are in terms of what you eat which keeps the meat and dairy industry flourishing and therefore deforestation, animal cruelty, our seas and climate decaying on a daily basis. Go vegan, it is the only way to truly save our planet today.”
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"Until we have the courage to recognise cruelty for what it is — whether its victim is human or animal — we cannot expect things to be much better in this world. We cannot have peace among men whose hearts delight in killing any living creature. By every act that glorifies or even tolerates such moronic delight in killing, we set back the progress of humanity."
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“We will not be able to make up in eternity what we have done to the animals.”
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“Food production is ripping the living world apart. Fishing and farming are, by a long way, the greatest cause of extinction and loss of the diversity and abundance of wildlife. Farming is a major cause of climate breakdown, the biggest cause of river pollution and a hefty source of air pollution.”
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“I’m an animal rights activist because I believe we won’t have a planet if we continue to behave toward other species the way we do.“
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“The Paris Agreement is completely silent on animal agriculture but a third of methane emissions come from animal agriculture. We can all make a difference. Fight climate change simply with diet change.”
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“It takes nothing away from a human to be kind to an animal.”
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“I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.”
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“We don’t need to eat anyone who would run, swim or fly away if he could.”
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“For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seed of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love.”
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“I say peace begins on your plate.”
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“Animal agriculture is a huge contributor to climate change, to deforestation, to water use, and to human chronic diseases, so although I’m vegan for the animals, it’s just a really nice by-product of veganism that it’s also a way to save humanity and our planet as well.”
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"Vegan is just pure love. Love for animals, love for the planet, and love for yourself.”
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“I can think of nothing better in the world to be but a vegan.”
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“It’s upsetting that so many people think of themselves as environmentalists and still eat meat and dairy products. I think it’s something people should be considering given the emergency situation we’re in regarding water supplies, global warming, and the destruction of ecosystems. There’s a lot of overlap between animal rights and the environment.”
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“I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by humans from the cruelty of humans.”
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“If you are not vegan, please consider going vegan. It’s a matter of nonviolence. Being vegan is your statement that you reject violence to other sentient beings, to yourself, and to the environment, on which all sentient beings depend.”
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“The assumption that animals are without rights, and the illusion that our treatment of them has no moral significance, is a positively outrageous example of Western crudity and barbarity. Universal compassion is the only guarantee of morality.”