Night Thoughts
Hello everyone,
Just thought I’d post a brief update.
What an intense experience it was writing and putting together my last blog post, my interview with Anita Krajnc, founder of Toronto Pig Save.
Intense because… it is intense to witness these things. Death. Suffering. Cruelty. Injustice.
It is intense to even talk about these things. In fact, in rereading my interview I noticed that I skimmed over talking about the true horrors of what I saw. I did write a brief post about it on my other personal blog though, which can be found here.
I think it is amazing that Toronto Pig Save bears witness 3 times a week.
I think it is important too…because I think…you start to second guess yourself. You think, maybe I couldn’t have seen what I did. Pigs boiled alive… It was only after reading a comment on TPS’s facebook today where someone was talking about how many pigs are boiled alive did I feel like, OK! I wasn’t just seeing things!
It’s hard to believe the things you see. It’s like your mind almost wants to protect you from it, and tries to dull the memory so that you can’t “bear witness” as powerfully. The emotion fades. But at the same time, I’ll never forget what I saw. Yeah, I can’t recall the exact sound of the pigs screaming anymore but I know what I heard, and saw. It never totally leaves you I guess.
Did anyone watch any of Toronto Pig Save’s videos? If so, I’d love to hear your experience watching them, and thanks to everyone who liked and commented, that was so amazing to feel your support. It is wonderful to hear from people from far and wide.
Well, I feel I am kind of left with the question, what do I do? Anita invited us all to think about starting our own Pig or Cow Save groups, and in the interview she suggested I do use my artistic bent to make some sort of art for animals.
I would love to do something kind of like what Jo-Anne McArthur does. But how? But what? I will be brainstorming on this question…
One thing I read today got me thinking about…
All those people out there who still think we need meat to be healthy…
Also all those people who skim over the elephant in the room when talking about vegetarianism or veganism (sure it’s healthy, and good for the environment, but what about the murders taking place)…
What a challenging issue this is. Definitely something that will be in the history books. This is a movement. I love how Anita is leading it on one front from Toronto, Non-Violent Style–inspired by Gahndi and Tolstoy…
Something I hate:
I hate how people don’t like vegans. I hate how people don’t understand that vegans are self righteous for a reason.
Murdering innocent animals…so crystal clear in my mind. And yet….so …everywhere!
My main question I think after the interview was
WHY
Why don’t people get it?
Here are my ideas why people don’t understand why animal rights matters:
1. They may not have a very large capacity for empathy
2. They are numbed to feeling empathy for animals from all the conditioning from food companies (“you need meat to be healthy”), scientists debating whether or not animals are conscious, hunters numbed to violence at a young age, parents creating a “bystander effect” by eating meat like there is nothing wrong with it, advertizing proclaiming humane, local, sustainable meat from old fashioned farms with happy pigs and cows (ha!) and just generally all the messages we receive in our society that animals are ours for the eating and using.
3. people do feel empathy for animals but are addicted to the taste of meat and dairy and feel they can’t change (I definitely have felt this way and know how hard this can be)
4. They feel threatened by vegans moral stance which deep down makes sense to them, and feel judged and that creates a backlash like “but it tastes so good!”
5. They have never seen a farm animal before in their life, let alone gotten to know one, and so they never think about animals and can easily assume animals are dumb and don’t suffer like we do
Other ideas?
a puppy in the womb
I am experimenting with the 80/10/10 Diet by Dr Doug Graham, which is a book about High Carb Raw Veganism, also known as Low Fat Raw Veganism, or Fruitarianism or eating all fruits and vegetables. I have been eating so much fruit.
Hope you are all doing well, and Happy Tax Day and Happy Monday!
Another great post! I think that people are just so conditioned to eating (and wearing) animals that it seems weird not to. I have talked with a lot of people who tell me that they can’t prepare chicken or other meat on the bone or with veins in it – but they will eat it!! They ignore the thoughts and feelings that tell them that it is wrong. And most of those people (that I’ve talked to) aren’t thinking about their health, just social norms. They force themselves to suppress those thoughts bc it is easier to not think about it… I used to be one of those people.
great points. so true. i used to be too. sometimes i think if i hadn’t just committed to vegetarianism so early i might still be struggling with it. I hope i would have eventually come around though…
Hopefully we are showing that it really isn’t that difficult to live a vegan lifestyle ;)