How I got here.

I have been married to my man for over 8 years.
Not once had I uttered the words "vegan" or "vegetarian", nor had I ever talked about it.

Ohh, I knew it existed but I always pictured the popular stereotype of a happy hippie and never thought much about it other than they might be a bit ,uhm, quirky!

So imagine our surprise when I entered a heated debate with a "militant" vegan, as an animal loving meat eater and got spit back out a confused, hurting vegan (and a lonely one at that)!
My Vegan "birth" was anything but painless. I was awake in the reality. And the reality is cruel.

This happened on one of those "I love pets" Facebook pages.
Where I among others, were accused of hypocrisy when we got upset over a sad treatment of a dog but we still condoned and supported animal agriculture.

At first I wondered what the heck that person was going on about!

I mean, common! Everybody knows it's not right to leave a dog in his kennel all day, every day and only let him out 1x a day for 30 minutes! Right?! That's just common sense and common decency!

Why is this person talking about cows and pigs anyway?

"They live their lives grazing meadows and have access to a barn when it gets cold!
They don't live in tiny little boxes!
Jeez!"

"That cow HAS to be milked! It's for her own good! Her udders will start to feel uncomfortable if we don't milk them! Milk has much needed calcium!"

I could go on and on about my misconceptions but I won't.

I got so pissed off at this stranger on the internet! How dare he to accuse me, of ALL PEOPLE, of not loving animals in general? Of course I do!

I have been bringing in sick, injured, lost and wandering, feral animals since I could remember, much to mother's dismay! I still do - even as I listen to every sigh that my husband tries to hide.

I remember being a scrawny 8 year old that witnessed the older neighborhood bullies, tossing a hamster between them and how I lost my sanity and scared them $hitless!
It got the job done! The poor little hamster was saved and brought to his home.

What is a speciest and why the heck am I accused of being one?

I set out to read every link he posted, watch every video he linked - for the sole purpose of proving him wrong! I was going to pick apart this faceless man's "information" and throw it back in his face!
I was going to teach him a lesson!

Well - turns out, the sad, cruel joke was on me.

Cows that live on factory farms do NOT graze green meadows, happily looking after their calves.
Pigs on factory farms do NOT bathe happily in mud by a pretty, red barn while the sun is shining.
Chickens on a factory farm, do NOT get to run about with their kind, in a big fenced off area by a cute little chicken hutch.

This is "the greatest lie ever told". Something Emily over at Bite sized Vegan, often says (link to her website follows).

I was naïve. Even after years of being bullied, after being abused, after being raped and attacked - by my fellow humans - I still believed that people had goodness in them. That we in general, were good.
We want to be good and we want to do good.

I believe that's why Animal Agriculture needs and wants Ag-Gag laws in place.

This is why we don't get offered a tour into big factory farms.

They do not want us to know the truth. Because as good people, we would be sick to our stomachs at the atrocity these animals face - every day.

I was floored! Disgusted! Heartbroken! Defeated!
And I had only glimpsed a few minutes of the lives of the billions of animals that have been treated horribly by us humans. We have failed them spectacularly and we still do today.
We will fail them spectacularly tomorrow and we will do so the day after that.

Right now - at this minute - there is a cow that is throwing up in unbelievable pain because the bolt gun didn't stun her before she is strung upside down and her neck is cut.

Right now - at this minute - there are pigs crammed in tiny cages - screaming in pain - as they burn on the inside while fully aware and awake.

Right now - at this minute - there are chickens that are strung up by their legs on an assembly line, that miss the stunner and might even miss the "killing machine" where their throat is cut - they will end up being scalded to death in the hot water that is supposed to remove the feathers of their dead bodies.

This is what we call "humane slaughter".

How did I not know the horror these poor, innocent souls, live in?
Better yet! How did I not know I was paying for this horror?!

When I learned this, I hated the "angry vegan" that opened my eyes.
It was so much nicer to live blissfully unaware, in my happy little bubble of goodness.

But here I am.


http://bitesizevegan.com/ethics-and-morality/the-extremism-of-veganism-exposing-the-greatest-lie-speech/ - check out Emily's video.