Animals (in the broadest sense, belonging to the kingdom Animalia) have always been very close to my heart, although truthfully I prefer to be a healthy distance from snakes. My childhood ambition, after outgrowing a “game ranger” phase, was to become a veterinary surgeon and help sick dogs and cats get better . And lo, this came to pass in 1980. And it was good. For a quite a while.
Throughout my veterinary training I accepted the “food” and “pet” divide amongst my patients, never questioning the fact that I would be treating a cow (or a sheep or a pig or a chicken or a goat) in order that she (or he) would recover in order to be killed later.
Believe me, I still can’t explain why I would battle to save one animal’s life, then without any hesitation, thought or question, eat or wear dead parts stolen from another being,
It still beggars belief that I was sickened by the sights, sounds and smell of abattoirs during my training, yet continued to participate in such cruelty despite this knowledge.
How could I accept dairy cows being kept perpetually pregnant, udders swollen and distended, their calves torn away to be raised artificially, slaughtered for veal or reared to become milk machines themselves?
Why did I not question the morality of rearing “broiler chickens” or “layers” in appalling conditions, deprived of light, space and dignity ?
Surely I must have considered those beings who died so that animal experiments could prove some physiological or pharmacological fact?
Why did I accept the way animals were turned into units, like paperclips or disposable paper cups?
I don’t know the answers to these questions. My only excuse (not a very good one) is that the ability to “unsee” the obvious exploitation is the norm in our society.
Fast forward too many years, the realisation that I was actively participating in a holocaust slowly came to me. Once the blinkers came off, overcome with regret and horror, I became a vegan. I shall die a vegan.
This blog is my way of apologizing to everyone that I’ve hurt.
Hopefully, my words will strike a chord with others, opening minds and hearts, causing fewer nonhuman animals to die.
Maybe one day the animals will be free.
Are you still there? I’m a vegan veterinarian, also, living with a vegan veterinary technician husband and vegan child. We see the same horrors, and are amazed that we spent our entire careers helping individual animals (in our case dogs/cats) while millions of times as many died the same day. We are shifting our work toward helping the millions and billions, rather than just the few fortunate individuals who do see love every day. We share your dream that one day, animals will be free. We love that you shared your experience with the world, got it out there, and hopefully you felt freedom after that, that you are a new person, with new understanding and new meaning. The past is the past, and you have learned from it. We wonder how we can best help others see and learn now. Thank you for being part of the solution! And of a better world 🙂
Hello vegans!