Gone vegan

[paleogirl]

I just watched this: http://www.meat.org/

I guess it won't surprise a lot of you vegans, but there are tears streaming down my face. I am joining you.

Quite honestly, right now I feel ashamed to be human.

[Tombi]

Welcome to the fold and better health and well being!

[konmai]

I couldn't even finish watching that video.

[summergrogan]

wow! i am at a loss of words! that is so horrible!

[Rawadventures]

My son and dh will be watching this video. I am quite sick to my stomach now.

[codajess]

Congratulations!

[paleogirl]

Konmai, my instinct was to turn off too, but I forced myself to watch the whole thing. I knew it would be distressing, but at the point where the cow is branded and cries out with pain, I had this surge of emotion and said to myself "That's it! I can't indirectly support this any longer". A switch was flicked. And as the video went on that feeling got stronger. I have for years now only bought organic meat but I know that only effects what they are fed, lack of antibiotics, etc. They are probably treated as badly at the 'farm' and certainly have the same horrendous experience at the slaughterhouse, as they use the same facilities (albeit cleaned up from the previous non-organic slaughtering). How could anyone work in that industry and go home and sleep? I guess it's just a stronger form of denial than the one I've been living with all these years.

It's funny, I had a similar (albeit not as life-changing) experience a few months ago, right before I went raw. I was driving on the highway and overtook a cattle truck. I turned to look at it and locked eyes with a cow. I felt this huge pang of love/sorrow/remorse/anger. For the rest of the journey I seriously toyed with the idea of veganism (the leap is from meat eater to vegan for me since I am allergic to all dairy and eggs). I justified not doing it because I can't have grains, but this was before I discovered raw. Now I feel confident I could do it.

[jaurequi]

paleogirl,

That is so wonderful. Thank you for making the change. Sometimes it takes being shocked to make the difference.

Your story about the cow's eyes brought tears to mine and gave me a chill.


Best,

[Up LEAP 100 Billion]

I'll try and get my girlfriend to watch this but I'll doubt she'll be willing to (she thinks eating meat is normal and gets sick of me telling her it is very unnatural).

[levamssg]

Thank you for posting the link to this video.

Recommended reading to take Alissa's Level II Certification is "Diet for a New America" by John Robbins.
I suggest EVERYONE read this book. He writes about exactly what is on this video --- and in Extreme Detail.

I'm reading it now. I am totally sick, upset, angry ... humiliated that I am part of a human race that inflicts these unspeakable horrible things unto these beautiful animal creatures. I went into a grocery store yesterday and almost threw up when I had to walk past the meat counters.

Folks here, on this board, already are vegan - don't contribute to this atrosity by consuming the end product.

It's those people, SAD eaters, who ARE consuming these products that need re-educating -- that need to see this. Unfortunately, I suspect they wouldn't watch/read, and if they did, would not believe, and if they did - simply wouldn't care. It is so sad. It is hard not to cry when you think of the enormity of it all.

[sport]

But this goes further than just eating meat. Who has leather furniture or leather car seats.
I have already specified that our next car will not have leather seats.

[light food]

I actually lived in rural dairy country for years when I was a kid, my dad wasn't a farmer, he had a regular job, but we kept goats for milk for about 4 years. The hardest part was getting rid of the male kids. One of my most haunting memories is when I was about 7 and accompanied my mother to my aunt's farm for a calving. It was the cow's first calf and they needed to pull it out with ropes (meaning they looped a rope around the calf's foot and pulled when there was a contraction). Immediately after this ordeal the cow turned around to find her calf and they separated the mom and calf. My mom told me that it was better that they be separated immediately so that they forget about each other. This was a new thing for me because our goats always stayed together for awhile. I always felt queasy about the darker aspects of what I saw around me, but I always thought that humans needed to eat milk, eggs and meat, that we would die without it. So I tried to ignore what I saw.

I was soooo happy when I got older to learn that I didn't have to eat meat, I went vegan the next day. I still wondered if my health would suffer, but various websites said I would be OK so I gave it a shot and my health got a lot better, I even had skin growths which healed and I wasn't even raw!

The farming industry is crazy! We don't need to keep animals for milk, we need to plant almond trees. I have seen, firsthand, the enormous amount of labor which goes into dairy farming and I wonder why no one thought of this before. First, there is the gathering of food and hay during the summer to keep the animals through the winter, then you have to muck out the barn all the time, finally there is the milking which means that you are tied down to your animals 365 days of the year, you have to schedule your life around milkings and must appear at 6 am and 6 pm in the cold barn. In all the centuries of dairy farming, did no one ever snuggle deeper under the covers one winter morning and say "I'll just plant a few nut trees and ignore them all year until fall and then I will spend just a few weeks gathering enough nuts to last all year!"

[rawpriestess]

congratulations

[rawpriestess]

you can tell the love of life and humanity of a country, by the way it treats it's animals

[dreamrawalwz]

I tried to get my mom to watch this one and to read The China Study. She WON"T do it. she also won't admit she's "addicted' and 'needs" her chicken and fish.