My perspective of veganism was most affected by learning that the veal calf is a by-product of dairying, and that in essence there is a slice of veal in every glass of what I had thought was an innocuous white liquid - milk.
I think it is important that people be made aware that the vegetarian movement has a venerable history behind it. It didn’t spring full-blown from the head of a flower child in the 1960′s. It really begins with Pythagoras in the West in the 6th century BC and has reasserted itself periodically ever since.