One Australian woman recently found herself in a hair-raising predicament, revealing that her vegan neighbor had refused to treat her kids for head lice thanks to her plant-based principles.


“My seven-year-old daughter is best friends with the girl next door, whose family are vegan,” she began, noting that they “respect” their neighbors’ lifestyle. “My problem is that recently this otherwise delightful child was at our house and scratching furiously, and I discovered she was crawling with head lice.”



Though the vast majority of parents would immediately grab the clippers and start giving crewcuts upon learning their kids had lice, the woman’s neighbor took a very different approach, revealing that she not only knew about the infestation but was slowly rehoming the bugs off of her childrens’ heads and into their yard.


“She told me she was in the practice of combing the lice and nits into the garden where they had the best chance of survival,” they wrote, adding that this reaction made their “jaw hit the floor.” “I don’t want to separate the kids but there’s no way ‘combing them into the garden’ is going to work and I don’t want my daughter covered in vermin.”


As news of the mom’s decision to spare the colony of lice living on her children’s heads swept through the internet, several vegans and their pals sounded off on the debacle, sharing that it’s okay to not want a scalp full of living, breathing, breeding parasites.


“Hell nah I know plenty vegans. This just some white shit,”  wrote @__Retro.


“Vegan here. The definition of veganism is to reduce the unnecessary suffering you cause to the greatest extent practicable and possible,” Redditor u/AshJammy commented on a viral r/Facepalm post debating the story.


“Killing head lice is vegan when they are on your head or the head of someone in your care as they are threatening the health of that person,” they continued, noting that lice are different than other animals as they are “directly causing harm.” “It’s the same with swatting a mosquito as it's biting you, killing a dog that's attacking you or killing a person who's trying to kill you. Self-defense doesn't negate being vegan.”


But u/AshJammy wasn’t alone in these views, even expanding into other types of pests.


“Vegan here as well and I’d just like to add that I’m totally cool with people swatting mosquitoes that aren’t actively biting or trying to bite you,” added u/Duubzz. “Fuck mosquitos.”


Vegan or not, there is nothing more inhumane than being a shitty parent.