ID 30137051 © Astroid | Dreamstime.com
By: Rachel
Warning: If you don't like adorable children (or were never one yourself), steer clear of this post.
Circulating around the internets this past week: A ridiculously cute video of five-year-old Dublin girl Indie-Rose, as she realizes that chicken comes from...well, chickens. Turkey from...turkeys. And so on. Indie-Rose doesn't like it one bit, and has a tearful and emotional breakdown.
If you've missed the video, here it is.
Now, I am a sucker for sweet little kids (especially ones with Irish accents) and a great animal lover myself. So it's no surprise that I couldn't stop watching this video. But after it tugged on my heartstrings and made me feel like I had some dust or something in my eye (me, cry? never!), it got me thinking about the readers of this blog and what brought them to vegetarianism.
Now, not everyone is trying to plant-power their diet because they love animals. But there is likely a moment in everyone's life when he or she is hit with the reality that the food on his/her plate has a lot in common with Old McDonald's Farm. In our culture, we often use different words to describe animals as we do to describe their meat. We call cow beef. Chicken and turkey may be referred to as poultry. So it's no wonder that many of us are a lot older than Indie-Rose when we have that realization.
I don't remember the exact moment when I made the connection, but I do vividly remember one conversation when I wondered aloud where the deli meat tongue came from. "That's not actually...???" Boy was I surprised when my mom clarified that, yes, it sure is. Harsh reality for a kid to grasp!
So what about you—do you relate to Indie-Rose's tears? Even if you're a meat eater, was there a memorable moment in your life when you made that connection?