Why I went veggie... part 2

"I became a vegetarian on the 30th May 2007. I was 13. I had wanted to be vegetarian for years beforehand; didn't like most meat or fish for all my life and the thought of having someone else, who I don't know, killing another living creature and not knowing how much of the animal is used completely kept on playing on my mind. I really hated the thought. Plus, knowing that loads of sweets and random foods contained gelatine was fab for a girl with a sweetie disposition! It made me stop and eat healthier. It was hard becoming a veggie due to the massive diet change and it didn't help that my mum decided to keep buying some of the meat products I liked! I made it though and nearly 4 years later I'm still vegetarian with no intention of changing." - Dee (16) 

"Being Hindu, I was born a vegetarian for religious reasons. But, I soon discovered the cruelty of the meat industry and factory farming. Today, there are so many options of vegetarian foods that is is easy to go veggie!" - Pallavi (15)

"I became a vegetarian during Superbowl Sunday 2011. Yeah, random. But I had actually been doing a lot of research and half-heartedly thinking about it since June. On that morning, I came across PETA's meat.org video with Paul McCartney in it. The video was based on his quote: 'If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.' Well, for me, that was the last straw. I'd kind of steered clear of those videos because I knew they could be...well...gross. Duh. But when I watched it, I realised that these animals feel pain, horror, confusion. You can see it on their faces. Hear it in the sounds. Besides, some of the clips of the way the workers beat or even stand on the animals...! I couldn't believe it! And when you stop to think that they take an animal, shock it, slit its throat, strap it by the leg(s) to a conveyor belt and it's carried through the factory and skinned, butchered, eventually packaged... The same way they make, like, mustard! It's...weird. And to me, wrong. These are real, living, breathing, sensory creatures. I don't understand why some people turn their eyes when a lion kills a gazelle on animal planet but then they go and eat a hamburger. We're conscious beings. We can make better choices. We don't need meat to survive. Another major factor for me was the health benefits. I find them worth it as well. So when someone offered me that sausage pizza, I said 'No thanks. Pass the salad.'" - Emma (17)

 < Previous | Next > 1 | 2 | 3 | 4