Trouble dealing with the truth about animals?
Question by <3 Just Married <3: Trouble dealing with the truth about animals?
Meat eating people: before you troll actually look at what I am saying. I value these animals’ lives and I don’t need you to get all defensive because of your own insecurities.
I used to eat meat..used to love it. I would eat double cheeseburgers, bmts at subway..lots of meat. I was never fat despite the disgustingly high calories I was eating, so I ate it as long as I thought I could get away with it.
My parents encouraged it and told me I needed it for protein. I never thought it was abnormal, and I didn’t even see it as the flesh of an animal anymore; I was so conditioned just to see food.
My sister went vegetarian at a pretty young age and I was immature and ignorant back then and so I poked fun at her decision. She never had any great arguments for why she made this choice so like the majority of society at the time, I thought it was weird. In a way this reinforced my decision to continue eating it. It was normal. It was normal for us to mass breed animals for food. After all, we needed meat to survive, right?
At age 18 after I had left my parents house I started to learn the truth about what’s going on. That we are being mass conditioned to think it’s completely normal and healthy to eat the tortured and slaughtered corpse of a living being that wanted desperately nothing more than to live just like us.
I realized that it was the meat industry being shoved on us and especially the animals, NOT the vegetarians/vegans shoving their beliefs down people’s throats like I previously believed.
Vegetarians/vegans fight for the innocent who have no voice..meat is advertised everywhere, even in children’s cartoons etc. You still think this isn’t brainwashing? If slaughterhouses aren’t so bad than how come they are making it illegal to film in them and how come slaughterhouse footage isn’t on TV?
Meat eaters get angry when a vegetarian/vegan “attacks” them, telling them the truth about what’s really going on. They don’t even actually listen to what the vegetarian/vegan has to say, rather, they just hear “I’m vegetarian/vegan I’m better than you!” when the vegetarian/vegan is actually saying, “Look! Innocent sentient beings are being tortured and murdered just so people can stuff their faces please do something!!”
So anyway..I since went vegan and have been happier and healthier than ever. HOWEVER..
I’m completely disturbed and disgusted by what is going on on this planet. When I see an advertisement for a meat or worse, have to sit with people eating meat I secretly get sick to my stomach..I don’t just see meat/food anymore, I see the death and destruction of this world.
It has disturbed me so much that I have flashbacks and nightmares about meat eating. I have been vegan about a year now and I would like to know if there are other vegans that feel the same way. Will I eventually be able to deal with it better? It’s really hard for me knowing the truth, but I would never ever EVER go back to eating corpses, breast milk from another mammal, chicken periods, and bee vomit.
I never attack meat eaters unless they attack me first about what I am eating, but I can’t say I’ve never made a sickly face seeing it. It really makes me ill. If meat eaters can’t deal with a vegan at the table simply because she looks at the corpses they are eating weird, maybe it is them who feel insecure about their own selves..THEY are the ones with the problem.
I would just really like some support from other vegans. How did you deal with the truth? Did it bother you a lot at first? Does it get easier over time? I really want to become an animal rights activist and make up for what I did to the animals in my ignorant days.
Smells Like New Screen Names, you prove my point 100% 1000% 10000% you didn’t even actually listen to what I was REALLY saying, instead you immediately got defensive because you are eating these things and don’t want to be told you are wrong. I was a meat eater the first 18 years of my life and then I woke up to what was really going on. I used to get insulted just like you..not paying attention to what the person was actually saying and instead seeing that they were trying to be better than me. Here’s a test: When I say “Billions of benign and innocent sentient beings are being tortured and slaughtered to feed you..please stand up for the voiceless and do something!” What do you see? If you still see, “I’m vegan, therefore I’m arrogant and better than you and pushing my beliefs on you.” then you NEED to wake up.
Silly meat trolls. What I just said had absolutely ZERO to do with PETA so I’m not even going to read that, also things most certainly ARE going on, and I can see them going on each and every day. I don’t believe ANY animals should be killed for food, “humane” or no, because they all want to live just as we do and to act like we will die if we don’t have meat in the 21st century is absolutely insane. I’m not even reading comments by trolls such as you, I really pity you, it’s really sad not to have empathy and compassion for all living beings. It’s easy to sit and type that while YOU AREN’T THE VICTIM. You try living in a prison your entire life, just to end up eaten by some fat disgusting freak who doesn’t even think of you as alive. People like you sicken me, associating all vegans with PETA and to even DARE call vegan propaganda when you turn on the television to meat advertisements all day long is unforgivable.
To me there is no humane slaughter, farm lady, so your argument is automatically invalid. I am talking about ALL carnage, factory farmed or not. To me and many others it’s wrong and sickening.
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14 Responses to Trouble dealing with the truth about animals?
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You speak for all vegans and are the voice for the animals. I feel exactly the same. It is hard to cover up your disgust when seeing others eating meat. I still have horrifying dreams of animal being slaughtered and cut up for food. Being vegan is easy but the images of dying animals never leaves me.. You are doing every thing you can by not eating these poor animals. You could help protect wild life, work in an animal sanctuary or help raise money to help animals.
mermaid
April 16, 2014 at 2:47 pm
I have been vegetarian for 23 yrs, vegan now. My twin sister, too. We spent years doing animal rights demos, and now she’s in wildlife conservation. I had a hard time for a long time, felt angry, helpless, devastated, bereaved and more. Now I don’t flood my every moment with the sadness of it. I know the animals cannot escape the Hell they are in, the torture. But in order for me to cope and function, I needed to find a balance, not inundate every moment of my life with it. I no longer preach about others eating meat. I just choose not to myself. You get to a point where you just do it, and you learn how to cope , because you have to. I don’t spend my days watching videos about the slaughter or reading about it 24/7 anymore. I get out and hike with my dog and my baby, and I breathe. Life is short. You have to live it and enjoy it. I realize the animals are suffering. But you already can see that you cannot maintain the feelings you are having forever. You wouldn’t be able to cope at all. It is too horrible, too awful. So you need to have a balance in life for happiness. Don’t miss out on life. These animals are. But you have a choice. They do not. Chose to include positive things and activities in your life, accomplish much, live life to it’s fullest every day. Because you can.
Anonymous
April 16, 2014 at 3:21 pm
1, Nobody cares about your personal story, we’d have to like you to care about you. An insult rant does not make us care what your personal story is.
2. You spend half your time just insulting people for being meat eaters.
3. Your psychological problems need treatment. If you honestly get ill all the time, you’re suffering from a mental break down.
4. You use childish “bad” words to try to make your points. Such things only work on children. You’ve misused the word vomit, corpse, milk (all milk is breast milk, you’re just drinking a milk like industrial product)
5. You contradict yourself, about attacking normal omnivores, as your entire rant is nothing but an attack on them. You could at least be honest.
Smells like New Screen Names
April 16, 2014 at 4:11 pm
There are a lot of disturbing things that happen on this planet, yes, and people eating animals should be the least of your worries.
Sawyer
April 16, 2014 at 4:39 pm
First of all I want to say that was a very well written post and I hope that a few meat eaters might read it and really consider the things that you’re saying.
I haven’t eaten meat in 25 years. For a while I was vegetarian with the best of intentions, until I learned the truth about the dairy industry. Now, I feel the same as you. I couldn’t go back to eating death and murder for anything. And yes, it does bother me to be around people who are eating meat. I hate the smell of it. I also hate how omnipresent meat eating is and indeed how the majority of people in the western world are so propagandized toward eating meat and dairy that they think that WE’RE the propagandized ones – although they never seem to have an answer to the question of who it is that is propagandizing us, since no one is financially benefitting from people abstaining from meat; whereas the meat, dairy and Big Pharma industries are making HUGE profits from the fact that people eat meat.
The one positive thing I can say is that more and more people are waking up to the truth and it’s happening faster and faster. We’re just starting to see a few people pop up in their 60’s, 70’s and beyond who have been long term vegans and how much younger, fitter and healthier they are than meat eaters their age. If you search the words, “vegan 70 year old” on YouTube you’ll see some pretty amazing people.
You asked how we deal with, and how I deal with it and for me, I simply no longer put myself in situations where I’m going to be surrounded with meat. If I’m invited to a barbecue, I politely decline, saying that barbecues aren’t my thing. If a group of people want to get together at a certain meaty restaurant, I’m not afraid to speak up and point out that there’s nothing on the menu for me and suggest a vegetarian or vegan restaurant where everyone will enjoy the food.
It’s awkward for those of us who are awake now, but it will get better. I firmly believe that a time will come when the whole human race will look back and wonder how we ever could have been so savage as to do what we do to animals.
Just keep on being you and doing what you’re doing. And remember that if integrity were easy to have, everyone would have it. 😉
EDIT: After reading the responses from the meat eaters here, I find that they are sadly predictable. These are angry, dull-witted people who have a trigger reaction to the truth because it brings them out of their warm comfortable lala land where everything’s hunkydory, animals are well-treated, and gosh darn it, those critters even WANT to be killed and eaten. These people quite literally do not have the intelligence to comprehend anything outside of the intellectual wastelands they operate in. There’s a reason why studies have shown that vegetarians and vegans tend to have much higher IQs than the average. We’ve got Einstein, they’ve got Sarah Palin. I rest my case.
EDIT 2: @”Bridget”. Wow. So let me get this straight. Because you’ve got some halfwit friend who calls herself an “animal communicator” we’re supposed to now take it as Gospel that what this moron says is true. I’m not sure who the bigger idiot is: Your pseudo-psychic friend or you for posting her retarded conclusions. Tell your friend that an ACTUAL animal communicator told her to go phuck herself. And while she’s at it, I invite you to do the same.
Proud Vegan
April 16, 2014 at 5:36 pm
I expressed my desire to be vegetarian from a very young age. Since middle school I went through phases of being vegetarian to not being vegetarian, etc. Back than I didn’t really have a reason to be vegetarian other than the fact that I loved animals. The true extent of my beliefs didn’t occur until high school when I became really involved in researching animal rights and animal welfare.
As a college student I was a little science geek and a truth seeker. This meant that I always researched both sides of the story and did my best to try and debunk both sides. A part of me wanted eating meat to be ‘okay’ as I liked eating meat, but in the end I had to come to the realization that the truth was that it was wrong ethically, environmentally, and even economically. I so badly wanted to eat meat at the time but I couldn’t deny the truth. At that moment I became a full vegetarian, no longer going ‘back and forth’ between meat eating and vegetarianism.
My belief only strengthened as time went on. I took several Bioethics classes in college as well as biology classes for my Biology major. On top of this I breifly worked as a zookeeper and gained knowledge of animal emotion and feelings first hand as I worked with them. I also started to ride horses and spent a lot of time around a multitude of farm animals.
Nowdays I wouldn’t be able to go back to eating meat even if I wanted to….
It does get easier as long as you grow in your belief. People will question you and you should be able to provide them with answers. If you provide them with answers, they will respect your belief (generally speaking).
The best book that I can recommend (that is a fun, not boring read) is Thanking the Monkey. One of the best, most entertaining books on animal rights that I know of!
Ducky
April 16, 2014 at 6:10 pm
I completely agree with you. I am the only vegetarian of my friends and the other day after having them make jokes about me ‘eating grass and stealing the animals food’, I said to them, “you know people don’t really like touching or looking at dead people because it’s ‘gross’? imagine cutting a chuck of it’s arm off, sticking in in the microwave and then eating it. Horrible right? You’re doing the exact same thing with a cow or a pig etc.” And they rolled their eyes laughed at me. Great friends right? I personally see meat on a plate as not food, but simply a small version of that animal on a plate. It’s horrible. Just think, you becoming a vegan could have potentially saved an animal. People really should open their eyes AND their minds.
Blue star
April 16, 2014 at 6:38 pm
You do not spend “half your post” insulting meat eaters, no worries. That other poster is just being sensitive and personalizing what you are writing about your own life (you spend about two sentences addressing non-vegans, and you are asking a question, not “attacking” them). You were not talking about other people most of the post, and if you are not able to accept another viewpoint to exist on the industry without labeling it as attacking then you are not ready to have a discussion.
Clearly, a worthwhile point would be to point out spelling errors. You know, if the only defense someone has against your post is to accuse you of being hostile, and their only leveraging point they think they have over you is talking about how you misspelled some words, or that they disagree with your word choices…you know you are making a good argument. Dude has nothing substantive to say, he is just made cause you are styling on him.
Bent Snowman
April 16, 2014 at 6:52 pm
No, I do not have any problem dealing with the “truth” about animals.
Neither should you, although your rambling speech would suggest that you do not even understand it, and that your mind has fabricated a “truth” based primarily on veg*n fantasies.
If this question (or whatever) was an invitation to share life stories (several others appear to have taken it that way), I’ll pass.
* Bent Snowman- counting the added details, she now HAS spent half her post insulting non-vegetarians. Close to it anyways, I guess I didn’t do a word count.
* Proud Vegan- Einstein was a vegetarian ONLY for the last six months of his life- during which he produced little, if any, notable discoveries.
BTW, Me and my dull witted intellectual (but angry) wasteland are duly humbled by your “much higher” IQ. I had absolutely no idea that the ability to spew sarcastic insults without logic or fact was a sign of advanced intelligence! Dang I’m dull witted! Gahuk, gahuk!
Dion J
April 16, 2014 at 7:40 pm
the REAL problem is that some of what you believe is “going on” isnt.
It is vegan/vegetarian/PETA propaganda.
Fact is there are millions of people who grew up on farms, own farms and work on farms that “know” the truth, what ever that may be. AND they still eat meat.
I am one of them. I was born and raised on a farm, raised, butchered and ate our own animals.
Beef cattle are NOT raised in captivity in small crowded conditions until slaughter…they are raised on ranches in open air, outdoors, grass fed, cared for, kept healthy, fed well, etc until they are sold to feed lots. THEN they are kept in outdoor feed lots, in small crowded conditions prevent them from running around a lot) and fed VERY well to “finish” them..This lasts anywhere from 3 to 6 months.
This link explains it very well…
http://www.beefusa.org/uDocs/Feedlot%20finishing%20fact%20sheet%20FINAL_4%2026%2006.pdf
You will find that meat eaters wouldn’t get so wound up if vegans and vegetarians actually knew how food animals are actually raised, and NOT simply take those horrid videos as gospel.
I also don’t like the way poultry and pigs are raised but not all are raised that way either. Again, videos make it sound like EVERY pig and chicken is raised in bad conditions…not so.
Many vegans and vegetarians will tell you that animals are no different than we are, that humans are a form of animals….if that is true than what we are doing is no different than other meat eating omnivores. Bears, pigs, birds, fishes, primates are all omnivorous and eat both vegetation and meat. Humans however do not consume it while its still alive: many hunting animals do.
Humans also can make choices.
YOUR choice is to skip meat.
My choice it to eat meat.
leave me to my omnivorous choice and I will leave you to your omnivorous choices.
ckngbbbls
April 16, 2014 at 7:59 pm
The first thing I want to address is your statement to Smells Like New Screen Names of you are simply asking us to stand up for the voiceless and do something. As a matter of fact I do, I only buy free range meats, eggs and milk, I support animal rights campaigns. I buy fish that is responsibly caught, and all my tuna is dolphin friendly.
I live in the UK where animals are farmed in much better conditions than some other parts of the world, like the USA. I also try to buy organic fruit and veg, I bake my own bread so I can control what is in it.
Also, a corpse is an entire dead body, meat is the flesh, so no we don’t sit down to a corpse for tea, since we don’t eat all of it, nor is all of it on the plate.
I think you might be a little paranoid though. Trust me, images of meat in kiddies cartoons are not the meat industry trying to brainwash children, it’s just a really easy food item to draw.
Please go and learn some evolutionary biology (from real academic sources, not ve*gan sites) and try to understand the concept of omnivorous animals such as humans.
Seryph
April 16, 2014 at 8:17 pm
When you ask a less judgemental and condescending question than maybe I will care about what you have to say.
saraimay75
April 16, 2014 at 8:42 pm
I specifically created an account so that I could answer this question, or rather give my opinion. I don’t care whether you are a meat eater or not – that is a personal choice.
But let me give you some advice that I was given regarding the eating of sentient beings – I have a friend who is an animal communicator (and a meat eater funnily enough). Upon learning that she had the ability to communicate with animals and having numerous “confirmations” of information to validate her claims – it started bothering me that animals knew what we were doing to them, they weren’t these unaware meat sacks that we slaughtered to eat. It all of a sudden became very uncomfortable for me knowing that they knew… So I asked her if animals, in particular the ones we mass breed for food, felt that they were hard done by? Her simple answer – No! I couldn’t believe it, I thought well shit, if I knew somebody wanted to eat me, I would be highly upset. This is not the case with animals – they believe that if that is their purpose then they will fulfil it, all they “ask” is that it be done humanely. That part is up to us entirely – so while you are advocating completely stopping the eating of meat – that will never happen. Instead, Vegetarians/Vegans and Meat Eaters alike should all be getting together to advocate humane conditions for the beings that give up their bodies to sustain ours.
(On a personal note, regarding how ill you feel when sitting around people who are eating meat – that sounds like you are obsessing a bit, and have convinced yourself so strongly about your opinion that you make yourself feel ill around meat – it’s a psychological issue – all in the mind if you will)
Bridget
April 16, 2014 at 8:54 pm
Honestly, my transition to veganism was not as painful as you make yours out to be. I realized one day that I think that animals should have a basic right to live and die naturally, and why should I kill, if I don’t need to. I put myself in their shoes (erm, paws?) I’m not mad at my former, meat eating self, that sounds pretty destructive to me. For some reason, I feel like the only vegan who doesn’t cry in bed at night about animals being tortured.
Just move on. You’ve made your change. Live and let live. I’m always excited to learn that a new soul has moved onto veganism. Don’t feel guilty, feel proud, but not to proud, (by that, I mean don’t be so haughty that you aren’t able to admit your mistakes).
*But I disagree that you should tell meat eaters that they “stuff their faces” with meat. That implies that they do it 24/7 until they’re about to barf. Some meat-eaters only eat meat about 1-2 times a week, and they make sure that the meat was humanely raised and quickly killed, inflicting as little pain as possible. So to lump a McDonalds goer, with one of the people I described, is wrong, IMHO.
And also, if you’re telling someone what to eat (a basic need), only do so if he/she brings it up. Otherwise, it looks like you’re trying to control their life (by controlling their diet, which is necessary to live). I don’t mind vegans who spread their word, but they must do it carefully, lest they add to the bad reputation that vegans get.
And I’m pretty sure that honey is not “bee vomit”
I can understand where most meat eaters come from, because I used to be one. People may think that they’re “senseless murderers”, but really, most of them don’t really know what happens in the slaughterhouses (which, I’ve learned from here, that they’re not as bad as they’re cracked up to be), and since it comes in a vacuum sealed package, they’re not forced to make the connection
cow->dead cow->ground meat->hamburger.
LOL @ Mermaid and Proud Vegan. Their answers always crack me up.
shanainka
April 16, 2014 at 9:01 pm