Another Holiday with Meat Eaters :(

[Chris Tinney]

Every Holiday I sit at the table while a giant hunk of flesh is placed on the table.

I know if I say how I feel it will drive more people away from my message of loving animals and not eating them so I sit and I watch as people eat and I recieve compliments like, "you're the nicest vegan I know". I get peppered with questions that no one really wants the answer too so I'm short in my answers and simply say I have a brochure if they really want to know ("Why Vegan" from Veganoutreach.com). I feel good because every year someone comes to me and says, "I think I'm gonna try that". That makes me feel good.

What doesn't make me feel good is because I am more laid back people assume I'm ok with the jokes about meat. I'm not. I sit amazed as people that are overweight and unhealthy don't see the irony in telling me they don't think my diet is healthy. LOOK IN A FUCKING MIRROR PEOPLE!

We had ten dogs at our family xmas. almost all rescues. So I have to appreciate these people. But how can you rescue one animal and eat another?

I think if they walked in a room and saw the family dog being served for dinner they'd understand how I feel.

I dont have to live with an animal in order to love it enough to not kill it and eat it.

For that matter the homeless boy on the street doesnt have to me my biological son in order for me to love him and want to help.

Listen up all my Veg*n friends.
We're not the crazy ones.

They are.

What happens at your holidays?
How do you handle it?

[Deborah Collins]

I agree with yoiu Chris.
I go to my parent's for Thanksgiving and Christmas. My mom makes me something meatless.

[Gregory Halmay]

I am not Vegan but vegetarian, i am . If it has eyes, i don't eat it. Some of my family and friends are vegetarian and some are not. I don't enjoy going to gatherings where there is a dead animal on the table. A friend of mine put it simple to me and said " if you come from the place that it is bad or wrong to eat meat, chances are you won't get too far with people. He said approach it from what is true. The question is "Do you need to take the life of another creature for your survival"? True or false. I think if we keep it all as good questions like this, people have the opportunity to take a look, otherwise it can become a battle and once we start making people wrong, the defense program starts. I used to come from the place that it is bad and wrong. Again if we say they are crazy it can create war. If people through gentle questions can go within and you set a good example there can be greater possibilites.

Greg Halmay

[donna nikzi]

Hello Chris,
I find myself feeling sad for all the innocent turkeys who will be slaughtered to celebrate a holiday that, realistically, should have nothing to do with turkeys....just a tradition which people choose not to question....at the ultimate expense of the birds. Thankfully, my son and daughter are totally happy and willing to celebrate with a vegan meal, and this year we had one community one and one at my home. So, I'm grateful for that. I'm reading "THanking the Monkey" and I highly recommend it as an opportunity to understand all the ways that animals are exploited. I once was at a gathering where someone placed a huge hunk of pig right next to my plate. I was horrified, but, of course, couldn't express that because the crowd were all meat-eaters. I try hard to be understanding, but I actually feel I'm betraying the animals when I am understanding of humans and their dangerous eating habits. I want to say, "Wake up and give life a chance!" Thanks for sharing and allowing me to share. It's such a HUGE issue for the animals who can't speak. donna

[Fireweed]

I wrote the author of this editorial to thank him for this piece...readers here might be interested in sharing it with their families next year (or any time!)

The St. Catharines (ON) Standard December 23, 2008

http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1360219

Editorial

Good deeds stained with animal blood
Countless worthy causes are based on the grilling and eating of animals

By DAN WILSON

"So while you're home today eating your sweet, sweet holiday turkey, I hope you'll all choke ... just a little bit."
-Kent Brockman, Channel 6 News

That charming little quote is from The Simpson's, and while I consider it to be one of the funniest shows on television, I honestly have no desire to see anyone suffer ... not even a little bit.

I would, however, like people to think about the choices they make and why they do the things they do, especially when it comes to the way we treat others in the pursuit of own individual interests.

Christmas easily comes to mind. It's a time of sharing, family gatherings and being thankful for what we have.
We spend the days and weeks leading up to Christmas looking for just the right gifts for family and friends, feeling all good inside about how nice and thoughtful we are. Perhaps we even do some volunteer work to ease the suffering of those less fortunate.

Then on Christmas Day, after all the presents are exchanged and the smell of homecooking fills the house, we take our places at the dinner table, say a little prayer, and feast on the slaughtered remains of some defenceless turkey, goose or pig.

In the name of peace, love and goodwill towards others we cause or sanction the unnecessary suffering and violent deaths of other animals, and think nothing of it.

Either we don't consider the consequences of our actions or we simply don't care. Maybe it's just that the taste of another animal's flesh is more important to us than the life of that animal.

Consider all the organizations that collect and distribute turkeys around Christmas (and Thanksgiving) to give to those in need. Sure it's great to give food to those who can't afford it, but what's wrong with giving rice, pasta, potatoes or canned vegetables instead?

Why does a good deed have to be stained with the blood of an innocent animal?

But that's the way we are, and not just around the holidays. All year long, and for countless worthy causes, we'll cook up, barbecue or grill other animals to help our own kind -- your friendly community rib-fest, wing-fling, fish-fry or beef-on-a-bun.

This type of prejudice is called speciesism, meaning when one species (ours) puts its own interests above the interests of all other species so it can do whatever it wants to those other species.

We defend our discrimination in many ways, like saying animals aren't capable of complex thinking, using language or contemplating death the way we are, as if these reasons justify cruelty and exploitation.

Did you know that turkeys are clever, cunning and extremely friendly creatures? Did you know they blush? They also become extremely stressed just before slaughter, which apparently makes their "meat" tougher because of all the adrenaline that's released into their bodies.

And did you know that a few years ago a pig, someone's pet, saved the life of a woman who was having a heart attack? It's true. LuLu, sensing her owner was in trouble, risked her own life by leaving the house, running into the street and lying down in front of traffic until someone finally stopped, followed LuLu into the house and called 911.
Some eight million pigs and another three million turkeys are slaughtered for food each and every day around the world. Maybe if they were more like Lu- Lu, we'd think twice about eating them. And maybe if we got to know a few cows, chickens and turkeys the way we know cats or dogs, we'd treat them better, too.

It's as if we suffer from some sort of moral multiple personality disorder -- nice to some animals, even creating laws to protect them from abuse, and cruel and indifferent to the rest.

We need to start practising what we preach. If it's wrong to make one kind of animal suffer, it's wrong to make any animal suffer.

So in the spirit of Christmas and with a new year just around the corner, may I offer a suggestion: If you feel bad for the animals that are killed to be your food, or a little guilty for causing so much pain and suffering, then do something about it.

Make it your New Year's resolution to stop eating animals. It's not only good for your health; it's good for theirs too. If you truly want peace in the world, take the first step: go vegetarian.

Or as Bart might say, don't have a cow, man!

- Dan Wilson is a vegan, environmentalist, animal rights activist and public education director for the Niagara Centre for Animal Rights Awareness. He is a member of The Standard's community editorial board. Contact him at [e-mail].

[Tom]

I recently moved to Hernando, Mississippi from San Francisco. It’s weird to discover that some people think that a vegetarian can eat fish or chicken! When I talk about chicken farms, people just look at me in disbelief. Ok, so maybe that doesn’t describe every one in these parts, just a few of my neighbors.

My Family served turkey for Thanksgiving but, opted for a complete vegetarian meal for Christmas dinner. I think my talks with them are finally getting through. Most of my family --- all the guys--- (sorry guys) just don’t want to hear about chickens being scalded alive to meet the needs of the food chain. I’m also not sure how to tackle such a sensitive subject with my niece, 10 yrs, and nephew, 12 yrs. My family seems to respond to the health benefits of vegetarianism. We started watching You Are What You Eat on the BBC hosted by Gillian McKeith in which Gillian lays out pounds of butter and meat on the guest’s family table to illustrate the quantity of “bad things” people eat. This graphical representation really hit home with my weight-conscience family. Now, we talk about things like serving size, organics, and food source. I may not be able to change their minds completely, but at the very least they now think about what they eat, and where it’s from.

Kudos, to you Chris, for having patience with your family!

[Brett]

Certain parts of my family are more receptive to my Veganism than others. The family I grew up with are the least understanding and least receptive. Usually we make a visit to my parents house for Christmas dinner, but my Mom made it clear that she was just making the usual dinner this year, and that she wasn't going to make anything different. So we didn't go out of our way to eat there this year.

I too run into the inevitble questions from people about what I eat, and I've learned to leave those answers for either before or after dinner, never during.

Although as a dietetics student myself, I have learned not to accuse a meat eater's obesity, or unbalanced eating habits as being attributed to eating meat and dairy alone. Because there are plenty of meat and dairy eaters who aren't fat, so if I go around accusing the fat ones as being fat because they eat meat and dairy, my argument falls flat.

So I am always careful to emphasize that animals have the same inalieable rights to life as humans do, and their lives help make a sustainable environment that we can all live on possible; because i know if I push the health issue, I will always be shut down by one-off examples of long living and healthy meat eaters.

[Richard Natoli-Rombach]

All of the “older generation” of my family has died along with some cousins and one sister. From an early age they realized this was the natural course of things for me. I was the one rescuing the strayed and injured, or trying to free chipmunks or other unsuspecting prey from the jaws of my cats. I would be there for their recovery or with them at the time of death. I still remember a paralyzed chipmunk nibbling at a piece of apple I held to its mouth before it died. My father said to me, "If he survives, you will have a friend for life." So it was no surprise when I transitioned to a vegetarian or went off to Africa after college to live with mountain gorillas for a while. That was who I was and though my family could be very narrow minded at times they realized this was who I was born to be.

I still remember sitting with my sister a few days before she died during the Holidays of 2001. The cancer had metastasized to her brain and her clarity of thought was being challenged a little bit. We were talking about eating and our favorite foods and she was talking about her favorite meat dishes. I remember her pausing and saying, “but I remember that you are a vegetarian.” You can’t get much of a better gift than this, respect and acknowledgement of whom I am even in the face of imminent death. Sometimes I think my family was an utter mess but these memories bring me closer to reality.

[Rachel]

Everyone eats meat at my house for the holidays too but honestly I've talked to them all about the health aspects of eating meat and moral aspects and none of them listen except my parents who both eat very little meat which is an improvement.

The point you make about not having to live with an animal to love it is great, Peter Singer made that point in his book Animal Liberation and I never had really thought about it before but it's true.

Good blog Chris!

[Jennifer Lang]

Well, this year has been especially difficult for me since I'm living abroad--in Paris, France. Dairy and meat are key ingredients in the French diet, and the "cuisine par excellence" derived from these industries is an immense source of cultural pride. So...

With most people, I bring up my environmental sustainability concerns about having meat and dairy as staples in our diet (the sheer excess of their omnipresence is alarming)--as well as point out the fact that animals are not our personal slaves, and that cows could indeed survive even if we didn't "relieve" them of their milk! Sometimes, I will also mention that animals are not a necessary component of good nutrition. After all, what is the magical sustenance for many of the protein-rich, "healthy" animals our culture consumes? Ta da--plants!

Even so, the typical French person is almost always disappointed to hear that I won't be indulging in their cultural treasure: cheese. The younger generation, however, seems to understand where I'm coming from a bit. For example, I explained to one of my French friends recently why I was vegan, and she responded with something along the lines of, "Why even bother trying to change things; there are so few of you vegans--you'll never make a difference, anyway." I replied that if everybody used that line of logic, there would be no reason to vote. She understood right away and respected my viewpoint. My family back home, however (even my mom), accuses me of rigidity and lack of variety in my vegan diet (to which I always retort that quite the opposite is true, since I am no longer obligated to choose from the astonishingly limited dairy and meat varieties pervading our supermarkets).

In summary, it's tough being vegan in France. The only really wonderful news I have is that after searching online, I managed to find a pretty incredible vegan restaurant in Paris. It's called "La Victoire Supreme du Couer" (The Supreme Victory of the Heart)--not a bad name, huh? I figure that this name alone should leave all of us vegans feeling warm and fuzzy inside...:)

[Jennifer Lang]

I agree that saying little, living by example, and not trying to push your ideas onto everyone is the best way to go. I am a relatively new vegan (1.5 years now), so I always try to remind myself of the mentality I used to have toward vegans/vegetarians. What compelled me to become vegetarian was a sort of personal transformation/revelation, at which point I felt an indescribable need to immediately change my eating habits (which I did, the next day). Soon after, I became vegan. However, in absence of that incredibly strong conviction, it would have been, and would continue to be, impossible for me to remain vegan. And it seems to me that this realization has to come to people at its own pace, when each individual person is ready. Therefore, if the people around me do not feel strongly compelled, how can I force them to change their ways? Moreover, how can I judge them (in their minds, they're committing no serious crime)? Be patient, I say, and let the stones overturn themselves one by one.

[Dave Streater]

I tend toward vegan, but more from a sustainability-global life view than from a sympathy for the creatures view. I do feel the life; the suffering vs the joy, and feel and express in various ways my appreciation for, all the creatures and plants in our environment that capture and process the energy from the sun to keep even us parasites able to contribute something to the great sea of life in the universe!
everything is karmically interconnected. Thus I seldom eat meat. But if I am wilderness canoeing I sometimes augment my food supply (and inevitable share some with other animals) by catching and cooking fish. I never knowingly eat red meat, though. Everything every one of us does "counts in large amounts", as some song goes...
As far as holiday dinners, etc., in my closest family and friends circle, I find people are generally quite good about trying to make sure there is something for the vegans- but among us there are several strict vegans, and a few of us, who are very nearly so.
I always try to look at things "from the outside", from a long-range all-inclusive standpoint.
BCDave

[Jennifer Lang]

Hi Dave,

I just wanted to say that I love your "great sea of life in the universe"--the description gave me goosebumps!