Four (almost five) weeks ago I became a vegetarian. At first I wasn't sure if I would give up meat slowly or if I would just "try" to be a vegetarian (like still eat meat but not very often).
I went ahead and gave up meat altogether, all at once. It wasn't super hard because I wasn't a huge meat eater to begin with. I loved chicken and turkey but giving them up hasn't been too hard. I mean, I have had my moments where I've missed meat and craved it a little bit but I haven't caved in.
I'm not saying I'll never eat meat again. Because I might. I'm just saying I'm going to try my hardest to go without it. After learning about factory farmed animals and how horribly they're treated I just don't feel right eating meat anymore.
I'm going to post some of the article about factory farmed chickens that PETA has on their website, and if you read it you'll understand a little about why I feel the way I do.
"Chickens are inquisitive, interesting animals who are as intelligent as mammals like cats, dogs, and even primates.1 They are very social and like to spend their days together, scratching for food, cleaning themselves in dust baths, roosting in trees, and lying in the sun. Dr. Chris Evans, administrator of the animal behavior lab at Australia’s Macquarie University, says, “As a trick at conferences, I sometimes list [chickens’] attributes, without mentioning chickens, and people think I’m talking about monkeys.”2 Chickens are precocious birds. Mother hens actually cluck to their unborn chicks, who chirp back to their mothers and to one another from within their shells!3 The intelligence and adaptability of chickens actually make them particularly vulnerable to factory farming because, unlike most birds, baby chickens can survive without their mothers and without the comfort of a nest—they come out of the shell raring to explore and ready to experience life.
But the more than 9 billion chickens raised on factory farms each year in the U.S. never have the chance to do anything that is natural to them.4 They will never even meet their parents, let alone be raised by them. They will never take dust baths, feel the sun on their backs, breathe fresh air, roost in trees, or build nests.
Chickens raised for their flesh, called “broilers” by the chicken industry, spend their entire lives in filthy sheds with tens of thousands of other birds, where intense crowding and confinement lead to outbreaks of disease. They are bred and drugged to grow so large so quickly that their legs and organs can’t keep up, making heart attacks, organ failure, and crippling leg deformities common. Many become crippled under their own weight and eventually die because they can’t reach the water nozzles. When they are only 6 or 7 weeks old, they are crammed into cages and trucked to slaughter."
All of the above article was taken from the PETA website, here is the direct link to the page about chickens: http://www.goveg.com/factoryFarming_chickens.asp
You can also learn about other factory farmed animals on their website.
A lot of people have said to me that God put animals here to provide for us, and I'm not arguing with that at all. I'm just a very compassionate person and my heart breaks for the animals when I see the way they are treated. And I know God understands me and the reasons why I'm doing this and I don't think He looks down on me for living off of the other things He put on earth to provide for us.
And to end this post I also want to say that just because I've decided to become a vegetarian doesn't mean I'm a "crazy" vegetarian. I don't look down on people who eat meat and I don't get offended when people eat meat around me. Being a vegetarian is my personal decision and I would never judge or discriminate against someone for not being a vegetarian.
