Vegans Have Waged War Against Animal Crackers Because They’re In The Shape Of…Animals

You’ve read the title and are now maybe wondering, “Have vegans gone too far?” A specific group of vegans have waged war against animal crackers — and yes, that’s including the vegan versions. These vegans argue that, although the ingredients fit within their belief system, it’s the shape of the crackers that causes concern. As long as animal crackers remain baked in the shape of lions, tigers, and bears, these vegans will refrain from indulging in them. Oh my.

Many food store chains have released vegan animal crackers to let those who follow a plant-based diet back in on the childhood nostalgia. Nabisco, who packages their Barnum’s Animal Crackers in the iconic single-serving cardboard box with string handle, even went so far as to please PETA by releasing their memorable circus animals from their cartoon cages. But that still hasn’t pleased everyone.

“[Animal crackers have] a clear latent function to socialize children with ideologies of human dominance and reiterate that they have full access to the natural world and the subordinates who live in it,” said Corey Lee Wrenn, a sociology lecturer at Monmouth University and author of A Rational Approach to Animal Rights, via Vice’s Munchies. “By being able to ‘collect’ caged animals, pick them up, handle them, and eventually eat them, notions of human supremacy are underscored.”

Despite the makeup of the crackers, planting the idea that humans can control the fate of animals in children’s heads is the larger issue, Wrenn and other vegans argue.

“Children should be taught to respect other animals,” vegan activist and sociology professor at Wittenberg University, David A. Nibert, told Munchies. “Eating their forms as crackers is just another step in the socialization process that accustoms children to exploitation.”

But this argument raises the question, what are we to do about other shaped food items like decorative cakes (please don’t take away our panda- and unicorn-shaped cupcakes!) or gingerbread men? Wrenn said that human-shaped treats are usually generic. However, if we likened them to African American or Jewish persons and marketed them to white children, we’d see a huge issue. Why, he asks, is the marketing of animal crackers to children any different or less problematic?

Although it may appear to be a bit extreme, we suppose it’s a fair argument. As children, we never equalized eating animal crackers to holding extreme power over all animals, but that’s just one group’s experience.

We wish these vegans luck on their crusade to slow the consumption of animal-shaped crackers. But, unfortunately, we enjoy eating them too much to hop on the bandwagon just yet.