No excuses.

I'm not the kind of vegetarian who treats it like a second occupation. I'm not out to convert anyone, although I'd be perfectly happy if my darling husband wanted to forsake his steaks and chicken breasts for the soy burgers and veggie cheese I am so addicted to. There's nothing I can say to a carnivore that's going to take away that addiction to flesh - but when people have asked me why I became vegetarian I would tell them about the night I came home from Thanksgiving dinner at two a.m. too stuffed with all the overindulgence the holiday commands to sleep. I turned on the cable network and flipped mindlessly through the channels until my attention was caught by the image of a man beating a clearly injured pig.

The pig, massive to the point of not being able to move on it's own, was half in and half out of a holding pen so small it defied logic that the poor animal had even fit there in the first place. The man kicked the pig, the pig screamed a baby-sound in response and the camera panned out to reveal an entire factory of swine - every single one of them literally packed into individual holding pens too small to allow even a single step in any direction.

I watched, horrified - sick at what I was being shown. There were film clips from every possible kind of animal factory America allows. Chickens in rows and stacks, pecking eachother's eyes out, broken legged and crazy from forever being in a lit airless room with no hope of ever actually being a chicken. A cog in a machine, watiing for slaughter. Turkeys grabbed up by wherever the workers could get a grip: their necks, their wings, their legs which are all quickly broken to avoid their struggling. Cows strung up live by hooks, their crying and bellowing in pain on the way to have their throats slit open so very human it made me physically ill.

When it was over I promptly vomited my Thanksgiving dinner and cried myself to sleep with this intense sadness at having been an unwitting part of all of it. The next day I bought every single vegetarian item I could find and never touched meat again. It was the best decision I've ever made in my life.

Those images have stayed with me all these years, I've never forgotten what it felt like to realize that the meat I'd been eating had lived such a painful, stress-filled existence. It was not surprise to me anymore that our society is so plagued by diseases, by cancer, by emotional problems. The message stayed with me but I never did find out who had made the video or what it was called. Until recently, while browsing for something else entirely on the net...I found it.

I actually found it on my birthday, which was lovely by the way, and clicked the link - letting the video play for about ten seconds was all it took to break my heart all over again and renew my commitment to live a meat-free life. This video so impressed upon me the deeply destructive nature of our animals-as-food factory system that I would like to invite you to watch it. I don't care if you keep eating meat - it's not for me to decide what you put in your body...but educate yourself, at least.

Meet your meat.