You are vegetarian?
An ex-colleague asked if I turned vegetarian after reading my recent spat of vegetarian meals on Twitter.
I told him I turned vegetarian recently and he asked me why - because of religion, health or?
Well, twitter can only type 140 words.
So I'm going to elaborate here, why I turned vegetarian (Oh no, the same old story AGAIN).
1. For Health
I tried turning vegetarian for health reason a few years ago. Back then detox was the "in" thing. I wanted to lose a few kilos so I tried a detox plan. My aim was just to eat salad for lunch for A WEEK. I gave up after 3 days. Mind you, it was only lunch, I was still eating meat etc for dinner.
Failed.
2. For Religion
If you remember, I went on a vegetarian diet in July for religion reason. I was counting down everyday and celebrated with big meals full of meat, seafood and poultry at the end of that 1 month.
Failed.
3. For Conscience
What really did it for me was when I saw a video of how the animals were killed so that I could eat their meat. It opened my eyes to the cruelty out there. I went and did research and realize the extend of cruelty behind all these was beyond what I had thought. I did not even think much about where the meat I eat come from prior to this. Yes, I know beef is from cow, pork is from pig but I did not bother to find out how did that beef come about, how did that pork come about. The process is really not as pain-free and humane as what I thought it was.
After all, everyone is eating, there must be nothing wrong with it.
Charles shared a documentary with me which I would like to share with everyone. If you have the time, do watch it www.earthlings.com Its an award winning documentary about the suffering of animals for food, fashion, pets, entertainment and medical research.
I came to realize, not knowing does not mean that its not happening, and not acknowledging that its happening, does not make it right to continue with the wrong.
I tried reasoning with myself from every angle to find a reason for me to eat meat again, but I could not find one that can allow me to continue with such inhumane act.
My dad debated with me, Bern debated with me but with every 1 reason they gave me to eat meat, I could come up with 10 reasons why I shouldn't eat meat.
The funniest argument from dad was, if we don't eat meat, a lot of businesses will go bust, slaughterhouses will close down, it will have a big negative impact on the economy. This is not even a valid point. Its just an excuse for man to continue with the aggression towards animals. If one day, a virus wiped out the entire animal population, I'm sure those business will find ways to survive by venturing into other businesses.
Bern's argument was, its for survival. If one day you are trapped on an island, with nothing but a cow and vegetation, to survive, will you kill the cow and eat it or will you eat the vegetation? Eating meat is for pleasure and not survival.
How can I kill an animal just for pleasure sake?
I do not dare to kill a chicken myself to eat it, yet I could eat a chicken that's killed by other people to eat. Because deep down I know its wrong, because I don't want to be faced with the fear and the pain of the chicken, because I don't want to face the fact that it is not as pain-less as I convince myself to be just so that I can continue with eating my favorite chicken wing.
1 chicken, 2 wings.
How many lives have I killed? :(
Its about making the connection that the pig in the slaughterhouse is no different from the cute little puppy that your neighbour have. They are all equal. Its akin to how the blacks fight for equality with the whites, how female fought for equality with men.
Being black does not mean you should be discriminated, being a woman doesn't mean you don't deserve the same chances as a man, being a pig doesn't mean you deserve to be killed for meat.