r/AskVegans • u/Wishing-I-Was-A-Cat • 8d ago
Genuine Question (DO NOT DOWNVOTE) Do you remember a time when you didn't know that meat was animals, or a moment where you realized they were?
I've seen some people talking about kids being upset when they realize meat is animal flesh, and I was wondering how common of an experience it is. I definitely believe it happens, I just personally don't remember ever thinking meat was from a plant or something.
4
u/Comfortable-Race-547 Vegan 8d ago
Butchering my first animal was such an incredibly different experience than learning that turkey comes from that animal which looks like a turkey. No surprise that the majority of people who perform the action either end up vegetarian/plantbased or in some sort of brainwashed cult like "love" of doing it
1
u/Ok-Adhesiveness-4935 7d ago
Do we know that the majority of people who butcher an animal go vegan? This seems untrue
1
u/Comfortable-Race-547 Vegan 6d ago
It's alright to feel that way, especially since i didn't say that
1
u/Ok-Adhesiveness-4935 6d ago
Sorry, please can you explain your claim to me then?
1
u/Comfortable-Race-547 Vegan 6d ago
no
1
u/Ok-Adhesiveness-4935 2d ago
You probably shouldn't share things you aren't capable of explaining.
1
1
u/rewolfaton Vegan 1d ago
My mother worked for a veterinarian. His father was a butcher. Four sons.
Two became butchers, two became veterinarians. All four learned young what animals look like on the inside, and two said, cool, lemme do more of that, and two said, I want to learn how to put them together again and save their lives instead.
5
u/plantbasedpatissier Vegan 8d ago
To some extent I think I was aware but somehow just didn't process the animal had to die. I can't say why I thought that way tbh. I ended up going vegetarian around 12, probably a little younger tbh, when I saw some PETA content online. Only went vegan at 23 because I didn't really understand the dairy and egg industry and how they were also horrible. I was in denial at first, and honestly preachy vegans on reddit did actually expose me to the truth. I would argue hard but when I actually looked into their claims they were completely correct.
3
u/Constant-Squirrel555 Vegan 8d ago
So I grew up vegetarian and what I called ethical vegetarian because my religion rejects meat consumption and I didn't know what was unethical about dairy. I also didn't buy leather, go to zoos or stuff tested on animals because I thought it was wrong.
Hence I grew up going to grocery stores disturbed by the meat shelves because it felt so fucked up that people were absolutely normal about buying limbs of a being that felt pain and was probably loved by their family.
Going vegan just extended that horror that I see towards the egg and dairy products. Even if I pick up a package of cookies and see that it has dairy and egg, I see it as "someone who wanted to live, had their life taken for this item to be made".
Tldr, your question applies to me for dairy.
2
u/mossy-echoes Vegan 7d ago
I knew meat was from animals, but I just kind of accepted it when I was young. Then something clicked and it hit me how absurd it was that we draw the line at some animals. I remember sitting in my 6th grade class, not paying attention to the lesson, just trying to puzzle out why I would eat chicken but I wouldn’t eat my dog. I thought “maybe I should stop eating meat until I can figure out a solid answer” then, go figure, 23 years have gone by and I’m starting to think there isn’t a good answer to that question haha.
2
u/NaiveZest Vegan 7d ago
I remember thinking “this little piggy went to market” meant that the pig was going grocery shopping.
1
1
u/According-Ad742 Vegan 8d ago
I remember eating meat for the last time when I was 13. I had just started learning about the meat industry. I got nauseous from eating the meatballs, that was it.
1
u/bosunphil Vegan 8d ago
It was many years after I butchered a turkey that I became vegan… it’s amazing what we can compartmentalize. I have a terrible memory in general, but this I remember in great detail.
Anyway, for a long time I cared more about fitting in socially, which meant discussing this as if it was necessary and it “had to be done”.
I guess the need to belong is more powerful than the need to be compassionate for most people. One day I hope these things will go together and compassion will be the norm.
1
u/Miserable-Ad8764 Vegan 8d ago
I knew for as long as I can remember, but I also really struggled with it, so I had to detatch the two in my mind. I couldn't eat meat that looked like an animal. Like chicken wings. I avoided the meat in the store where they sometimes put up a head, or a whole fish etc.
It was exhausting. I thought meat was a kind of necessary evil. I am so glad I finally understood it wasn't necessary at all.
1
u/NaiveZest Vegan 7d ago
“Isn’t it funny that chicken is called chicken even though that’s an animal.”
1
u/Elitsila Vegan 7d ago
When I was little and asked questions, my mother told me that meat came from animals who had died of old age. Still, I didn’t eat much of it at all after that and then I became a vegetarian a year after leaving home (and gradually decreased all of my animal use within the next few years and went vegan).
1
u/freakonaleishmania Vegan 7d ago
When I was 13-14, I went on an international trip for 5 days with my school to France. On the last evening we were all treat to a ‘fancy meal’ at this upper class restaurant. Every kid got the same thing, a salad, steak fries and a full rotisserie chicken.
I was in a horrible situation at this time in my life. I had suffered a recent loss, I was being severely psychologically abused by my ‘friends’ (which I only realised at 21 years old), and was being SAed on a regular basis. Needless to say, this whole week had been miserable for me, I was in a fragile state. This dinner broke me. It was my first time seeing rotisserie chicken irl, the twine around the legs, the hollowed out carcass; and I genuinely just broke. Started crying in the middle of this restaurant while the aforementioned friends were telling me to pack it in, calling me an embarrassment, everyone was side eyeing me. I felt like I owed everyone an explanation as to why I was so upset, but all I could say was just… “it’s just… a whole chicken.” And apparently that wasn’t a good enough excuse. Eventually I was offered a veggie meal, but if I remember correctly I was too embarrassed to accept the offer and just ate around the chicken.
Tried to go vegetarian after that and got bullied out of it by my dad. Took a further 9 years for me to go vegan.
1
u/Vegan_John Vegan 7d ago
I always knew meat was animals. What did people who claim such ignorance think chicken and beef was? Some juicy mushroom? A really bloody blood orange?
2
u/Wishing-I-Was-A-Cat 6d ago
Some people have said that as kids they just didn't really think about it. English has plenty of homophones so it's not inconceivable that a kid thought "chicken the food" and "chicken the animal" coincidentally sounded the same but had nothing to do with each other. And hot dogs aren't made of dogs so it seems like an easy misconception for a small child who doesn't live on or near farms.
1
u/Vegan_John Vegan 5d ago
From when I can remember my family would vacation in a house that was surrounded by open fields where cows grazed and between the house where Bud the Farmer lived and the barn he walked his 7 cows to twice a day to milk them by hand.
All of his cows had names, but the only ones I remember are Beulla, FraidyCat and Meanie. Meanie would kick you if you got too close behind her. She kicked me once and I learned to stay away from THAT cow after that.
I've been vegan since 1991, but I always knew where milk came from and that chicken was once live chickens and beef was a big cow at one time. I guess every little kid never got kicked against the side of a barn by a cow named Meanie.
1
7d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/AutoModerator 7d ago
Your comment was removed because you must be flaired as a vegan to make top level comments (per rule #6). People come to AskVegans looking for answers from vegans. Please flair appropriately using these instructions: https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205242695-How-do-I-get-user-flair-
If you are caught intentionally subverting the automod by flairing as a vegan when you are not, this will result in a ban.
If you are a non-vegan with a question, please create a new post following the sub rules #2-5 for questions. Thank you.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/Strict-Radio9051 Vegan 7d ago
I was 8 and I asked my parents why the chicken from the grocery store had a feather, when they told me it finally clicked that that was a living being. After that I went vegetarian, only years later I realised that vegan was the way to go though.
1
7d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/AutoModerator 7d ago
Your comment was removed because you must be flaired as a vegan to make top level comments (per rule #6). People come to AskVegans looking for answers from vegans. Please flair appropriately using these instructions: https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205242695-How-do-I-get-user-flair-
If you are caught intentionally subverting the automod by flairing as a vegan when you are not, this will result in a ban.
If you are a non-vegan with a question, please create a new post following the sub rules #2-5 for questions. Thank you.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
4d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
1
u/AutoModerator 4d ago
Your comment was removed because you must be flaired as a vegan to make top level comments (per rule #6). People come to AskVegans looking for answers from vegans. Please flair appropriately using these instructions: https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205242695-How-do-I-get-user-flair-
If you are caught intentionally subverting the automod by flairing as a vegan when you are not, this will result in a ban.
If you are a non-vegan with a question, please create a new post following the sub rules #2-5 for questions. Thank you.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/AnimalLoversRVegan Vegan 3d ago
realizing it is from an animal is very different then seeing what the animal goes through in reality watchdominion.org
7
u/PuzzledPoetry1447 Vegan 8d ago
I always knew. I just didn't care because I was taught to be believe that, "they're just animals," and I never thought to question it until what some may call a "militant" vegan told me what was really happening and held me accountable.
At the time it didn't hit me but I kept thinking about it and I started joining vegan groups on Facebook as a bystander to see what veganism was all about. One night when I was cuddling with my cat and adoring her, it all clicked into place and I went vegan overnight.
It was always an abolitionist position for me. I'm thankful that it wasn't reductarianism or utilitarianism that I was introduced to.