Housekeeping

I had a very busy weekend! Therefore, there’s no winner yet for the Missionary Chocolates. Sorry! I’ll announce the winner soon, I promise. Meanwhile, if you haven’t yet entered, it’s not too late. Thank goodness for my procrastination, huh?! :)

Also, here’s a post of my easy vegan nachos recipe. I made these for Game Night last week, and everybody seemed to like them.

Also, I went out to Out to Pasture Farm Sanctuary yesterday. If you’re a friend on Facebook, I put up some pictures. The host was gracious, the animals were adorable, and the mud was rampant. It was beautiful.

Here’s one of my favorites:

Okay, I’ll be back later today or tomorrow with the winner of the Missionary Chocolates giveaway!

Vegan Part 2

Hi guys. Thanks for your patience with this post. Miss Part 1? 

My Not-tella giveaway goes until Saturday at 5pm (PST). Don’t forget to enter!

In my first post, I discussed my journey to veganism. In this post I want to discuss the different prongs of veganism, what they mean to me and what they may mean to others.

I guess I had a lot to say, so it turned out a little longer than intended.  If you do read all the way through, I appreciate it and love you. :)

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WHAT IS A VEGAN?

What is veganism? By definition, it means causing the least amount of harm to living creatures. Taking things that don’t belong to us, like animals’ skin, wool, honey, milk, and eggs, is not vegan. Testing on animals for human benefit is not vegan. Veganism encompasses more than a diet. A diet is one prong of an overall lifestyle to a vegan.

"Veganism is a way of living which excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom, and includes a reverence for life. It applies to the practice of living on the products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals." --Donald Watson, founder of the Vegan Society, coined the term “vegan” in 1944.

In my last post I mentioned different kinds of vegans. Some of the more…extreme vegans believe that if you are a vegan for any other reason than animal rights, you are not a ‘true’ vegan. While this may hold true to the original definition of vegan, we as humans are nothing if not changing and evolving. Part of the beauty of being sentient aware human beings is that we can change our meanings and reassign traditions and move forward.

That said, I’m not sure quite where I fit in on this spectrum yet. Is someone a vegan if it’s primarily for health reasons, despite the original definition of veganism?  Do we really need to put people in boxes? Doesn’t that get away from being compassionate to all? Does it really help if you’re doing your best to limit suffering, and someone tells you you’re not doing enough? You’re not vegan enough?

I don’t think so. I hope not, anyway. At the end of the day, if people aren’t eating animals, if people aren’t eating dairy, if people aren’t wearing leather, if people aren’t using products tested on animals, some animals lives are better. And isn’t that what it’s about for the animal loving vegans anyway?

A lot of vegans, and vegetarians, start out eating more plant-based foods for their health, and then work backwards, so to speak, learning more about animal rights. Read Gena’s recent post at Choosing Raw for a powerful reminder of this.

Whatever method you take to get here, I’m just glad you arrived. I’d prefer it of course if you stayed awhile and made yourself comfortable.

Some people get hooked by the plight of animals; as anyone who read my last post is aware, that was me. Little Sensitive Sally over here loves all living creatures and doesn’t want to see them hurt. I don’t care if steak tastes good; it can’t taste good enough. By the same token, I don’t care if dog tastes good. It can’t taste good enough.

VEGAN FOR ANIMALS

When one is vegan for the animals, it includes the lifestyle. The vegans you see who are incredibly dedicated and passionate and maybe a bit annoying? Those are probably the vegans who are doing it primarily for the animals. Whether they came that way first or wound up here through another way, like health, these vegans are usually in it for life and can’t imagine a lapse into dairy or buying that cute vintage leather purse. They’re not doing it to annoy you. They’re doing it because they believe in something that has the power to change the world and save lives. (When I say ‘they’ I’m sure you know I consider myself, for better or worse, one of the annoying passionate vegans.)

VEGAN FOR HEALTH

A vegan for health reasons will eschew all meat and dairy products because quite simply, it is healthier to eat plant-based foods. I’m not saying you cannot be healthy eating animals and their secretions. You definitely can and people do all the time. Overall, however, eating a diet that naturally contains no cholesterol and has loads of vitamins and minerals is better for you than a diet high in saturated fat, cholesterol, and quite often, hormones*. (*Animals from factory farms make up 99% of all animals eaten. Jonathan Safran Foer’s definition of factory farming: “In a narrow sense factory farming is a system of industrialized and intensive agriculture in which animals…are genetically engineered, restricted in mobility, and fed unnatural diets.” --Eating Animals, pg 34) People who choose to be vegan for health reasons generally find themselves a whole lot healthier. Have you seen the Dr Oz clip where a 265 lb meat-obsessed cowboy with the heart of an 85 year old was challenged to give up meat and dairy for a month? It’s actually quite inspiring to see the changes brought about.

VEGAN FOR ENVIRONMENT

A vegan for environmental reasons chooses not to eat animals or animal products because of the by now well-documented fact that global warming is caused in large part to meat and dairy farms and agriculture. And by the way, if animals weren’t raised for food, then the leather, suede, dairy and egg industries would not exist. Free Range? Organic? Doesn’t really matter. An organic cow belches methane, produces vast wastes and destroy local ecology just as much as a conventional cow.

WORKERS RIGHTS’ AND HEALTH

The other benefit, though rarely a motivating reason, to eating a vegan diet is the health of people who have to work in slaughterhouses. Colleen Patrick Goudreau discusses it here. (Just a note—she say at first that 10 billion animals are killed daily. It’s actually 10 billion animals that are killed each year). And for a more detailed account, Gail Eiznitz writes heavily about the health of slaughterhouse workers in her book, and I’ve heard that Jonathan Safran Foer touches on it in his book.

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EDUCATION

Educate yourself about what you eat. I suggest delving a little deeper—research where your food comes from. And by research, I don’t mean buying a label that says free-range. That’s not research, that’s not educated buying. By research, I mean read books. Talk to vegans. Study nutrition. Visit slaughterhouses and farms.  Do your research.  Your life, the planet’s health, the lives of animals and slaughterhouse workers’ all depend on it.

And if you still WANT to eat meat, dairy, and eggs; by all means, knock yourself out. But I can pretty much guarantee you that if you do decide to look into it, your dietary habits at the very least will change a bit. Nobody likes cruelty to animals. Nobody wants to eat food that’s proven to cause disease (Unless they’re a star on the TV show Man v Food. Really?!). Nobody wants to cause our planet’s livability to decline. It can be incredibly hard to reconcile our lifestyle with things that cause harm. But just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be attempted.

CHOICES

Personally, whenever I have a choice, I try to pick the choice with the least amount of harm. I don’t always know, but I do my best. If given the option of a vegan glass of wine and a non-vegan, I’ll pick the vegan, every time. If I can read the ingredients or ask someone what they are, I won’t buy or order something if it’s non-vegan. If I’m at a clothing store and something is labeled as leather or wool or suede, I won’t buy it. If I find out later I received the wrong glass of wine, or the boots I bought really are made of leather, that doesn’t make me a bad vegan. We all just do our best. We do our best with what we know, and it’s the finding out that’s the hard part—the feeling that we had been living in a protected balloon.

No matter what your diet or lifestyle, look into other ways you can cause less harm. There’s no “perfect vegan”. That concept is silly. We live in a world where everything is touched by corporate greed and animal exploitation; we don’t have to strive for the impossible but we can try as hard as we can to be the best ‘us’ that we can be. Don’t beat yourself up if you choose bread with honey. Don’t feel despair when you find out that playing card are coated in gelatin (they are).  We can only aim for the best that we can do.

WHAT IF?

Lucky for us, there are no ill side effects. If we’re wrong, and animals don’t really suffer or they really do want to die so we can eat them, we’re not doing them any harm by not eating them. If we’re wrong and the environment will not actually deteriorate because of factory farming, there’s no harm in trying to minimize or eliminate factory farming. If we’re wrong, and eating a plant based diet doesn’t actually reverse heart disease, cure diabetes, and lower your cholesterol, what’s the harm in eating plants anyway?

But what if it’s all true? What if by adopting a vegan lifestyle, you will minimize the pain, suffering and death of animals? What if by adopting a vegan lifestyle, you will help heal the earth, help your body to become more of a nutrition powerhouse, and help people who work in slaughterhouses not to have brain damage or lost appendages? It seems like there’s so much to gain, and what is there to lose? A few things that are tasty to your palate? Americans choose to eat less than 25% of the known edible food on the planet. There are so many other foods and cuisines out there to explore; animals don’t need to be one of them.

 

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Still with me? Thanks for reading. Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Vegan, Part One

I started to write this post to explain what vegan means to me. It is such a buzz word now, which is awesome(!) that it’s getting talked about, but I think it also lends itself to something that people don’t think about as much.

Once I started to write about our definitions of vegan, what vegan means to me and what vegan means to you, I realized that I couldn’t write this without giving more of my background. So, I’m dividing this up into 2 parts. The first part is my story.

 

PART ONE

It seems that everywhere I turn, there are different degrees of veganism. And, I hate to say it, but sometimes there is almost an edge, a competitive “I’m more vegan than you are” vibe. Let me clarify by saying that I never rarely see this vibe in the wonderful, beautiful and vibrant vegans and vegetarians I know personally. Most are gregarious, kind-hearted, sympathetic wonderkinds. Which kind of fits why they’d become vegan in the first place—a love for all animals: 2-legged, 4-legged, 8-legged, fish-tailed, or winged. A love for animals and a passion to do something with and for that love.

With a flush of new vegan, vegetarian, and animal-friendly books just released, the most notable being Jonathan Safron Foer’s Eating Animals (#1 on my must read now list) and Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet (Also #1 on my must read now list), I’ve been thinking a lot about all these buzzwords: Veganism, factory farming, Michael Pollen, Animal Rights, Abolitionist Movement, vegetarianism, local, ‘free range’, organic, etc etc etc. The list goes on. I know where I stand on all these words and all these issues, and I am so thankful that I live in a country where I can have the time, resources, recipes, and outlets to educate myself on issues like what happens in these corporate slaughterhouses.

For anyone who liked Eating Animals and wants to know more, I beg strongly encourage you to read Gail Eisnitz’s book Slaughterhouse. This book is heart-breaking and real and respectful and powerful. I respect Eisnitz to the billionth degree for this work of investigative journalism. Slaughterhouse unfortunately did not get the press it needed to become well-read and appreciated, which is a true shame. It is a powerful piece.

What is Veganism, and how did I end up there?

Veganism, to me, is not just a diet. It is not  similar to an allergy to peanuts or wheat (as horrible as those allergies are). Veganism is not a way to lose weight, to gain weight, to make friends, to mask an eating disorder, or to push a bleeding heart agenda. Veganism is a lifestyle lived and believed in for the animals, for the environment, for our health, for everyone.

I’m a pretty sensitive and sentimental lady. I don’t like hurting people’s feelings, I never liked killing house bugs, (Run away, little spider! Run free!), I don’t like gore or death or killing or meanness or cruelty—I don’t like them in real life like most people, but I also simply can’t stand them in movies or books or stories. I’m just a big ol’ empathetic mess. 

For that reason, I am so thankful every day that my mom raised my brothers and I as vegetarians. Not eating animals was just a natural manifestation of not being able to wash spiders down the drain or frantically moving all the worms off the sidewalk on a rainy day.

As a vegetarian kid I grasped the fact that I personally could not eat anything that had been alive. It wasn’t until later, when I met other vegetarians, that I heard the phrases, “I won’t eat anything with a face,” or “I don’t eat anything who had a mom.”

When my brother, who’s three years older than me, converted to being a vegan at 18, I thought it was cool. As the family baker, I just started baking everything vegan so he could eat it too. It wasn’t too hard for me—no more milk chocolate chips, use margarine (Earth Balance wasn’t around then) instead of butter, the Ener-G Egg replacer instead of eggs, and soymilk instead of cow’s milk. I hated the taste of soymilk at the time, but could never taste it in baking. When it came to cooking, I just left the cheese off of everything.

Though he was vegan, we never really talked about why. I never thought about where all those dairy products came from. Milk came from the grocery store, same as pinto beans and pasta. Eggs came from a friend’s farm, just like our lettuce and tomatoes came from our garden.

I continued eating eggs and cheese and drinking milk throughout college and the move to Connecticut for my Nature’s Classroom gig. I remember it being so incredibly un-vegetarian even, it was hard for me to eat. The only cheese to find in Andover was American Cheese, which I always just detested. Something about the texture was just so gross. My diet consisted of grilled cheese crusts (couldn’t eat the middle), egg and cheese bagels, salads with italian dressing, and lots of whiskey and cigarettes.

When I left Connecticut, I moved down to San Diego to live with my brother and his new girlfriend and her kids. Since my brother was vegan, and I was being temporarily supported by living with him, I easily adapted a vegan diet. I was 22. I don’t think I even noticed it—I still ate cheese when I was out, but swapped everything else out. It didn’t hurt that his girlfriend was a KILLER cook. (No pun intended.) She turned me on to nutritional yeast cheese sauce. Easy and delicious. And did I mention easy?

From 22 on, I naturally gravitated toward plant-based alternatives. I went through phases where my friends would ask, “Wait, are you vegan right now, or can I put cheese on this?”  And depending on what phase I was in, I would either answer, “Sure, go ahead!” or “Oh, god no. Gross.”

I moved back to Portland when I was 23 or 24. I’d say most of the people who’ve crossed paths with me since then would identify me a mostly vegan. Mostly Vegan? Is that possible? If veganism is a way of life, a belief that we as humans shouldn’t exploit animals and take anything from them, then it’s definitely not possible. If veganism is a diet where you’re doing your best not to eat animal products, it most definitely is possible. Which reminds me of a fight I got into with Craig Steele last year, before I became the former kind of vegan.

It’s funny to go back and read what I wrote about it--

Then Craig and I got to talking about stuff--the bathroom sculpture, veganism/vegetarianism (we got into a slight disagreement where I wanted to storm out in a huff, but ultimately we both had valid things to say. He's a vegan, I'm a veg*n, I'm more lacadasial about my views, he's more passionate. We agreed to disagree).

(And for the record, I think this division right here is where a lot of frustrations lie between ‘types of vegans’. I’ll discuss that more in Part 2.)

I totally didn’t see what my long-time vegan friend was saying. I felt like he was judging me, kind of. Saying that what I did wasn’t enough. But I think I was taking the insecurities I already had about my choices and making myself feel like I wasn’t doing enough.

That was in July of last year. By that time, the only animal products I was pretty much eating were things like Quorn with a touch of egg whites, or the occasional bean burrito with cheese.

The “Aha Vegan Moment”

Around that time, close to fall, I started reading Diet for a New America by John Robbins. Before I was even finished with that, I couldn’t get enough and started listening to Colleen Patrick Goudreau’s podcasts.

I remember the exact moment: I was sitting in my boyfriend’s bed, reading Diet for a New America, when I had what I like to call the “Aha Vegan Moment.” The moment I realized that by having that box in my freezer with whey or eating the occasional grilled cheese sandwich at work, I personally was contributing to the deaths of animals. That little ol’ me, who never had a hamburger, was still responsible for the pain and anguish of the very animals I wouldn’t eat. That even though I wasn’t eating the animal itself, animals were dying because of ingredients I chose to eat. And animals weren’t only dying; they were suffering while still alive. And though I had read what happens to dairy cows before, this time I really got it. This time I saw. I saw all these facts that are now cliche to vegans, that I personally hear all the time, and mentally go, “yeah, I know, but that’s old news. Everybody must know that by now.”

Things like:

• Mammals make milk for their own offspring. Humans are the only mammals to drink another’s milk, and to manipulate that milk into things like cheese and butter.
• Mama cows can only make milk when they’re pregnant. Do they get pregnant naturally? Um, no. To make the milk, the momma cows are artificially impregnated. Over and over and over. And then what happens to the baby cows? Well, in a word, veal. Cramped up baby cows on spindly legs not allowed to move, punished for licking their cage when they need iron.
• Things that are good for us—like calcium and iron—are found in plentiful plant foods. How do you think cows get their nutrients? From the same place as us. Plants. The meat and dairy eaters among us basically use the animal they’re eating as a middleman, so to speak.
• “Free-range” doesn’t mean the beautiful green yard with chickens running freely about. Free Range means only that chickens have access to the outdoors. What does “access” mean? That there has to be a window or door that opens for an hour a day. Cages, debeaking, and deaths are all still extremely common on a ‘free-range’ farm.
• Protein, Vitamin-B12, and Vitamin D are definitely important nutrients. Sure, vegans have to spend a little extra time working out how to get all of our nutrients into our bodies, but shouldn’t everyone? Vegans, as a whole, seem to be more aware what nutrients and vitamins and fats and proteins and fruits and veggies we need than does the average person. I’m not saying this as a way of pointing fingers, and I hope nobody takes it as such. I’m saying that when one changes his or her diet to omit a lot of food that is extremely prevalent in an affluent nation like ours, we’d be remiss not to do a lot of research into what exactly our body needs and how to get it. I can say from personal experience that I am so much more knowledgeable about nutrients and nutrition and vitamins and food in general than I ever was in my past.
• The US Government gives money to the meat and dairy industry. Your pound of hamburger meat or block of cheese is as affordable as it is because the government provides them with money. Subway and Pizza Hut? They get paid to add cheese to as many meals as possible. This is just plain wrong. I had no idea before last year that if the government weren’t to fund the meat and dairy industry, those ‘products’ simply would not be affordable to many people.

I think that by now with films like Food, Inc and books by Michael Pollan, and more and more press starting to cover factory farms and the role the government plays in these  farms, the knowledge is more available than ever before. 

And so… I had this “Aha Vegan Moment” where my life just changed. Not everyone has one, and some people have their Aha Vegan Moment when they’re 12.  I stopped eating the occasional grilled cheese at work anymore. I wouldn’t eat products with just a little whey. Quite simply, when I look at cheese now, I don’t see something delicious that I wish I could eat. I see the sad momma cow it came from. And honestly? Not always. I can look at dairy and appreciate the fact that it may taste good. But the taste is never going to outweigh the heavy and life-changing knowledge that I now have.

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In Part Two, I talk about where I am a year later with veganism as a way of life, the other aspects of veganism that don’t include diet, and my thoughts and opinions on the spectrum of Vegan (and whether or not there can even be a spectrum).

--> Have you had an “Aha Vegan Moment"?”

--> Have you heard of or read Diet for a New America, Eating Animals, Slaughterhouse, or The Kind Diet? What did you think?

A few thoughts...

A few things that made me think today:

1. Reading an article on "Natural Beef" which came out in the Oregonian Food Day section yesterday.
This article takes for granted the fact that if cows are raised being fed grass, they're happy to die for humans to eat them. A cow does not WANT to die, even if eating grass all the way to your mouth. A living animal that is sent unwilling to its death does not make for a guilt-free ingredient or snack, no matter what she is fed while she is alive.
This article seems like an unfortunate sham to me. The title reads, "Grass-fed? Grain-finished? Organic? Free-range? How do you know, and what does it mean?" I got excited for a minute. Will this article address the fact that it doesn't matter whether it's grass- or grain-fed; there is no "humane" treatment of an animal born to be slaughtered? I'd like to see an article starting with this premise that concludes it doesn't matter what a cow is fed while alive on a "feedlot;" cows and other living and feeling creatures shouldn't be sent to a lot to be "finished" at all. I use quotes around "feedlot" and "finished" because I find these terms to be intentionally vague. A feedlot is a type of confined pen where cows are sent to be overfed in order to gain enough weight to be slaughtered. "Finished" simply means these cows have their lives taken away before nature would do so, and they go to their death unwillingly. (I have to say, of course. What sane creature would go happily to have their throats slit, even if they were fed a delicious diet beforehand?)

2.Rats.
As my sous chef told me today, "Rats are stupid. Why else would they eat each other when caught in a trap? Why else would they dart in front of us when we're right here?" I really really like this guy. He's a super person. I really like my job. It's fantastic in all ways. All ways except one. You've heard of the "cognitive dissonance" that some people struggle with? Cognitive Dissonance is "an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. (Wikepedia)" This happens most often in peoples' work lives versus personal lives. I love what I do and that I'm paid to do it. It'd be hard to ask for a better job more suited for my skills and talents. I won't say what I do, only that I mostly love it, and the people I work with. The hard part? The dead chicken's bodies I see in the walk-in freezer every day. The smell of dead pig when I arrive in the morning. The turkey mounds, or "meatloaf," on trays I see at lunchtime. The pieces of cow I see in bloody bags, kept cold until ready to be cut up. And the rats darting out from their homes after we close. I work in a century-old building. Our city is centralized around a river; of course there are rats most places one goes. The rats at my place stay mostly to themselves, trying to find water, or something to eat. They don't usually succeed since we keep our kitchen in the basement very clean. The Chef, Sous Chef, and General Manager have no problem with viewing these cute, intuitive, and loyal creatures as pests to be removed. There are traps set every night.
Sticky tape is one such trap--if a rat runs over a certain part of the floor, their feet are permanently stuck. Starving to death, confused, they try to gnaw at their own limbs in an effort to free themselves. I'm not an expert in rats, but I'm fairly certain that the one incident in which my co-worker mentioned one rat trying to eat another was just one trying to save another the only way they knew how. Rats are highly intelligent and friendly animals that don't deserve to be tricked and trapped and killed for living where they do.
To be honest, I've cried at my job, a few times, to hear these people, my friends, my otherwise sensitive and wonderful friends, discussing the eradication and torture of these fellow creatures with a laugh, a giggle, and a shrug.

3. Revolutionary Road. A touching movie. Thought-provoking and amazing. The actors were well cast, and the plot... oh, the plot. As the author of the novel says, "If my work has a theme, I suspect it is a simple one: that most human beings are inescapably alone, and therein lies their tragedy. (Wikipedia)" To me, the tragedy lies in the fact that some human beings see themselves as being inescapable alone, whereas others do not. Mrs. Wheeler sought a way out, any way out, because to her happiness and freedom meant escaping the rut, the race for money and promotions and a bigger house. It meant reaching their potential as human beings. To Mr Wheeler, he saw happiness as being with his beloved wife, his children, and eeking out a substantial way of life, even it wasn't the life he vaguely imagined for himself while a naive and bullheaded youth. When the realtor's husband toward the end of the movie slowly turns down his hearing aid to escape his wife's hypocritical explanations, I can see what Richard Yates, the novel's author, means when he says that most human beings are inescapably alone. Is this the fate Frank and April would have had in store in for them if she had not died a lonesome, tragic, and irrelevant death? Who's to say? This movie, to me, spoke to the urges of humans, the drives, and the occasional futility of simply trying.

4. Squirrel meat. A article in the same section of the same paper I read this morning.
I thought this article was a joke. Here are a few choice pieces from this article:

How to Cook a Squirrel

"....Looking at the carcasses I wished that they had been cut into serving pieces; if there is a next time, I'll request that. I did try cutting them up, but the bones were sturdy and I didn't want to mangle my meal...."

"...I had planned to hunt my own squirrel..... but never having killed an animal before, I was hugely relieved when the weather turned miserable and I had to place an order....."

"....Instead of serving it in its sauce straight from the oven, you need to cook it first, then cool it enough to pry, slice and pull the meat from the carcass..."

"...though I thought I tasted a faint whiff of furry slipper along with an echo of hazelnut...."

And here's some from the article itself:

"....Enter the 'Save our Squirrels' campaign begun in 2006 to rescue Britain's red squirrels by piquing the nation's appetite for the marauding North American cousins. With a rallying motto of 'Save a red, eat a gray!,' the campaign created a market for culled squirrel meat..."

Fergus Henderson, the chef and co-owner of St. John restaurant in London, cooks with "...both poetry and passion, and sometimes prepares his squirrels to 're-create the bosky woods they come from' braising them with bacon...."

"If you want to grab your shotgun, make sure you have very good aim--squirrels must be shot in the head; a body shot renders them impossible to skin or eat. (You want to get rid of the head in any event, as squirrel brains have been linked to a variant of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of mad cow disease..."

"...Skinning a squirrel is 'difficult and unpleasant,' food write Leslie Mackley said, adding, 'You have to fight to rip the skin from the flesh...."

And now some thoughts on this:
I never want to eat a food that I have to ask be cut into serving pieces before preparing because I don't want to look at the original "product," or let's be real, animal.
I never want to be thankful that my food comes prepackaged to my door, rather than me going out to kill it. (It's much better to go pick a big bunch of kale and prepare it than shoot a squirrel in the heart.)
I never want to eat a food that I have to cook, pry, slice, and rip the meat from in order to eat it.
I never want to eat an animal to "save" another animal.
I never want to cook with "poetry and passion" if it means killing and cooking fellow creatures.
I never want to grab a shotgun and aim away from the head, in case I get a nasty deadly disease while eating my dinner.
And finally, I never want to prepare a meal that is supposed to nurture me by fighting to rip skin from flesh.

Frankly, I never want to eat a squirrel. Then again, I never want to eat any meal where I have to have a difficult and unpleasant time, where I have to be glad I didn't have to source it, and where I have to put out of mind the fact that I am eating something that fervently would choose NOT to be eaten.