I became vegetarian as a teenager (much to my mother’s chagrin — this made for many kitchen table challenges through my college years and beyond). I do not advocate that kind of lifestyle for everyone, and in my humble opinion I believe that people have the right to choose for themselves how to live their own lives. But when I discovered falafel for the first time, I just realized that with food like that available in the world, I did not have to eat anything with a mother, and from then on, I did not.
Vegetarian or not, as a human being it seems almost impossible not to have compassion for animals when you look into their eyes and know that they can feel love and that they love their own lives as much as we love ours. How is your pet dog or cat any different from a goat or a cow?
Jonathan Safran Foer wrote a great book that is not a little chilling called Eating Animals… the title is great because the book is about his and his wife’s decision whether or not to raise their child vegetarian. He looks at the issue from both sides. Humans not only Eat Animals, but we are Animals that Eat. It starts warmly enough with this decision regarding their son but the stories he later relates and information he researched about agribusiness turn dark rather quickly. Worth a read, for sure.
By total coincidence, when Erik and I were celebrating our tenth (OMG!) anniversary at the White Pig Bed and Breakfast, our B&B mates for the weekend just happened to be Gene Baur of Farm Sanctuary and his girlfriend, two talented and interesting individuals who got us both thinking about how we contribute to the world in our own special ways.
Turns out, Farm Sanctuary is hosting a Walk for Farm Animals in Washington DC on Sept 15, so we have signed up a team under Wildflower Yoga auspices to walk and raise money for animals like Tweed. Tweed was purchased for cheap beef when he was only a few days old, and he contracted pneumonia shortly thereafter. Not wanting to lay out cash for antibiotics for Tweed and ten of his friends their new owner simply began shooting the calves. By the time authorities intervened — citing the owner for weapons violation — six of Tweed’s friends had already been killed. Farm Sanctuary was able to rescue Tweed and four other survivors. Although initially suffering from dehydration, starvation, and pneumonia, they soon regained their strength and now enjoy life at Farm Sanctuary’s New York shelter.
If you are in DC on Sept 15 and want to walk with us, please join the Wildflower Yoga team. If you are busy that day, please consider making a donation to our cause, every little bit counts.
$5 or $10 would be so helpful. I used to work in public radio and even helped out in the fundraising end of things, but am never comfortable asking for money… however this is important to me. Please help if you can!
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