She’s one of Kim Kardashian’s younger half-sisters and has starred in Keeping Up with the Kardashians since she was 11. As a teen, she started modeling, and she quickly rose to the top. Now she’s known as one of the most popular and successful models in the world. But is Kendall Jenner vegan?
No, Kendall Jenner is not vegan. She eats meat and other animal products, she wears fur and other materials made from animals, and she rides horses. She has never spoken about animal rights, she has never referred to herself as vegan, and she has also never followed a plant-based diet.
Horseback riding
Kendall has said that she has loved horses since she was little. She especially relied on them as a young teen, when she had trouble making friends and was “sitting in [her] room a lot of days crying.” While other girls were hanging out with their friends, she was spending time with horses.
Spending time with horses meant riding them. She would go horseback riding every day after school, and during the summer she would ride all day, from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. She knew a woman who had 13 to 15 horses and she would ride all of them. “It was my life,” she said.
Around the age of 15 she stopped riding horses, a decision she later regretted. In her early twenties, after years of working hard without any real break, she felt burned-out and was suffering from debilitating anxiety. So, she decided to start horseback riding again. She also expressed that she wanted to participate in horse shows, but not under her real name.
She has done photo shoots on horseback as well. One particular photo, published in 2019, was met with significant criticism.
There’s no reason to believe that Kendall isn’t being sincere when she says she loves horses. She probably genuinely doesn’t see how a horse might be uncomfortable with camera flashes in their eyes and her knees dug into their back. And part of the reason she doesn’t see it is that horseback riding in general is normalized in our society.
The horse industry is about breeding horses into existence with the purpose of separating them from their families and selling them to people who want to sit on their backs and control in which direction they walk, whether they walk or run, when they stop, and when they jump. Without even getting into the breaking in off horses, the use of whips, back injuries and other injuries, and the fact that injured horses often get killed, we can see that horseback riding exists to benefit humans, not horses. It’s therefore not vegan.
However, because horseback riding is generally presented as the activity for people who love horses, it’s understandable that Kendall bought into that. Many vegans were into horseback riding before they became vegan, but they have since found ways to spend time with horses that don’t involve riding them. Hopefully, Kendall will do the same.
Kendall’s dogs and snake
Many companion animals have been featured on Keeping Up with the Kardashians. It’s estimated that the family has had around 40 of them in just a decade. But unfortunately, that number is not a measure of how much they love companion animals, but a measure of how easily they replace them. Some animals have been given away or put up for adoption when they were no longer wanted, others have disappeared without any explanation of what happened to them, and at least four have died while living with the family.
Kendall, specifically, got a Great Dane puppy named Blu from her half-brother Rob Kardashian when she turned 18. What happened to Blu is unclear. A few years later, her sister Kylie gave her an Italian Greyhound puppy named Mew. Kendall used Mew to promote a dog-walking app shortly after. What happened to Mew is also unclear.
Kendall has also posted pictures of herself with an unnamed Doberman Pinscher, accompanied by captions like “she’ll get yuh” and “cute but she’ll rip your face off.” And she once posted a video of herself with a snake, captioned “my son.” It’s unclear if the snake ever lived with her.
Fur and other materials
In 2018, Kendall wore an oversized fur coat at a fashion show in Milan. She also posted a few photos of herself with the coat on Instagram:
A lot of her fans criticized her for it, and in response she disabled comments on her post. She didn’t take the post down, she didn’t make any statement about it, and she also didn’t stop wearing fur.
Given how much attention the cruelty behind fur has gotten, it’s highly unlikely that she’s unaware that foxes and other animals are kept in small cages until they’re electrocuted, drowned, or skinned alive to be turned into coats. The fact that she still wears those coats suggests indifference.
And although it’s great that the cruelty behind fur gets so much attention, it also has a downside. That downside is that by singling out fur, the impression is given that there’s no cruelty behind other materials made from animals, which couldn’t be further from the truth.
Leather is the skin of an animal, it doesn’t look as much like an animal as fur because the hairs have been removed, but an animal was still killed for it. And down, wool, and silk are all products of cruelty as well. Criticizing Kendall for wearing fur while still wearing other materials made from animals makes no sense. So, hopefully, both Kendall and the people who criticize her give up all animal materials.
Kendall’s diet
Although she makes exceptions, Kendall generally stays away from processed food, junk food, and soft drinks. So, her diet mainly consists of healthy plant-based food and some animal products. Some of the meals she or people close to her have mentioned she eats are: a big bowl of oatmeal, avocado over eggs, lean chicken and brown rice, sushi, vegan spaghetti Bolognese, Margherita pizza, and fettuccine with peas. Some snacks she has mentioned are: hummus and carrots, chips and guacamole, peanut butter, frozen yogurt, and Twix.
Because her diet is low on processed food, it’s relatively healthy. However, the animal products she eats aren’t necessary in any way. There aren’t any essential nutrients in them that she can’t get elsewhere, and there are completely plant-based versions of every meal and snack she eats.
More animals suffer and die for her diet than for any other aspect of her lifestyle, and because she can switch to a plant-based diet without giving up nutrients or flavor, we hope she will make that switch in the future.
Do you want to learn more about veganism? Check out our list of free resources!
Did you spot inaccurate or outdated information in this article? Let us know!
