So today begins Day 1 of my Vegetarian journey...
This really sucks to choose to do the month of Thanksgiving, but I'm going to try it. I have to after seeing this movie.
I didn't want to watch it-- I always try to avoid watching these videos because I feel guilty for eating meat after that. As I should. When I watch these videos, I feel like the biggest ass in the world for what I'm contributing to. I've done the Vegetarian thing before for a couple weeks and it actually wasn't hard at all. I don't know why I stopped. But i'm going to try it again. I'll see what I can do.
These main points of the video grabbed me the most:
Please be warned, some of this is pretty hard to hear, but I'm going to state it anyway...
Skip ahead if you have a queasy stomach.
*If I stop eating meat, I will save 100 animals each year.
*Animals are killed alive and often feel the pain intensely. The video showed cows and pigs in slaughterhouses slowly dying after their necks are slit.
*The abuse begins weeeeeell before the actual slaughter. The farmers were laughing as they stomped on chicken and turkeys heads or killed baby piglets by banging their heads against the concrete floors.
*Chickens, Turkeys, Pigs and Cows are kept in such small confinements that their bones and muscles deteriorate by lack of use.
*Chickens and Turkeys are unable to ever open their wings and they stand atop metal wires for 18 months then sent to the slaughterhouse to be killed. On the way to the slaughterhouse, they are thrown into boxes and shipped for days without food or water. 40% actually die on the way to the slaughterhouse. What a life.
*Pigs are grown to be so massive, the crumple under their own weight, often within inches of their water source. They are so big they cannot move to nuzzle their piglets once they are born. Any piglets that are sickly or small are immediately killed by having their heads banged on the concrete floor. They are thrown into a box of dead piglets, yet some are still struggling to survive amongst the dead.
The whole thing was disturbing to say the least.
Something VERY interesting that never crossed my mind was the damage that these farms and slaughterhouses actually do to the environment. It is responsible for more greenhouse gases and environmental collapse then all forms of transportation combined!! The BEST thing you could do for the environment is cut meat from your diet. Cutting meat from your diet does MORE than to stop using a vehicle for a year. Pretty crazy.
And hey, we can't forget the health benefits. Cholesterol and Fat are HUGE contributers to heart disease and are most commonly found in meat. My body could probably do without so much of that.
So...Let's see how this goes. Day one: Ashley's baby shower. :)
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