Interfaith library
Other faiths, animals and the food on our tables
Fifteen complete guides explore how religious texts, living communities and contemporary advocates reason about animals. They preserve real disagreement rather than turning diverse traditions into slogans.
Source layers
Canonical texts, institutional teaching, historical practice and modern advocacy are labelled separately.
No false consensus
Each guide includes permissions, objections, internal diversity and the limits of plant-based arguments.
Practice, not abstraction
FAQs and community steps connect ethical principles with menus, procurement, worship and inclusion.
Choose a guide
Traditions and shared action
Buddhism, Animals and Plant-Based Living
How non-harming, compassion and mindful consumption shape Buddhist arguments about meat, dairy and modern food systems — and why Buddhist traditions still disagree.
Read the guideCatholicism, Creation and the Treatment of Animals
From the Catechism and Laudato Si’ to fasting, mercy and the limits of dominion: the Catholic case for protecting animals without pretending veganism is Church law.
Read the guideChristianity, Animals and the Peaceable Table
Biblical creation, dominion, mercy, sacrifice and the peaceable kingdom — with the strongest Christian arguments for and against vegan practice.
Read the guideAdvaita Vedanta, Ahimsa and Animal Life
Non-duality, self-restraint and reverence for life in an Advaita reading — including the symbolic case for replacing dairy in worship and daily food.
Read the guideGaudiya Vaishnavism, Cow Protection and Dairy
Krishna’s care for cows, prasadam, vegetarian discipline and the difficult question of whether commercial dairy can still express cow protection.
Read the guideJainism, Ahimsa and the Vegan Question
Why a tradition built around radical nonviolence increasingly asks whether dairy, silk and leather are compatible with its own demanding ethic.
Read the guideJudaism, Kosher Food and Animal Compassion
Tza’ar ba’alei chayim, bal tashchit, health and the meaning of kosher in an industrial age — with disagreement kept visible.
Read the guidePagan, Wiccan and Earth-Centred Animal Ethics
“Harm none,” sacred ecology, animal kinship and ritual practice across diverse modern Pagan paths — without pretending they speak with one voice.
Read the guideQuaker Peace Testimony and Animal Kinship
The Inner Light, peace testimony and centuries of Quaker concern for animals — from John Woolman to the factory-farm question.
Read the guideSikh Ethics, Langar and the Vegan Question
Compassion, justice, modest consumption and the shared table — alongside the clear fact that Sikh scripture does not impose a universal vegan rule.
Read the guideZoroastrianism, Good Mind and Beneficent Animals
Vohu Manah, care for cattle, purity and contested vegetarian voices in Zoroastrian texts and later Parsi practice.
Read the guideUnity, Spiritual Vegetarianism and Universal Love
The overlooked vegetarian teaching of Charles and Myrtle Fillmore, its metaphysical claims, and what Unity communities may responsibly recover today.
Read the guideUnitarian Universalism and Ethical Eating
The interdependent web, conscience, justice and the 2011 Ethical Eating statement — translated into practical congregational responsibility.
Read the guideSpiritual and Ethical Communities: A Practical Guide
A tradition-neutral route from compassion to community practice for humanist, spiritual, ethical and mixed-belief groups.
Read the guideInterfaith Action for Animals and Food Justice
A step-by-step framework for congregations to move from shared values to better meals, education, procurement and public witness.
Read the guideHow to read this library
These pages began with advocacy kits published by the Interfaith Vegan Coalition and expand them through primary texts, official statements, historical cautions and serious counterarguments. A kit can reveal a persuasive ethical strand without representing every believer or settling doctrine. “Vegan” is also a modern term: older teachers may support abstention or non-harm without having held every commitment now associated with veganism.