No Turning Back: My Vegan Awakening

As I have become vegan, I have become aware of the suffering of animals. For me, I have reached the point where I can’t go back. If I think of eating meat, I think of the suffering that the animal goes through. “Oh, you can’t give up cheese?” That means you believe in the forcible rape of the mother, the kidnapping and murder of her infant child just so that you can have milk or cheese. I think of a piece of cheese and I visualize a cow with a man’s hand up her hoo-ha, or crying as her baby is stolen.

I’m not saying that I didn’t enjoy the taste of meat, but I am saying I don’t enjoy the suffering behind it. Few vegans give up meat or dairy because of the taste, we give it up because of the suffering. That’s why for many years I was an on-again-off-again vegan, until the suffering became too much and my own desires had to be ignored. And the longer I go without any meat or dairy, the easier it becomes. I had to give up alcohol for six months so that I wouldn’t have lower inhibitions and make excuses for my failures of eating meat. Because I’d drink, I’d eat meat, I’d feel guilty the next day because of the suffering of the animals, and then a few days or weeks later, the cycle would happen again.We think we are better than animals, but if we are, then how can we perpetrate such cruelty? Mahatma Gandhi said “the greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

Martin Luther King spoke of the “slavery of other animals” and after his death both his wife, Coretta Scott King and their son, Dexter Scott King became vegans and outspoken advocates for animal rights. In 1995, Coretta became vegan at the urging of her son and said “veganism is the next logical extension of Martin Luther King Jr’s philosphy.”

Jane Goodall, the renown English primatologist and anthropologist said “Most people do not realize the unspeakable cruelty suffered by animals on our factory farms. And some who know, do not really care. People have said to me that, after all, the animals are bred for food – as though this means that they are no longer sentient beings. Others beg me not to tell them about it, as they love animals and are very sensitive – so they can go on eating pigs and cows without feeling guilt. I stopped eating meat some 50 years ago when I looked at the pork chop on my plate and thought: this represents fear, pain, death. That did it, and I went plant-based instantly.”

I think Jane’s thought processes most closely aligns with mine. Once, I was in Burger King eating an Impossible Burger and I heard a man ordering a Whopper with Bacon. In fact the longer I sat there the more upset I became. I wanted to point out the cruelty they were eating. Pigs were sent screaming to their death for the bacon. The cows cried tears and fought their death. The cows were raped and thier babies stolen for the cheese. A cheeseburger of any brand (even homemade) with bacon has so much death and feat and atrocities that it is beyond me how anyone can begin to eat it.

I’ve lived in Louisiana and use to make exceptions for crawfish. I can’t any longer because they are boiled alive (as are crabs and lobsters) and they try to escape their deaths. I’ve seen them try and escape the boiling water. People laugh at their crawling away, but their crawling away is an attempt to live. And yes, fish and crustaceans along with all animals, fish, insects, etc. want and deserve to live. Being pescatarean was just an excuse to continue the murder of beings that couldn’t prevent it. And I’ve learned since then that as long as I’m not eating the flesh of any living creature, that I am a much different person with different perception about the sanctity of life.

The longer I am fully vegan, the more I am aware of the sanctity of all life. There is a lizard living in my house and he is welcome. I speak to the jumping spiders around my house, both inside and out, and tell them that they are welcome. The only non-invited animals in my home are those that are poisonous and roaches. Everyone else is welcome.

I have seen my personality change and mellow as I no longer am putting the hormones and fear into my body that come from the eating of sentient beings. The factory farms fill the animals with hormones and chemicals to combat the way the animals live and people then eat their flesh and those hormones and chemicals. As the animals are murdered for their flesh, they are terrified and sad and experience extreme emotions and then those that eat the flesh of animals eat those emotions.

I feel sadness at the loss of our humanity because of the mistaken belief that we are more valuable. I believe the animals are here to help us understand our humanity. Let’s take it back and stop the violence.

Namaste.