Children and Animals #2

My boyfriend's Mum is a teacher and came home one day with a tale about one of the boys in her school.

The sweet little 6 year old was walking past a fishmongers and he asked his mum if they could buy one of the fish. So they did. The next part is the 'funny' bit, but it's the part that broke my heart. He took the fish home, named it, cuddled it, played with it and continued to take it everywhere with him.

He wanted an animal friend and the notion of a shop selling dead creatures just hadn't even entered his precious little head. Of course everyone laughed at how silly and cute he had been but they're missing the point. How innocent and lovely that the idea of killing fish for food was completely alien to him. This should have been a story that makes people feel sad that we're forcing beautiful souls like him to live in a world ran on pain and suffering. But as per usual they're too blinkered to realise.

Children and Animals #1

A few months ago 3 of my little cousins (all under 13) were eating meat and I was lurking in the kitchen.

''Nicola, why's this got red stuff in?''

''It's blood''


*Puzzled expressions*

''Because it's a dead chicken's leg''

*Horrified expressions*

Cue the rest of my family furiously telling the girls to ignore their lunatic cousin. Fast forward 3 months to the announcement one of them made that she's now vegetarian - I'm beyond proud of her!

I'm constantly thinking about the results of my actions and whether something I say will piss people off so much that they use it as ammunition against our cause. But in cases like this when I see a real opportunity for my message to be heard, I'm obliged to speak out.

A conversation with my Dad afterwards went something like this:

Dad: *Frowning* ''Come on Nic, you know you shouldn't have said that''

Me: ''Why?''

''You know why'' *looks at me as if I'm just being ridiculous*

''No I don't. Why shouldn't they know the truth?''

''Because they're too young, they should be shielded from stuff like that''


''Why, because if they knew the truth they wouldn't want to eat meat? If they're being forced to eat it, they deserve to know where it's come from. Either stop force feeding them the dead animals which you know they would choose not to eat if they were given the option, or tell them the truth. And if their parents are sure that they're doing the right thing by feeding them meat, then they should be fine with them knowing the truth.''


He agreed in principle but still felt uneasy about me saying things like that to the kids. Ellie is a bright little girl and I'm not suggesting my one statement turned her veggie (she read Charlotte's Web too) but children are just less indoctrinated, less brainwashed into the idea of gorging on flesh, they're so close to making the connection that all they need is to know the truth. Before they reach a certain age they don't defend their actions with pathetic excuses, they just get it. They agree and they're disgusted and I'll be damned if I'm supposed to let parents force feed our friends to compassionate little people without saying anything.