My Big Vegan Decision

My passion for animals began long ago.. Before I can even remember. All that I can recall is me being a small child and constantly concerning myself with the animals of my little world. I was fascinated that birds flew, cats could balance themselves and run along the edges of fences and never fall over, and dogs were always so excitable and wagged their tails. My heart sank when I saw animals in trouble; and I was devastated when I discovered dogs or cats that had been killed from the road, just lying on the shoulder, never even knowing what was coming. I wanted to bring home every animal I could, stray or not. I was obsessed with animal shows, movies, or cartoons. I can remember thinking from a small age that I wanted to have a million pets when I grew up. At my ripe age of 26, I've only managed to gather up three, so I've got 999,997 to go still I suppose. The only thing stopping me is my small apartment but that will change once I have my big ranch house and a ton of land.

Growing up, my family was not health conscious what-so-ever. We ate Big Mac meals, fried chicken, ice cream, and everything in between. I didn't know then what I know now, and then I didn't know what was going in my body was actually terrible for me, nor did my parents. Too many Americans are ignorant to what eating healthy really means. When I did start learning that fast food was actually bad for me, I started to eat "healthier". To me, this meant Lean Cuisine frozen dinners, glasses of cow's milk, and meats. At this point, I still was under the belief that animal meats were good for me and my body needed it to survive, and from the "got milk" campaign brainwashing, I thought cow's milk was a MUST. There are advertisements out there that preach humans should be drinking three glasses of milk a day, three!

It wasn't until I watched the documentary "Food, Inc." that I really started thinking about my diet, and more importantly, the animals that suffer due to this American greed. 10 billion animals suffer every year just to feed Americans. 10 billion! That's insane to me. Not only that, what they endure is just horrid. I became a vegetarian instantly after the film. It didn't take me a while to wean into it either, all it took was that documentary, the images, my heart sinking for those animals. I immediately decided that I would not eat a cow, chicken, pig or fish again for the simple fact of being selfish. I didn't need to, so why would I only think of myself in choosing to eat the meat? Also, I quickly became disgusted by the fact that I had been eating dead, decaying carcasses my whole life, and that repulsed me. Following the documentary, I immersed myself in research of the vegetarian diet. It turned out that humans didn't need animal meat to survive; we are actually designed to be herbivores. We chose meat as a part of our diet due to the fact that we were able to invent tools and weaponry to kill. Natural carnivores have no tools, they rely on their size, strength, speed, teeth and skill they are designed with to capture their meal and devour it. Their stomachs are made to digest raw meat. They have giant paws and long, strong claws to grab onto their prey and take them down. They have huge razor sharp teeth and long, strong fangs to tear into the flesh. We humans have to cook the meat in order to somewhat digest it and season it for an appealing taste. We use utensils to cut up the meat down to a size where we can chew it. If we were designed to eat meat, we'd be built like lions and tigers. Can you picture a human running after a zebra and killing it in such manners as a lion would? It sounds pretty absurd and hilarious to me, not to mention it could never be done. Ok, so humans don't eat zebras anyway and that's probably because they are hard to come by and would be ridiculous and expensive to produce and manufacture. But think of cows, pigs, and chickens. Without tools, our speed can probably allow us to catch any of those but our strength would not allow us to take down a 1500 pound cow or a feisty, strong pig, nor kill them with our bear hands. One swift blow to the head from their hooves would knock us out, or possibly kill us. Our teeth would not be able to rip into the flesh of a pig or a cow alone. And lets face it, none of us want to sink our teeth into a feathery, squawking chicken. Or get pecked and bloodied up by their sharp beaks. Anyway, we humans would vomit at the amount of blood and guts involved to begin eating our meat. Instead, we contribute to the billions of dollars meat-packing companies make to over-breed, over-feed, unnecessarily inject with hormones, steroids, and antibiotics, torture, skin, bleed-out, decapitate, and package the good parts of these animals only to satisfy our stomachs momentarily for one good meal. How is that right or humane? It seems entirely unfair and selfish to me, and I refuse to participate.

For a year, I lived by these standards of choosing to just not eat meat. I didn't realize until recently that even dairy products of milk, cheese and eggs also contribute to the inhumane treatment of animals. Well, I knew it was inhumane, but I always told myself that the animals went through less torture than the ones killed for meat when in all reality, the same animals used for these dairy products are the same ones just later killed for their meat after their use of dairy was satisfied. Cows are locked into place all day while machines are hooked up to their udders constantly sucking their milk supply dry. Chickens are stuffed in cages and have their beaks cut off. The chickens that are allowed to hatch eggs, only the female chicks are saved for egg-hatching purposes. The male chicks just get tossed in a big barrel where they are left to die since there is no use for them. Not only are these dairy products a contribution to the inhumane treatment, I have learned more and more that dairy just isn't good for you, as I always believed otherwise. Human babies drink their mother's breast milk, yes? Well, baby cows drink their mother's "breast" milk as well. Why are humans drinking cow's breast milk? Why are we on the same diet as a large animal who increases their weight eight times in their first year? Cow's milk contains a ton of fat and calories in order for these baby cows to grow so big so fast. Human babies grow three times their weight their first year. It doesn't seem natural or healthy that this milk is a good choice for slow-growing toddlers and fast-growing calves. With that, I realized my diet should not mirror that of a cow, who happens to have four stomachs, when I only have one. What is more preposterous to me is that adult humans are drinking cow's breast milk yet we laugh at the idea of drinking human breast milk at that age. As a side note, most humans can't even properly digest dairy, and we think of people being "lactose-intolerant" as unnatural as someone being diabetic. Humans aren't meant to digest dairy, and the people who can't are in fact normal. We should all be lactose-intolerant, really.

Well, that's basically the gist of why I chose to go forward with this lifestyle choice. It started out as me being extremely passionate about animals and wishing they didn't have to suffer in such conditions only to feed Americans, but it became more than that. It became a matter of my health and wanting to live as long as I can, and never having to worry about doctor appointments, or getting diabetes, clogged arteries, or heart disease and wanting to lower my risk of cancer and cholesterol levels. People question me all the time of my choice and I will just say this simply: "For animals rights and for my health", but in case you want the longer, more in-depth explanation here it is. I don't expect anybody to understand me or accept my beliefs. I choose this for me and me alone. And for the animals. People also ask me where I get my protein, calcium, iron, etc. Once again, humans were never designed to live off of animal products so at one point those necessary nutrients had to come from somewhere, right? Right. They come from all the natural plant-based foods all over the earth. Nuts, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and grains. All I have left to note is that I couldn't be happier with the choices I have made and I will continue living my life as nature intended and never have to worry that I will single-handedly be the cause of animal suffrage. And with myself alone becoming a vegan, I can happily report that I will save about 100 animals a year! It's better for the environment as well.

(I do not intend to offend anyone, this is just my opinion and mine alone. I have no judgment on other's choices, nor do I hope to persuade. This is just intended to share the reasons for my own beliefs. Thank you.)