I am a different person today

It is no secret that I am an animal lover, anyone who knows me or even of me knows this about me. But up until recently, I have also been a meat eater, not realizing the contradiction here. I was raised eating meat, though I don’t have much of a taste for it, it’s always been on the menu, frying chicken and barbecuing steaks, ham sandwiches and hot dogs, eggs and bacon etc….

How many of us never put a face on these everyday foods we eat? We go to the store and everything is so neatly packaged so we don’t see the faces. They don’t want us to see the suffering, the pain, what really goes on behind closed doors. They don’t want us to see how our food gets on our plates because they know that most of would never buy meat again if we did know.

I cannot count the times I have been to McDonald's, I have kids and because of that stupid toy, I have helped to fund the murders of so many animals. That’s the bottom line. Every time I have purchased meat in the grocery store too, I have given my support to the blood shed.

No More.

What was the turning point for me?

All of us get little tidbits of information here and there, the photographs, and the videos, the articles. Historically, I would not look at them or watch them or read them, I would immediately turn the page, get off the website and I would tell myself that I could not look at that stuff.

Really? And I call myself an animal lover?  That doesn’t make sense. All it did was allow me to continue to look the other way and spare myself the guilt, the reality that I have contributed to the absolute cruelty that goes on in our world for the sake of appetite.

I decided it was time to face the demons and now it is all so clear to me.

I won’t post any images or even links for you, this is something that has to happen in your own time but hopefully it will happen at some time.

I Googled it and sifted through it all.

I am a different person today.

I do feel like my heart has been ripped out of my chest, but you know what?

I am not going to ever eat meat again and that is a fact.

I feel deceived in so many ways, the way the industry keeps so much from us. I think we all have a right to know what is going on. I always knew the animals were being killed, I am not an idiot. But I never really looked at it.

Well I have looked at now, the abuse, the cruelty and it made my stomach turn.

Animals are dying every second for us to eat but they are not just dying, they are being murdered in such cold blood.

For some reason I always had this impression that the animals died in a different way, humanely I guess. I didn’t think as human beings we would be capable killing animals any other way on regular basis.

There is nothing humane about the way these animals are being treated or how they are dying all in the name of food and research and hunting for sport.

None of it will change unless we make it change. 

I know there has to be many of you out there that are like me. Just because you haven’t done the research doesn’t mean you don’t love animals. It’s difficult to see the images and that’s how you know that you do care because if you didn’t care it wouldn’t bother you to read the stories or see the abuse.  I use to say that I didn’t need to see all that stuff to know what was going on but I will tell you this….

Knowing what is going on and actually doing something to help stop it are two different things. Seeing the truth has given me a different feeling inside and not just nausea, it has pushed me over that line between knowing and doing.

I want to do my part; I will no longer contribute to the slaughter. I know I am only one person and some may say that will not matter but it matters to me, the animals matter to me and there is one less person today supporting the industry and that is one person closer to putting an end to the killings.