My husband Paul and I pinky swore each other that if either of us ate one lick or bite of something containing an animal, we would have to watch factory farm footage.  I suggested we should watch Dominion.  I was coming off of my last hangups – chocolate and gummy bears which I wrote about here and wanted to commit to veganism; no more slip ups.  I pleaded with him to please not make me watch the footage and do the Veganuary challenge for the month of January (note you can sign up for free anytime throughout the year!).

Veganuary sends out a variety of info during the month – celebrity cookbooks, information on vegan nutrition along with stories. In 2022, they sent out The Last Pig article.  I read it and was gutted.  I remember the day I read this article, I tried to verbalize the last pig story to Paul and started bawling.  I couldn’t get it out. He gave me a hug.

This article increased my understanding of the failure of ‘humane slaughter’ and also put me in the mindset of the pig as an individual, which is a key factor to awaken your compassion.  For example, if you think about a mass of animals such as the 80 billion land animals we kill per year, it’s horrible statistic, but what the statistic doesn’t showcase is the individual experience of those 80 billion animals from birth to death.  This clip at about the 31:00 mark on the experience of a fish in a trawler net from the video ‘How Conscious Can a Fish Be? by Ryuji Chua, helps to zone in on the experience of the individual, it’s heartbreaking.  The video helps you see the individual instead of a statistic. When we hone in on the individual experience, this helps us to awaken.

So a week into Veganuary, this is our conversation:

Paul:  I ate a chocolate bar today.

Me:  Paul!  Now we have to watch Dominion!

Paul:  I know.

Me:  Actually, I’ve been following this guy called Earthing Ed.  He mentioned he got his name Earthing Ed after he watched Earthlings and that movie inspired him to go vegan.  I think we should watch Earthings instead.

Paul:  You said we’d watch Dominion?

Me: I know, but they are basically the same thing.  The deal was to watch footage and both have footage.

I actually had no idea until the summer of 2022 that Earthlings had the same producer as Dominion.  I have since watched both and would recommend Dominion.  Dominion is essentially an updated version of Earthlings using clearer footage, better technology and updated statistics.

However, if you are looking to be hit on the head with WHY you should go vegan and to fully understand the many cruel and unnecessary ways humans EXPLOIT ANIMALS, watch Earthlings, it’s free on YouTube.

Earthlings was RELENTLESS.  Within the first minute Paul was crying and physically squirming in his seat.  He proclaimed, ‘come on, I can’t watch this!’  Paul has always been a sensitive soul.  I coldly responded by telling him he should have thought about that before eating chocolate.

For the next over an hour, Earthlings hit hard with all the endless ways humans use animals.  We are both still haunted by what we saw. As I type this, the specific images that haunt me are appearing in my mind.  It was simultaneously heart wrenching and infuriating to watch.  At one point, Paul said ‘the people doing that should be shot!’  I retorted back with, ‘WE PAY for them to do this when we purchase animal products.’

So we both sat there, crying, bodies convulsing with emotion and watched all of Earthlings together.  Before we even watched Earthlings, I knew I was done partaking in any animal exploitation in anyway.  However, after Earthlings, I also wanted to advocate for animals.

Peace, love & plants,

Michelle 🙂

p.s. can you be brave and check out at least one of the links I provided in this post? What’s stopping you from signing up for the Veganuary challenge? There’s nothing but free resources out there, all you have to do is be curious and look. The animals are counting on you to awaken.