History's On Our Side

Favourite Animal Friends and My Hopes for The Future

Considering I was terrified of animals for the majority of my life, it's really astonishing how utterly in love I am with every single creature now. I mean that, every single one. Totally besotted. Even the ones I'm still scared of, like spiders or earwigs, I still love them. It took me many years to realise that they all have their own little personalities, it was when this really sunk in that I begun to appreciate each and every single being and became vegan. I mean, I sort of knew before, but it took lots of meetings with lots of animals before I really got it.

Here are some of the ones who left a lasting impression on me that I'll never forget...

An absolutely breathtaking moment with a family of elephants with their brand new born calf at a sanctuary in Sri Lanka. About a year before I became vegetarian, no doubt in part due to these magnificent animals.

 I really fell for this little guy! The silliest little person I've ever met - his name was Finicky and he was a teeny tiny goat, so full of beans; he kept jumping on my lap and eating my hair. The tragic part, which brings me to tears even now, and what I didn't realise at the time, was that this place that I used to visit to play with the animals, was actually a working farm. I can't believe I was so naive. It literally breaks my heart to think about how this little angel has probably suffered a brutal death by now.

Another of my Sri Lankan friends and certainly my favourite. Little baby Lucky. I would play with him and snuggle him and he'd have a little snooze on me and a cuddle and I'd feed him bananas. By the end of the trip when I'd met him a few times, he didn't want to leave me and clung on to my belt and wouldn't let go. I was distraught! It wasn't until recently I realised that this poor baby had probably been taken from the wild and was being pimped out to tourists for money. Horrendous. I really just had no idea. I worry about how he is doing now and just pray that he's treated kindly.

The moment I met this cuddly little cloud on legs was when I discovered how wonderful sheep are. He was so sweet and I when I looked at his angelic little face I could just see how innocent and pure and good his heart was. Now when anyone dares to say that ''sheep are just stupid'' they feel the full wrath of a devoted sheep lady - and it ain't pretty let me tell you! Sadly, this little darling was from the same farm as Finicky. 

These horrific realisations helped me make the connection between animals and meat, and their incredible and individual personalities strengthened it. It's so important that these connections are made, without them, even the nicest people can wander through life naively playing a massive part in animal exploitation. My goal is to open a rescued farm animal sanctuary, which I'll use to educate people of the horrors that these delightful beings are continuously suffering. I'm putting all of my efforts into making my current business a success which I'm going to use as a not for profit organisation to fund the sanctuary. It might take me a while, but I'll definitely do it. Better get a move on then...more work, less talk! *Heads back to the grindstone*

Being Vegan is Easy!

When going from veggie to vegan, I was most nervous about discovering animal products needlessly lurking in everything. And while it's true there are lots, there are squillions more vegan friendly stuffs than I ever imagined! Today I got replies back from two companies I've emailed asking whether some of my fave foods were vegan, and turns out they all are!

I had no idea how close to eating a vegan diet I already was, I assumed it would completely change the way I ate, which is probably what took me so long to get there, but it literally took a few tiny adjustments like swapping butter for sunflower spread, swapping milk for soya, swapping Quorn sausages for Linda McCartney ones and hey presto - no more animal cruelty. And I don't feel like I'm missing out at all.

I'd already gotten rid of all my leather things a while back. To me that didn't feel like a 'vegan' thing to do...vegetarians don't eat dead animals, so why would I want to parade around with them on my feet? 

One of my friends is on the verge on becoming vegetarian (more on that another time) so I'm taking her a hamper of vegan friendly goodies so she can see for herself that it certainly doesn't mean deprivation. I really think if I would have known just how many food products were vegan, I would have done this a long time ago!

Evolution of a Veggie

I always had a nagging feeling whenever I ate meat, I forced myself to ignore what I was aware of; that the 'tasty' chicken drumstick was not a handy little snack with it's own little holding stick, but that it was a chicken's leg, an actual chicken's leg.

I didn't feel empathy for animals then, I was too busy being petrified of them. I think the fear was passed down from my mother who is deathly afraid of dogs. Even mine. Yes she's scared of this little poppet:

What a lunatic! But don't worry I'm totally helping her get over it by putting Cecil on her lap at every opportunity and saying ''oohhhh look Cecil - Nanny loooves you! Yes she does! She loves his fuzzy wuzzy bum and his button nose! Don't you?! You love him don't you!'' ''Nicola! Get him off me!!'' ''Tell him you love him!''  ''I love you Cecil'' ''Yayyy she's cured!''

But even with my lack of empathy, the nagging feeling was still saying to me ''do you really wanna eat that corpse?? Gross!'' I ignored it, and shoved the thought deeper into the back of mind. Shoved the meat into the back of my greedy gob.

Six years ago, I met the love of my life. Turns out he'd had these pesky little veggie voices in his head too. We promised that when we ate together, we wouldn't mention it to one another and ruin our meaty meals (I know, I'm ashamed of myself). But because we'd said it out loud, it became too real to ignore. There were several times when we were enjoying our favourite dinner of chicken curry at our favourite Indian restaurant when we exchanged knowing glances and wondered, why are we doing this??

By then we'd begun to love animals too, I wasn't the crazy dog lady that I am now, but I was well on my way. We'd start watching David Attenborough documentaries and realised how magnificent animals were. We had our Lord Wallace and we'd loved and lost our two delightful little hammie girls, Pokey and Pamplemousse.

This is Pokey. Or Pamplemousse. They were completely identical. We could tell them apart when they were scamping around though as Pamp was a bully and Pokey was her victim.

So we talked about why the thought of meat made us sick, and why we were burying these thoughts in our brains if we knew it was wrong and we didn't want to eat it. So we became vegetarians that night. I ordered takeaway. I began eating it and realised that I hadn't considered if it had meat stock in. I couldn't eat it anyway. I remember being secretly furious that I'd allowed myself to fully accept that meat was horrid. I was hungry and hunger leads to crazy thoughts.

That part when you become vegetarian, where you really allow yourself to fully understand and accept what meat is, fascinates me. In the past whenever I had seen any animal rights campaigns, I would switch off, I didn't want to know, because knowing meant admitting I had been wrong all my life and contributing to horrific cruelty for 23 years. That disconnect, when people 'know' but they don't really know...if only we knew how to break through that barrier.

That evolution of meat eater to vegetarian, it feels like it's happening again. I have been recognising many of the same feelings and thoughts creeping in...

Vegan voice:  ''Do you really wanna drink that milk?? Do you know how much suffering has gone into making that little glass? *nag nag nag*''

One of my other voices: ''No! I don't actually, I actively seek out articles and campaigns about animal rights while managing to avoid ones that talk about the dairy industry and I want to keep it that way thankyouverymmuch''

Veggie voice: ''Come on Vegan voice, give her a break, she's a vegetarian, that's way better than most people''

Vegan Voice: ''Ok, well,if you're sure you can live with yourself''

Other Voice: ''FINE!! I'll read your crappy articles on dairy and eggs, happy now?!''

*reads articles* *goes to buy some soya milk*

So here I am, drinking my soya milk banana shake, becoming vegan, and feeling pretty darn pleased with myself. And completely free.

I'd really like to hear about your experiences becoming veggie or vegan...please do share your thoughts and blogs with me, I love reading accounts from like minded folk :-)