Anonymous
A co-worker arrived with a basket full of Easter
trinkets which she was giving out to everyone in our department. The
trinkets were decorated, multicolor eggs on a stick, surrounded by
colored wispy feathers.
"Oh, great... just great... Please tell me she is not
going to give me an egg," I thought to myself. "If it's not bad enough
to think of all the chickens forced to suffer for something this silly
and pointless, the eggs were probably colored with PAAS egg-decorating
dye which is made by the egregious animal testing conglomerate
Schering-Plough. Ugh."
Surprisingly, when she got to my desk (after every one
else had been given the egg-on-a-stick trinket), she dug way down in the
bottom of the basket while saying with a coy smile, "But you, Ms. Thang...
YOU get something different because I KNEW you wouldn't want me to give
you an egg," and she produced from the basket a little chicken shaped
candle. [Yeah, you guessed it - the candle is not vegan either... but
for a moment, let's work with the premise that it's the thought that
counts!]
No sooner had she spoken the words, when all the
egg-on-a-stick recipients encircled my desk asking, "Uh, what is wrong
with eggs?"
In this micro-second, I considered shrugging it off
(making a flippant joke or changing the subject) and avoiding the
question... just to let them enjoy what was a well-intended gesture on
the part of the coworker who gave them the egg-on-a-stick trinkets. But,
then I considered the chickens and any reluctance to shield the
"mindful-LESS" went out the window. In a way, it is very good that my
coworker thought enough about the issue to have not given me an egg...
but really the point is not that eggs shouldn't be given to vegans but
to avoid consumerism of these products all-together.
I immediately pulled UPC's website up on my computer in
their view, and began explaining "what's wrong with eggs." I answered
all their questions patiently and in-depth, and when the topic of eating
chickens arose, I described specifically what happens in a chicken
slaughterhouse. When answering questions like "why are you vegan?" and
"what's wrong with eggs?", I always reply with a nonchalant,
matter-of-fact intonation (as if I were telling them that the Earth is
not flat).
Needless to say, I rained on the parade of half a dozen
people and completely ruined the enjoyment of the coworker who was
trying to spread goodwill by giving out the trinkets... Sigh. I
certainly don't like being in that position... but for the chickens,
what choice is there?
Go on to A Review of
the 106th Congress on Animal Legislation
Return to 15 April 2001 Issue
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