"Gandhi had a straightforward concern for animals. Nonviolence includes nonviolence towards animals--the devotee of ahimsa (or nonviolence) "shuns to the best of his ability the destruction of the tiniest creature." He was a lacto-vegetarian, consuming goat's milk, but resolutely avoided meat. When Gandhi spoke to the Vegetarian Society in England in 1931, he said that he would never eat meat even in the face of death: "If anybody said that I should die if I did not take beef-tea or mutton, even under medical advice, I would prefer death." Gandhi viewed moral commitment as essential to the vegetarian cause. He observed that those who became vegetarian solely for health reasons often had great difficulty in remaining vegetarians, while those who were vegetarian for ethical reasons were much more consistent in their practice....
Gandhi warned against abrasive relationships with meat-eaters. Vegetarians need to be tolerant of others if they want to convert them to vegetarianism. However, we should certainly not remain silent about vegetarianism. "Truth hates secrecy . . . there must be no watering down of the ideal. . . . A Satyagrahi [practitioner of truth-force] has no secrets to keep from his opponent or so-called enemy."