Athletes and body builders are different things, though a more extreme case of the argument still applies. But then, it also applies to riding your bike to see a movie, because refraining from seeing the movie is practical and practicable, and those extra calories you expended mean extra crop deaths. I’m not yet convinced this qualifies as exploitation or cruelty to animals.
Yeah it’s certainly more philosophical than practical. Here’s another odd quandary: we as vegans agree that in certain situations, it’s okay to kill an animal (our favourite “stuck on an island with a cow” scenario). If people in remote artic areas HAVE to kill and eat animals to live, are they technically vegan? They’re avoiding the use of animals as much as is practical?
Behaviour isn’t sufficient to be vegan. A leaf-cutter ant is not vegan, they just coincidentally act in way a vegan might. Likewise, a human stranded on an island with no other animals that they might prey on is not necessarily vegan. However, being in a situation where your life depends on animal consumption (vaccines come to mind as an example we all have to wrestle with) doesn’t automatically make you not-vegan. It’s an ethical philosophy. If it’s not being practiced mindfully, it’s just a coincidence.
