Stories Of Coming Over

James Cromwell (actor) went vegan after a few months of hanging out with Babe. Prior to that he had been vegetarian for 21 years after seeing the stockyards in Texas and experiencing the "smell, terror, and anxiety." "I was so moved by the intelligence, sense of fun and personalities of the animals I worked with on Babe that by the end of the film I was vegan."

I became a vegetarian in the latter part of 2007 after reading Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma and seeing animal cruelty videos made by PETA and decided to be even more selective than I already was in terms of what industries I was willing to support with my money. ~ David

I just realized that raising animals for food made no sense (environmentally or ethically, for me personally). And after attending the TED Conference this year, where the oceanographer Sylvia Earle spoke about net-based fishing resulting in 10% of the fish making it to our table and 90% being considered waste (so tossed back, dead, into the ocean), I opted to give up fish until I can draw up a "line caught" "farm raised" list to use when dining out (it's been about 6 weeks and I haven't missed fish in my diet at all). One other thing that had an impact on me was the repeated showing of Sarah Palin's interview while turkeys were being slaughtered in the background. Whenever I think, well, maybe... nope! That interview pops into my mind and replays over and over (it was shown so often that it Really stuck with me). ~ Rucy

Moby (musician) "Growing up in Connecticut, breakfast was Frosted Flakes that I would actually put sugar on, lunch was McDonald's, and dinner was usually meat loaf with egg noodles. But as I got older, I became more socially and politically aware, and I started trying to reconcile the fact that although I loved animals, I was also eating them. I feel very simply that if you have a choice between one action that causes suffering and one that doesn't you should always try to choose the action that doesn't cause suffering. So I guess when I was around 19, I became a vegetarian; that same logic eventually led me to become a vegan." (Interview with Katy Neusteter in Delicious Living, 2008)

I haven't eaten meat in over 9 years. I could no longer live with the idea that some animals are "meant" to be consumed while others are "meant" to be pets. For some of us, either everything is sacred or nothing is. Even if I stopped caring about animals, I know too much about the environmental impact of meat production to justify consuming it (for more information, start with "Diet for a Small Planet" by Dr. Frances Moore Lappé). My aim is to do the least harm possible. ~ Stiletto

Many people go vegetarian/vegan after watching the documentary called "Earthlings". Narrated by Joaquin Phoenix this film covers all the ways we mistreat animals for our own material reasons. It is very difficult to watch. Even though I had long been a vegetarian I made myself watch it because I decided that as a human it was my responsibility to educate myself about what is being done and to experience these realities even if just from my living room. I had to keep pausing the DVD to collect myself. No wonder so many people give up eating meat after watching this.

I became a vegetarian when I was 12. I had always eaten a lot of meat up to that point, but one day, it just didn't seem right anymore. My joking way of explaining it is that I see animals as friends, not food. Really, I love animals, and I empathize with them too deeply to enjoy having them killed on my behalf and eating their flesh for fun. The thought is genuinely horrifying to me, actually, the stuff of nightmares. The health, ecological, etc. issues are all side benefits for me. I became vegan when I was 17, and that was over 10 years ago now. If, someday, for some unforeseeable reason, I had to eat meat to survive, I would--but until then, no thank you. ~Hyzen

I stopped eating meat 18 years ago when my mother learned she had breast cancer. We decided as a family we would stop eating meat, mostly because of all the hormones and chemicals that were injected into animals, and the effect that these would have on our own bodies. I was only 10 when we decided to stop. My parents gave us the choice to stop or not but let us know they would no longer be serving meat to us. So although it started as a health issue. It grew into and environmental issue and also an ethics issue for myself. I always loved animals and to learn how they were treated and just the mere thought of eating them grew to be more than i could bear. ~ Robyn

For many people reading Animal Liberation or Diet for a New America made them give up eating meat. In the John Robbins book one learns all about factory farming and the harm it does both the animals and the humans that eat them. In Singer's book the issue of how we treat animals is discussed from a more philosophical point of view, that the interests of animals must be considered due to their capacity to suffer.

I sat behind a girl in 10th grade Chemistry class, she was a vegetarian, and I wanted to impress her. That was in 1993, and I don't even remember her name. After that it kind of made sense for me. I couldn't think of myself slaughtering animals, so what right do I have to do it. I think everyone who wants to eat chicken should have to grab a hatchet once a year and chop off a head. ~ Bill

Aside from what I have learned from documentaries over the years about the benefits of a plant-based diet, I was once driving down the highway and saw a semi-truck full of cows stacked on top of each other. As in no floors, just layers of live cows pushed into a truck and piled on one another like inanimate objects. I had never seen a more miserable set of animals in all my life and it just broke my heart. That's when I decided I could no longer be part of the problem. That was over 6 years ago.~ Jennifer

A little closer to home... Saeed lived with three vegetarian women for years due to Shirin coming home from high school one March day in 1996 with the following proclamation: "You know, I just don't think I want to eat animals any more." Three weeks later I joined her and a year later Anahita too. Saeed, a good vegetable eater from day one, was fairly happy eating vegetarian fare at home but still ate meat dishes at restaurants or friends' homes. We argued with him about the logic of loving animals and still eating them and he accused us of ruining his life (he was just kidding, sort of.) Then one day we were driving home from Charlotte on I-77 and a chicken transport truck passed us on the left. It was cold out and the truck was going fast. Feathers were flying out behind the truck and Saeed looked with horror at the cages stacked on top of each other with the poor chickens crammed inside with no protection from the elements. It broke his heart. "That's it. I can't eat them any more. I refuse to support people who would do that an animal." It's amazing how all the words in the world don't have the impact that one visual experience does. Since then Saeed hasn't had one bite of meat and speaks out for vegetarianism every chance he gets. Happy ending. :-)