Journals of a Gay Vegan: Introspection
Why I Became A Vegan
In January of this year I decided to stop eating meat. It wasn't
an easy decision to make since so much of my diet centered around
meat. I love hamburgers and I could never get sick of pepperoni pizza.
It was hard to give it all up. But I made up my mind and I've stuck
with it. But not only that, I decided to give up animal products
as well. Milk, cheese, ice cream, all of it.
Why? Because my conscience caught up with me.
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"Animals on factory farms are treated like machines. Within days of
birth, for example, cows have their horns torn from their heads and
chickens have their beaks seared off with a hot blade. Male cows and
pigs are castrated without painkillers. All of these animals spend
their brief lives in crowded and ammonia-filled conditions, many of
them so cramped that they can't even turn around or spread a wing.
Many do not get a breath of fresh air until they are prodded and
crammed onto trucks for a nightmarish ride to the slaughterhouse, often
through weather extremes and always without food or water. The animals
are hung upside down and their throats are sliced open, often while
they're fully conscious." - from meatstinks.com
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I was on a trip to an Navajo Indian Reservation when I decided that
I was going to become a vegetarian. On the reservation there was a
cool goat that they kept around as a pet. It just wondered around
the reservation eating leaves or whatever you could find laying around.
He wouldn't let you pet him, but he was still neat to watch.
Later in the week they served us goat meat for dinner. It wasn't their
pet goat, but nevertheless I couldn't stop thinking of the pet goat
as they served me a dead one on my plate.
I told some people in my group that I was thinking about becoming
a vegetarian. The first argument they gave me was "God tells us to
eat meat."
Although I told myself that I didn't care what God said we could or
couldn't do, I had read the Bible and I remembered what God said in
Genesis.
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"God said, 'Look, I have given you all the plants that have grain for
seeds and all the trees whose fruits have seeds in them. They will be
food for you. I have given all the green plants as food for every wild
animal, every bird of the air, and every small crawling animal.' And
it happened. God looked at everything he had made, and it was very good.
Evening passed, and morning came. This was the sixth day." - Genesis 1:29-31
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God clearly intended for mankind to be vegetarian. It wasn't until after
God had apparently destroyed the earth because of it's sinfulness that
man began eating animals. I don't deny that God allowed man to eat animals
after the flood, but don't try and tell me the Bible says that's how God
intended for us to live. Now, I don't think either the creation story or
the flood story was meant to be taken literally, but telling me that God
wants us to eat meat doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.
Most people can understand why I've given up meat, but few understand why I
gave up dairy products as well. I just wonder how I could give up one and
still consume the other.
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"Traditional small dairies, located primarily in the northeast and midwest are
going out of business. They are being replaced by intensive 'dry lot' dairies
which are typically located in the southwest. Regardless of where they live,
however, all dairy cows must give birth in order to begin producing milk. Today,
dairy cows are forced to have a calf every year. Like human beings, the cow's
gestation period is nine months long, and so giving birth every twelve months is
physically demanding. The cows are also forced to give milk during seven months of
their nine month pregnancy. In a healthy environment, cows would live in excess
of 25 years, but on modern dairies, they are slaughtered after just 3 or 4 years
and then used for ground beef. With genetic manipulation and intensive production
technologies, it is common for modern dairy cows to produce 100 pounds of milk a
day -- ten times more than they would produce in nature. The cows' bodies are under
constant stress and they are at risk for numerous health problems." - from factoryfarming.com
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Instead of repeating everything that's been already been said by other people
on the net, why not read what they have to say. Almost all of these
pages have a frequently asked question section, but if you still have a question
after reading it feel free to email me.
veganoutreach.com
meatstinks.com
people for the ethical treatment of animals
factoryfarming.com
If you read nothing else, please at least read the short online booklet Why Vegan.
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