When I was 12...
Articles Reflecting a Vegan Lifestyle From All-Creatures.org

Vegan lifestyle articles that discuss ways of living in peace with humans, animals, and the environment.

FROM

PJ McKosky
November 2017

For many years now, when I see meat I don't see food. I see the body or pieces of someone who wanted to live. And that's what it is.

Turkeys aren't who you think they are. They aren't stupid. They don't drown in the rain. They aren't mindless meat sticks. Turkeys are curious, sensitive, communicative beings. They are good mothers, brave in protecting their young. They are social. They are actually quite clever.

When I was 12, I made the decision to stop eating animals. I didn't believe animals existed to suffer and be killed because I or anyone else happened to like the way their bodies tasted. It wasn't easy--I didn't like vegetables, my parents weren't supportive and I didn't know anyone who was a true vegetarian. But I never looked back. For many years now, when I see meat I don't see food. I see the body or pieces of someone who wanted to live. And that's what it is.

Here is a turkey and I when I was 19 at a sanctuary I worked at in the Catskills in New York

I've worked with and have rescued both injured and orphaned wild turkeys and injured, sick and in need domestic turkeys who escaped factory farms, fell off trucks bound for slaughter, or were victims of neglect situations. Turkeys aren't who you think they are. They aren't stupid. They don't drown in the rain. They aren't mindless meat sticks. Turkeys are curious, sensitive, communicative beings. They are good mothers, brave in protecting their young. They are social. They are actually quite clever. And most importantly: they have a life they value, that they strive to have kept intact. They struggle to not suffer. In these ways, they are like you and me.

This is a baby turkey who had a femur fracture who I rescue and rehabilitated. That was 7 years ago when I was 29.

That baby turkey all grown up at release.

My Buddhism (even if I'm not always the most consistent reaffirms my refusal to consume sentient beings as food or fiber. My experiences with individual turkeys I've rescued and cared for makes this issue more than abstract and Thanksgiving more than just a cheerful holiday.

Gratitude is scientifically proven to be a key component in one's own happiness. We don't have to express it or celebrate it by imposing violence on beings.

These two pictures are from four years ago when someone left a handful of sick baby turkeys outside my door in Brooklyn. They were very sick and debeaked, likely from a factory farm.

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