thevegancheese:

rawveganchild:

I became a vegan after I had gotten into a seriously heated fight with a vegan. I used all the same excuses, as omnivores tend to say like we’re meant to eat meat because of our canine teeth; if we didn’t eat meat then we wouldn’t get enough nutrients, etc. And obviously he schooled me and showed me just how ignorant I was. Even today, I can’t fathom how uneducated I was and I don’t understand how I could have gone all my life without questioning where my food was coming from. I’m a vegan for myself, for the animals, and for the environment, which is what I think every vegan should believe in, too. It would be my number one wish to have every slaughterhouse shut down. I don’t want laws to improve their conditions, I want laws that forbid them to exist. When I watched the documentary Earthlings, I cried from the first 15 minutes in, all the way to the end. I can honestly say, nothing has ever scarred me as much mentally or traumatized me as much as that video has. I’ve seen some pretty gory things but that was the worst because animals are my heart and soul and to see them treated so terribly; it breaks me down. I don’t know how any person could ever do that to a creature. I grew up loving animals, they were always my passion, but it never occurred to me how hypocritical it was that I was eating them. I guess because society teaches us that it’s “natural,” and they impose these views on us that are very anthropocentric. Then, when someone goes against these traditions, they’re seen as an outcast, a freak, or just insane. I feel like vegans are the present day hippies. And I’m okay with that. I think we need more of that in this world. I just hope that people realize that vegans are not hateful beings. In fact, we promote the exact opposite, we want love and peace and to stop the oppression of sentient beings.

I love this post. Though I have never gotten into an argument with a vegan before I became vegan myself, I admit to being pretty ignorant as to how the meat industry treats animals before they’re killed. Vegans want people to see how animals raised for food are treated, whether they’re raised “humanely” or not. I don’t see vegans as hateful individuals, but passionate and ambitious. We’re very serious about being vegan, and it didn’t take much for me to get to this point. I realized that there was an issue and I wanted to make a change, and that change started with what was on my plate.

(Source: a-unique-url)