Notorious animal rights activist James Warden declares he has quit veganism

Notorious animal rights activist James Warden has declared “I am no longer vegan” and that he is “beyond repulsed by the lack of critical thought and regression by the vegan and animal rights network”. Warden made the declaration on Facebook at the weekend, following up his post with a bizarre hour-long live video explaining his “ethical theory” behind his decision to distance himself from the term. It included claims that he instead had an “intrinsic value of reducing harms” and that he would not consider it “unethical choice” to eat a human body if “there’s no harm being experienced”. But despite no longer calling himself a vegan, Warden confirmed that he will continue his activism with notorious group Direct Action Everywhere Perth, of which he is the organiser and founder, saying he is back on deck following a “sabbatical”. It comes almost six months after Warden was handed a 10-month suspended sentence for stealing an 11-day-old Wagyu Friesian calf from a Brunswick dairy farm in 2018 and a further suspended sentence for stealing a dead piglet from a Pinjarra piggery. He later displayed the dead piglet on a box surrounded by flowers at a protest at Belmont McDonald’s. “I am no longer vegan,” Warden posted on Facebook on Friday. “I have an intrinsic value of reducing harms. Historically, I found that veganism, as an instrument, was a ‘sufficient rule’ to reduce harms. “I can foresee instances where veganism could produce more harms than an alternative. Therefore, veganism deviates from my value theory, by virtue of said harms, and is no longer a sufficient rule, nor my theory of right action.” Warden went on to say “inter alia, I am beyond repulsed by the lack of critical thought and regression by the vegan and animal rights network”. “(This) however, is not a predicate for my first comment. This comment is complementary,” he said. During his Facebook live video, Warden encouraged his followers to critique his philosophical view of “negative utilitarianism” — a view that seeks to minimise suffering. “You might have oysters for example, they are classified as animals, they don’t have a central nervous system ... so they are not sentient at all,” he said. “So if you were to consume oysters instead of consuming almonds then I would consider that an ethical decision, therefore categorically I am not a vegan.” Warden also used another, more bizarre, example. “If you have like a dead body on the side of the road, liberty to you, consume the dead body,” he said. “I do not concern myself with the consumption of like, dead animals. Dead humans for that matter. I do not care. “If you want to consume a dead human and there’s no external impacts, they don’t have extrinsic value with their family, there’s no other issues, there’s nobody experiencing harm, it’s just you eating that body in of itself, I don’t care ... if there’s no harm being experienced, I do not consider it an unethical choice. “If it is the case that eating humans causes less harms then of course, I would say that consuming the bodies of human beings would be morally just over the alternative of producing more harms to somebody else, which is another being. “Wait for that to hit the media, huh. I’m not concerned, yeah, sure, call me James Lecter.” He maintained that consuming animal products was “abysmal”. In a further Facebook post today Warden said there were cases when a vegan choice was not ethical, such as choosing a second-hand purse with leather seams rather than a brand-new purse made through child labour. “I strive to be ethical rather than vegan,” he said.