Almost completely off topic now, but I was interested by the comment about the "pilgrims" because I was certainly taught at my (European) school that they left Britain because they didn't have freedom of religion. I looked it up (Wikipedia, where else? but it has footnotes) and discussed it with an American friend who is knowledgeable about history. It seems true that they were harassed here (fined and even imprisoned for not towing the line). Whether that amounts to persecution is a matter of opinion.
Interestingly the first "pilgrims" went initially to the Netherlands which did have freedom of religion, so perhaps that's what Chris F is thinking of. It was only when that didn't work out that they crossed the Atlantic.
Once in the New World, some Puritans were responsible for persecution of others, e.g. the Salem witch trials, and also for some abuse of Native Americans, but I'm not there's any evidence that that was their reason for going there.
They probably did want to see an all-Puritan world, but it's a bit of a leap to go from that to saying that people who would like to see a vegan world plan to "persecute" non-vegans, if that's your thinking, ChrisF.
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