Watching over the ones who need us

This photo breaks my heart.

It is why I am vegan.

I want to do my part to protect animals. I want to watch over them. Look out for them. Just as the bigger piglet seems to be doing for the little one.

I want to pick them both up and take them out of there to a pasture somewhere to be free. Free from harm and suffering to a life they truly deserve and not the one they will get – so full of misery.

I would honour the little guy by burying him – not by putting him out with the trash which so often happens on huge industrial farms.

We need to do better than this. We can do better.

Let’s all try to do better by using compassion when choosing what we eat. 

The Impact of Our Choices

When autumn turns to winter, and people pull their parkas out readying themselves for the cold weather, I get so sad all over again. So many of those parkas have fur trimmed hoods. I know you have seen them – they are everywhere!

Each year, activists around the world try to make people see where fur comes from, and how the lives of so many animals are taken for this unnecessary ‘decoration’.

I get optimistic again over the summer thinking that maybe next winter those coats with the fur trim will no longer be fashionable, and the Canada Goose company will be out of business, but for many years now, I have been wrong.

People everywhere – women and men – are wearing these coats with fur trimmed hoods made from the skin and fur of innocent animals.

These animals were simply living their lives and suddenly found themselves stuck in a leg hold trap or worse, were bred to live in tiny cages until their untimely and violent deaths, never having even a day of freedom.

Fur comes from animals-if you like animals don’t buy fur. You are encouraging the murder of more innocent creatures if you do.

It’s very hard to understand – though I remember myself not knowing the impact that my choices were having not very long ago. I have only been vegan for six months so up until then my choices were having a huge impact on animals – the milk, butter, and cheese I ate as well as the wool, leather and down that I wore.

When you know, you can never look back – but until then, you may not be aware of how much hurting you are causing.

We like to think that even if we are eating and wearing animals, there must be some humanity in the system.

There is not.

Even “humane” treatment usually ends in death. Killing is not humane.

And most animals that we use are bred for us and so, have no freedom – have no life at all. These sentient beings suffer so terribly for us and usually pay with their lives. We don’t need to do this. Not at all. Not for food, not for clothing and certainly not for entertainment.

Most facilities have to treat animals as things because of time and money constraints.

Think wool: Sheep on factory farms are so violently handled while being sheared – some die while being sheared just from the violence of the act. Sheep shearers are often paid by the number of sheep they shear rather than by the hour.

Think milk: Cows are repeatedly impregnated so they can produce milk. Their newborn calves are taken away immediately so we can have their milk.

Think veal: Newborn calves are taken away from their mothers just after birth and put in a dark place alone and afraid until they are killed for us to eat.

Ever hear of slink leather? That is the skin of an unborn calf-yes an unborn calf stolen from its mother usually while she is being killed for meat. I could not even believe this was possible until I read about it and saw a website selling slink leather products.

Eggs? Only females needed- male chicks are suffocated in garbage bags or ground up alive as soon as they are born. If you eat eggs, you support this cruel practice.

Pigs: In many countries gestation crates are still the norm. Pigs are forced to live their entire lives in tiny crates that they cannot even turn around in and are repeatedly impregnated. Once born, their babies are quickly taken away from them. Any parent could relate to that pain for both mother and baby. And sick piglets are “thumped” to death – their heads smashed on the ground until they die. Or, they are just put out with the trash while still alive.

Older animals are put out with the trash while still alive too if they are sick.

You might say that it can’t be that way everywhere… and I agree. But it happens far too often and if I partake of it in some way, then I am guilty of helping this sick system continue.

We need to evolve. Animals are miraculous – spend time with one – you can’t help but see the miracle of any creature if you spend the time to look.

How can we continue to do what we do to them? How can we stand it anymore?

We should be ashamed.

Let’s start to protect them by leaving them alone.