Vegan Woman Furious After Neighbour Cooks Meat In His Garden

When you live in close proximity to people, it’s always best to maintain a good relationship. Your neighbours can really make or break the experience of living in your own home.

This Redditor had so far been able to maintain a good relationship with his neighbours until new ones moved in 6 months ago.

OP had a habit of cooking beef jerky in his backyard that he would normally share with his previous neighbours. His new ones however were vegan and didn’t take too kindly to the notion.

"My old neighbours loved it. I would give them a bag every time I made some; we had a good relationship.”

"Our new neighbours however we do not have a great relationship with.”

source

The main issue however was that of a wafting smell that would enter the garden of the vegan neighbours that they said was making them sick.

source

The Redditor said that the neighbours first approached him asking him to cook the beef jerky inside his home. OP however refused.

"They moved in about 6 months ago and all was going well until the female neighbour knocked on our door and asked if we could stop making jerky outside because she and her husband are vegans, and the smell is making them sick.”

source

"I told them I'd rather not have to make it inside because the smell is quite strong (ironic, I know) and that I'd prefer to continue to make it outside.”

He further went on to say that he only cooked beef jerky once every 2-3 months and that it was a small inconvenience for them. He added that he would try to cook it on the other side of the garden so the smell wouldn’t be too overpowering on their side.

"I explained that it was only once every 2 or 3 months and maybe if I move it further away from their side it might make a difference. She wasn't too happy but left.”

source

"Last week I was making jerky again and sure enough she knocks on the door again, this time much angrier and demanded we stop because it was making her and her child sick.”

"I told her that no, I wouldn't stop and perhaps they could close up their house or something.”

"Anyway, I kind of feel bad because I can understand where she is coming from."

source

Commenters were split down the middle. While some defended his right to do whatever he pleased on his own property, those with experience of dehydrating meat said that the smell was quite overpowering and had the tendency to linger for days after the cooking process is done.

"NTA. People BBQ in their backyards all the time too and that smell goes everywhere!! Is she going to go tell everyone they can’t BBQ in their backyards either because the smell of hotdogs and ribs are overwhelming? The entitlement of some people baffles my mind."

"The smell of a BBQ in a backyard is pleasant and usually over in an hour or two (I don’t eat meat anymore, but when I cook up a steak for the dog I do still enjoy the aroma), but dehydrating meat is pretty strong. And it lingers. I’m not sure how long OP does theirs for but my Dad used to take between 10 - 15 hours and you’d still be able to catch a whiff of it around on day two if he made quite a large batch. I imagine even some omnivorous neighbours would be pretty annoyed by the wafting scent of dog treats permeating their yard :P

I think ESH, smells and noise is just part of living beside other humans, OP’s neighbours are being a bit unreasonable, but also OP could have tried to find some middle ground by giving them a heads up it was jerky day or something given he knew it was a problem the last time around."

This commenter found a happy medium.

"NTA as described but I'm wondering if you can let them know when your jerky day is coming up, or maybe even ask like, "Hey I'm gonna make jerky this weekend and I was wondering if you had a preference for the day, so I don't interrupt any plans," or something like that. I feel like if they continue to be huffy even after you show you're trying to be considerate, then that's entirely on them."