Skip to main content

Longtime Butcher Secretly Goes Vegan After Watching Earthlings

The moving documentary drove Brian Kavanagh to quit the cruel business after 15 years and pursue vegan meat-making instead.


2,348 Likes

United Kingdom-resident Brian Kavanagh recently left his 15-year-long career as a butcher to pursue a career that aligned with his ethical beliefs. Kavanagh began working as a butcher when he was 16, a move he made to please his father. Now a father of two himself, Kavanagh was initially influenced by his vegan wife to consider removing animal products from his diet. While working at a meat counter at grocery store Morrison’s, Kavanagh made the decision to go vegan after watching animal-rights documentary Earthlings. “I kept it to myself,” Kavanagh told BBC. “I didn’t tell anyone because I was worried about them making jokes. Before I just looked at it as a piece of meat going on a dinner plate, but then you see it as an animal and not just a steak. I was a bit depressed, it just didn’t feel good, so I had to leave.” The former butcher now works at vegan company Sgaia Vegan Meats, using his expertise to craft plant-based “mheats” such as bacon, burgers, and sausage. “I was worried my background and my story might put them off, and they wouldn’t want someone who was a meat butcher for 15 years,” Kavanagh said. “But they were really excited about it and wanted me just as much as I wanted to work there.”

Share this

Get our new Best of Vegan Collector's Edition FREE when you subscribe to VegNews.

Find Out More

Get the Newsletter

Never miss out on breaking stories, recipes, and deals

Get the Magazine

#146 2026 The Best of Vegan Issue
#146 2026 The Best of Vegan Issue
#146 2026 The Best of Vegan Issue

All things plant‑based, in your mailbox and inbox

Subscribe