Farewell to Meat

So today I made a decision that has been a long time in coming. I am not going to eat meat anymore. So why am I making this decision?

Well I stopped eating fish a long time ago. My reasons being:

• I do not like the way fish are killed
• We do not fish in a sustanable way
• Fish farming is bad for the environment
• Fish often has high levels of heavy metal in them
• When carniverous fish are farmed we need yet more fishing to feed them (think cod farming)

but I was still eating animals. This was a little hypocrytical to be honest, but I liked meat more than fish anyway.

So during lunch yesterday we were talking about dolphin fishing in Japan. Someone said that dolphins get dragged (while still alive) from the water and along the street, screaming all the way. School children walk past oblivious to the animals plight, they are used to it. Whether this is true or not it made me feel sick. One of the other people then started describing how cows are slaughtered in some abertoires and to be honest, it was not any better.

It was at this point I realized how hypocrytical I was. I did not want to know about what went on because it was easier to pretend it did not happen and eat the meat.

So today I went to the dolphin for lunch and while queueing up to order I realized I could not face having any meat, so I did not have any. In fact I still do not think that was the moment I made the decision, I was still toying with the idea. Until this evening. I was called by some friends who invited me round for dinner. It was at that moment I made the decision.

So from today no more meat will pass my lips. Well I hope so, I have a bad memory for these things, so I might forget from time to time, and I struggle to remember that fruit pastilles and similar have gelatine in them.

My friend Joe became a vegan recently, for different reasons. He blogged about them here.

Alasdair