Dedicated Vegetarian

OK, so as you know, I started the blood-type diet which started me on a mostly vegetarian diet. Well, I ended up liking it so I kind of decided to go as vegetarian as possible as a lifestyle change. Last night, we watched 30 Days. This is a new(ish) show on FX (I think) by Morgan Spurlock (the guy who did Super Size Me). Last night's episode was a guy who was a gung-ho meat eater and hunter who moved in with a vegan family from California. Now, I have seen the videos and the pictures and Fast Food Nation...but for some reason, I always thought those were the rare and extreme cases that PETA is known to play up. It bothered me, yes, I am an animal lover...but I didn't really think all that much of it. But last night's episode of 30 Days had me in tears. Here's a fact about me that very few people in my life know: before I decided on advertising/marketing as a career-path, I wanted to be a farm vet and rescue farm animals. In fact, that was the reason I transferred to the high school I graduated from. They have an awesome agriculture program that I wanted to be in...but, I made cheerleading and the first ag class I had to take was also the same period as cheerleading. We begged with the ag teacher (who my dad knew because he had previously taught at my high school) to let me take the first class over the summer or something, but the school wouldn't allow it. So, I never took my ag classes and then decided on advertising as a career because I also liked to write.

Anyway! Got a little side-tracked there...but it's relevant. I promise. So, Mr. Hunter/Meat Eater fought all the vegan people for the longest time and he did have some good points. I grew up with a farm and we raised cattle and my family does hunt...well, my dad has turned all our deer into his pets now, so we don't really hunt anymore...so I could completely understand where this guy was coming from. He, like my dad and I, always killed the animals as swiftly and humanely as possible. My dad always taught me to not go for big trophies just to have a deer head on the wall, but to go for the ones that were obviously sick, or weak, or what are called "spike" deer. Spike deer don't grow big antlers, only two little spikes. Because of this, they will never mate and reproduce (as the females look for the biggest antlers to reproduce with). Therefore, in the circle of life (sorry about getting all Lion King on you here), they are just here to die out anyway. I don't know a better way of putting it, but it's almost better to kill these deer as they will just contribute to over-crowding...which leads to starvation. Which is why I am ok with some hunting. For some species, if they are not hunted, they will crowd themselves out and completely starve to death...which is cruel. So, I guess let each man judge for himself, but I would rather feed a family than let an animal starve to death. And, let me just add, my family always uses every part of the deer we possibly can. We always eat all the meat and use the skins for various things. Even my mom would use the antlers for stuff!

Anyway, sorry for the second long explanation. But, eventually, Mr. Hunter/Meat Eater started coming around. They gave him a job with a farm animal rescue! See? Told you the first story tied in. He did not like the woman that ran it from the beginning and I could see why. She had such canned answers for everything that it just was the same stuff regurgitated over and over. But, one night at 3:30am they went and saved a calf from a farm. Basically, when calves or cows become lame, farmers put them "out to pasture" and separate them from the group and let them starve out and die slowly instead of rehabbing them. The site of this sick calf was so heartbreaking. I have raised calves that looked just like him (only not sick)! But, they rescued him and rehabbed him and Mr. Hunter grew very attached to him. At the end, they introduced the calf to the general population of other cattle and the little guy, who was scared at first, started playing and head-butting all the adults. It was pretty cute and funny.

Another thing they had Mr. Hunter do was go to a dairy farm. I have been to feed lots before and thought they were appalling but again, didn't think much of it. My dad hates feed lots...even though we would sell cattle to them to make money...but that's a story for another day. I had never seen how the workers treat these animals before. They were showing how the babies had grown up in a stall for the first six months of their lives, sitting in their own excrement, and then the boys get shipped off to be turned into veal (that sounds like some good eating, huh?) and the girls go on the farm to spend the rest of their lives pregnant (that's how we get milk). To get these calves out of the stalls, the guys were grabbing them by the tail and just yanking them out as hard as possible! They were falling on the ground, and obviously scared, then these guys were just shoving them into the back of a truck. They were tackling them to the ground for no reason and just grabbing whatever part of the body they could to literally throw them in the truck. I have been around cows...you don't have to do that to get them to go where you want them to go. It was so horrendous. The babies who got sick and died were just lying there rotting waiting for the dead animal removal guy to come pick them up. Those dead animals get turned into "by-product"...yep, the stuff found in most (cheap) dog food...and we wonder why there are so many recalls on our pets' food! My dog's food does not have animal by-product in it, but I am even considering starting her on a vegetarian diet as well. Unfortunately, cats are carnivores and actually need meat, so Beast will stay on his food.

So, yes, this episode got to me. When we had cattle on our farm, I turned every single one of those babies into my pets. It got so bad that my dad would keep me from playing with the babies he knew we were going to sell at 1 year. Also, watching this episode, really made me wish I had stuck to my original career goal. Although, not sure I could have been able to handle seeing abused animals day in and day out...knowing that half of them weren't going to make it despite all my efforts. That's a hard reality.

But, after watching this, I am definitely a vegetarian now. I will probably still eat fish every once in a while (in the form of sushi), but definitely no meat, no eggs, no milk. I like soy milk anyway, so I will stick with that. I am going to try to go as dairy-free as possible...but sometimes you just don't know for sure if a restaurant used butter for your meal...and when my company orders us pizza for lunch, that's hard to stay away from cheese. But, when I have complete control, I will use alternatives.

I am pretty positive I can do it. Jonathan has been very supportive in my efforts thus far and when I made my declaration last night, he was very supportive of it. So, as long as he is supportive and doesn't try to force me to eat meat (and I won't force vegetarianism on him either...it's his choice), then I think we are good. It's worked out well so far. Except now Jonathan is responsible for his own dinners...our house has been filled with smoke a couple of times in the past week. LOL! Maybe we will have a cooking lesson one day. :) He's usually a pretty decent cook...just a little out of practice. You know, it's funny...not all that long ago, I would have argued why you needed meat as a source of "good" protein and how soy protein is crap and this, that, and the other. I always tell myself to never say never...somehow as you grow up, your thoughts and attitudes change...LOL! Guess this is another reason why to never say never! :)