Cold Turkey

For most of my life, I celebrated a traditional American Thanksgiving. Getting up early to bake pies, cook homemade cranberry sauce, and prepare to roast a turkey. I loved Thanksgiving morning. It felt like a communal event—everyone was doing just what I was doing. I felt part of a greater whole.  It never occurred to me that the big money turkey slaughter, fueled by tradition, could be anything bad. I gave little thought about how the turkey had been raised, slaughtered, and packaged. I did not think about the fact that this had been a living being. I had been raised not to think about it. I was willfully blind.

Me hanging out with the turkeys at Luvin Arms!

In my early twenties, when I started my animal advocacy career, I limited my compassion to domestic companions. After all, dogs and cats were special. Other animals were not on my radar. I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t realize the suffering of food animals until I was 63-years-old. I was willfully blind.

That changed when a good friend introduced me to veganism. Much of my transformation is associated with Luvin Arms farm animal sanctuary near my home in Colorado. My friend volunteered at the sanctuary and invited me to visit. Becoming friends with the animals was eye-opening. Learning their capacity for love, joy, friendship, intelligence, and compassion made it simply impossible for me to think of them as food.

Changing how and what you eat is a transformational process. What we eat is essential to who we are. It is challenging to begin a plant-based diet “cold turkey”.

It starts with the willingness to be aware—being honest and not hiding from the reality of the factory farming practices and slaughter that make the life and death of food animals a misery.

We must all choose how we want to love, and who—animals and human alike—we want to show compassion to. Do some animals deserve our compassion, or do ALL animals deserve our mercy and compassion?

You decide.