Why I Became a Vegetarian At the Age of 15

My childhood dream was to one day grow up and become a veterinarian. That lasted for years until I realized that it would take 8 years of schooling to do so. Noooo, thank you. What inspired me was having pets - unlike most children, I didn’t wish for a puppy. In fact, I didn’t wish for a pet at all. One birthday, I came back from my father’s house to find that my mother had bought a rabbit for me! An actual bunny. He/she (we never discovered his/her gender) was a tan bunny with ears that stood straight up. Looking back, I wonder what breed he/she was because it was larger than most domesticated rabbits I’ve seen and it was very prone to biting. Lets just hope that it actually was a domesticated bunny… I remember, once, I bent into the cage to hug it and while I was doing so, it bit me on the tummy! Although the memory is blurry, I remember reacting the same way I reacted to other children hitting me - I striked back. I punched the bunny so hard it flipped and landed in the back of the cage. Don’t hold it against me, I was young and unsupervised. Plus, I’m a tough cookie. Anyway, it’s name was Tabitha and we had to give it away once it bit my mother and left a scar that lasted for years.

After that came two more bunnies, both of which I owned in my early teen years and had came into my life by my own efforts. First a gray one named Beauty then a black one named Midnight. Both of them died very young as a result of, what my mother and I believe, to be either inbreeding or some sort of improper breeding which resulted in bunnies with poor health. The first one, I came home to find in a very strange state - one I’d never seen before. (Beauty was definitely a girl because little veterinarian me looked up the procedure on how to do it). She was sprawled out in her cage, all her legs limp along with the rest of her body except for small droopy movements. We believe it was a seizure, there were no animal hospitals open and she died a few hours later. I was absolutely devastated.

The second bunny died just as mysteriously, I found her body stiff and lifeless in the cage. They were both only a few months old. In trying to figure out what it could have been, we came to the conclusion that it may have been caused by us kids making too much noise. It was halloween night and at least 5 children were in the room at the time. Bunnies and other small rodents are known for having fragile hearts. (I believe the scientific explanation is that their hearts are too large in comparison to the rest of their body so they tend to get overwhelmed easily and expire early? Or was that Great Danes…). After that bunny, I vowed to not buy another bunny until I had enough money to purchase from a reputable breeder.

Since then, our family took in a black lab mix that a family living in an apartment no longer wanted. Her name is Sudah, she’s super gentle and chill - I adore her. At the present moment (8 years later) I am, without a doubt, her primary caregiver although we all live in the same household. I feed her everyday, give her the most affection and TLC, and remain patient when she slowly makes her way up the stairs (she’s getting up there in age). She really invoked an interest in dogs for me, I soon began checking out books about the evolution of dogs, various dog breeds, etc. Somewhere along the way, I declared myself an animal lover and I even started volunteering at a local SPCA.

Sudah at 5 years old, she's 9 right now. (No, you can't have her)

Anyway, on to how I became a vegetarian (I couldn’t tell you how I became a vegetarian without telling you about my love for animals).

The moment in which I became a vegetarian was totally unexpected - and now that I know the consequences of eating meat, long overdue. I was visiting my dad’s side of the family and my uncle said to me “So you love animals so much that you eat them?” My uncle was not a vegetarian (far from it), he was just picking with me. I stuttered on my words and for the rest of the day, turned over that idea in the back of my head. I was interrogating myself - “So you love dogs and somehow cows are okay to eat? Isn’t that like… prejudiced?” (I later discovered the word speciest, which is the unfair bias of one species against another.)

So I did what I usually do when I want to learn more about a topic - I checked out books. But before I did that, I had already made the decision that I would no longer eat meat. I was infuriated once I finally thought for myself and discovered that millions and millions and millions of animals were being mercilessly slaughtered to suit our stupid, stupid, stupid human food preferences. Can you tell that it still makes me angry? It happened overnight, I just went cold turkey (pun intended) and I never looked back.

I read one very awesome book (that I can’t recall the name of) that was half cookbook and half “why you should go vegetarian”. It explained how meat eating related to bad health, very bad environmental health, and of course, the fact that animals (WHO FEEL PAIN, JUST LIKE US) were being slaughtered by the millions. After reading it, that’s all I needed to make me feel sure. Anyway, it’s something about myself that I am very proud of. Not only that I realize the importance in it, but that I’m acting on it. It’s now been 7 years. I know people that are knowledgeable about this topic, but according to them “just can’t give up their chicken”. In short - factory farming sucks, the production of meat is ruining our environment, and we don’t need animals in our diet.

For the community of people reading this that’s already “woke” about this whole dilemma, you know that the term “ethical vegetarian” pretty much contradicts itself because being vegetarian actually hurts animals too. I plan on being a vegan very soon. Although animal rights is something I believe in very deeply, I won’t list arguments as to why everyone should go vegetarian (if not, vegan). There’s plenty of resources about it online, in fact I’ll list some of my personal favorites down below so you can decide for yourself.

Book - “The Animal Rights Handbook: Everyday Ways to Save Animals Lives” by Laura Fraser

Video - “Best Speech You Will Ever Hear - Gary Yourofsky” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=es6U00LMmC4

Video - “101 - Reasons to Go Vegan -Presentation” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4HJcq8qHAY

Article - “Cow’s Milk: A Cruel and Unhealthy Product” http://www.peta.org/issues/animals-used-for-food/animals-used-food-factsheets/cows-milk-cruel-unhealthy-product/

#animalrights #vegetarian #ethics #morals #environmentalhealth #vegan