November
1994
How I
Became an Activist
By Andrea Lieberman |
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My own slow journey into
animal rights activism started out as a curiosity and has developed
into a strong ethical and pragmatic conviction that the use and abuse
of other than human animals for human gain is morally reprehensible.
At the tender age of nine, my sister Amy decided one day that eating
animals was disgusting and wrong. I was fifteen at the time, and
looked
upon this revelation as interesting at best. I certainly enjoyed a
thick, juicy steak or a tender chicken, although the only fish I
ate came from
Mrs. Paul’s freezer. Amy began sending the few dollars she owned
to animal protectionist and rights groups, including People for the
Ethical Treatment of Animals. She carefully escorted outside the bugs
who mistakenly wandered into our house and deposited them on the front
porch. She also adopted Max, our neighbor’s cat. Max loved Amy
as much as she loved him, even sleeping with her, much to my mother’s
chagrin.
I always read through Amy’s animal rights magazines, registering
horror and dismay at the way animals are being treated, and, over the
next two years, I educated myself through the reading, and found myself
discussing animal rights issues with others. I had yet to make any
changes
in my lifestyle.
My earliest recollection of internalizing animal suffering came on my
sixteenth birthday. I was getting ready to leave on my date. My mother
and I were standing in the foyer, choosing a coat, when she pulled out
her waist length silver fox for me to wear. I put it on, and then realized
that not only was this a little ostentatious, but that I felt very uncomfortable
in it. I still, however, had not made the connection between the coat
and the suffering it had caused. I left for college at seventeen and
a half, and by this time, I was only eating meat, as I explained to
people, that was not in the same form as it was on the animal.
My animal product diet consisted of all dairy, turkey and cheese sandwiches,
chicken salad and ground beef in any form, preferably in taco salads
or as hamburgers. After a while, however, I tried to hide my turkey
meat under mounds of lettuce and tomatoes, my taco salads under generous
helpings of salsa and sour cream, and my hamburgers under cheese and
as much relish as the bun could hold. I also always asked the waitress
to check to see if my burger was cooked by bouncing it off the wall
and onto the plate! During my visits home, Amy, who was in high school
at this time, would tell me stories of the horrible treatment of animals
that she read about in her animal rights’ magazines. She was
also writing poems and short stories about the pain and suffering of
animals,
and talking to her classmates and teachers about the subject. In her
senior year, she organized a group at school which addressed issues
about the environment and animal rights activism. I was slowly being
sensitized more and more about the plight of an animal.
I visited Israel for the summer of 1987, where the meat was below par
and chicken was on the plate for every meal. I was a volunteer in the
army for one month, where I could not eat the mystery meat served, so
I survived on salad and bread. I left in August for London for the first
semester of my senior year in England. After my first week, my flat
mates and I finally found an apartment, and we dined out to celebrate.
I, of course, ordered a hamburger, and after one bite was finished.
The meat was so repugnant that no amount of ketchup or cheese could
disguise the taste. I decided that, when eating out, I would stick to
vegetarian meals. I was lucky that the animal rights movement had hit
London a lot earlier than it hit New York, because every restaurant
featured at least one vegetarian entree.
On October 7th 1987, I was cooking ground beef, my second attempt at
red meat in England, with lots of ketchup and cut up vegetables to disguise
the taste. I took one bite of this concoction, threw it all out and
said to myself that since I had been thinking about becoming a vegetarian,
now was the time. I will always remember that moment which changed my
life forever. I immediately purchased a vegetarian cookbook, ate at
all the Indian restaurants in my area, and began my life as an animal
rights activist.
Andrea Lieberman is a long-time animal rights
activist, educator, and happy co-habitor with her feline companions,
Sam and Winky.
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