The parallel of my journey as a Vegan with the chicken Jaildbird from the Catskills Animal Sanctuary
I had decided to share with everyone who approach this blog a long personal experience with an important message . I dedicated this post to the lovely Jailbird and volunteers of the Catskills Animal Sanctuary .
Last June, I once again had an incredible experience by interacting with the animals at my safe place ; the Catskills Animal Sanctuary located in Saugerties NY .
As we walk though the Catskills , we are are often approached by the friendliest and cutest animals , in which I always feel fascinated by each one of them in a way that I find difficult to put into words.
I have visited the Catskills Animal Sanctuary a few times, and felt in love with all of the animals , and in each one of them reinforce my beliefs that we are all the same and deserves to live.
As I was walking thought the Sanctuary early morning last June with a friend, we first approached a lovely sheep , then the lovely cow named Amos , and as we kept walking I noticed this beautiful chicken near other chickens walking loose and giving me friendly looks , I learned that his name was Jaildbird .
I couldn't resist at JailBird cuteness , and stared walking closer towards him. Once I was by his side , I stared talking to him and he stared listening and I couldn't resist in not to pet him. He was allowing me to pet him and it felt so good.
I immediately wanted to register that a special moment, and asked my friend to take a picture with me and a
lovely new friend.
After taking a few pictures, I didn't want leave him and keep walking to see the other animals, I felt like we had more to talk about . JailBird seemed to enjoyed my presence so I decided to hold him, and he was enjoying being held in my arms and I almost cried form happiness and here is why;
It came to my knowledge that my friend Jailbird passed way a few days ago, he was rescued from a crystal meth lab in Kansas City with many other chickens under terrible condition , a volunteer of the Catskills Animal Sanctuary rescued him and others in 2008 .
Once JailBird was in the Catskills Animal Sanctuary, he became an ambassador for all chickens , and stared teaching the visitors how friendly , lovely and friendly all chickens are, and how much they loved to be held and feel loved just like all of us.
Jailbird had the opportunity to have a good and long life thanks to the Catskills Animal sanctuary amazing work , but sadly so many chickens at this very moment as I write this are in horrible pain under horrific conditions , feeling fear so people can have their eggs and eat them.
As far as believers in Humane Meat and happy chickens , there is no such a thing when you are born with a death date. It is illogical to raise animals to be killed .
We do not need to make these chickens suffer and cut their life short over nutrition and taste, they are lovely beings who loves life as much as we do. This type of cruelty must stop it .
We have way many alternatives to have tasty nutritional meals without chickens , cows, pigs lambs, fishes ducks , fishes or their products in it.
It is pure insanity to collaborate with the horrific cruelty towards these lovely beings and pay people to do it so we can have these so called meals which are not food, they are flashes of living beings. There are way many others tasters and healthier alternatives .
You meal doesn't worth these lovely beings to live in cruciate pain and fear , and on top of that by eating them and their products will also harm our own health.
I encourage all animal lovers and Vegans to support animal sanctuaries with donations or volunteering for them to keep rescuing animals from horrific situations and delivering such an important message.
The Vegan cause is extremely important to end animal cruelty and neglect , to better our health , to save our beautiful planet and end world hunger.
"I look forward to the day I will be able to adopt a chicken, because they are just as lovely as my dogs and cat "
Rest in Peace Jailbird, it was a huge honor to meet you and thank you for being such a wonderful ambassador .
Chickens are not food.
My personal long story from when I became a vegeterian as a kid then a Vegan. It all stared with Chickens :
Jailbird from the CatSkills Animal sanctuary brought back to my childhood when I used to hold chickens in my arms and feed them , I had one as a pet named Philomena at the age of 6 .
Growing up in Brazil , I had an opportunity to interact with farm animals at my Grandparents beautiful place, located in a rural zone 1:40 minutes way from Sao Paulo, where I would spend the weekends, vacation and sometimes months when my mom would go way for work as a photographer . My dad was always way also for being an actor. therefore animals was always my safe place since I was in my diapers. Somehow I could always rely on them and always find joy being round them .
As a little kid, I used to love to feed the chickens at my grandpa's place . I also would love to pet hold them and even kiss them. (no I never got germs from doing so ) .
I developed a very close friendship with this beautiful white big chicken which I named her "Philomena" and somehow at that age I convinced my grandparents who lived in a big house to keep her as a pet in my big bedroom with her own bed and cater builded by my grandpa.
My grandparents would do anything to make me happy since I did have a hard time with my parents divorce and moving around often.
Despite of all issues, I was the happiest kid, and that is probably thanks for being around a lot of dogs, chickens, cows, horses, cats , bunnies, orange trees, papaya tress , avocado tress , doll houses and a pool, and for that I will always be forever thankful for my lovely grandparents.
At the time, my friends and their parents at that rural town my grandparents lived thought it was pure insanity for me to have a chicken in my bedroom and have as a pet, but for a 6 year old who absolutely loved chickens and all animals , I didn't care about their opinion because I was way too happy to have Philomela watching cartoons with me on my lap and to be able to pet her and feed her.
As all of us, I grew up with my family feeding me animals and their products , but once I saw the blood of one of the chickens getting slaughter , the feathers all over the floor, then their feet on the pan on the stove , I confronted my family crying out loud , and the pain I felt it is indescribable . I felt betrayed that they killed my friends.
Back in the 80's , vegan was not even a word for a 6 year old not even vegetarian, there was no information on being a vegetarian or vegan as far as I remember, at that age , all I knew was my friendship with the animals and the fact that our families would be making our food and feed us whatever they would feed us and never tell us where the food came from.
However, when I found out where the food was coming from, I quickly made a decision not to eat any animals because those chickens were friendly, sweet, cute , they were smart, they would recognize me, they wanted to feel love as much as we all do.
My family and family tried very hard to convince me with arguments such as they don't feel pain by the way they were killed, and that was a quick death and we need to eat them for nutrition values.
I didn't agreed with them and as much as they would argue about it, as louder I would cry and scream at them , well I was a little kid.
I explained to them that there was always beans , rice, potatoes pasta , bread on the table , and that it didn't make sense for me to eat my friends if I could eat other tasty foods.
I was very serious about how I felt as a 6 years old , and they had no other option then to make more vegetarian dishes for me and do not offer me animals to eat anymore. They over fed me just to make sure I was not lacking nutrients, which was fine by me . Not eating animals were never a diet and never will be, besides I was very active .
They agreed with me being a vegetarian sadly with the agreement that I would had to drink a lot of cow milk, eggs, lentils, potatoes and beans, but I didn't have issues with that for not knowing problems with eggs , milk or cheeses.
At that time I couldn't make the connection how evil the dairy industry was, after all I was 6 years old , a typical every day 80's kid.
The funny thing about this whole thing as a young vegetarian , is that , once in a while I used caught them trying to fool me by trowing meat on my vegetable soup in the blender ,and tying hard to hide it from me.
Obviously I stared to watch them closely in how they would make my food , and make questions what was in it. I stared literally to inspected my food closely and drove them crazy in a good way.
Luckily when I was with my mom, she would know better and would not even bother buying dead animals or to push her believes on me and would just make a lot of vegetarian dishes and bakery goodies.
When I would stay with my dad , who used to eat out all the time for being an actor , he also wouldn't bother to push meat on me and order things with no animals in it . He would mention to the whole table of adults that I was a vegetarian and they all of them would bend their head and say ;" How cute ", but kept eating animals.
My closest friends as a teen, and young adult in Sao Paulo , Rio de Janeiro and other places I had lived , also respected me for being a vegetarian and always chose places to eat where I could find vegetarian dishes .
One of my best friends Fernanda who sadly I don't talk to her anymore, would always ask her chefs to cook special vegetarian dishes just for me, and I always felt special for that.
Even when I was an exchange student in Idaho, the family I stayed with, respected me as a vegetarian and was so kind to make vegetarian dishes, such as the tastiest potatoes. Who can't not rely on tasty potatoes? I certainly can .
Once I got married, my husband also respected me for being a vegetarian and he was quite impressed with the variety of pasta and vegetarian dishes I was making, and slowly decreased his consumption of meat due my life style .
Although the American culture of eating fatty food was on him, somehow his habits didn't went overboard due my example . His mother also would always make sure to make vegetarian dishes for me during Holidays and visits and it was quite tasty.
The fact that I was always mentioning the story of my chicken Filomena, without imposing him or others to go vegetarian somehow , it may had an impact on my friends and family.Well, I would like to think so.
Well, expect for my uncle Geraldo , who owned a successful leather factory in Brazil, and was a big meat lover. He would consume a lot of meat , in a way where was not only one type of meat, it was from chicken wings, lambs, different parts of cows, all pretty graphic and I always felt helpless to even bring it up how awful it was.
My uncle Geraldo developed a serious heart condition and had a fatal heart attack where he nearly died when I was a kid, he was probably early 40's and sadly passed way very young.
If I had the informations that I have today , I would certainly try to interfere . I grew up watching him taking a lot of medications, and always feeling sick. and consuming a lot of meat even after his first heart attack. All of his kids around my age, my cousins who I love , my aunt had developed diseases in which I don't have, therefore I find hard to believe that such thing as diabetics or obesity are genetic.
I grew up with a completely different lifestyle as my uncle and cousins and didn't developed obesity or any type of diseases for my age.
Geraldo was a wonderful uncle and if I knew back then how to explain to him late 80's that meat leads to heart and other diseases , maybe I would had saved his life and he would be alive today at 70 years old to see his grandkids growing up and even visit me in New Jersey and get to know my new Jersey girl personality.
When my lovely chicken Philomena passed way ,when I was about 7 years old due natural causes, it broke me, it was like losing a family member , and a good friend.
I remember right after she died, I stared running thought the orange field with tears in my eyes at my grandpa 's place until the place where they used to keep the chickens and did a silent promise to them while tears falling out, my promised was that I wouldn't never ever eat them for the rest of my life and I would never betrayed them and that I loved them all. I remembered praying on behalf of all the animals . This whole scenario might sound very dramatic but that is exactly what happened. However, my reaction was not as dramatic as the awful realistic of the barbaric animal cruelty that chickens suffer ever second all over the world in the farm factories so people can eat them for taste.
The situation doesn't help when I hear people claiming that they eat chickens directly from the farm and it is humane, because that is what they first told me when I was a kid, and there is no such a thing as humane meat. I strong believe that the humane label is just to make people to feel less guilty.
Thanks to my friendship with chickens I was able to make the connection with cows, pigs, fishes and all sea creatures .
I grew up with a lot of dogs, and cats as well and could never notice the difference between them with the farm animals and and fishes.
As growing up, I kept saying sorry in silent to all animals for what humans do to them, and it was difficult for me to understand my family claiming that they love animals but they would still eat them. Frankly over 30 years , living in different states, different countries, cities, and in different cultures , I still have a hard time to understand the act of animal lovers collaboration with cruelty towards them.
These days I probably understand better, which is all about money , greed , corporation, government and lobbying .
But learning what they do to animals in circuses, dairy , aquariums is a huge feeling of betrayal by industries , this feeling I have of betrayal is probably how the germans felt about Hitler when the nazis used to tell them that the Jews were living in happy farms, because they were inferior , and then drove their country into a horrible war , killing not only jews but many germans as well.
This is how I feel, betrayed by all of these corporations and governments , who are not only killing animals, but killing our health , our love ones, and our planet in which is leading to numerous natural disasters .
I was a silent vegetarian for feeling oppressed by so many excuses from adults in why it was fine to commit horrific animal cruelty over tasted, nutrition even over religions beliefs, in which didn't make sense for me as growing up since I was rarely sick , and had always found so many things to eat that was not flash of innocent animals, such as pasta, beans, rice, salads , potatoes, lentils and on top of that I became quite an athlete , I used to be a swimmer on competitive level , a runner , soccer player , basketball player and so on. My physical abilities was above other kids .
Back in the days there was no Vegan information, at least not to my knowledge, I was not even aware of vegan products and the dairy industry propaganda was pretty strong.
I never felt that was wrong to drink milk from cows or consume dairy , because I wouldn't see the flash of the animals, I didn't know how those products were being made , and that the animals were going thought a lot of pain such as being separate from their mothers , or being artificially inseminated , and live under horrible condition just to produce milk , cheese and eggs. If I knew I would never had collaborate with that.
I would say that the dairy propaganda still very strong , but it got much better with so many not dairy milks available per instance and also thanks for so many amazing animal activists , the information that the internet and organizations provides.
The first time I heard the vegan word was late in the 80's , on an American TV show with the child actor River Phoenix , who I was a huge fan , but I couldn't quite understand completely, my English at the time was very basic , but I was just happy to know that he wouldn't eat animals or wouldn't wear them like me.
However , I was able to understand River Phoenix mentioning about the killing of the amazon for cheap hamburgers , which impacted me for being in Brazil, but I didn't not know what to do with that information as a kid.
I was so disturb to learn that they were hurting the Amazon , and decided to approached one of my teachers at the time by asking why they were killing the amazon for cheap hamburgers . I truly wanted to understand why.
My teacher replied as being unimportant and that I should concentrate on being an A student stead of a B student in that class. Oh well..
Years passed by , and once it came to my knowledge thanks for the internet how evil the dairy industry was, I once again felt betrayed for not knowing earlier and went vegan immediately .
I also felt betrayed once again after I watched the Blackfish documentary for being in the Sea Wold a few times .
The impacted of betrayal from the food and entertainment industries harming animals was so real that for the first time I decided to approached my husband who is my best friend and did a short marathon in films such as Earthlings and the Blackfish and discuss such matters . But I didn't not know how I would bring it up such matter on social medias , family and close friends.
However, I slowly stared to bring it up , but most ignored.
As time passed , I felt I had enough information that would back me up with my beliefs and surprisedly my husband understood the message , and impacted him, not 100% yet but it was getting there.
It must harder for people over 50's who grew up working in NYC , under a busy life to understand, therefore I realized I couldn't be so rash on my approach yet I could express my feelings and explain with facts.
After going vegan, I had a hard time to talk about with others with fear to be misunderstood , but once my husband stared to understand me and see the positive difference in my life, I stared to feel that would be important to speak up but didn't quite know how.
I came across the Catskills Animal Sanctuary in 2015, and decided to take my husband for a thanksgiving dinner with the amazing animal activist and writer Kathy Stevens , who touched my life beyond words. When she shared a story in how she rescued the rooster Polly , I felt comfortable sharing my story about my chicken Philomena . When she smiled back at me telling I was not crazy for having Philomela as a pet , I felt I was not alone with the ways I feel and that I should speak up . She didn't tell me to speak up, but by the way she shared the story in how she rescued the rooster Polly under horrific conditions, I realized that I couldn't remain in silent anymore.
On the next day at the Catskills Animal Sanctuary , my husband had the opportunity to go to one of their amazing animal tours and meet some of the animals , including the lovely cow Tucker , we had such a good time. After that visit he realized what I was talking about which was that all animals are the same. My husband has created a strong bond with our dog Lilly and our beloved cat Lynos , and he was able to see that those animals were just the same as our pets.
After that visit at the Catskills Animal Sanctuary he gave up meat completely, he also gave up cow milk. He would still consume coffee creamer , mayo , but slowly I stared introduced vegan alternatives to him and he stared to love it.
We watched Cowspiracy , Forked Over Knives , The Cove, and kept visiting the sanctuary. The evidences was so real to him that he became quite aware and I must say that I am so proud of him.
His high blood pressure condition became much better , his doctor and to lower his medication and the twisted part is, that his doctor said that he would had to eat at least "some chicken" even after his heath going better by going Vegan .
Today my husband says he will never look back and is loving being vegan. The other day I almost cried from happiness when he said that looking at the dead parts of animals at the grocery store grossed him out, and I turned to him and said ; " Now you know how I felt my whole life ".
As for me, I stared getting familiar with the amazing work of the Catskills Animal Sanctuary, I stared learning the story how the animals were rescued from horrific situation thought the amazing books of Kathy Steven and their amazing posts on social media. Thanks to their animal rescue stories and meeting the animals and volunteers I feel more connected with the reality and how important it is for me to speak up and how important the vegan cause is.
Do you have a personal story of your journey as a vegan? I would love to read;
Iara.foschino@gmail.com
Last June, I once again had an incredible experience by interacting with the animals at my safe place ; the Catskills Animal Sanctuary located in Saugerties NY .
As we walk though the Catskills , we are are often approached by the friendliest and cutest animals , in which I always feel fascinated by each one of them in a way that I find difficult to put into words.
I have visited the Catskills Animal Sanctuary a few times, and felt in love with all of the animals , and in each one of them reinforce my beliefs that we are all the same and deserves to live.
As I was walking thought the Sanctuary early morning last June with a friend, we first approached a lovely sheep , then the lovely cow named Amos , and as we kept walking I noticed this beautiful chicken near other chickens walking loose and giving me friendly looks , I learned that his name was Jaildbird .
I couldn't resist at JailBird cuteness , and stared walking closer towards him. Once I was by his side , I stared talking to him and he stared listening and I couldn't resist in not to pet him. He was allowing me to pet him and it felt so good.
I immediately wanted to register that a special moment, and asked my friend to take a picture with me and a
lovely new friend.
After taking a few pictures, I didn't want leave him and keep walking to see the other animals, I felt like we had more to talk about . JailBird seemed to enjoyed my presence so I decided to hold him, and he was enjoying being held in my arms and I almost cried form happiness and here is why;
It came to my knowledge that my friend Jailbird passed way a few days ago, he was rescued from a crystal meth lab in Kansas City with many other chickens under terrible condition , a volunteer of the Catskills Animal Sanctuary rescued him and others in 2008 .
Once JailBird was in the Catskills Animal Sanctuary, he became an ambassador for all chickens , and stared teaching the visitors how friendly , lovely and friendly all chickens are, and how much they loved to be held and feel loved just like all of us.
Jailbird had the opportunity to have a good and long life thanks to the Catskills Animal sanctuary amazing work , but sadly so many chickens at this very moment as I write this are in horrible pain under horrific conditions , feeling fear so people can have their eggs and eat them.
As far as believers in Humane Meat and happy chickens , there is no such a thing when you are born with a death date. It is illogical to raise animals to be killed .
We do not need to make these chickens suffer and cut their life short over nutrition and taste, they are lovely beings who loves life as much as we do. This type of cruelty must stop it .
We have way many alternatives to have tasty nutritional meals without chickens , cows, pigs lambs, fishes ducks , fishes or their products in it.
It is pure insanity to collaborate with the horrific cruelty towards these lovely beings and pay people to do it so we can have these so called meals which are not food, they are flashes of living beings. There are way many others tasters and healthier alternatives .
You meal doesn't worth these lovely beings to live in cruciate pain and fear , and on top of that by eating them and their products will also harm our own health.
I encourage all animal lovers and Vegans to support animal sanctuaries with donations or volunteering for them to keep rescuing animals from horrific situations and delivering such an important message.
The Vegan cause is extremely important to end animal cruelty and neglect , to better our health , to save our beautiful planet and end world hunger.
"I look forward to the day I will be able to adopt a chicken, because they are just as lovely as my dogs and cat "
Rest in Peace Jailbird, it was a huge honor to meet you and thank you for being such a wonderful ambassador .
Chickens are not food.
My personal long story from when I became a vegeterian as a kid then a Vegan. It all stared with Chickens :
Jailbird from the CatSkills Animal sanctuary brought back to my childhood when I used to hold chickens in my arms and feed them , I had one as a pet named Philomena at the age of 6 .
Growing up in Brazil , I had an opportunity to interact with farm animals at my Grandparents beautiful place, located in a rural zone 1:40 minutes way from Sao Paulo, where I would spend the weekends, vacation and sometimes months when my mom would go way for work as a photographer . My dad was always way also for being an actor. therefore animals was always my safe place since I was in my diapers. Somehow I could always rely on them and always find joy being round them .
As a little kid, I used to love to feed the chickens at my grandpa's place . I also would love to pet hold them and even kiss them. (no I never got germs from doing so ) .
I developed a very close friendship with this beautiful white big chicken which I named her "Philomena" and somehow at that age I convinced my grandparents who lived in a big house to keep her as a pet in my big bedroom with her own bed and cater builded by my grandpa.
My grandparents would do anything to make me happy since I did have a hard time with my parents divorce and moving around often.
Despite of all issues, I was the happiest kid, and that is probably thanks for being around a lot of dogs, chickens, cows, horses, cats , bunnies, orange trees, papaya tress , avocado tress , doll houses and a pool, and for that I will always be forever thankful for my lovely grandparents.
At the time, my friends and their parents at that rural town my grandparents lived thought it was pure insanity for me to have a chicken in my bedroom and have as a pet, but for a 6 year old who absolutely loved chickens and all animals , I didn't care about their opinion because I was way too happy to have Philomela watching cartoons with me on my lap and to be able to pet her and feed her.
As all of us, I grew up with my family feeding me animals and their products , but once I saw the blood of one of the chickens getting slaughter , the feathers all over the floor, then their feet on the pan on the stove , I confronted my family crying out loud , and the pain I felt it is indescribable . I felt betrayed that they killed my friends.
Back in the 80's , vegan was not even a word for a 6 year old not even vegetarian, there was no information on being a vegetarian or vegan as far as I remember, at that age , all I knew was my friendship with the animals and the fact that our families would be making our food and feed us whatever they would feed us and never tell us where the food came from.
However, when I found out where the food was coming from, I quickly made a decision not to eat any animals because those chickens were friendly, sweet, cute , they were smart, they would recognize me, they wanted to feel love as much as we all do.
My family and family tried very hard to convince me with arguments such as they don't feel pain by the way they were killed, and that was a quick death and we need to eat them for nutrition values.
I didn't agreed with them and as much as they would argue about it, as louder I would cry and scream at them , well I was a little kid.
I explained to them that there was always beans , rice, potatoes pasta , bread on the table , and that it didn't make sense for me to eat my friends if I could eat other tasty foods.
I was very serious about how I felt as a 6 years old , and they had no other option then to make more vegetarian dishes for me and do not offer me animals to eat anymore. They over fed me just to make sure I was not lacking nutrients, which was fine by me . Not eating animals were never a diet and never will be, besides I was very active .
They agreed with me being a vegetarian sadly with the agreement that I would had to drink a lot of cow milk, eggs, lentils, potatoes and beans, but I didn't have issues with that for not knowing problems with eggs , milk or cheeses.
At that time I couldn't make the connection how evil the dairy industry was, after all I was 6 years old , a typical every day 80's kid.
The funny thing about this whole thing as a young vegetarian , is that , once in a while I used caught them trying to fool me by trowing meat on my vegetable soup in the blender ,and tying hard to hide it from me.
Obviously I stared to watch them closely in how they would make my food , and make questions what was in it. I stared literally to inspected my food closely and drove them crazy in a good way.
Luckily when I was with my mom, she would know better and would not even bother buying dead animals or to push her believes on me and would just make a lot of vegetarian dishes and bakery goodies.
When I would stay with my dad , who used to eat out all the time for being an actor , he also wouldn't bother to push meat on me and order things with no animals in it . He would mention to the whole table of adults that I was a vegetarian and they all of them would bend their head and say ;" How cute ", but kept eating animals.
My closest friends as a teen, and young adult in Sao Paulo , Rio de Janeiro and other places I had lived , also respected me for being a vegetarian and always chose places to eat where I could find vegetarian dishes .
One of my best friends Fernanda who sadly I don't talk to her anymore, would always ask her chefs to cook special vegetarian dishes just for me, and I always felt special for that.
Even when I was an exchange student in Idaho, the family I stayed with, respected me as a vegetarian and was so kind to make vegetarian dishes, such as the tastiest potatoes. Who can't not rely on tasty potatoes? I certainly can .
Once I got married, my husband also respected me for being a vegetarian and he was quite impressed with the variety of pasta and vegetarian dishes I was making, and slowly decreased his consumption of meat due my life style .
Although the American culture of eating fatty food was on him, somehow his habits didn't went overboard due my example . His mother also would always make sure to make vegetarian dishes for me during Holidays and visits and it was quite tasty.
The fact that I was always mentioning the story of my chicken Filomena, without imposing him or others to go vegetarian somehow , it may had an impact on my friends and family.Well, I would like to think so.
Well, expect for my uncle Geraldo , who owned a successful leather factory in Brazil, and was a big meat lover. He would consume a lot of meat , in a way where was not only one type of meat, it was from chicken wings, lambs, different parts of cows, all pretty graphic and I always felt helpless to even bring it up how awful it was.
My uncle Geraldo developed a serious heart condition and had a fatal heart attack where he nearly died when I was a kid, he was probably early 40's and sadly passed way very young.
If I had the informations that I have today , I would certainly try to interfere . I grew up watching him taking a lot of medications, and always feeling sick. and consuming a lot of meat even after his first heart attack. All of his kids around my age, my cousins who I love , my aunt had developed diseases in which I don't have, therefore I find hard to believe that such thing as diabetics or obesity are genetic.
I grew up with a completely different lifestyle as my uncle and cousins and didn't developed obesity or any type of diseases for my age.
Geraldo was a wonderful uncle and if I knew back then how to explain to him late 80's that meat leads to heart and other diseases , maybe I would had saved his life and he would be alive today at 70 years old to see his grandkids growing up and even visit me in New Jersey and get to know my new Jersey girl personality.
When my lovely chicken Philomena passed way ,when I was about 7 years old due natural causes, it broke me, it was like losing a family member , and a good friend.
I remember right after she died, I stared running thought the orange field with tears in my eyes at my grandpa 's place until the place where they used to keep the chickens and did a silent promise to them while tears falling out, my promised was that I wouldn't never ever eat them for the rest of my life and I would never betrayed them and that I loved them all. I remembered praying on behalf of all the animals . This whole scenario might sound very dramatic but that is exactly what happened. However, my reaction was not as dramatic as the awful realistic of the barbaric animal cruelty that chickens suffer ever second all over the world in the farm factories so people can eat them for taste.
The situation doesn't help when I hear people claiming that they eat chickens directly from the farm and it is humane, because that is what they first told me when I was a kid, and there is no such a thing as humane meat. I strong believe that the humane label is just to make people to feel less guilty.
Thanks to my friendship with chickens I was able to make the connection with cows, pigs, fishes and all sea creatures .
I grew up with a lot of dogs, and cats as well and could never notice the difference between them with the farm animals and and fishes.
As growing up, I kept saying sorry in silent to all animals for what humans do to them, and it was difficult for me to understand my family claiming that they love animals but they would still eat them. Frankly over 30 years , living in different states, different countries, cities, and in different cultures , I still have a hard time to understand the act of animal lovers collaboration with cruelty towards them.
These days I probably understand better, which is all about money , greed , corporation, government and lobbying .
But learning what they do to animals in circuses, dairy , aquariums is a huge feeling of betrayal by industries , this feeling I have of betrayal is probably how the germans felt about Hitler when the nazis used to tell them that the Jews were living in happy farms, because they were inferior , and then drove their country into a horrible war , killing not only jews but many germans as well.
This is how I feel, betrayed by all of these corporations and governments , who are not only killing animals, but killing our health , our love ones, and our planet in which is leading to numerous natural disasters .
I was a silent vegetarian for feeling oppressed by so many excuses from adults in why it was fine to commit horrific animal cruelty over tasted, nutrition even over religions beliefs, in which didn't make sense for me as growing up since I was rarely sick , and had always found so many things to eat that was not flash of innocent animals, such as pasta, beans, rice, salads , potatoes, lentils and on top of that I became quite an athlete , I used to be a swimmer on competitive level , a runner , soccer player , basketball player and so on. My physical abilities was above other kids .
Back in the days there was no Vegan information, at least not to my knowledge, I was not even aware of vegan products and the dairy industry propaganda was pretty strong.
I never felt that was wrong to drink milk from cows or consume dairy , because I wouldn't see the flash of the animals, I didn't know how those products were being made , and that the animals were going thought a lot of pain such as being separate from their mothers , or being artificially inseminated , and live under horrible condition just to produce milk , cheese and eggs. If I knew I would never had collaborate with that.
I would say that the dairy propaganda still very strong , but it got much better with so many not dairy milks available per instance and also thanks for so many amazing animal activists , the information that the internet and organizations provides.
The first time I heard the vegan word was late in the 80's , on an American TV show with the child actor River Phoenix , who I was a huge fan , but I couldn't quite understand completely, my English at the time was very basic , but I was just happy to know that he wouldn't eat animals or wouldn't wear them like me.
However , I was able to understand River Phoenix mentioning about the killing of the amazon for cheap hamburgers , which impacted me for being in Brazil, but I didn't not know what to do with that information as a kid.
I was so disturb to learn that they were hurting the Amazon , and decided to approached one of my teachers at the time by asking why they were killing the amazon for cheap hamburgers . I truly wanted to understand why.
My teacher replied as being unimportant and that I should concentrate on being an A student stead of a B student in that class. Oh well..
Years passed by , and once it came to my knowledge thanks for the internet how evil the dairy industry was, I once again felt betrayed for not knowing earlier and went vegan immediately .
I also felt betrayed once again after I watched the Blackfish documentary for being in the Sea Wold a few times .
The impacted of betrayal from the food and entertainment industries harming animals was so real that for the first time I decided to approached my husband who is my best friend and did a short marathon in films such as Earthlings and the Blackfish and discuss such matters . But I didn't not know how I would bring it up such matter on social medias , family and close friends.
However, I slowly stared to bring it up , but most ignored.
As time passed , I felt I had enough information that would back me up with my beliefs and surprisedly my husband understood the message , and impacted him, not 100% yet but it was getting there.
It must harder for people over 50's who grew up working in NYC , under a busy life to understand, therefore I realized I couldn't be so rash on my approach yet I could express my feelings and explain with facts.
After going vegan, I had a hard time to talk about with others with fear to be misunderstood , but once my husband stared to understand me and see the positive difference in my life, I stared to feel that would be important to speak up but didn't quite know how.
I came across the Catskills Animal Sanctuary in 2015, and decided to take my husband for a thanksgiving dinner with the amazing animal activist and writer Kathy Stevens , who touched my life beyond words. When she shared a story in how she rescued the rooster Polly , I felt comfortable sharing my story about my chicken Philomena . When she smiled back at me telling I was not crazy for having Philomela as a pet , I felt I was not alone with the ways I feel and that I should speak up . She didn't tell me to speak up, but by the way she shared the story in how she rescued the rooster Polly under horrific conditions, I realized that I couldn't remain in silent anymore.
On the next day at the Catskills Animal Sanctuary , my husband had the opportunity to go to one of their amazing animal tours and meet some of the animals , including the lovely cow Tucker , we had such a good time. After that visit he realized what I was talking about which was that all animals are the same. My husband has created a strong bond with our dog Lilly and our beloved cat Lynos , and he was able to see that those animals were just the same as our pets.
After that visit at the Catskills Animal Sanctuary he gave up meat completely, he also gave up cow milk. He would still consume coffee creamer , mayo , but slowly I stared introduced vegan alternatives to him and he stared to love it.
We watched Cowspiracy , Forked Over Knives , The Cove, and kept visiting the sanctuary. The evidences was so real to him that he became quite aware and I must say that I am so proud of him.
His high blood pressure condition became much better , his doctor and to lower his medication and the twisted part is, that his doctor said that he would had to eat at least "some chicken" even after his heath going better by going Vegan .
Today my husband says he will never look back and is loving being vegan. The other day I almost cried from happiness when he said that looking at the dead parts of animals at the grocery store grossed him out, and I turned to him and said ; " Now you know how I felt my whole life ".
As for me, I stared getting familiar with the amazing work of the Catskills Animal Sanctuary, I stared learning the story how the animals were rescued from horrific situation thought the amazing books of Kathy Steven and their amazing posts on social media. Thanks to their animal rescue stories and meeting the animals and volunteers I feel more connected with the reality and how important it is for me to speak up and how important the vegan cause is.
Do you have a personal story of your journey as a vegan? I would love to read;
Iara.foschino@gmail.com
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