A vegan boy received no response from his classmates after revealing his mother would bake a cake without animal products in it.
Malachi’s mother, 27-year-old Angel Craine from Scarborough in southeast Queensland, had been planning his Pokémon-themed party for more than a month but was disappointed to learn that none of his friends planned to attend .
“Every day after school I would hear kids making rude comments about him being vegan,” Ms Craine told Daily Mail Australia.
‘But it wasn’t until a week ago that he told me that everyone said they wouldn’t come to his party if he had a vegan cake.
“They want there to be ‘animals’ in it, otherwise they won’t come.”
Malachi (pictured with his mother, Angel Craine, and brother) had to spend his fifth birthday alone after his friends refused to come
Malachi’s friends said they wouldn’t come to his Pokémon birthday party unless there were ‘cows’ in his vegan chocolate cake (photo, Malachi’s party outfit)
Ms Craine switched to a completely vegan diet last year, but had no expectations that her two sons, aged four and two, would follow suit.
Both Malachi and his brother are big animal lovers and regularly visit farms to see them up close.
It was during one of those trips that Malachi realized where one of his favorite foods, chicken nuggets, came from and vowed not to eat animals forever.
“He’s really passionate about being vegan,” Ms Craine said.
‘He absolutely loves his animals. When I explained that chicken is in nuggets and cow is in burgers, he was immediately thrown out and never wanted to touch an animal product again.”
Malachi has been vegan since January and ‘wouldn’t change for the world’, but his school friends don’t agree with his new diet.
Malachi (left) and his little brother (right), two years old, have been voluntarily vegan since January
Mrs Craine said her son has been excited about his Pokémon party for weeks and was over the moon to celebrate the special day with his friends.
“I think he was excited to tell his friends that he was eating a vegan chocolate cake, and they confronted him about it and said they weren’t coming,” she said.
“They want his cake to have ‘cow’ in it, otherwise they won’t come, that’s how they put it.”
At first, the disappointed mother thought the kids would get over the “vegan cake” problem, but realized his son was in for a lonely birthday as soon as the RSVP deadline arrived.
“We haven’t had any response yet regarding his birthday invitations or the arrival of friends,” she said.
With no other options, Ms Caine was forced to ask her vegan Facebook group if parents wanted to bring their children to the party.
Mrs Craine (left) invited a local vegan Facebook group to join her for Malachi’s celebration (left) – so far 12 children are planning to attend
“Next weekend is the day and there are about 12 kids coming,” she said.
‘It will be nice for him to make nice friends with similar interests.
‘He’s always keen to make friends, he’s a little social butterfly, so he’s super excited about his birthday.
“He’s also absolutely obsessed with Pokémon, I even bought him a Pikachu costume to wear.”