{"id":2,"date":"2014-06-20T19:17:23","date_gmt":"2014-06-20T19:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vetvegan.com\/?page_id=2"},"modified":"2014-08-22T21:48:37","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T20:48:37","slug":"sample-page","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/www.vetvegan.com\/?page_id=2","title":{"rendered":"ABOUT ME"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSCF1970.2\"<\/a>Animals (in the broadest sense, belonging to the kingdom Animalia)<\/em> have always been very\u00a0close\u00a0to my heart, although truthfully I prefer to be a healthy distance from snakes. My childhood ambition, after outgrowing a “game ranger” phase, \u00a0was to become a veterinary surgeon and help sick\u00a0dogs and cats get better . \u00a0And lo, this came to pass in 1980. And it was good. For a quite a while.<\/p>\n

Throughout my veterinary training I accepted the “food” and “pet” divide amongst my patients, \u00a0never questioning the fact that I would be treating\u00a0a cow (or a sheep or a pig or a chicken or a goat) in order that she\u00a0(or he) would recover in order\u00a0\u00a0to be killed later.<\/p>\n

Believe me, I still can’t explain why I would battle to save one animal’s life, then without any hesitation,\u00a0thought or question, eat or wear \u00a0dead parts\u00a0stolen from another being,<\/p>\n

It still beggars belief that I was sickened by the sights, sounds and smell of \u00a0abattoirs\u00a0during my training, yet continued to participate in such cruelty despite this\u00a0knowledge.<\/p>\n

How could I accept dairy cows being kept perpetually pregnant, udders swollen and distended, their calves torn away to be raised artificially, slaughtered\u00a0\u00a0for veal or\u00a0reared to become milk machines themselves?<\/p>\n

Why did I not question\u00a0the morality of \u00a0rearing “broiler chickens” or “layers” in appalling\u00a0conditions, deprived of light, space and dignity ?<\/p>\n

Surely I must have\u00a0considered those\u00a0beings who died so that animal experiments could prove some physiological or pharmacological fact?<\/p>\n

Why did I accept\u00a0the way animals were turned into units, like paperclips or disposable paper cups?<\/p>\n

I don’t know the answers to these questions. My only excuse (not a very good one) is that such\u00a0moral schizophrenia is the norm\u00a0in our society.<\/p>\n

Fast forward too many years, \u00a0the realisation that I was actively participating in a \u00a0holocaust\u00a0slowly\u00a0came to me. \u00a0Once the blinkers came off, \u00a0overcome with regret and horror, I\u00a0became a vegan. I shall die a vegan.<\/p>\n

This blog is my way of apologizing to everyone that I’ve hurt.<\/p>\n

Hopefully, my words will\u00a0strike a chord with others, opening minds and hearts, causing\u00a0\u00a0fewer non human animals\u00a0to die.<\/p>\n

Maybe one day the animals will be free.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Animals (in the broadest sense, belonging to the kingdom Animalia) have always been very\u00a0close\u00a0to my heart, although truthfully I prefer to be a healthy distance from snakes. My childhood ambition, after outgrowing a “game ranger” phase, \u00a0was to become a veterinary surgeon and help sick\u00a0dogs and cats get better . \u00a0And lo, this came to … Continue reading ABOUT ME<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vetvegan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vetvegan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vetvegan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vetvegan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.vetvegan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.vetvegan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22,"href":"http:\/\/www.vetvegan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2\/revisions\/22"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.vetvegan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}