why veggie? I'll tell you why

I was asked today, why vegetarian? The answer, though easy, doesn't translate well for some reason. I figured, maybe it's time I tried to explain myself.

It's not political, it doesn't project on anyone else. It's a very personal thing. Always has been. It is real simple: I love animals. I love them to my core. I see the sweetness of animal on the plate, remember how it feels to look into its big eyes, and think how it might have been killed. When I am in the grocery store and I pass the butcher shop, I cringe at how the blood is pooled on the corners of the cow packages, or how the ribs of little lambs and cows are on display in showcases. It's gruesome to me. And we as humans select the best one, like jewelry in a shop, blood now dried on its carcass. I am sad for those animals. I love passing them in cars, seeing them happily graze...so free and unaware. Those are the lucky ones. The unlucky, the ten billion animals (just in the U.S.) slaughtered for human consumption, those usually come from factory farms where there are no beautiful meadows or pastures, just tiny constricted spaces so small that the pigs and cows are cramped in the same position day and night. They suffer branding and mutilation, live in their filth, which then of course farmers pump them with oh-so-healthy-for-us-antibiotics to keep them from getting sick. Chicken's beaks are burned off using a hot knife because they peck at each other due the tight-quarters and frazzled conditions, and poor hens' feet grow distorted and tangled around the wire. There are many who now push toward hormone free, cage-free etc. and the reason is obvious (kudos). I could go on and get much more graphic, but I'll keep it a family show.

My point is, all this has affected me. It doesn't in any way, affect the way I view others eating meat. As part of my job I need to cook meat for the kiddos (or at least toss chicken nuggets in the oven). I touch it, I'm around it, in fact almost everyone I know eats it. Nothing about anyone choosing or not choosing to eat meat is a problem to me. Again, it's a very personal thing. I just simply can't do it. I see the animal. I see the animal's experience, his or her life. I wouldn't eat an animal any more than I would eat whomever is reading this right now :) Like I said. Simple. And to honor animals, I had to include my favorite of all. This was my sweet cat Romeo. He was the love of my life. Anyone who knows me can attest to that. We were quite a pair, the two of us.