It was one day in March 2007, when I decided I was no longer going to participate in the exploitation of nonhuman animals.
I had always been a compassionate and caring child. I loved animals, and often felt bad about eating meat. I tried not to think about it though. It's just what we eat, I thought. That all changed the day I went on a trip to a goat farm.
To actually see these gentle, peaceful animals being reduced to nothing more than "machines". To hear the farmers talk happily about how they kill them. The babies, crammed into small pens, without their mothers. It was too much for me, and I burst into tears. I couldn't believe how anyone could be so cruel. On the way home, I told my mother that I wanted to go vegetarian, and so, after "accidentally" eating a hamburger a few days later, I stopped eating meat.
I can't remember what did it, but a few months later everything just 'clicked' and I realised that I had to be vegan if I really cared about other animals. No matter what they're used for, they're all slaves, they all get murdered in the end and they all suffer. So after doing research to show my Mum that I wasn't going to get any deficiencies by being vegan, I gave up all animal products overnight. I decided I wasn't going to participate in violence towards nonhuman animals any longer. At 13 years old, I went vegan. And it was the best decision I have ever made.
From the months of being vegetarian, my family had gradually gone off eating meat, since it was easier to make a vegetarian meal for the whole family instead of two separate meals. When I went vegan, my sister Tasha, 11 at the time, decided to go vegan as well. Then Alana, 9, went vegan a few months after that. My parents took a while, but they finally went of milk and onto almond milk a couple of years later. The last two to change were Janina and Eddy, the two youngest. They did want to go vegan, but my parents believed that they were too young and they needed the calcium in milk for growing bones. But then, after reading The China Study, my parents took them off milk and they were allowed to go vegan too.
For one or two years I was a member of PETA to learn about animal rights and how I could be a voice for animals. But at times they confused me. After learning about the Abolitionist Approach to Animal Rights, I decided I wasn't going to support PETA or any other welfarist organisations anymore. Right from the start, I have always believed that we need to be promoting veganism and nothing less in order to help animals.
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If you're not vegan, please go vegan - it's extremely easy! If you are vegan, please promote veganism unequivocally!
Hi Emmy.
ReplyDeleteIm chris. I curious about vegans. reading a post (http://vegan-times.com/tag/speciesists-say-the-darndest-things/) you made about Speciesists on another blog I was directed to your website. I believe that eating meat and the domestication of animals are both inherently unnecessary and out dated method/system of eating.
I believe generally violence is unintelligent and I find repulsive. On the matter of violence. I question the reasons for why you started to go vegan. Your response to your trip to the goat farm is understandble and many would do the same. This is a typical result of a society where people are not involved enough with farming to have the hands on and insight observation experience. Thus we become num/unaware to the actually farming process. However on a side note you could say that is wrong as people are even more exposed to violence in todays digital age and thus would not be surprised to such violence. Any way due to the many sensory influences of seeing by hand animals slaughtered must be quite a vividly intense experience. Anyway most of that is obviously. The question I have, is your view on this violence confined to the empathy of domestic animals only or to organics and natural systems? I ask because I question Vegans and their methods. You could conceptually be compared to Christians/Charity and how they give money to the poor in order to help them yet only to do little to improve the overall system of society. Instead trying to question the ways of society in order to solve the problem and get to its roots, they instead just make them selves feel better and think they made a contribution worth while. When really they solved nothing. What i am trying to say is your vegan movement must look beyond and go to the root of the problem. You should not be disgusted (although I understand) about domesticated animals being killed and eaten. You should be disgusted that we still eat meat. Which originally (long time ago) humans naturaly became carnivorous for the need to survive after our resources ( were damaged ) and generally from evolution and natural selection. This habit and act was continued to present day. This should be investigated and developed. We have the technology. Its just a matter of seeing their is to be change and the current method and science of eating (animals) for protein is outdated.
Hi Chris,
ReplyDeleteBeing vegan is about being nonviolent as possible. Of course there are always things we can't control but the things we do have control of - what we choose to eat, wear and use, we should always choose the options that don't directly participate in harming other animals.
Why do you think vegans aren't "trying to question the ways of society in order to solve the problem and get to its roots"? That's exactly what we're doing :) We're boycotting products of violence and educating others about veganism to get to the root of the problem (animal use).
Hope I've answered your question :)