Reply To: know any frum vegetarians or vegans?

Curiosity, I’m not aware of rabbonim considered gedolim who are vegetarians for reasons of tzaar baalei chayim, but I’m also not aware of a single gadol would has said that factory farm conditions are consistent with halacha. In fact, every rabbi I have ever heard of who has actually looked into the facts of how animals are treated (I’m talking about pre-shechita here) has concluded there are grave violations. Many well-known rabbis — the Nazir of Jerusalem, his son the current Chief Rabbi of Haifa, R’ David Rosen the former Chief Rabbi of Ireland, prolific chassidic author Dovid Sears, the Kaminetzer Maggid — were vegetarians, and animal welfare concerns were often one of the main motivations.

Curiosity, the vegan diet may be extreme historically, but vegans are not loony. They have the reputation of being a little intense, but that is often due to the zeal of the 17-year old converted — that is to say, a small minority of unpleasant of extreme people. In my experience with (non-frum) vegans, they are mainly normal, and don’t try to convert everyone or militantly oppose things like zoos and honey.