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Mid-Hudson Vegetarian Society, Inc.
38 East Market Street, Rhinebeck, New York 12572 USA -
845-876-2626
Vegetarian - Vegan - Animal Rights - Health - Nutrition - Environment
The mission of the Mid-Hudson Vegetarian Society, Inc. is to promote the vegetarian ethic in the Mid-Hudson (New York) region, educate the community and aid anyone in the pursuit of a totally vegetarian (vegan) cruelty-free and healthful lifestyle.
Newsletters
Fall 2002 Issue
Thoughts on My
Epiphany
by Rae Schlecht
I tried to forget about it, but the camera had captured it so well, the terror in the eyes, the violence, blood splattered everywhere; you could see the agony and the doomed expression on their faces. The camera also zoomed onto the men doing the killing. A typical day at a slaughterhouse.
That night, after seeing the video, I looked at my dog lying on the floor. His hind leg looked just like a leg of lamb. I had an epiphany, and I knew then and there that I could never eat an animal again. I pondered at length. So many of us say we love animals, and certainly wouldn't eat dogs or cats or canaries, then why do we eat farmed animals? Is it because we don't associate the meat on our table as a breathing, living, loving, feeling life? Why do they build slaughterhouses out of sight? Why don't they give guided tours or school field trips?
We raise these loving animals just so we can slaughter and eat them, as if we were cannibals. These gentle beings have nothing to say about their fate; but humans do. Perhaps humans are being punished for what we are doing to other species. Perhaps we are not supposed to eat them and that's why meat-eating is a major factor in causing diseases such as cancers, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, strokes, osteoporosis, ulcers, hemorrhoids, asthma, constipation, gallstones to name a few diseases that have some proven relationship to eating meat. Then there is Mad Cow disease, E coli and Salmonella infections that are caused by meat eating.
The people who work in slaughterhouses are also punished. It is the nation's most dangerous occupation, having the highest rate of serious injury, which is five times the national average. These workers are mostly migrant laborers because their employers at the slaughterhouse consider them to be cheap and disposable.
So in a strange turnabout, the animals are killing us off one by one, and they are polluting the land and polluting the water with their waste. Perhaps in an eerie way we are seeing 'an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' Even the Bible says we were not meant to eat meat (Gen 1:29,30).
We look forward to
hearing from you
