Your personal vegan story

[RubyDuby]

We can live just fine without animal products. In fact, we're better off.

amen.

love your avatar! :)

[mexicanpotato]

Thank you! I found it randomly on google...hehe...

[emmapresley]

aye, but what did you google word-wise to find the image??

it's cute..heart..thingy :)

[mexicanpotato]

uhh you know I really don't remember. When I'm bored I google the most random things. I think it was "love" on images but I can't be sure...

[Haniska]

I remember seeing that movie a long time ago! Do you remember what it was called? I had forgotten all about it until I read your post.

Powder :)

[Kitteh]

I don't think I ever had any thoughts of being veggie/vegan as a child/teen, not as far as I can remember.
I have always loved animals, I have worked at a vet clinic since I was 15 and still do (I'm now 24). I remember there was a girl in my year at school who I think was veggie, but wore leather shoes etc. I don't think I knew any others growing up.

I began thinking about using products not tested on animals, I clearly remember a poster of a rabbit up at school and so I used products from the Body Shop.

In 2006 when I realised the BS had been sold to L'Oreal I started searching for alternatives.

I found the Choose Cruelty Free website and also found links to websites about being veggie and vegan. I decided in August '06 to become vegan as I couldn't consume/use animal products anymore after reading the information I found.

I am happy and healthy and am pretty sure I could never "go back".

I sometimes wish I had thought of this earlier but I am happy I made the change at all... perhaps if I had tried it at a younger age I would have faced more obstacles (parents, school, friends etc) and maybe I would have gone back to being an omni and never considered veganism again, v.glad that isn't the case.

[Jessicake]

I initially became vegetarian because I didn't like the taste and then it became because I just couldn't bring myself to eat a dead animal, because I love them too much.
I was a vegetarian for 5 years and then I watched the "Meat your Meet" video aaaand that pushed me to veganism. Since reading more into it there's more reasons than "I love animals". There's environmental and health reasons as well as ethical. :)

[Roxy]

Yay Jessicake! A similar thing happened to me to. Once I became vegan I started to learn more about how it was the right thing to do for other reasons, such as the environment and world hunger.

[danaeonyx]

I initially became vegetarian because I didn't like the taste and then it became because I just couldn't bring myself to eat a dead animal, because I love them too much.
I was a vegetarian for 5 years and then I watched the "Meat your Meet" video aaaand that pushed me to veganism. Since reading more into it there's more reasons than "I love animals". There's environmental and health reasons as well as ethical. :)

That was the video that did it for me. Nasty isn't it? Originally I said "I'm gonna eat all my veggie food (like Quorn) first then go vegan." But I ate something with egg in and felt ill. I also said if I wanted eggs I'd get them off my friend who rescued battery chickens (who are now really healthy :)), but I've gone right off eggs. Can't even stand the smell now.

I love being vegan :) I've tried so many new things since. People always ask me if it's difficult, to me it's easy peasy and natural. I couldn't imagine ever going back

[Zero]

Powder :)

Thats the one! Thank you!

[RebeccaDye]

I used to eat meat when I was a toddler until I was about 5.
My parents used to take me and my brother to farms and conservation places a lot and we had a lot of pets ourselves so I naturally loved animals.
One day, I asked my parents what I was eating and where it came from, and when they confirmed that I was eating a dead animal I was horrified and demanded never to be fed it again!

From the age of 5 to 15 I was vegetarian, and one day last summer I saw a Peta sticker on a bus. Having nothing better to do in a six week holiday, I went on Peta's website and started to learn about the horrors of the dairy, egg, wool, leather etc. industries. I was mortified. I then watched Meet Your Meat which confirmed that I needed to go vegan.

After telling my omni parents, who were surprisingly supportive, I made the switch fairly easily. I still get fun poked at me at school for it, but it's easily the best decision I've made in all (15 years of :D) my life. 7 months strong.

[Sarah_]

Meet Your Meat.

I mean I've always loved animals and felt that animals should never be harmed or abused and such, but being a kid I never stopped to think about what I was eating (stupid right?). So I found peta2, which led me to Meet Your Meat. I remember this horror flooding through me when I watched it, and right then I called up my best friend sobbing and told her to watch the video as well. While she was watching it over the phone with me I said "I am never eating meat again for the rest of my life".
And that's how it goes.

[elve]

I went veggie 6yrs ago when my 8yr old son announced that it wasn't right to eat mammals, since we are mammals - good point, it does seem a bit mean :(

Then I rescued lots of rabbits and guinea pigs and became fond of herbivores - very glad I didn't eat them any more :)

A couple of people on a rabbit forum got me thinking about 'where does milk come from?' - Until then I had thought it came from a bottle :o This is the pic that did it for me - it always makes vegetarians feel guilty! And when Jamie Oliver did his prog on battery farming, I was pretty glad I'd become vegan the week before - all the veggies I knew were begging me for vegan recipies :)

http://i235.photobucket.com/albums/ee138/elve2362/boy_with_calf2.jpg

[xxrequiem]

I had always known that there were Vegans and Vegetarians around me. It was cool - I respected them for doing the right thing, but I was raised as an omni.

One day, my friend told me about PETA's "Meet Your Meat" video. I saw it at her house, and oh god, I just broke down. My guy-friend and I started crying as we were watching. I had always known that what I was eating was dead animal, but... to see them treated like that... I felt like complete scum, honestly. I've always loved animals, and knowing that I was, in a way, responsible for their treatment really messed me up.

As soon as my friend's brother saw me crying, he basically shot me down. He was like, "Wow, way to go. That's not how they're ALL treated". But, even if that's true, the fact that THOSE animals, RIGHT THERE were being treated that way didn't make it right. :/

So I told my dad I wanted to go Vegetarian. He didn't agree with me - and still kind of doesn't - but he respected my decision. That lasted all of two weeks, maybe. I learned more about how chickens and cows are treated and I didn't want to be part of that, either.

The way I let my dad know was basically refusing to eat. He didn't want to listen to me talk about how the animals were being treated. He saw the video and didn't do anything. I kind of understand him now, seeing as he's been eating meat for a much longer time than I have, and he just wants me to be healthy. So I didn't eat much. Strictly the few Vegan things we had lying around [for whatever reason]. He finally gave in in September of last year.

My dad and I still get into arguments about the whole "do ALL workers treat the animals like that?". And he didn't even go Vegetarian, even after seeing the video. But that's his life - I'm a lot happier with mine. But yeah, he deals with it. He thinks it's good that I'm standing up so strongly for something I truly believe in.

---

I'll have been Vegan for [S]five SIX months on the fourteenth. :]
[I just barely passed the mark!]

[xErasedCitizenx]

1

[emzy1985]

That's it really, I try go to demos when I can, sign petitions etc, talk to people who are interested about it, but don't do much activism. I really want to but there isn't much going on around here and i'm not sure how to start something/I don't have much time being a full time student with a job.

There is loads of stuff going on up in the North. Just have a look on myspace or a search engine and you will find stuff. Big campaigns with "Foie Gras Free North" at the moment and lots of anti fur stuff. Most of the AR groups hop on coaches and come down here for big demos because unfortunately we have alot of big pharma companies, labs and aristocratic universities. If you can't find anything, let me know and I'll speak to some people I know up there.

As for your Animal Liberation tattoo - that is awesome! I hope you are gonna post a pic on the tattoo thread? I had vegan tattooed on my wrist for some of the same reasons and I'm getting a full back peice incorporating Animal Liberation some time this year.

I feel your pain about Earthlings. I've not watched it but then I don't really want to.

Welcome to the forum!!!

[xErasedCitizenx]

1

[pat sommer]

http://animalaid.org.uk/h/n/ACTIVE/school_speaker/ALL///

Giving a talk at a local school is one of the most highly effective and rewarding things you can do.

thanks for your story!

[Roxy]

Hi Erased Citizen and welcome to the forum :)

I've been vegan for a little over 4 years, and watched Earthlings for the first time this year too.

It really is a very powerful, yet haunting documentary and it helped me re-affirm my reasons for being a vegan and animal rights activist.

[Wonderwoman]

I remember sitting at the family dinner table as an 8 year old, with my fork full of steak on it's way to my mouth, when my older sister said, "you may as well be eating a baby you know" (she liked shock value!). I think this is the first time I made the connection that the food I was eating had been alive once. My older sisters went vegetarian in their teens, and I think I thought that they were cool, so I would too. I started to get into Animal liberation (in a sort of cutesy 10 year old way) and refused to eat meat. Poor mum, not being the most adventurous of cooks, really struggled to feed us and often we ended up with three veggies on a plate. It was all just too hard for her, so I ate sausages and bacon from time to time. It wasn't until I was about 17 that I finally took control of my food and declared myself vegetarian. When I became pregnant at 25, I decided to go vegan as I believed this was the best possible choice to grow a healthy human being. My doctors were pissed off and concerned that I would have a underweight ill baby. I turned into an expert medical researcher (:satisfied:) and used to quote them back statistics that showed that babies born to non-meat consuming mothers were often larger than meat eating ones! My daughter was 10 pound 1 ounce when born!

I stayed vegan for three years after her birth, but my husband felt the whole thing was a hassle. He did most of the cooking back then and even though he was vegetarian, he wasn't at all supportive of my choice. He gave our daughter cheese and she bloody well loved it and wanted more (sigh).

I'm now 36, divorced and my new partner was vegetarian when we met. We decided to go vegan together and it's a whole different thing with the support of your partner. I learnt to cook and we love to plan out our food choices.

The biggest surprise for me has been the incredible feeling of 'expansion' that has resulted. I feel like that part of me that I had to turn off every time I ate an egg or a piece of dairy chocolate is finally able to be acknowledged - I feel whole.

I still can't point to a single reason.....animal rights, health, environment, my Buddhist values....they all add up. Veganism for me is about evolving to be the best that I can be.

It's nice to share our stories, isn't it?

[Roxy]

Yay! Wonderwoman :) Good for you. It must be nice to have a partner to share the transition with.

[Laura-Louise]

I think I've always been vegan deep down, I just didn't have the confidence in my convictions to live this way until recently.

Until 2 months ago, I was a "turn a blind eye, stick my head in the sand and pretend all the animals I was eating had a happy, fulfilled life and a quick painless death" kinda meat-eater. All it took was one person to say, "erm actually that's not entirely true, here read this" for me to turn completely and fully vegan.

I just wish I'd known about the suffering caused to animals a long time ago, being quite a new vegan I currently get all the "it's just a phase, it'll never last, here have a cheeseburger" comments.

[emzy1985]

Congrats on awakening Laura-Louise! We are here to support you and I'm sure you will read lots about people offering cheeseburgers etc in the "things meat eaters say and do" thread.

Keep up the good work so far :)

[tempres]

I first went vegan in High School, when I was 17, I realized that my cats (who I love as much as if they were my own children) were the same as any animal I had ever cooked and/or eaten. I was VERY obvious to me that Oreo, Marco, Maxine, Mazeppa, Blacky, Snowy and Evi (all my cats... :rolleyes: ) could feel emotion and certainly pain. I felt horribly guilty about what I had been contributing in.

Then, a year later, my best friend and a bunch of family members decided that they knew what what good for me and pressured me to leave the diet (which I regrettably did...) because I didn't have any actual information to back-up my decision other than it was what I believe is the best and most sensible decision.

So, for about 2 more years I ate meat. but everytime the subject of vegetarianism or animal cruelty came-up, I was basically reminded of it and wished that I was still vegan.

Finally, two years ago I decided that not doing anything about it was silly. I got the information I needed, faced those who thought it was a bad idea and made sure that this time they knew that I knew what I was doing and was making my own decision.

I quit eating meat, dairy and eggs within a week, and began to religiously read ingrediant lists and watch what I consumed. Most of my friends thought I was "going through a 'phase' again" but after a while they began to actually accept it. I was a lot happier all the time, and it was actually more fun for me because I was educating all my friends about something which I cared about. Plus it inspired me to speak-up more about other things I care for.

The best part is, now my each of my friends are proud of being the friend of a vegan, and my boyfriend has actually become one (his excuse was that I only cook veggies, now, so he might as well take the steps...) :D

[VeganDaze]

The best part is, now my each of my friends are proud of being the friend of a vegan, and my boyfriend has actually become one (his excuse was that I only cook veggies, now, so he might as well take the steps...) :D

That is so cool!