Animals are friends! Not food!

(This is just the tip of the ice berg) (there is a note at the bottom about meat that i think is okay to eat)

Did you know that if everyone were to cut their meat consumption in half that billions of animals would be spared from suffering?
Factory farms provide almost 100% of the meat that is purchased by the earth's citizens every day. Almost all poultry (about 95%) is factory farmed... and inside of these overpopulated buildings, enormous amounts of waste is accumulated.
From this waste, ammonia is produced, which can cause painful burns to the birds.

Also, to reduce the birds from pecking eachother, the factory-farmers remove 1/2 - 1/3 of their beaks, leaving them virtually unable to eat.

Egg laying hens are typically packed into cages and die of asphyxiation. Most of the time, these birds are left - decomposing - with the living birds. Also, all male chicks that may hatch are seen of "no good use" and are ground alive to be used as fertilizer or feed!!!!

Pigs are castrated and de -tailed without anesthetic. They are taken from their parents at 2 weeks of age (11 weeks earlier than would be in the wild) and fed hormones instead of the vital nutrients they need. In order to kill pigs, they are dunked into tanks of hot water - scalded, and drowned. Some are so frightened or sick prior to their execution that they often pass out in piles of their own vomit and waste. Pigs that are sick and dying are often left to decompose, like the poultry, amongst the living animals.

Even free range animals are not much better of an option. These animals are often purchased from factory-farms - therefore supporting them.

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By choosing not to eat meat, I am choosing not to support these factory farms. I am also going to try and reduce my usage of animal by products as well, because they are factory farmed as well. Of course, being a complete vegan is not always the most reasonable choice. But, by doing what you can (choosing to purchase "fake" butter, or soy milk) you can help!

* I am a complete advocate of people eating the meat that they hunt or farm on their personal family farms, though. Those animals get to live the life they deserve to live, a humane and free and happy life, free of hormones and abuse.

Walt Whitman

Dear Walt Whitman,
You were born in 1819 and yet you find a way to capture the feelings and hearts of people even still. Your way with free verse is beautiful. Your words awaken the sleepiest parts of my heart and soul, and revive me. Your poetry re-instills in me hope, love, a longing to understand the world. You encourage me in a way no one else can. You push me to think and explore, and to wonder and to question.

I love how human you are in your writing.
You suggest one thing, and refute it.
You question the acts of people, animals and plants alike.
You marvel at things.

You experienced things I will only ever dream of.

If you were here, I would be first in line to meet you.
Nikki