veganism is a political movement that is primarily concerned with dismantling systems of animal slavery & exploitation, namely those at work in the massively lucrative animal agriculture industry. beyond that, it is a philosophy that strives to reduce harm to animals as much as is practically possible, so it addresses many areas in which animals are suffering, particularly at the hands of humans (whether directly or indirectly).
it is not, as you posit, concerned with eliminating death for animals altogether, or with equating all animal death with human notions of “morality”. suggesting as such is absolutely absurd, so don’t be surprised that the vegan crowd wasn’t too impressed with your little think piece.
many vegan people, including myself, advocate for the reintroduction of predator animals in order to restore balance to our ecosystems. it would be much more natural and ethical than enabling further human hunting, and there is no reason our landscape couldn’t be restored in order to support our native predators again.
I live in the UK, where the hunting to extinction of all wolves has caused deer overpopulation that devastates our landscape. but a huge reason why the wolves were hunted to extinction in the first place was because they killed livestock, damaging farmer profits in the process. and a huge reason we’re struggling so much to get any predators reintroduced is because ecological activists are coming up against incredibly tough pushback from the animal agriculture lobby - on the exact same basis. human hunts would likely be totally unnecessary if it wasn’t for this fact.
I’ll admit, I’ve never heard of a vegan person expressing objective moral disdain for a wildlife rehab center that is forced to euthanize an un-releasable animal, and outside of a hypothetical disagreeable few I find it hard to imagine this kind of person existing. I could imagine someone finding the idea… sad? maybe that’s what you experienced?
either way, vegan people are also interested in addressing the root causes that are overwhelming our current rehab & shelter systems. obviously, human harm to wildlife via environmental pollution is a huge one - and many wild animals end up in rehab as a direct result from… you guessed it, animal agriculture.
if you’re active in ecologist or vegan online spaces, you’ll constantly be flooded videos of the harm that’s being done: predatory birds having to be pulled out of piles of poorly disposed waste slurry, seagulls & ducks trying to catch fish in areas where the same waste slurry is being pumped into the ocean and rivers, marine animals getting caught up in discarded fishing nets… the extent of the damage to wildlife that would be completely avoidable if it weren’t for animal agriculture’s impunity cannot be understated.
vegan people also have pretty routine discussions about animal shelters that cater to domesticated animals like dogs and cats, and the underlying problem that profit-driven breeders create by completely overpopulating urban areas with stray animals, which is in turn driven by the consumer entitlement that suggests companion animals should be purchasable on command.
it’s a helpful conversation that exercises destigmatization of rescue shelters that are forced to utilize euthanasia to avoid overcrowding and provide care for more animals, and points the finger back towards the people & forces that are really responsible. and that’s what veganism is really all about - reducing harm to animals by figuring out its major causes and addressing them. it’s quite simple once you decide to stop wilfully misinterpreting it.
again, I’ve yet to encounter a vegan person that is fundamentally opposed to the idea of humans taking regulative action against invasive species for the sake of preserving the health of an ecosystem. most vegan discussion I’ve seen around it is in opposition to the cultural crassness that planned violence against animals can enable.
for example, I’ve seen a post here in this website where non-vegan people were gleefully, almost cartoonishly discussing the slaughter of invasive lionfish. and living here in the UK, I’m also forced to share a country with hunt organizations that unapologetically take great pleasure in carrying out mass animal slaughter in the name of environmental regulation. the amount of convicted animal abusers that these groups regularly churn out is absurd.
it is sad to think about animals dying when we are responsible for their misplacement, and when they themselves have done nothing wrong - I should think that much is healthy and sane to admit. especially when they’re going up against humans and our hunt dogs, whom they hardly stand a chance against. so obviously, if there was a way that we could deal with invasive animals through other methods, vegan activists would be interested in pursuing & supporting that. death is natural, and planned death is sometimes necessary, but that doesn’t mean it’s not still a form of harm, or shouldn’t be avoided whenever possible.
since the topic of Indigenous people has been brought up, it’s worth remembering that almost all domesticated animals could be considered invasive species in many areas of the world, especially via historical Colonialism, which targetedly harms Indigenous people.
and of course, our good old friend animal agriculture played an enormous role in this, too. the introduction of cattle to the Americas (and the subsequent mass-seizing of land for the purpose of cattle ranching) was responsible for swathes of deforestation and environmental damage, which obviously impacted Native American people in many negative ways. billions of cows, sheep and pigs have all been regularly forced onto colonized land throughout history, and the harm to the environment, to wildlife, and to human wellbeing and health caused by this is completely unprecedented.
