Why I have omnivore friends

How can I be friends with people who are OK with this? 

Vegan friends, please be understanding of your omnivore friends. It's understandable that omnivores wish to spare themselves the sight of slaughtered animals, like those in this picture. Because admitting that they contribute to this travesty is a hard bite to swallow. It's easier for them to believe that the animals they consume are humanely raised. The truth is, there is no such thing and much suffering and death in animal “production” regardless of how humane a farm claims to be.

As vegans, we live every day knowing that our choices do the least harm possible to the planet, humans and other animals as well. Omnivores have no such comfort. No wonder they choose to close their eyes to the pain and suffering. The truth is just too disconcerting. I feel badly for them, don't you?

Do you remember how you felt the first time you watched Earthlings? Or Veducated? Or any other film that tells the truth about the meat and dairy industry and it's overwhelmingly huge connection to corporate brainwashing? Remember the first time it really hit home for you that 99% of the population has no idea any of this is going on? It was overwhelmingly enlightening, but terrifying at the same time.

Remember the absolute horror of truly, deeply realizing that every single time someone consumes an animal product, a beautiful creature dies? Remember the shock of seeing first hand, babies taken from wailing, desperate mothers just minutes after birth? Cows slaughtered with calves still inside them falling to the slaughterhouse floor, only to be killed themselves? Remember feeling their pain?

Remember how you vowed instantly to go vegan and spread the word so this massive cruelty and inconsideration of other beings, the destruction of the planet and the threat of extinction to humanity itself could end?

Remember when you learned that veganism has the most positive impact on all the major threats to human existence when compared to any other human behavior?

I have to believe my omnivore friends don't know any of this, because if they did and they still consumed meat and dairy, that would make them some pretty scary people, wouldn't it?

But still, I'm kind to them. Yes, I do plead for the innocent animals to be saved. Yes, I do promote my beliefs. And yes, sometimes I even post a picture like the one above or stand up when a fellow vegan is being raked through the coals.

Because, like I said, I can't imagine how any of the people I call friends could continue being omnivores if they knew the overwhelmingly negative consequences of omnivorous lifestyles to our very existence. So, I tell them.

Because if no one speaks up, how could they possibly know?

However, like my omnivore friends, there is also something I am hiding from. I'm hiding from the fact that my omnivore friends indirectly participate in the very horrors that shock me to the core. I have to, so I can remain their friend. I'm hoping they will someday see the full consequences of their actions. I'm also hoping that, since they are inherently good people, if I remain their friend, maybe there is a small chance that they will follow my lead in finding their way to a kinder way of living.

But mostly, it's because I love them. That's why I have omnivore friends.