A slow road to Veganism
First and foremost I don’t judge anyone. I used to eat meat, drink milk and wear leather. This isn’t a preaching blog post, I thought I would share my path on how I became vegan and how being vegan is much easier than ever before. If I can, you can, even if you start slowly as I did.
I never deep down thought too much to what I was eating, wearing or what I was putting on my skin. This changed around 2003-4 after watching a documentary on the cruelty dogs were suffering for the sake of their fur for human consumers. It was horrific and yet I kept watching as tears streamed down my face and looking through my fingers, feeling sick to my stomach. What made it even more real was the dog they showed being mutilated alive, was a German Shepherd, and my boy ‘Ike’ who had passed over into spirit in 2000, was a German Shepherd.
What this brought to light was even clothing that might be labelled as faux fur, dog hair/fur compounds were still found in the mix. The next day I went vegetarian and have never bought any fur (not that I had previously) or faux fur again. These were my first 2 small steps.
Over the next 15 years I gradually shopped for alternatives. I made the conscious choice to check labels and buy better, better for the animals and better for our environment. Vegan food became more popular in shops so I would use a vegan substitute for my meals now and again. I then stopped buying leather products, goodbye leather jacket and no more leather shoes or bags. My cosmetics and body lotions were also cruelty free. But like I said this was over a long period of time, the main thing was I had made the start.
I then began to educate myself on the animal practices used for dairy products. It is surprising how when I would see meat, milk, cheese and eggs on the shelves in grocery stores, I’d never think about its production.
As I saw undercover investigations in farming practices from across the globe, I started to trial milk alternatives. To help you understand the production of milk; a cow needs to be pregnant to produce the milk (for her calf) so she is forced and has semen inserted. However, instead of her calf having this milk, humans drink it. The calf, if male, is generally slaughtered as there is no need for him as he cannot grow up to become pregnant and produce milk, there are only so many bulls a farm needs for semen production. And so the cycle continues… Having tried different ‘milks’ such as rice, coconut and almond, I found the best one for me is Oat milk. Great for coffee and even on my cereal.
My last animal consumption before I became vegan were eggs. Upon an animal communication workshop at a farm sanctuary we had a session with battery hens who had been rescued. In my communication with them I had such an overwhelming feeling of how they used to live and it was so profound I never ate an egg again. Even though I previously bought free range eggs, it didn’t matter.
Being vegan for me is a lifestyle choice in not buying any animal products. A lot of people are now choosing vegan for health and/or environmental reasons, my reason is for the animals, but it doesn’t matter its all for the good. Even if you choose to replace one meal a week, less animals are being used and abused. As more online grocery shopping is used, especially through 2020, there are even supermarkets like ‘The Vegan Kind Supermarket’ where all their products are vegan and how lovely to not even have to check labels.
Most cafes and restaurants offer vegan meals and even fast food joints, like Kentucky Fried Chicken and Burger King offer an alternative. Now, there are a lot of vegans who disagree and say we should not even be stepping foot in these places. I respect their opinion as its still supporting an animal cruelty company, however my opinion is the more companies see their vegan options are popular or even more popular than their normal meat products, more vegan options can become available and replace meat options. These companies are not going anywhere yet… We also don’t know how companies are operating behind the scenes or what their future plans are. I have even seen farms selling their animals and becoming a plant based farm instead. And we could even see a rise in fast food vegan outlets, here’s hoping.
Animals are sentient beings, they have feelings and emotions. There is no difference to your dog, cat or horse to that of a pig or cow. They are all individuals with their own personalities. In fact, we are all animals. So if reading this has stirred anything up for you, next time you shop or eat out, just try a vegan product or meal and see how much you enjoy this alternative. It just may be your start towards living consciously and your slow road to veganism too.
Many blessings, Sam x.
