When I was a little girl, I thought of myself as an animal rights activist. Thanks to my parents there was never meat in the house, we all agreed that animals were our friends and it seemed completely absurd to eat sentient living beings. I went to all the local butchers and told them to stop the killing. They laughed at me, silly little girl. So I wrote letters, painted pictures which I put directly in the slaughter chamber. I loved the cows, next to my grandparents house. I spend hours there. I was very sad that people would eat them but happy that I didn’t…
Today I cannot believe that I didn’t realize back then, that of course there is endless killing involved in dairy products. No milk without a suffering calf and cow. No milk without a baby taken away from his or her mother. I say „he“ and „she“, not“ it“ because animals are persons. They fulfill all the characteristics that we subscribe to persons. Anyway, one day much later, I consulted a professor about animal rights and he told me about veganism as the only coherent ethical way of life.
It all made perfect sense, of course, there is nothing that is more clear. It is the only way of life causing as little violence and harm as possible. For the animals, the human beings, the environment, the climate, future generations, the health, global justice. If you care about only one of these topics (although they are all connected) then veganism will have to be part of your life. I went on to work in direct action and I had to check farms and their animals, go to slaughterhouses and markets. What I saw there is beyond imagination. The lives on the farms are pure deprivation and frustration, the journey to slaughter is extremely cruel, the slaughter is breaking your heart. The animal industry is extreme in every sense of the word. Anybody who sees that with open eyes, mind and heart would turn vegan within few days. I am sure. Unless you had to make violence your profession.
For me it was enough to see a calf separated from his mom, the suffering resulting from that turned me vegan. Forever. What I saw in these days was so alarming that being vegan wasn’t enough for me. The idea of a farm sanctuary, where I could rescue some of these tortured beings and then educate people about their fate and our chance to end it was growing within me. We all can contribute to the end of suffering today, by changing our diet and then we can start to talk about it. Our farm sanctuary is the perfect spot to let peoples hearts get in touch with former farmed animals and to hear what we know about animal farming. I am overwhelmed by the way these animals speak for themselves and how people start changing their lives afterwards.
Once a guy said to me: I worked in the slaughterhouse and started to buy only local meat, but that was it. Then I came to meet your pigs, I spend a few hours with these amazing creatures, that was the day when I turned vegan….
