Exploits of a Vegan Wannabe

Last weekend we attended a Spring open house at Sasha Farm, Michigan’s largest farm animal sanctuary. Our visit was so special that I wanted to share  some of the photos and thoughts I had while there.

I had the pleasure of meeting and loving Gandalf the turkey, a new resident and the most regal and prideful bird I have

ever seen. He strode around the hen house with his  iridescent feathers splayed. He let me stroke his back and head which were deceivingly soft. He was so handsome and social.

We met Puppy, a cow who likes to hang  in the same barn with Helen.  Helen is a beautiful black and white cow with a neurological disorder that makes it difficult for her to stand up for extended periods of time.  Puppy is a gentle friend to Helen and that  is clear when you see them.  He too has difficulty standing and they seem to understand one another intuitively.

A volunteer told us this story about a previous time on the farm when one of the cows had passed away.  The other cows formed a sort of circle around the deceased cow and mourned him for hours. This made it  impossible for the volunteers to retrieve the body of the deceased cow until the remaining cows had  mourned their loss. I think that story is so meaningful and sad.  Cows socialize, express  feelings and have children. They can live long lives full of  friendships and connections.

When I am at Sasha Farm I can’t help but wonder how it became so easy for us to turn our heads, to choose not to see or believe that we kill things that want to live.  We do this simply because we think they taste good.  We don’t need to…we want to,  regardless of the suffering involved because we don’t have to see it.  Most of us never  have to see the suffering so we don’t have to process the fact that it exists.

Likely, the last time many of us even saw a cow, pig or chicken was on an elementary school field trip. They are not typically anywhere in our world view so when we see clean pieces of raw chicken breast or ground beef in the store void of  blood and skin, it looks like food; that is what food looks like.  It may also be labelled with appetizing, marketing words like humanely raised, grass fed or vegetarian fed.

These words make us feel better. They make us feel like we are doing the right thing because the animals must have had a decent life, the label says so.

Throughout the fifteen years I was vegetarian,  I consumed eggs.  I used to purchase eggs from vegetarian fed hens. It felt like an important distinction. I don’t know why, but I envisioned that they were raised eating a healthful diet of veggies, grasses and grains. They must be happy vegetarians just like me. The truth is that if they have been vegetarian fed they have been denied access to the outside.

If they were grazing outside they would be eating their natural diet of grass and bugs, thereby revoking their vegetarian status. They were just words that made me feel good about the eggs I was buying. I thought I was purchasing eggs from hens that had been treated well.

These labels simply are there to sell more beef, eggs, bacon or chicken. How could we expect them to be a  factual depiction of the lives of the animals we are about to consume?  Packaging labels are intended to encourage sales and there are scant guidelines about what the phrases even mean.

I am grateful for our visit to this wonderful farm animal sanctuary, to serve as such a reminder about compassion.  The most amazing and encouraging part in all of  this is that we have the opportunity to choose every single time we eat. Every time we have a hunger pang we can choose a plant based option instead of eating an animal or animal based product like milk or eggs. It is entirely doable to start where you are right now and try.

Begin with one meal at a time and add more to your daily and weekly experiences.  Soon you will be saving lives, possibly even your own.

Have a delicious day.

Tags: compassionate eating, farm animal sanctuary, plant based diet, SASHA Farm, vegan wannabe