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Why did Pythagoras connect avoiding meat with kindness toward animals?

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Illustration of a vegan food pyramid divided into four sections: whole grains at the base, followed by vegetables, then fruit, and legumes at the top, with recommended daily servings and images of representative foods in each group. — vegetarianism A vegan food pyramid, which excludes meat and animal products.

Pythagoras’s advocacy for a meatless diet was fundamentally rooted in the belief in the transmigration of souls, or reincarnation.12

Pythagoreans held that after death, a human soul could be reborn into the body of an animal. This concept led to the principle of the "kinship of all beings," suggesting that because all living things share a common soul, they are inherently connected. Consequently, avoiding meat was an ethical extension of this belief, as consuming an animal could mean harming a being that might house a human soul.231

By abstaining from animal flesh, followers sought to honor this kinship and practice non-violence toward other living creatures. This philosophy established a moral framework that emphasized compassion and respect for life, viewing the mistreatment or slaughter of animals as fundamentally incompatible with the spiritual goal of purifying the soul to reach higher incarnations.421