YDV Presents: Stories of Vegan Evolution – Charleen Angle

By Published On: 21 June 2010Last Updated: 17 January 2017

Killing is a commodity. Not only do we kill unnecessarily for food, we kill to test our products. We kill to use our products. We kill to drive our cars. We kill to build our structures. We kill to make art. We kill to wear fashions. We even kill because we're bored.

What's in this post

Introducting YDV Presents: Stories of Vegan Evolution, our newest series devoted to learning more about our fellow vegans. These are the stories of their personal evolution into veganism and asks the ever important question, why vegan?

Don’t call me a militant vegan because I sacrifice to stand for something, and you don’t.

When asked to write my story of vegan evolution, I thought, “Easy.”  So, here goes- pretty straight forward stuff, I think.

One day, I woke up, after a quarter century of living, and thought:

“Why should I kill defenseless animals for food?  I’m not living in nineteenth century rural America.  I’m never eating meat again.”

Meat being cow and chicken.

So, after immersing myself in the vegetarian world for a few years, and learning more about human impact on the environment, I realized the error of my ways- fish are animals too.  Killing them and destroying their aquatic home is morally wrong.

“No more shrimp and scallops for me.”

Not soon after this revelation, and further educating myself, I could no longer justify my dairy consumption.  The facts are there- none of us should be eating the milk of other animals.  Whether you choose to ignore the facts or accept them and change, is purely one’s own volition.  I could not deny what my choice to eat dairy was doing to the animals and the earth- I was killing.

“I’m going vegan.”

Vegan. Seems to mean a myriad of things to different people.  But, what it truly means is taking every precaution not to kill in order to live.  No easy task when one considers the institutionalized killing in our society.  Killing is a commodity.  Not only do we kill unnecessarily for food, we kill to test our products.  We kill to use our products.  We kill to drive our cars.  We kill to build our structures.  We kill to make art.  We kill to wear fashions.  We even kill because we’re bored.  It’s not easy being vegan.  It takes guts.

I realize that just by being alive in this epoch, I contribute to the killing.  But I also realize that because of this circumstance, life itself demands nothing less than my commitment to choose vegan.

I’m a vegan.  You should be a vegan too.  EVOLVE.  Stop making excuses, accept responsibility to your obligations, stop being part of the problem- get off your lazy ass and help me save this world.

[box] Charleen Angle Photography

Charleen Angle lives a vegan existence with her lover and a horde of nine- canine and feline, in the United States.  Traveler, art school grad, and lover of life, her stated goal is to promote vegan evolution in human beings through example and being a regular contributor to the kick-ass website, www.yourdailyvegan.com.

Charleen can be contacted via email, and would love to hear from you.

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2 Comments

  1. Giggling Vegan June 22, 2010 at 4:24 am - Reply

    […] YDV Presents: Stories of Vegan Evolution – Charleen Angle | Your … […]

  2. Topsy.com June 21, 2010 at 6:23 pm - Reply

    […] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Your Daily Vegan, Pennie Mills. Pennie Mills said: RT @YourDailyVegan: YDV Presents: Stories of Vegan Evolution – Charleen Angle http://ht.ly/21qPh #vegan […]

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HELLO! I'm KD Angle-Traegner.

Writer, activist, and founder of Four Urban Paws Sanctuary. I’m on a mission to help people live a vegan life. Read more about KD…

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