(For Ace)
I hear praise for my work
offering sanctuary for the few
who, through serendipitous luck,
survive the deadly demands
of your taste buds
But this praise rings hollow
when we sit down to eat
Your knife cuts their flesh,
I feel the knife in me
Who do you think we
are rescuing them from?
I’ve been vegan for almost 15 years.
A decade and a half.
That first decade I just changed the way I ate and bought clothes.
I educated myself.
I spoke my mind about my beliefs when it came up.
But, I wasn’t really THAT outspoken about it.
Then came the start of a new decade and as I became more educated, I started to be more outspoken.
Then I met my wife.
We both decided we had to try and do more than our own choices. (Now, that doesn’t mean we stopped educating ourselves or making better choices.)
She and I started a blog to help show that the lifestyle could be easy, inexpensive, fun and fulfilling even while living in an animal agriculture heavy state.
We reached a few people with that.
It brought us to assist in starting the first farm animal sanctuary in a state that is notorious for how many of those animals it breeds and kills.
We started rescuing these other animals.
We started protesting the practices.
We started lobbying to change laws and to stop the building of any new factory farms.
Let me say it again, we started personally and assisting in RESCUING these other animals.
Where do you think we are rescuing them from?
The people who eat them.
We build incredibly long and deep relationships with these other animals.
We see them in horrific states.
We witness the suffering they endure.
We literally watch the stuff you don’t want to see. The stuff you refuse to see.
As Tolstoy said, "When the suffering of another creature causes you to feel pain, do not submit to the initial desire to flee from the suffering one; on the contrary, come closer, as close as you can to him who suffers, and try to HELP."
We then have to see trucks that are just giant metal cages overflowing with other animals on their way to their deaths EVERYDAY.
We have to see and hear billboards, TV commercials, radio ads, bus ads and more emblazoned with pieces of their bodies.
Every grocery store we go to and about 99% of every restaurant in town is filled with sights and smells of their dead bodies.
We have to watch as the majority of our friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, restaurant and retail workers, just damn near everyone in our lives eat or talk about eating their dead bodies right in front of us, on social media, on TV, in movies, etc.
Want to go on a road trip to get away from it all?
Well then, you’re going to be helplessly counting the nondescript sheds that are literally packed with innocent animals in cages or on concrete floors.
What do you think this feels like?
I look into all of my other animal friends’ eyes.
Carl. George. Bennie. Rest in power, Tibbott.
They know me.
They LOVE me.
Then people can’t even have one meal with me without eating a dead sentient being who suffered.
It’s all I see.
I see them all.
I hear them all.
And, they say, “Sorry. You don’t mind do you?”
They might think they’re funny and say, “Well, they taste good.”
Do you have any idea how many times people have said, “I mean, bacon” to me?
Or, the praise...
The praise that always feels like it has a hint of condescension because that person is going to post a photo of a whole dead body of a bird on their social media in an hour.
They say, “what you do is great.”
It is?!
Or, maybe, “Thank you.”
Thank me for what?
Again... we’re saving them from you!
I’ve had turkeys talk to me, follow me, and enjoy my gentle touch.
I’ve had chickens jump into my lap and lean in for a hug.
I’ve laid on the ground for hours with pigs, played tag with so many cows just like I do with Ruth at home, and the goats!
Goats are more playful than any species I’ve ever seen.
But, I’ve also held bleeding and shivering pigs in my arms.
I’ve comforted them as they were going to be put into a gas chamber where they feel like their insides are burning and they fight to get out.
I’m told I’m supposed to have grace.
I’m supposed to understand.
How can I understand that taste buds, convenience, or tradition are acceptable reasons to continue doing something that is inherently evil?
Not to mention consuming known carcinogens.
Or, the main cause of heart disease.
The worst thing we do to the planet.
The large undocumented, felon or low income workforce that it demands.
I’m trying though.
I’m trying to understand.
But, I wish more people would try.
Try and make changes.
My heart hurts.
A decade and a half.
That first decade I just changed the way I ate and bought clothes.
I educated myself.
I spoke my mind about my beliefs when it came up.
But, I wasn’t really THAT outspoken about it.
Then came the start of a new decade and as I became more educated, I started to be more outspoken.
Then I met my wife.
We both decided we had to try and do more than our own choices. (Now, that doesn’t mean we stopped educating ourselves or making better choices.)
She and I started a blog to help show that the lifestyle could be easy, inexpensive, fun and fulfilling even while living in an animal agriculture heavy state.
We reached a few people with that.
It brought us to assist in starting the first farm animal sanctuary in a state that is notorious for how many of those animals it breeds and kills.
We started rescuing these other animals.
We started protesting the practices.
We started lobbying to change laws and to stop the building of any new factory farms.
Let me say it again, we started personally and assisting in RESCUING these other animals.
Where do you think we are rescuing them from?
The people who eat them.
We build incredibly long and deep relationships with these other animals.
We see them in horrific states.
We witness the suffering they endure.
We literally watch the stuff you don’t want to see. The stuff you refuse to see.
As Tolstoy said, "When the suffering of another creature causes you to feel pain, do not submit to the initial desire to flee from the suffering one; on the contrary, come closer, as close as you can to him who suffers, and try to HELP."
We then have to see trucks that are just giant metal cages overflowing with other animals on their way to their deaths EVERYDAY.
We have to see and hear billboards, TV commercials, radio ads, bus ads and more emblazoned with pieces of their bodies.
Every grocery store we go to and about 99% of every restaurant in town is filled with sights and smells of their dead bodies.
We have to watch as the majority of our friends, family, coworkers, neighbors, restaurant and retail workers, just damn near everyone in our lives eat or talk about eating their dead bodies right in front of us, on social media, on TV, in movies, etc.
Want to go on a road trip to get away from it all?
Well then, you’re going to be helplessly counting the nondescript sheds that are literally packed with innocent animals in cages or on concrete floors.
What do you think this feels like?
I look into all of my other animal friends’ eyes.
Carl. George. Bennie. Rest in power, Tibbott.
They know me.
They LOVE me.
Then people can’t even have one meal with me without eating a dead sentient being who suffered.
It’s all I see.
I see them all.
I hear them all.
And, they say, “Sorry. You don’t mind do you?”
They might think they’re funny and say, “Well, they taste good.”
Do you have any idea how many times people have said, “I mean, bacon” to me?
Or, the praise...
The praise that always feels like it has a hint of condescension because that person is going to post a photo of a whole dead body of a bird on their social media in an hour.
They say, “what you do is great.”
It is?!
Or, maybe, “Thank you.”
Thank me for what?
Again... we’re saving them from you!
I’ve had turkeys talk to me, follow me, and enjoy my gentle touch.
I’ve had chickens jump into my lap and lean in for a hug.
I’ve laid on the ground for hours with pigs, played tag with so many cows just like I do with Ruth at home, and the goats!
Goats are more playful than any species I’ve ever seen.
But, I’ve also held bleeding and shivering pigs in my arms.
I’ve comforted them as they were going to be put into a gas chamber where they feel like their insides are burning and they fight to get out.
I’m told I’m supposed to have grace.
I’m supposed to understand.
How can I understand that taste buds, convenience, or tradition are acceptable reasons to continue doing something that is inherently evil?
Not to mention consuming known carcinogens.
Or, the main cause of heart disease.
The worst thing we do to the planet.
The large undocumented, felon or low income workforce that it demands.
I’m trying though.
I’m trying to understand.
But, I wish more people would try.
Try and make changes.
My heart hurts.
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