Amazing Animals: Cows

In the U.S. alone, over 42 million cows are killed in the meat and dairy industry each year. That works out to about 79 cows every hour! And what many people dont know is that cows are very intelligent and social animals, they have feelings and emotions. they like to make friends and even hold grudges against other cows that have treated them badly. 
So that steak on your plate didn't come from nowhere, it came from a living breathing creature that is both complex and beautiful. Here are some facts about the amazing animal that is a cow.


There are about 920 different breeds of cows in the world. They were domesticated about 5,000 years ago
And each cow is different and has a different personality. Some are shy while others are bold and friendly.

Cows can live 25 years. You can guess the age of a cow that has horns by counting the number of rings on the horns. 


Cows have spots called Holstein spots, these are like fingerprints, no two cows have identical Holstein spots.


Cows have almost total 360 degree panoramic vision and are able to see colors, except red. They can detect odors up to 5 miles away. Cows can hear lower and higher frequencies better than humans.


The strongest bond between cows, much like humans, is the mother-calf bond which intensifies over the years as they spend more time with each other. A mother usually raises her calf as the new member of her herd and they grow up together.


Cows are very social animals. They form large herds and make friendships over time in their herd. They "moo"  and use different body positions and facial expressions to communicate with each other.

Research has shown that cows are very clever animals and understand cause-and -effect relationships which means they are able to think about the consequences of their actions and judge what is right or wrong. They can learn to operate simple machines such as drinking fountains or levers.


Cows love to think and solve problems and are know to jump up or get excited when they have found a solution to their problems.


Cows choose leaders in their herds not based on size or strength, but based on social-skills, intelligence and self-confidence among other things.


Like all animals, cows value their lives, they do not want to die. Cows have gone to extraordinary lengths to escape from slaughterhouses. For more about this please read the Fight for their Lives stories.


Cows are beautiful, clever and social creatures, and they are worth far more than a steak or hamburger. 

Veggie to Vegan

There's a few different types of vegetarians out there..some more strict than others, and the divide is not always so clear. So i did some research and here are the main vegetarian groups:



VEGETARIAN:Vegetarian is a broad term used to describe a person who doesn't eat meat, poultry, fish, or seafood.


SEMI-VEGETARIAN:Semi-Vegetarian means the person consumes dairy products, eggs, chicken and fish but not other animal flesh.

PESCATARIAN: This is someone who does not eat any animal flesh apart from fish, and does eat eggs and dairy

POLLOTARIAN: Someone who eats chicken, eggs and dairy but no other animal flesh.


LACTO-OVO VEGETARIAN: Does not eat any animal flesh including fish and chicken, but does eat eggs and milk
(This is the largest group of vegetarians)


OVO-VEGETARIAN: Does not eat any animal flesh including fish and chicken or dairy products, but does eat eggs


LACTO-VEGETARIAN: Does not eat any animal flesh including fish and chicken, also does not eat eggs, but drinks milk


VEGAN: Do not eat any animal flesh including chicken and fish or any animal by-products which includes eggs and dairy. They also do not eat meat by-products such as gelatin, some also do not eat yeast or honey or even some types of sugar and wine because they are made using animal products, whether or not they contain animal products at the end. 


So which category do you fall under? 
Remember whatever category you or other people fall under, that we all make a difference, and we all choose to be vegan or vegetarian for reasons as different as our diets.

What People Say

When I told my family I was going veg, they thought i was going crazy..my mum even started calling me vegetable for a while! :) 

You're probably thinking about how hard it will be for you to be the only vegetarian in your family, but trust me, it really is NOT THAT HARD!

 People will always have an opinion on your choice that they feel they must express but if you don't take things too seriously you'll learn to brush away stupid comments.

 Here are some things that my friends and family have said, you might be able to relate:

"You do know that animals don't have a soul right?"


"Don't you miss chicken wings and spare ribs and sausages?"



"God made animals for us to eat and do whatever we want with"


"You're not really making a difference, animals will still get killed!"


"You're going to die of hunger"


"Where are you going to get your protein from? You're going to stay the same height forever"


"Are you sure that's possible?"


"If you don't eat the cows, they're going to keep farting which causes global warming!"                  


And there are dozens more!


What I'm trying to say is, people can be REALLY unsuportive at times, and it's easy to tell yourself that they're right, but whenever you're thinking about caving in just because of other people think, remember the reason why YOU chose to change.
One of the reasons why I changed?

Animals are my friends... and I don't eat my friends.  ~George Bernard Shaw









                                                     

Going Veg = Going Green

Cos vegetables are green so that should be right, right? :) I didn't even think about the meat industry and global warming (except the thing about cows farts :) but here are some kinda crazy facts about the meat industries contribution to the big GW

"According to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off U.S. roads." -  awesome right?

Livestock production leaves a hefty carbon footprint, accounting for 18 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than all the world’s cars & SUVs combined.

- Thats a lot of bad air!

Animal agriculture consumes 1/3 of fossil fuels produced in the United States. According to a study in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the production of one calorie of animal protein requires more than 10 times the fossil fuel input as a calorie of plant protein.

 According to scientists at the Smithsonian Institution, seven football fields' worth of land is bulldozed every minute to create more room for farmed animals and the crops that feed them - Deforastation of billions of acres every year to feed the agricultural industry is increasing CO2 emissions and using up vital land




Each day, factory farms produce billions of pounds of manure, which ends up in lakes, rivers, and drinking water. Farmed animals produce about 130 times as much excrement as does the entire human population of the United States—87,000 pounds of waste per second! - Thats the true BULLSHIT right there!


In Conclusion, MEAT'S NOT GREEN

A recent United Nations report concluded that a global shift toward a vegan diet is necessary to combat the worst effects of climate change. Going Green is something we all need to do, so instead of buying a hybrid or solar panels, why dont we all just leave meat off our plates? 

Save the animals.

Save the planet.
Save ourselves.

Meet your Meat

What a clever name :) And that is exactly what this video does..It shows you where your pork chops and chicken wings come from..This video is what motivated me to become a vegetarian and change my carnivorous ways. It shows the lives of the animals before and during their slaughter...it shows their sad lives in cramped cages and filthy conditions and the routine cruelty imposed on billions of animals yearly. This video made me cry, it made me angry it almost made me vomit but most importantly, it made me change :)

WARNING: Graphic Content