Like a lot of people I was brought up to believe it’s “okay” to kill. I did, with every meal, every celebration, every holiday and every outing with friends and family. I ate animals for more than 50 years, and spent many days fishing with my father. Like a lot of other girls it was an opportunity to spend time with him, since he didn’t enjoy things like sewing or shopping, plus I enjoyed the water.

But I never enjoyed killing the worm by piercing it with a hook, or pulling the hook out of the fish’s mouth, eye or stomach, and scaling them was the worst. My father would keep the fish in water until the end of the day so they would still be alive and “fresh”. He would keep their heads on to have something to hold onto while he ran the scaler in the reverse direction over their bodies to pull off their scales….only then would he cut off their heads. They would flop and wiggle as much as they could. (I’m sure they would have screamed had they been able to.) I could never watch…but I still ate them. We would also collect crabs from the pots he would put out. When we brought them home he would put them on ice until they went into the pot. The sound of them clawing at the inside of the pot was revolting to me.

I will never forget the day I decided “this is the last time I will participate in killing and eating them.” I had a sense of fear about what other people would say, including my “meat & potato” loving husband, my father who still loves to go fishing, my brothers, friends and even servers at restaurants. Eventually my desire to defend these and all innocent victims of social eating practices gave me the strength to proudly stand up for my choices and their lives.

Since I learned humans don’t need to eat the flesh and secretions of other animals I’ve been able to stop three medications, lose 50 pounds and happily enjoy plant-based versions of ALL the dishes I used to make without supporting unnecessary, intentional cruelty and killing. I hope you too will consider all the benefits of not killing, or not supporting killing, in the future.