Chomp

Frankenstein’s creature was written as something society feared and called monstrous.

Yet when it came to food, he explicitly rejected killing animals just to satisfy his appetite.

“I do not destroy the lamb and the kid…”

Mary Shelley wrote that in 1818.

There’s something striking about a story that leaves you wondering who the monster really is.

South Korea’s dog-meat industry is coming to an end, with most registered farms already shut down ahead of the country’s full ban in 2027.
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According to South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, 1,265 of the country’s 1,537 registered dog-meat farms had closed by May 2026 — about 82% of the total. Just 272 remained operating.
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The latest sign of that transition came this week, when Humane World for Animals rescued more than 70 dogs from a farm in Gangjin. The group says it was its final large-scale dog-meat-farm rescue in South Korea after more than a decade of work in the country.
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South Korea’s National Assembly unanimously passed the law ending the dog-meat industry in 2024. Full enforcement begins February 7, 2027, when farming, slaughtering, butchering, and selling dogs for human consumption will become illegal.
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The change is significant not just because individual dogs are being rescued, but because the system that put them there is being phased out.
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For animals, that is what real progress looks like: fewer cages, fewer farms, and eventually a cruel industry that no longer exists.

Sources: South Korea Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs; Humane World for Animals.

Slimy raw flesh that people don’t even want to touch with their bare hands somehow became the benchmark for what’s “normal” food.

But tofu is gross.

Maybe veganism isn’t asking people to learn empathy. Maybe it’s asking them to apply the empathy they already have.

We understand why it hurts to watch a baby animal separated from its mother. We understand the bond, the fear, and the loss.

The question is whether those feelings only matter when the story is fictional.

Most people surveyed said factory farming is unacceptable.
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Most of the same group still eat meat.
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That’s the contradiction highlighted by the latest edition of The Vegan Society’s Empathy Index.
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The survey asked 2,000 UK adults how acceptable or unacceptable they considered different uses of animals.
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When asked about factory farming, 65% said it was unacceptable.
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At the same time, 82% of the people surveyed were meat eaters.
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That does not mean 65% of meat eaters specifically rejected factory farming; the 65% figure applies to the full sample.
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But because meat eaters made up such a large majority of respondents, the numbers still point to a substantial overlap between people who eat meat and people who oppose factory farming.
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The gap matters because factory farming is not some fringe part of animal agriculture. The Vegan Society, citing Compassion in World Farming data, says an estimated 85% of farmed animals in the UK are raised in factory farms.
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So for many people, the question may no longer be whether factory farming is acceptable.
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It may be how closely our purchases actually reflect what we already say we believe about animals.
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Source: The Vegan Society Empathy Index; Vegconomist.

Moby has been vegan since 1987 — nearly four decades.

For him, veganism was never just about food. It was about refusing to participate in a system that causes animals suffering when he no longer felt he had to.

“I love animals, and I didn’t want to be a part of any process or system that contributed to their suffering.”

That’s one of the clearest ethical ideas behind veganism: not perfection, not purity, simply choosing not to support harm where you have another option.

Moby has also described animal-rights work as his “life’s work,” making advocacy a major part of his public life alongside his music.

Calling veganism “restrictive” is a strange criticism when so many people eat the same rotation of chicken, beef, pork, cheese, and eggs for decades.
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For many people, going vegan is the first time they seriously explore lentils, tofu, tempeh, chickpeas, curries, grains, mushrooms, noodles, beans, tahini, miso, new spices, and entire cuisines they barely touched before.
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Yes, veganism removes animal products.
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But removing a handful of ingredients doesn’t automatically shrink your diet.
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Sometimes it’s the thing that finally makes your food world bigger.

For many animals raised for food, “a full life” is nowhere near what they get.

A pig can live well over a decade, yet many are killed at around six months old. Broiler chickens can live for years, but are typically slaughtered after only a matter of weeks. Lambs are still babies when they’re sent to slaughter.

And dairy cows, despite having the potential to live around 20 years, are often gone by about five.

Animal agriculture doesn’t just end lives.
It ends them early.

When you see the numbers side by side, the scale of what’s taken becomes hard to ignore.

The only difference between us and animals is your perception. Same fear. Same comfort. Same will to live.

What’s your best tip for someone going vegan?