Was Ayn Rand a vegetarian

Answer 1

No, Ayn Rand was not a vegetarian. She believed in the ethical principles of rational self-interest and individualism, which included the idea that individuals have the right to pursue their own interests, including their dietary choices.

Answer 2

There are rumors that she was. However, her philosophy places no moral burden on anyone to follow vegetarianism. Rights, according to her, are derived from the capacity to reason. In contrast philosophers like Peter singer argue that rights come from the capacity to feel pain and that the higher the intelligence the greater this capacity. Thus, he argues, a utilitarian calculus should include relative intelligence of the experiencer of pain or pleasure in addition to the traditional factors (remoteness/propinquity, likelihood, duration etc..). Rand argues that animals cannot reason and thus have no rights. However, as Rand is a consequentialist one could make the point from her logic that an extremely intelligent animal has rights if it can reason. She would therefore argue that that animal has an obligation to itself first and should not allow itself to be harmed by humans. She would in fact reject the idea that intelligent animals should have a mentality of submission to humans if they are in fact smart enough to have such a mentality. However, Rand's arguments for selfishness do not exclude one from being a vegetarian as a matter of preferential taste or for one's own health. I personally doubt that Rand was a vegetarian as she personally scorned those who did not take as much pleasure in life as possible. She may have not liked the taste of meat but that doesn't mean that she would refuse to eat it if she was aware that it was highly healthful or pleasurable. Assuming she follows her own philosophy of course.

So if your definition of a vegetarian is about someone who avoids meat because they don't want to cause undo harm to animals then I doubt it.