Robert·ology

Yes, Vegetarian Awareness Month is over, but that doesn’t stop me from posting this which starts off with a veg related story and ends with something that took me by surprise the next day.

This past Sunday I took a trip out to a local animal sanctuary - SASHA Farm - for an early Thanksgiving potluck (vegan). It was an afternoon of great food and a chance to see some old friends. I hope to have made a couple new friends there as well.

One of the best parts for me, though, was meeting the baby turkeys. There were five of them I think. It was somewhat hard to tell as they all were huddling under mother’s wings to keep warm for the night. Their feathers of brown and black melded together underneath her strong white wing.

Those little turkeys were so cute stretching their heads about to see the world around them. It was their gentle calls, though, that were most beautiful to me. I could almost hear the “gobble gobble” of a grown turkey but it was mixed with the song of a bird in the back yard tree. It was the sweet sound of a child wanting to be like the parent - saying those adult age phrases but with an innocence that would make you smile at words said in frustration.

In the opposite corner of their room, however, stood an overweight, short and stocky one. And I say “stood” with reservation. This turkey had trouble standing and hobbled around looking for comfort. You see, this one was bred for meat. Turkeys raised for meat have been bred to be very, very large in the breast - so much so that they often (as was the case here) end up crippled under their own weight. Their legs may end up deformed or broken. Either way, you know it makes every moment painful.

This literal side by side comparison was saddening. At least these cheerful young ones have hope of a life free from that torture, but knowing that 46 million of these birds will be killed this month alone in the U.S. - 46 million pained and tortured every day of their short lives - is a downer to say the least.

So this brings us to the second half of the story. I’m part of a group which meets every week and at the end of the meetings we gather in a circle and share prayer requests or give thanks. We happened to be meeting the day following my trip to this sanctuary.

As we went around the circle, people were sharing about loved ones with illnesses or current events, and asking us to keep these in our hearts and minds. When it came to me, my mind still on the turkeys, I shared some of what I just shared here - about those wonderful little creatures and also the pain being caused in all of the farms across the country and around the world.

Yes, I cried as I spoke; the suffering so dense my strength could not hold it in.

The people in this group do not share my thoughts on subjects such as that. They’re accepting of my vegan ways, certainly, but it isn’t their way and that’s fine. This made it surprising to me that over my tears came an even louder bawling. Apparently this story (put into just five or six sentences) touched on something inside this person.

This person later told me of the sorrow felt while driving past turkey farms. I wouldn’t have thought that non-vegetarians would have such strong emotions about the welfare of farmed animals. Perhaps I believed that everyone going along with the status quo simply didn’t think outside of it at all.

I was mistaken.

Occasions such as this renew my hope in humanity. Maybe it’s true that 80% of the people simply trudge along and play follow the leader, but that still leaves 20% and you know, that’s a lot of people. Maybe we don’t always notice the 20% supportive of our causes, but they’re out there.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 1:45 am and is filed under Veg. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.