I talked to a cow, she asked me not to eat her.

I actually did talk to a cow. She didn't say anything back though. I'm not that crazy.

For the past 3 years or so I've not exactly been a vegetarian but my friends make fun of me as if I actually was one. I generally only eat what my mother describes as "happy cows". In other words, animals that had been ethically raised and slaughtered. That pretty much meant I didn't eat any commercial meat, only locally raised, grass fed animals. Considering that I was a livestock management major in college this was a pretty big deal when I made that decision.

So why did I make that choice? The commercial meat industry is not something I want to support. I don't want to go into my diatribe about the abuse of the common cow or, even worse, the abuse of the people who work for the slaughterhouses. This isn't the place for it. Suffice it to say, the way meat is raised and brought to our table in this country doesn't fit with my personal ethics. I still ate meat but it had to meet my ethical standards.

Well, I've made the final leap. I'm cutting out all meat and poultry, no matter what. I guess its not that big of a leap for me. I barely ate meat as it was. And I love tofu and anything made by Morningstar Farms or other "fake meat" brands (I ate that stuff years before I even thought about not eating meat). I still eat fish and shellfish but give me another couple of years, I'm sure that'll get phased out too.

I guess I just think that if I'm going to cause the suffering of an animal (and I don't think many people would disagree that the animals suffer at some point before they hit the plate) I really should be able to face up to it. And since I don't like causing suffering to anything I just decided to not partake in it. I don't mean to change anyone's eating habits or to be preachy. I was just thinking about this choice I made.

Have you ever wondered why there aren't more vegetarians in vet school? I think there are like 2 or 3 of us in my class. There are more hunters in our school than there are vegetarians. That always seemed strange to me.