He started out as a college football player, but under his ring name The Rock he would become known as one of the greatest professional wrestlers the world has ever seen. His story didn’t end there, though. He successfully made the switch to acting and has been starring in popular movies ever since. But is Dwayne Johnson vegan?
No, Dwayne Johnson is not vegan. He eats meat and consumes and uses other animal products as well. He starred in the “Got Milk?” campaign’s first Super Bowl ad. He’s into fishing and also raises fish that he feeds live bait. And he rides some of the horses that he keeps on his property.
Dwayne loves dogs
Before we get deeper into the ways in which Dwayne harms animals, we should mention his love for dogs.
In 2015, Dwayne adopted 2 French Bulldog puppies, who he named Brutus and Hobbs. He took the puppies outside, and they immediately started sprinting towards the pool and fell in the water. Hobbs knew how to swim, but Brutus sank like a brick. So, without any hesitation, Dwayne jumped into the pool fully clothed and saved Brutus’ life.
Tragically, a few weeks later Brutus ate a mushroom that turned out to be poisonous. Within hours, Brutus reached the point of no return and Dwayne and his girlfriend made the decision to end his suffering and take him off of life support. Thankfully, Hobbs didn’t eat any of the mushrooms and continued to thrive.
A few months later, a tortured and abandoned puppy with a large metal wire wrapped around his mouth was dumped at a shelter. The wire was removed and 17 stitches were put in, but then it was discovered that the puppy also had a heart condition and needed treatment. Dwayne heard about this and tweeted: “This is rough to read about. Poor lil’ pup abandoned w/ a wire wrapped around his mouth. I’ll help. Stay strong pup.” Despite never having met the dog, he donated $1,500 for treatment.
And in 2016, Dwayne and his girlfriend spotted two abandoned dogs while they were driving and decided to take them with them. They fed the dogs, cleaned them, and had them checked out. Then Dwayne found them a home.
Dwayne’s diet
Dwayne is 6’5” (196 cm), weighs around 260 lbs (118 kg), and works out as often as humanly possible. So, he eats a lot. When he was preparing for his role as Hercules, he ate roughly 10 pounds of food per day, spread out over 7 meals, containing a total of 5,165 calories. That’s about twice as many calories as the average man consumes.
His coach, George Farah, does his meal planning. Dwayne follows it to a T because he trusts in George’s judgment. When George was asked which of his clients was the easiest to work with, he said: “The easiest I will say is Kai Greene as a bodybuilder and Dwayne The Rock Johnson as a celebrity. Both of these gentlemen execute the program perfectly.”
Unfortunately, the incorrect idea that building muscle is easier on animal protein than plant-based protein is still common in the fitness world, and George has always included lots of animal products in Dwayne’s diet. In the aforementioned 10 pounds per day diet, Dwayne ate 2.3 pounds of cod, 12 eggs, plus steak and chicken every day.
So, for every animal that’s killed for the average person, at least two are killed for Dwayne. And because he’s an example to many, a lot more animals are killed for people trying to emulate him. And on top of that, he has also actively promoted animal products. Most notably, he starred in the “Got Milk?” campaign’s first Super Bowl ad.
However, Dwayne has said that he stopped eating cod when he learned that cod populations were dwindling. And George’s other easiest client, bodybuilder Kai Greene, announced in 2019, after watching the documentary The Game Changers, that he was going to trial a plant-based diet for a week. He even published a short e-book about it: Plant-Based Dieting – Stranded Island. So, it’s not unthinkable that Dwayne will someday adopt a plant-based diet as well.
Fishing and horseback riding
Unfortunately, Dwayne is also into fishing. He has referred to it as a family tradition. And he doesn’t just fish, he also raises fish himself in his private pond. In 2017, he posted a picture of himself fishing on Instagram with the following caption:
“As an animal lover – both land and water – I’ve been raising my bass for years now on our farm. I feed them like kings with live bait and train them to be extra aggressive killers. I have specialists come in to inspect the water, vegetation and ecosystem to make sure they’re living like the top of the food chain predators they are. Big daddy comes home to recharge his batteries & spend time with them and not even one of these ungrateful fat hogs will strike my top water plug I’ve been working for an hour now. Cool.. just remember who’s in charge of the fish food truck you sum bitches. #ResetAndRecharge #JohnsonFarm #WhereEvenTheBassHaveAttitude”
As you can see, he describes himself as an “animal lover,” but he doesn’t see that his actions contradict that completely. He keeps these bass in captivity. Then he buys other live animals with the sole purpose of releasing them in his pond to be hunted and killed. And then he tricks the bass into biting into sharp hooks so he can kill them too. That’s not love.
Apart from fish, Dwayne also keeps horses on his property. And while there’s nothing wrong with taking care of horses, riding them is another matter. Wild horses don’t allow humans to sit on their backs and tell them where to go, and there’s no reason for us to make any other horse do this either. A horse deserves to move around freely without the weight of a human on their back.
Dwayne’s other animal interactions
Dwayne has interacted with animals in captivity on various occasions. He enjoys these interactions because he’s not focused on the fact that the animals are living in captivity. Here’s a section of his tweet related to the gorillas he interacted with in preparation for the movie Rampage:
“I was an animal lover before #RAMPAGEMovie but after filming my respect for animals is boundless. Thank you Dian Fossey Fund and Atlanta Zoo (and it’s Silverbacks) for the education.”
In 2018, he also promoted the movie by posting a picture of himself sitting on top of an alligator while clenching the alligator’s jaws shut. Part of his fan base criticized him for that.
He also received criticism a few months later, when he visited the Georgia Aquarium and posed with various captive marine mammals. One of the pictures he posted was of him fist bumping a beluga. In nature, belugas travel long distances and can live beyond the age of 60, but in captivity they become stressed and usually don’t even make it to 25.
Animal lover
Dwayne consistently refers to himself as an animal lover, but apart from the way he treats dogs, he doesn’t live that way. We don’t think he’s intentionally mislabeling himself, but he clearly hasn’t considered how many animals needlessly suffer and die for his diet and lifestyle. Hopefully, he aligns his actions with his words in the future.
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