How Did I Become Vegan?

I was born in the Philippines. 

I grew up there.

And knowing the Philippines when it comes to food....

most dishes always have flesh on them!

In fact, on most occasions, flesh is the dish!

So I was literally a "necrovore"!

From eggs to fish to meat to milk products.
(I wasn't into drinking plain milk then which was a good thing. It wasn't the age to be drinking milk anyway!)

That changed, a step higher, when I came to India.

I met this awesome guy online who spoke the word that I never ever heard before.

Vegan!

He WAS vegan (eating raw, uncooked foods) for 8 years when he was about 16. 

Then he slipped, he says, and he now kept wondering how did he lose his tracks for he was the guy in his family who freed their cows and unchained their dogs.
He wasn't just able to connect the dots at that time.

So he started drinking milk, eating eggs and products with milk such as bread.

He became vegetarian!

Then I came into the picture. It was 2007.

This awesome guy is now my husband.

When I arrived at their home, I eventually became vegetarian. 

I didn't struggle though. I didn't miss meat and all the "delicious" Pinoy meat delicacies. 

I knew what it is. We talked a lot about it.

I understood it, fully!

So it went on, vegetarianism, for another 7 years.

Along those years, countless documentaries were watched.

Earthlings was even watched a long time ago, and it didn't make a difference in our food choice

We were still consuming honey, curd, eggs, milk and milk products.

Then, in August 2014, with just a flip of a finger, my husband, in a firm statement, uttered, "We have to drop all animal products!"

My reaction was, "Okay!" without any question mark drawn on my face. "Let's do it!" 
I continued.

What prompted this abrupt decision? 

According to him, he had been thinking at night about the plight of those baby male chicks grounded alive because the egg industries don't want them!
He couldn't get better sleep after we watched that documentary.
And I clearly well remember how it was!
Gruesome!

Hearing this, my mind suddenly went someplace...remembering all the horrendous things that are happening in factory farms. It's as if everything came pouring in fast, lining up, forming a vivid image.

Those mama cows whose undersides look almost always filled with milk where nipples are fit with pipes sucking milk.

That mastitis that ailing those mums! Ugh! They don't deserve such thing.

Those calves who were separated from their mothers because some idiots decided to "unwean" themselves and choose to drink cow's milk again.

Those tiny chicks who were just hatched getting segregated for sex identification and when found out they're males, they are grounded alive, suffocated to death
because they won't lay eggs in the future.

In other words, they are of NO USE to the egg industry. 

They won't fetch money!

Those hens kept in small cages, living in dark and literally sleeping on their own fecal matters.
Some are limping, many are so sick that if you have a sane thinking, one look and you'll realize the horror of their situation you will decide not to be part of such devilry.

The sight was unbearable!

Those raccoon, foxes, bobcats who were trapped, de-skinned alive and eventually were murdered for their skins so some "fashionistas" can wear something so-called fashionable.

Only a person without a sense of compassion can tolerate continuing supporting such evil treatment towards these innocent creatures.

All these sank in. And I clearly remembered how I was taught compassion and kindness.
Although I wandered away, I felt I still have them.

It felt like, finally, a bullet has hit my head.
The only difference with this bullet is that it didn't kill me!

It awakened me instead.

It unmasked the thick folds that were long covering my eyes.

Everything became clearer.

Right then, I knew, my eyes will never be blindfolded again.

All animals, like me, desire freedom to live free from any harmful threats that my kind poses to their own existence.

I have come to a deep realization that

~violence will never be part of me ever again.

~taking an innocent life is wrong.
~animal lives and my life are no different and both matter.

~animals feel they suffer, they rejoice, they love, they play, they mourn
(all these pretty sums up me -no difference between them and humans, is there?)

~my values are intact and I want it to stay that way, intact, unshakable.

~animals are my friends, earthlings who have equal rights to inhabit this home like me.

But what if I didn't meet my husband?
What if I married someone else?
Would I have become vegan on my own?
What do you think?

I'll address these questions soon....