One year in what seems like another life, I temporarily relocated to the UK for a work assignment involving an acquisition in Sheffield. It was a small town surrounded by farm country - and I was there at the height of the Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (AKA "mad cow disease") outbreak. Affected farms were required to burn the animals and on my daily commute, I would drive through fields of burning carcasses. The sight and smell is something I will never forget. It was shocking and heartbreaking.
Up until that point, I had considered myself an animal lover, yet had never really considered that I was being a hypocrite every time I put a piece of one in my mouth. Those long drives to work gave me a lot of time to reflect on this idea, and the result was that I stopped eating animals.
I was happily vegetarian for many years thereafter. I eventually left my job in the corporate world and started a boutique photography studio. One day I was working with a client and the shoot ran long so I offered her a snack of veggies and dip. She told me she could not eat the dip because it had dairy in it. She was vegan. I asked her what was wrong with dairy, since the animals don't get killed - and she told me. In detail. She suggested I watch Earthlings to learn more. That evening after she left, I sat at my desk and started watching the film.
I had never seen a film like this. Within no more than 10 minutes I had tears streaming down my face and felt ashamed that I did not know better. I had so many emotions at once that I could not finish watching it. I remember turning away and listening to the voiceover because there were parts I just could not bear to look at. I was distraught. I called my husband sobbing and told him that I had to stop consuming dairy products. I remember telling him, "I have to go vegan."
He listened, and after a moment he said, "OK, when do we start".
We started the next day.
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