I have been a vegitarian my entire life since my parents were ones before I was born. I’ve always been very into animal rights and such, and I’ve subscribed to PETA since I was very little. But when I was younger I never felt the need to give up anything other than meat because from what I knew dairy products and eggs and honey didn’t hurt animals. That is until last year when I became more aware.
About January of 1998 I decided that I’d become a vegan, but I decided it for all the wrong reasons. I thought that giving up cheese and other dairy products would help me lose weight, and still I didn’t know about the horrible things that they do to animals to get products from them. My veganism then only lasted until about March when I went out with a friend for lunch, and she was having a milkshake, and I decided it looked good so I’d have one too. That gradually lead to me completely giving up my Veganism sometime last summer.
Then one night I was researching animal rights pages, and I came across a website that talked about exactly what they do to animals to get dairy, eggs, honey, wool, ect. I found out that not only are the dairy cows given chemicals and kept in restricted areas, but also if they have any male children, they become veal. Honey bees sometimes have their heads ripped off in order to get honey from them. Some sheep are now suffering from various painful skin diseases, Just because farmers cut too close to their skin or they breed them in ways that cause gene mutations so that they can get more wool. I was completely sickened. But still I continued to eat dairy, eggs, honey, and Wear leather, silk and wool. I was just too selfish and only cared about what things made me feel good. I didn’t care enough to give up supporting things that were killing animals.
But then on March 16th I decided that I was going to stop my selfishness and Go completely vegan. I gave up dairy products, eggs, honey, and all the animal derived products that I know exist. I donated all my wool and silk clothing to charity. The only thing I haven’t done yet is stopped wearing my leather shoes. But I have decided that I will wear my vans until they wear out, and then order some vegan shoes from one of the many listings that I found in The Vegan Handbook (which I highly recommend, order it from http://www.vrg.org) .
Now that I’ve been a vegan for over a month, I feel so much healthier, and guilt free because I know that I’m doing all I can to stop the exploitation of animals. I just wish that everyone would realize that they don’t need to live off of animal carcasses to survive, and that there are other ways to get all the nutrients they need without harming a single animal. But at the same time I am not forcing my beliefs on others. The rest of my family still hasn’t gone vegan, and they probably won’t. But I have told them the facts about what happens to animals in order to get those things, and that’s about all I can do.
