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Animals as Food

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Animals as Food
By Karolin - 25 Jun 2013

Hello Frank and Mary,

I just met an unusual person, a 95 year old patient who resembled sort of the beast of "beauty and the beast" movie.

He was a very polite and distinguished looking person (except his face was deformed) and we had a short conversation about his past. He told me that he is originally from New York where he used to be a stock broker in the day. He said that he always wanted to live in the country so he moved to Wisconsin were he has cattle.

Needless to say I asked about the cattle and soon felt comfortable enough to tell him why I do not eat meat.

He told me the story of two lambs who were very used to people. He said, he will never forget the day he put them on a truck going to slaughter. They were moving their little heads from side to side looking for him as the truck drove away. The old man said that it was the most horrible decision he has ever made in his life and that it still haunts him today.

He also said that he has seen the cattle going on the narrow path into the slaughter line and that it is just awful as the animals truly know what is going to happen to them. He repeated " It is so bad...bad...bad"

As I was wheeling him out to his car I found a lucky penny, then another lucky penny. I kept one for me and gave the other one to him. He said that he would keep it to remember me by.

He thanked me for telling him about my beliefs and said that he will think about our conversation tonight before going to bed.

Then the strangest thing happened. He said that he is glad that I decided to stop eating meat and that it was the right decision to make. He agreed that the animals suffered tremendously.

I say "strangest thing" because what I don't understand is that he is going home to his cattle which eventually will go to slaughter. How can he have such compassion and knowledge and then close his eyes to his cattle and their horrifying future?

Isn't it almost worse when you have a person with great compassion who closes his eyes?

Or didn't he really have compassion and was he the devil in disguise?

Karolin