I hit a deer with my car. after that i couldnt eat meat. it changed my life.
I hit a deer with my car. after that i couldnt eat meat. it changed my life.
One night it just hit me. If its wrong stop it. So I did.
A little over a year now
It was a girl. She was the only girlfriend I have ever had and I've never quite gotten over her leaving me, which I'm sure most of you will think is silly since we only went out for a year. She had been vegetarian for about five years and I started taking an interest in vegetarianism because of her. I had been interested as a kid but at that age I had no idea what to do about it and it only lasted about a week. It wasn't long before I went vegetarian and with her helping me, she started to get really interested in vegetarianism again.
Before she left me, we both went vegan over the course of a few months. I just started cutting more and more animal products out of my life until one day I realised I was more or less totally vegan. At first it was just food items but eventually as I ran out of things or things needed replaced I would research vegan alternatives and get those instead. I replaced my shampoo, conditioner, shoes etc. as each one needed replaced.
Regarding the effort I'll go to to ensure products I use are vegan, I personally draw the line where it's infeasible to ensure something is vegan and where it probably is. For example, I no longer care where the bread I get sources some of their additives that can come from either plant or animal sources because it's usually from plant based sources and because it is literally impossible to get that information from them. After six months of asking companies that question and getting no response, I gave up. I personally believe that given where I live there is no such thing as a 100% complete vegan lifestyle. Roads, some computer parts and a myriad of other things we take advantage of in the developed world do often contain animal products or use them in the manufacturing process but it is not feasible to eschew from them.
More recently I've been giving consideration to going back to being vegetarian and that is something that I do not want to do. It's entirely due to pressure from my family. For example, I get sick no more or less often than they do but when I get sick they're very quick to attribute it to my diet. They never used to do that when I was just vegetarian. I joined this forum to help keep my confidence up and help myself stay vegan and even though I've mostly just been reading stuff, it's helping . Still lonely, though
Just come back to this and saw that I voted "combination of both"...which isn't entirely accurate. It wasn't really baby-steps at all. It was, bang, that's it. No more cruelty for me...
I got a binbag and threw all the crap out...
In hindsight I wonder whether I should have passed things on to people needy of the items, but it was something I needed to do to break the 'barrier' into veganism myself.
I was a lacto-ovo, then a pesco-ovo for a very short time. Then I started to listen to Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's podcast - check out compassionatecooks.com - and I went cold turkey, that was that. She's a very effective speaker/writer.
I had an interest in vegetarianism since I was very young as it never made sense to me that the social norm says you should love certain animals like dogs, cats and other animals that people keep as pets but eating pigs, cows etc is perfectly fine. It also seemed odd that people would give money to the RSPCA and then go for a burger at McDonalds. However, I wasn't able to become vegetarian until age 18 when I went to Uni as my dad refused to buy different food for me (all my family were and still are meat eaters) and I'd get yelled at if I didn't finish what I was given.
I first started thinking about becoming vegan in 2006 when I read part of the book "The Pig Who Sang to the Moon" which is about the feelings of animals and what they go through during farming. When I mentioned to my husband (who is also still a meat eater) about going vegan he said he thought it might not be a good idea as both he and I are very keen on exercise and weight training and he was concerned about me not getting enough protein which is particularly important for an active lifestyle. I didn't think about it again for ages.
The year after (May 2007) I came across the book again and this time sat and read it cover to cover. After that I just thought that in good conscience I couldn't continue to use animal products. It didn't matter if my exercise regime suffered, the idea of eating milk and eggs just made me feel sick. One part that particularly resonated with me was where he says that if you're concerned about animal welfare you should give up dairy first as dairy cows live the most unhappy lives. There was one heartbreaking section where he mentioned a cow who stood at the place where her calf had been taken away for hours every day bellowing for it to come back. He also mentioned the "free range" cop-out that many omnis and veggies use and said that in the end you can never be sure if what you're getting is "true" free-range, what free range really means, and in any case an animal that is being farmed is being forced to live an unnatural life however well it is treated.
The transition was so much easier than I thought, within a week I'd phased out all animal products and found alternative high protein foods so my exercising didn't suffer after all, taken all my leather shoes to the charity shop (even touching these made me feel ill, now that I think about it I can't understand why I never stopped wearing leather before) and as a result almost a year later I feel healthier than I ever have in my life!
Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
YAY Becky That was an awesome story.
it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble
It was the quickly-gradual method. On March 12, I decided to become a pescetarian; on March 24, I decided to become a near-vegan (still knowingly consuming trace amounts of milk/meat/etc.); and, on April 5, I decided to become a complete vegan (no longer knowingly use products in which animals were killed/hurt in the process).
It all started when I was speaking to someone at work who stated she was a vegetarian (although she was technically a pescetarian) and, for whatever reason, it just clicked that day and I immediately decided to become a pescetarian myself with the long-term goal of transitioning into veganism.
Not sure why it clicked that day - it's not like she tried to "convert" me or anything like that. But that was the day my life changed forever.
Over the next several weeks I gradually deleted more and more non-vegan items from my diet (becoming around a 98% vegan) until, on April 5, I just said enough is enough, I'm going to dive in all the way.
Now the main challenging thing is learning all the meat ingredients and finding new types of shampoo, cleaning supplies, etc., but I will devote my life to educating myself (and hopefully others!) on veganism and how to avoid all food and other items which hurt/kill animals.
this thread is awesome. thanks, y'all.
Oh Nyphur, please don't feel lonely /hug
My biggest epiphany occured thanks to a daddylonglegs. I had been thinking about vegetarianism due to my university studies in ecology and environmental science but the emotional part hit me when I was cleaning the toilet (lol) and a daddylonglegs fell into the bowl. I spent a good few minutes trying to fish him out with the toilet brush and then when I finally managed it he looked like he was too drowned and mangled to recover and I broke down into tears (which happens very rarely for me).
After crying and begging him to wake up he started moving and I stayed crouched by the toilet until he got up and was dry enough to start climbing walls. After feeling such strong emotions for this creature I realised I did not want to eat an animal again. It still makes me well up slightly when I think of him, I feel like I somehow owe him my life.
Fast-forward four years, watching Jamie Oliver's Foul Dinners of all things! I saw footage of chicks on a conveyor belt. For some reason this image was almost more haunting to me than the pictures of hens in cages and chicks in the gassing chamber; I had seen these before and they merely made me 'try' veganism and see-saw inbetween. The way we put animals on a conveyor belt! I don't quite know how to describe/explain the feeling of abhorrent absurdity that this makes me feel, but then, I suppose here maybe I don't really have to?
So, it has been over two months since then and what can I say? Being vegan is great I have found it surprisingly easy and uplifting, however I fail to fathom why I did not become vegan earlier.
Sorry for babbling, and thankyou Vegan Forum for being here.
Welcome to the forum vorpal and congratulations on going vegan!
vorpal, what a sad spider story.
Was vegetarian cause I didn't want to hurt animals. Despite growing up on farms, everyone hid the truth from me about the deaths and suffering involved in milk and eggs. I was naive enough to believe it, until finally one farmer told me the truth.
That was all it took - once I knew that milk and eggs means animals die and suffer, I had to be vegan. I know that farmer only told me to get me to accept that old line about 'it has to be this way', but I'm grateful he made me understand what really happens. Now I can truthfully say to him - it really doesn't have to be that way, it's a choice that people make.
All it took for me was one seven minute PETA vid. I woke up the next morning and threw away my Perdue chicken breasts, cottage cheese, milk, and eggs-- I didn't even want to touch that stuff.
I had been a vegetarian for several years (with some "off" time) but was never vegan. It seemed too severe and restrictive to me, especially with cheese being my favorite food. I breastfed both my sons and began to see milk and nutrition in a very different light. Why on earth would I drink the breast milk of another animal? When my second son was born he developed a milk allergy to the dairy in my diet and I began researching non-dairy recipes and came across several vegan websites. It just made sense to me.
Mother of 2
i realized cows dont want to give us milk and that chicken dont want to give us eggs - it is taken from them by force and against their will.
I can't watch a whole PETA video...they're part of the reason I decided to become vegan; I find them stupendously effective. I always attempt to watch for more inspiration, but I end up leaving the room at a sprint when people stick them on, and usually end up loosing my lunch/dry heaving with abandon. All of the stuff they show is absolutely sick; I feel really guilty about ever having eaten meat to start with.
I can't help, at the moment, envision the scene from V for Vendetta, when V takes over all the TVs in the world...but with a PETA video - one of the really long, super disgusting, sick-making ones. That'd be kinda fantastic...
I read "Skinny Bitch". I cried. Been vegan since the day I finished it.I only wish I had done it a long time ago.
i was vegetarian for 20 years.four months ago i was in the pub when some drunk guy decided to tell me that he grew up on a farm and when he was thirsty he would go up to a cow and help himself to some milk straight from the udder.i was horrified at this sick/bizarre behaviour.i couldnt get it out of my head all the following day.then it struck me that the only difference between him and me was he cut out the middle man. then i was horrified at me.i went vegan there and then.so there you have it my veganism was inspired by a drunk!
There you are, even drunks are useful for something In vino veritas, and all that.
That is quite an offputting image isn't it?
I've been vegan for just over three years, I was 22 when I made the decision. I often wonder why it didn't occur to me to do it sooner. I remember my sister went veggo when we were teens but she just ate plain pasta and after a week she'd forgotten all about it. And there was a vegetarian in my class at school but it never occurred to me that I could and should be one too. I also worked at a vet clinic from the age of 15, so I was caring for pets but eating other animals (and all the other people at the clinic are the same).
I'm happy I made the decision at all, and maybe if I'd tried it as a teen I wouldn't have lasted and it would have put me off ever trying it again.
One day I was online, looking for alternatives to cruelty free products as I'd always used the Body Shop but then I found out about L'Oreal buying them out. As I was searching I kept finding links to veggo websites and then about going vegan. I knew I couldn't just be veggo and within a week I was vegan
cupcakekitteh.blogspot.com
That's great, onfiregirl!
I wonder what is the record number of vegan generations in one family?
My partner and I have been vegan for more than 26 years (can't remember exactly how long now) after being vegetarian, when we looked into getting goats to cut out commercial dairy cruelty, only to discover the full facts of wasted land and resources and 'disposal' of unwanted billygoats...and after looking after chickens for a while for a friend, which revealed similar issues. Our 3 children are all life vegans and it doesn't look as though they'll change, so if eventually we have grandchildren, I hope they will be vegan too.
once in a while you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places if you look at it right
When I was 14/15 I started helping out in a wildlife hospital. It eventually dawned on me that spending all day looking after animals and then stopping to eat one for lunch was not very logical, so I became vegetarian.
For the past 10 years I wanted to try veganism, but my OH (also lacto-ovo at the time) wasn't convinced, thinking it would be hard. Eventually I stopped eating lumps of cheese and milk, which were the things I thought I'd miss, and then stopped eating things with milk/cheese in them.
I have real issues with the concept that bringing up children vegan or vegetarian is make an active choice which is some way violates their rights. My sister who is Lacto-Ovo feeds her son meat because she 'doesn't think she has the right to make that choice for him'. I find this very odd because at 3 years old I don't think he's ever seen a pig and thought 'I bet that tastes nice in a sandwich'
I don't really want to get into an argument with her over how she raises he child, but I think it's pretty odd to use a moral baseline you don't actually agree with as the basis for normal.
If/when I have kids I'll raise them vegan. If when they get old enough they choose to eat meat/dairy I'll probably feel a little wounded or upset in the same way I'd feel upset if they decided to to something else I thought was morally wrong.
Quitting something because it's hard is wrong, and quitting something because it's wrong is hard. One takes cowardice, the other bravery.
PETA
Their videos of animal cruelty in fur/dairy/slaughterhouses etc made me not want to be a part of any animal use for human gain. I was vegetarian beforehand.
Meet Your Meat did it for me. I was lacto-ovo before watching that, and afterwards, chocolate just never really tasted the same. Went vegan the next day, straight after finishing the last of the non-vegan chocolate because I did not want the cow's suffering to have gone to waste if I threw it away.
I hate it when I'm studying and a velociraptor throws bananas on me.
I know some people hate this book, but I was vegetarian from age 16-30 when I read Skinny Bitch. For some reason something clicked and I decided to try veganism for 30 days. While doing so I realized I had been lactose intolerant all along! I lost weight and felt so much better, plus of course the decreased guilt of consuming all those animal products I'm coming up on my vegan 2 year anniversary next week
Edited to add: I wish I had done it many years sooner! And it was so much easier than I ever thought it would be!
Edited to add more: I think what really really did it was I had recently adopted a dog, the first dog I've ever had, and there is a passage in Skinny Bitch about how intelligent and friendly pigs are and how it nuzzled this guy like a dog and it made my think how much I loved my sweet dog. That was my defining moment. Yeah, I had heard pigs were smart and all, but for some reason that part hit home, I can't explain why. Maybe I was more open to it at that time in my life.
Last edited by erynne936; Feb 20th, 2010 at 05:35 AM.
Umm just asking, but what did you mean by this? Is it a stab at me? I'm really sorry that I have to ask that, but I'm in a very sensitive mood at the moment and I'm just asking so that I don't yell at you or anything.
With the chocolate thing I kinda did have to eat it as lame as that sounds cos it had gluten in it and my sister and mother are allergic to it and my dad is allergic to chocolate Again I'm really sorry
I hate it when I'm studying and a velociraptor throws bananas on me.
Oh, no! No, it didn't mean anything bad by it at all! I wanted to say I went vegan the next day, but after I finished the yoghurt, because I didn't want to waste it. But you had already typed that but with chocolate, so I thought I'd steal your text. I was just being lazy
^ Gah!!! I'm sorry!! I knew I was being stupid!
*feels really dumb as she hides under her desk, nearly dead from embarrassment*
I totally understand the laziness thing; I think I'm the queen of the lazy world. Which is kinda the reason I'm a bit sensitive atm, cos my mum seems to find a flaw in EVERYTHING that I do atm ... *finishes rant*
I hate it when I'm studying and a velociraptor throws bananas on me.
^ Haha, you can come out from under your desk, it's easy to misunderstand things online. No big deal I'm sorry your mom is being difficult, hope you feel better soon
^ *magically revives herself and appears from beneath her desk*
Thank you! Normally I'm ok with understanding people online, it just must be today
I hate it when I'm studying and a velociraptor throws bananas on me.
I became very interested in Buddhism when I was ~15 then became vegan a short time later. I was never a good buddhist till more recently when i decided i'm not buddhist, but being vegan was easy.
I had been vegetarian for 5-6 years and never thought once about veganism. I then got to know a vegan who enlightened me on a few facts about the dairy and egg industries. I did lots of research myself and in the process discovered the Viva! and Animal Aid websites and shops like The Vegan Store (and this forum) and went vegan from that point onwards. That was nearly 5 years ago now...
"Only after the last tree has been cut down,the last fish caught [and] the last river poisoned;only then will you realise that money cannot be eaten"
I had been vegetarian in one form or another since about when I was thirteen. I didn't become Vegan until many years later when I read Compassion the Ultimate Ethic: An Exploration of Veganism by Victoria Moran. I read it through several times and thought more and more about it. Then I went vegan.
I had vegetarian friends at the time who just suddenly thought I was a freak for being vegan. I suspect that they were more bothered that they couldn't find it in themselves to do it as well.
I considered it for a while and then decided to stop thinking about it and just do it.
I became a "full" vegan as of that day and have been since. I thought that would be better than doing things gradually. With regards information about the treatment of animals etc, it is something I've looked into a lot more since becoming vegan rather than before becoming vegan.
I've always wanted to be vegetarian for like 2 years and finally decided to do it last year. And then I met vegan people and they told me a lot stuff about honey milk and such, and I watched a lot videos with them, so there, I become vegan immediately after I know I'm still harming animals by doing other stuff...first I stopped eating all those things together, then I realized like clothes and house cleaning and make-up can be animal products as well. So then I become completely vegan
It was PETA that urged me to be vegan. I went vegan the week i saw a PETA video and my body was still adapting to the diet and i got a bit weak coz i didn't take it step by step but i continued with it and i got used to veganism and i loved being vegan.
I'm ashamed to admit this, but it originally started out as a joke...An "I'll do it just to do it" thing and guess what! it turned out to be the greatest discision I have made my entire life.
"See no, hear no, speak no evil. Leaves you deaf, dumb and blind."
I was vegetarian for a number of years, then I received a Peta vegetarian starter kit with some hints to becomming vegan. I swapped cows milk for soya milk on my cereal and started thinking more about animal welfare and factory farming. I think the penny finally dropped after I wanted to eat a healthier diet and cut out cheese. Becoming vegan was the next logical step and I would never go back. What finally sealed the deal was watching Meet Your Meat, but I had been vegan for over a month by then. I also joined the Vegan Society's Vegan pledge a few weeks into my veganism.
Last edited by tahini freak; Jun 7th, 2010 at 04:40 PM. Reason: forgetfull brain..
Vegetarian from age 8, read about veganism, researched it, tried it and failed.
Took a one month vegan pledge from the Vegan Society a year later, and the one month never ended.
"Life is life – whether in a cat, or dog or man. The idea of difference is a human conception for man’s own advantage."
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