I agree, Jess....They genuinely, royally fucked up and should have made a sincere apology from the moment this story got out.
I also thought, "Hey, at least WML made a quick response available to Us here at VW! This official response seems to cover all the bases...." but then I finished the letter and noticed a clear lack of an apology, and the vague notion that they'll continue to use meat photos in the magazine for an indefinite period of time.

Do they not realize that paying money (even if it's only a little) to a stock photo site will directly pay the photographer for those images? That someone is essentially collecting royalties every time they decide to use a photo of DEAD FUCKING ANIMALS?!?

Paying for meat-filled stock photos is like buying a wool coat or leather jacket from an outlet mall:  Sure, a person can save some money and not give as much money to the retailer because it's being sold at a discount price to a middle-man.....but that person is still giving money to the retailer, whose business is (at least in part) contributing to a supplier who has tortured, maimed, and killed some animals just so that product could go on the shelves.

OH JEEZ, VEGAN RIBS ARE SOOOO HARD TO MAKE AND PHOTOGRAPH! *boohoo*
Gaorok forbid they actually look around on the fucking site that they now own.......

http://vegweb.com/recipephotos/albums/userpics/115701/normal_tasty_ribs.jpg

But if Oprah and Martha Stewart don't like this amateur photo, why would any of the subscribers?!?

No excuse for this, particularly when there are hundreds - if not THOUSANDS - of people who would volunteer to take vegan photos for the magazine just for a credit under the picture. 

My thoughts exactly. And if you've visited any of the vegan blogs anywhere on the net, you'd see that it's quite easy to take beautiful and enticing amateur photos of food. Even the response seems like a copout.

I totally agree with you both. I know that I, personally, would rather see amateur photographs which may or may not be of lesser quality but are VEGAN, than catch myself drooling over pictures of meat. This would be a fantastic opportunity to let non-pro photographers get published. I feel that the vegan community is good at bonding together and being accepting of "imperfection"--we support newly vegans who make mistakes, we offer advice when other vegans are in sticky situations, and I think we would all be comfortable with giving up some quality of images, as long as they were vegan photos. We'd be supporting other vegans, in the process.

This really stinks. A lot.

I made a post about this yesterday and it was DELETED.  :(

http://vegweb.com/index.php?topic=39751.0

I also agree that those who are reacting with extreme outrage are often the same folks who alienate others from the vegan community, who look down on folks who aren't vegan but might be trying, or might be interested, with such contempt that it paints the entire community as a pseudo-cult of fanatics.

Furthermore, those who are suggesting VegNews is contributing to the abust and exploitation of animals by using stock photos - please. Get over yourself. I certainly hope those of that mind never shop at a grocery store that sells meat, eggs, dairy, or honey. Or visits a farmer's market that might have stands selling the same. Or eat anyplace that offers even a single non-vegan item. Or buys clothes anywhere that sell wool or leather. None of us are perfect, and every purchase we make results in pain, suffering, and probably even the death of some animal somewhere.

Personally, I'd like to see more people interested in veganism, not less. I'd like to see more people trying a few meatless meals a week and thinking about the food they eat. And the vitriolic crap I've seen some posters spew about this issue is exactly what's keeping some from making those initial steps. Keep it up folks, you're our own worst enemies.

I sort of don't see your connection here, at all. What does anyone's "vitriolic crap" (and since you didn't quote a post, I have no idea what you are referencing) have to do with alienating people from taking the initial step to veganism? This issue doesn't really have anything to do with how we choose to be viewed by the outside world or how we react to omnivores. This is an internal issue, one that affects an entity, one which we felt was an ally. Veg*ns get enough resistance from the outside world--can we not trust VegNews to be honest with us? What's next? Casein in Daiya cheese? This puts us on alert, when we previously felt safe. VegNews is a magazine directed toward the veg*n community, we are the veg*n community, we have a response to what we perceive as being lied to. VegNews exists in a capitalist system--if we, the subscribers, don't like what they're doing, we have more than the right to discontinue our relationship with them.

I just don't understand your reasoning in your second paragraph above. We understand that we make imperfect choices, but we try our best to reduce suffering and to make the best choice possible. Yes, we may shop at a farmers' market that sells meat, but WE WILL NOT PURCHASE SAID MEAT.There is a huge moral difference here. Meat photos are NOT the best choice possible. There are other options, and I think the discussion surrounding those other options might be quite beneficial to VegWeb and the veg*n community.

What's next? Casein in Daiya cheese?

You better not have jinxed this.  :help!:

Okay, one more big rant and then I'll be done (for a while). Since my iPod stopped working a few months back, I have decided to spend my entire runs with myself, in solitude, having internal conversations and pondering life. So...I have 8 miles of bullshit to catch you all up on.

I finally realized what has upset me so much about this issue. As a vegan living in the Midwest, I am almost completely solitary in my endeavors. I know one vegan (my boyfriend, who doesn't really feel the need to do much research/reading on his own. Fine) and 2 vegetarians. It's not like I can go out to eat and tell someone I want something vegan, as people around here do not even understand the word. I am not even able to ask if something has dairy, as I realized not many people even understand what that word means. I have to run through the list with the waiter: Does it have milk? Butter? Cheese? Yogurt? Something that didn't have dairy a minute before, now has yogurt. You get the picture. This creates a huge thread of mistrust in my mind. I make almost all of my own food, as I do not have access to many things people in cities do, such as Gardein and other convenience foods, and we just got Daiya here a few months ago. I am extremely paranoid about my food and what is in it, as I do not trust the people around me to be smart enough to know what's going into the dish. For holidays, I still make our parents run through the recipes, just so I can be sure they didn't miss something and dump in honey.

In my isolation, I have grown comfortable knowing what I can trust and what I cannot. I know that when I go to Qdoba, I will see meat, and I have come to accept this. I also know that there isn't a single vegan thing on the menu at 90% of the restaurants in my town. I also accept this. In my paranoia, I feel comfortable within a certain confine. VegWeb is one of the places I feel "safe" and normal. I don't have to explain in detail why breeding Siberian Foxes for pets is wrong. I can skip the bullshit explanation and just get to bitching immediately with you guys. Also, VegNews was another one of the safe places. Within those pages, I was able to feel normal, like I belonged to a bigger community. I did not question the veganness of the recipes or photos, and I trusted the company to have vegan practices. They broke this trust. I let my guard down, something I barely ever do within my vegan world, and they completely fucked it up. And you know what the worst part is? They don't give a shit. They do not seem to fully comprehend what this breach of trust means to me. I stopped being paranoid that cheese was going to come jumping out at me from the pages. I stopped scanning the recipes with the thought in my mind of what I was going to have to change to make it vegan. I felt completely at home there, and they completely do not seem to care.

In short, I feel like a spurned lover. I gave them my trust, and they breached that contract. We had an agreement, that they were a vegan company and I was buying their product because of this. They. Screwed. Up. Not as much in the practice (but, yes, in the practice), but in that piss poor excuse for an apology. You really don't get it, do you VegNews?

Okay, one more big rant and then I'll be done (for a while). Since my iPod stopped working a few months back, I have decided to spend my entire runs with myself, in solitude, having internal conversations and pondering life. So...I have 8 miles of bullshit to catch you all up on.

I finally realized what has upset me so much about this issue. As a vegan living in the Midwest, I am almost completely solitary in my endeavors. I know one vegan (my boyfriend, who doesn't really feel the need to do much research/reading on his own. Fine) and 2 vegetarians. It's not like I can go out to eat and tell someone I want something vegan, as people around here do not even understand the word. I am not even able to ask if something has dairy, as I realized not many people even understand what that word means. I have to run through the list with the waiter: Does it have milk? Butter? Cheese? Yogurt? Something that didn't have dairy a minute before, now has yogurt. You get the picture. This creates a huge thread of mistrust in my mind. I make almost all of my own food, as I do not have access to many things people in cities do, such as Gardein and other convenience foods, and we just got Daiya here a few months ago. I am extremely paranoid about my food and what is in it, as I do not trust the people around me to be smart enough to know what's going into the dish. For holidays, I still make our parents run through the recipes, just so I can be sure they didn't miss something and dump in honey.

In my isolation, I have grown comfortable knowing what I can trust and what I cannot. I know that when I go to Qdoba, I will see meat, and I have come to accept this. I also know that there isn't a single vegan thing on the menu at 90% of the restaurants in my town. I also accept this. In my paranoia, I feel comfortable within a certain confine. VegWeb is one of the places I feel "safe" and normal. I don't have to explain in detail why breeding Siberian Foxes for pets is wrong. I can skip the bullshit explanation and just get to bitching immediately with you guys. Also, VegNews was another one of the safe places. Within those pages, I was able to feel normal, like I belonged to a bigger community. I did not question the veganness of the recipes or photos, and I trusted the company to have vegan practices. They broke this trust. I let my guard down, something I barely ever do within my vegan world, and they completely fucked it up. And you know what the worst part is? They don't give a shit. They do not seem to fully comprehend what this breach of trust means to me. I stopped being paranoid that cheese was going to come jumping out at me from the pages. I stopped scanning the recipes with the thought in my mind of what I was going to have to change to make it vegan. I felt completely at home there, and they completely do not seem to care.

In short, I feel like a spurned lover. I gave them my trust, and they breached that contract. We had an agreement, that they were a vegan company and I was buying their product because of this. They. Screwed. Up. Not as much in the practice (but, yes, in the practice), but in that piss poor excuse for an apology. You really don't get it, do you VegNews?

I totally agree with 100% of this.  Where I live there isn't a single resturant in town with a vegan meal on the menu and very few with a vegetarian one.  When I say the word vegan people are more like to think of the Jody Foster movie than diet.  Fish and sometimes chicken are on the vegetarian menus.  Even at Qdoba, the only vegan-friendly place in town, the same servers (who know my daughter by name and give her free food) still ask me what meat I want on my Veggie burrito and if I'm sure about not wanting cheese/sour cream.  People here just don't get it.  I go to VN so that I don't feel alone.  I like having pictures with recipes so that I have some idea of what something is going to end up looking like.  Now I feel repulsed by the magazine.  I guess I will have to black out all the pictures or something before I consider using the recipes.  I could care less how pretty or widely published VN is (although I've NEVER EVER seen it in a store).  I buy it to feel connected to other vegans.  If they can't afford photos, then don't use any!  Honestly their response makes me more upset then anything. 

As far as the Daiya goes, my omni friend with a nursing daughter who is seriously allergic to milk protein and eggs eats it without any trouble.  So far, so good. 

Its hard, part of me feels torn, I loved VegNews, especially for the pictures!  However, like others mentioned, it feels yucky thinking about those pics maybe being meat.  And, more importantly, they do, even in a smaller way, contribute to that slaughter, while also expanding the idea that vegan food doesn't look as appetizing as meat.

I hope they will issue a better apology, as the one they have didn't quite cut it for me. And deleting comments is downright horrible, it makes the whole situation seem all the more purposeful.

This is also surprizing to me because recently someone caught an ad in there for a non-vegan product, and they printed the letter from the reader and apologized, promising that they would be sure to check that in the future. So while in the past they have seemed always seemed hyper-vigilant for issues like this, I think the meat photos, which were purposefully done, would have gotten a better apology. (Or actually not been used at all)....

While I'm sure the other photos may require some additional funds, it would be a great way to showcase bloggers and other vegans photos!!!! If they start to do this I will be much more apt to keep my subscription.

What's next? Casein in Daiya cheese?

You better not have jinxed this.  :help!:

That would be bad like Hip Whip and those oldschool vegan marshmallows that both ended up not being completely vegan.