When my dog​ died, I wrote about it, and thousands of people commented and messaged on Elephant, Instagram, Dms, Facebook, text, and Youtube…oh my. It meant so much to me.

When I wrote about it, I always took care to mention that if we cared about a dog through the internet, we can care about animals in our real life instead of torturing, killing, and eating them. The response? Silence.

I appreciated all the outpouring of compassion. It opened my heart again and again, and I cried, processing grief at the loss of an animal who I knew, his personality, his heart, his quirks…an animal who, like those in your household I’m sure, had become part of my family.

And yet, I knew that 95% of those caring souls honoring my Redford in sweet, caring comments would then go eat meat or dairy or fish for their next meal or snack. So I mean this with sadness, with heart, with imploring empathy, not with condemnation.

But:

Don’t mourn the passing of my dog if you’re eating a burger for lunch. Don’t rail against cruel killings of whales and dolphin families if you’re adding cream to your coffee.

A friend pointed out that there’s nothing wrong with killing whales just because we think another culture’s values are wrong or bad—same applies to dolphins. We in the West are no better because we don’t kill whales or dolphins but do kill billions of cows, pigs, and chickens, turkeys, ducks, deer, geese…

I object to killing anyone, let alone torturing them along the way, when we truly don’t need to.

That’s where I feel that killing whales and dolphins is wrong.

End speciesism.

Is it a sign of sick Ethnocentrism to care about whales or dolphins but not, say, pigs. For sure. But, is it sick to be okay with stealing the young then killing ’em, forcibly impregnating moms (there’s another word for that), killing their babies, attaching nipples to tubes that rub ’em raw (can you imagine!?), then killing? For sure.

Caring about whales and dolphins and sharks and elephants and tigers…matters. Oh, my. It’s about protecting keystone and vital endangered species, which has to be global. It’s also about the hunting of them not really being necessary anymore.

But I do make your argument when folks freak about dolphins but don’t give a care about, say, cows. I care about both.

From a recent IG convo: She was horrified, upset that parmesan had baby cow belly in it.

My reply: Cheeses aren’t really veggie anyways—moms get killed after torture and babies taken away then killed. ?

Yessss that too: but something about how Parmesan is made makes it even worse. Do you think any cheeses are ok?? There has to be some farms out there… ??

Honestly I stopped eating em cause the more I learned it was sadddd

Or haystack mnt goat cheese?? [a good local cheese] Our food system is so messed up 🙁

Small farms…sad. Better maybe, some, but veal is baby cow taken from mom (cows are verrrry emotionally attached, will chase their babies for miles trying to get em back) the babies are isolated, freeze in cold or overheat in sun…then killed. I’m honestly not a crazy vegan hah I’m just me and I saw all this and learned and was like eff no. Plus any dairy in restaurant grocery or cafe is factory farmed just about always.

I eat very little meat- I do like fish and cheese…
But I hear you
I’ve seen those baby cow videos and makes me sick
Lots of issues with all food …. Like who is growing our fruit and veggies… coffee and chocolate. I want to just have lots of land and grow all my own… so then I know for sure!

85% of crops are grown for animals that we torture then kill. So even if you’re concerned about those working on farms growing crops…go vegan. That said it’s your choice, no pressure, it’s not up to me, I’m happy to answer questions.

But even with small farms always there’s veal–baby cows–distraught moms then killed in early middle age after a lifetime being kept pregnant (imagine) with tubes hooked up to their nibbles, rubbed raw, no healthcare to speak of…eating food they’re not meant to eat, usually. Any dairy from any restaurant, cafe, or grocery is 95% say factory farmed. So we’re kinda fooling ourselves with happy cow stuff.

There’s good vegan cheeses, now, for basic stuff like pizza etc, and there’s great ice cream and butter (Miyoko’s is really legit)

For me, the more I learned the worse I got. It just didn’t fit with even very low bar of ethics. Let alone it being a significant part (13%) of climate change.

Anyways it’s great and kinda rare that you care <3
Good cheeses are coming now to metro areas–cultured, fine. Even NY Times which historically is very un-vegan did an article feature on ’em

The convo ended with her saying she knew the issues, her dad was a farmer, she might do better…didn’t honestly sound like anything had changed. We just have to find a way to care—that tender, open place in our heart that cares about our animal friends the way we care about our dog or cat friends.