A Prayer for Compassion, Part 2 of 6

“Now it is proven beyond doubt that if you want to get rid of the greenhouse gases, get rid of the slaughterhouses. It’s a ticking bomb. It’s a ticking bomb! Do we want that for our children and our children’s children? How will they judge us at that time? What karma are we sowing, that knowingly we are not taking any action? When we know something and we don’t do anything, that also is creating karma which is negative for us.”

“When you talk about nonviolence in thought, action, and deed, how can you be a practitioner of ahimsa – of nonviolence – if you’re going to consume any living beings?”

“I had someone say to me, ‘Oh gee, you’re vegan, you’ve been vegan for so many years, it must be quite a sacrifice.’ And I kind of smiled and said, ‘It’s no sacrifice at all. Once you know that animals feel, think, and love, and hurt, and cry, and embrace their babies, you know that it’s not a sacrifice at all.’ […]”

“So, Felicia and Gomer are from a factory farm in Iowa that flooded back in 2008. And so, the farmers, they evacuated, but they left all their pigs locked up in buildings. So, a couple of the pigs were able to escape and swim to freedom. And Felicia and Gomer and their friend Calypso, who’s since passed, were part of a group that was rescued by Farm Sanctuary. And then they were placed here with us a couple years ago. They both retired to Florida. They both have pretty severe arthritis, which is really common in the factory farm pigs because we breed them to only live about six months before they’re used for food. So, they’re really not bred to live a long time. And they’re bred to get as big as they can as quick as they can, which means that it puts a lot of pressure on their leg joints. So, these two are both about nine now, and so arthritis is fairly common at that age. Their friendships are just really deep with each other. Like, these guys came out of the factory together and they’ve been together ever since. […]”