Fighting Ignorance Anonymous

A wave of feelings crashed through my mind as my eyes confronted the horror. Living, breathing animals were reduced to commodities before my eyes as workers shoved turkeys into crates and slammed piglets headfirst onto concrete floors. I could not look away. I will never forget the sickening feeling I experienced the day I first discovered a PETA factory farming video.

It’s remarkable how a short series of clicks on the Internet led me to that previously unknown place. The information was always readily available, but until then, I had never cared to look for it. How had I let that happen? Why had I mindlessly shoveled carcass after carcass into my body without question? The video brought me intense discomfort, but that was its mission: to inspire. At once, I became vegan. It was not easy to do, for I received criticism and humiliation from friends and family members, but the video compelled me to live beyond what I had previously accepted as normal. In addition, I developed a quality of inquisitiveness that motivated me to delve further into everything I learned and experienced. I could not stand the thought of choosing to live in a state of ignorance, and I could not stand the thought of my peers residing in that same...