我很小就很敬重各种动物，一直认为牠们是有感情、有智慧的生命。但是直到我看了PETA网站上的资料之后，才开始將我最要好的动物朋友与盘子上的猪排产生关联。我无法想像这些动物在成为盘子上的肉之前，经过一段可怕骇人的残忍对待。我花好几个月的时间去试着忘记我所知道与看到的内容，最后我终于醒觉过来，并且从此不再吃肉。理由很简单，就是动物不应该为了我的味觉享受而受痛苦与丧失生命。

　现在的我已成为完全的素食者一段时间了，并且从中获得好多益处，即，不再被可怕的皮肤问题或严重的胃病所困扰，因为我已拥有一个很健康的身体。同时，我也很快且容易的达到我一直想要的减肥目的。

　成为完全的素食者之后，我的生命整个改变了，心也渐渐打开了。

Maggie Travis, Minnesota
Ever since I was a small child, I have had a great respect for animals, and I’ve always felt that they were loving and intelligent beings. It wasn’t until I stumbled across PETA’s Web site that I started to make the connection between my companion animal best friends and the pork chop on my plate. I couldn’t believe the horrifying and appalling cruelty [that] animals go through before they [arrive] at my table. After a few months of trying to forget what I knew and saw, I just woke up one day and cut out the meat. It was as simple as the fact that animals shouldn’t suffer and die for my taste buds!

Now that I’ve been vegan for some time, I’m reaping the benefits; I no longer am troubled by terrible skin problems or serious stomach illnesses, and I just have a healthier body! I’m also quickly and easily losing weight, which I very much need to lose.

Being vegan has completely changed my outlook on life, and it all started with opening up my mind a little.

(7)华盛顿州，Anne Hanna

　我在13岁那年去我祖父位于宾州东部的农场渡暑假之后，开始吃素的。

　在我抵达那里的几天之后，一只母牛在生产一对小牛时不幸过逝了，牠们是一对公与母的小牛。我祖父以我以及也在哪里渡假的表弟亚当的名字为牠们命名。我们养了牠们三个月，教牠们如何从桶子中喝水，帮牠们洗澡，并且与牠们玩耍。牠们是相当聪明的动物。我养的那只小牛还会与我玩捉迷藏，我在草地上先跑的很快很远，然后牠会追着我跑，然后在牠追上我时用牠的头撞我。我每天花好几个小时与牠在一起，牠因此成为我最要好的朋友。夏天结束之后，我必须回家上学，为此我哭了好几天，因为我无法將那只与我同名的小牛一起回去。

　直到下一个夏天，我才又去到祖父的农场。当我抵达哪里的第一件事就是跑去仓库找那已一年未见的小牛。结果在哪里没找到牠，于是我又跑到屋子里，那时我祖父正在吃他的早餐。我问他我的小牛在哪里呢，他没有说话，用手指着电冰箱。

　我放声大哭与尖叫，说他是兇手。稍晚当我已哭到没有眼泪时，我终于明白了肉食工业是多么恐怖的一个行业，而且第一次明白什么叫做「吃肉等于兇手」的意思，就像歌手史密斯的歌曲里所说的。从那时候起，我再也不吃肉了。

　那是13年前的事了。现在的我已经结婚，而且有两个小孩，我们一家人都是完全的素食者。我的小孩很喜欢质问那些在杂货店买肉的人，他们会说些像，「恶！你在买那种东西啊？你不知道那是死牛啊？」的话。其他时候，他们只会盯着买汉堡的人，离开之前，叫声，「MOOO!!!」要张罗全家都是素食者并不容易，但我认为是值得的。我宁愿与动物们称兄道弟，也不愿吃牠们的肉。我们全家人也因为吃素而更健康。

Anne Hanna, Washington
I became a vegetarian at the age of 13, after spending the summer with my grandma and grandpa at their beef farm in Eastern Pennsylvania.

A few days after my arrival there, a cow died giving birth to twin calves, one male and one female. My grandpa named them after me and my cousin Adam, who was also staying there for the summer. We raised those calves for three months, teaching them how to drink from a bucket, bathing them, and playing with them. They are such smart animals! My calf would play tag with me, I would run as fast as I could around the field, and she would run after me and butt me with her head when she caught me. I spent hours every day with her—she had become my best friend. When the summer ended, and I had to go back to my father’s house to start school, I cried for days because I couldn’t take my namesake with me.

I didn’t get to visit my grandparents’ farm again until the following summer. When I got there, first thing, I ran to the main barn to find my cow, whom I hadn’t seen in a year. Not being able to find her, I ran to the house, where my grandfather was sitting at the table, eating his lunch. I asked him where my cow was, and with a silent answer, he pointed to the fridge.

I began to scream and cry. I told him he was a murderer. Later that day, when my tears couldn’t come anymore, I realized what a horror the meat industry was and saw for the first time that, quite like the Smiths song, meat was murder. I haven’t eaten meat since then.

It’s been 13 years since that time. I’m now married and have two children, and we are all vegan. My children love heckling anyone they see at the grocery store buying meat. They’ll say things such as, “Ew! You’re buying that? Don’t you know that is DEAD COW?!” And other times, they’ll just look at people buying hamburger and go, “MOOO.” I get quite a bit of grief from people for raising my family vegetarian, but it is so worth it. I much prefer to hang out with my animal brethren than [to] eat them. And my family is all the healthier for it.

John Burton, California
I had been struggling for a long time with vegetarianism. Being a high-school football player, I bought into the stereotype of massive meat-munching. But even then, I kind of felt bad about eating animals because I loved my pets so much. Eventually, my diet caught up with me, making me, well … FAT. Two hundred and eighty pounds later, I decided to give up meat, telling my friends, “Oh, it’s only for weight loss.” I was scared to admit that I actually felt bad about eating animals. Lacking the courage of my convictions, I wavered back and forth for a few years—that is, until the day Petunia died.

Since we couldn’t have a dog in our apartment, my girlfriend and I got a rat. Petunia was the sweetest little thing I had ever seen. We became instant friends, and I loved that little girl like nothing I had loved before. As I read more about rats, I discovered that they need companionship. This was a wonderful excuse to get another rat, my beautiful Clara. Petunia and Clara became buddies, even if Petunia beat Clara up sometimes.

After a long and fun while, Petunia developed a respiratory problem. She hardly moved, just lying on top of Clara most of the day. Usually Clara was a really active rat, but she just let Petunia lie on her, like she knew something was wrong. In her last days, I let Petunia lie on my arm, just breathing slowly. One day, I came home from work and Petunia climbed up the cage to greet me. I thought she was improving. But a few minutes later, she started gagging and coughing. There was nothing I could do. I watched her die right there. Clara was so scared that I had to pull her out of the cage and hold her. It was one of the hardest things to do in my life to pick up my little friend, put her in a box, and bury her.

Seeing the way Clara was so gentle with Petunia during her last … week of life made me really think. But what really solidified it for me was the way that Clara acted after Petunia’s death. She was just limp, lifeless, depressed. I could tell that she was sad. It was so obvious that I immediately went out to buy her a new friend. It took a while, but eventually Clara got over it, with the help of her new friend, Peanut. From that day on, I knew deep in my heart that even the smallest animals have just as much emotion and feelings as we humans do. I have never touched a bit of animal meat since, and I am taking steps to become fully vegan.

I dedicate my choice for a compassionate lifestyle to the memory of my beloved Petunia and to all the animals and humans who face suffering each day. Every personal act of thoughtful love and empathy is another step toward a kinder world.

　 从我有记忆开始，我与动物之间一直有一个很强而不破的关联。我有过一段受虐的童年，在那个时候，我唯一觉得安全的是当我与动物在一起的时候。我单纯的觉得愈靠近牠们，愈觉得安心；当时的我认为与动物做朋友比与人做朋友容易的多。

　 在我国小五年级的时候，我下定决心不再吃肉。令人讶异的是，我的一位老师也是位素食者。一天放学后，她给了我一本关于工厂化农场的书，那本书让我看到了这个世界暴力的一面，那是与孩子们在书本中所知道的牛与鸡的故事绝然不同的，以致让我在看后跑到教室外呕吐。这是一个很困难的转变，因为我家绝大多数的人认为这些动物是用来吃的。但，我无法面对每次我看到一只牛、鸡、鱼、或猪时，人们在对牠们发出高兴与惊讶声之后，转头就吃汉堡或鸡块的事实。我无法了解人们如何能夺去一只无辜的动物的生命，只为了自己想吃东西。我从那时候起吃素六年，但之后又放弃了。我忘却了动物所受的苦，只为了將牠们当食物看待，而且我也厌倦了在每餐吃饭时被嘲笑或被找碴。

　 过后一年，我再度决定成为一位完全的素食者。我发现我在过去四年当中做错了决定，而且不会再犯同样的错误。从那时候起，我说服了许多人吃完全的素食或一般的素食，我也参与派发宣传单，或播放无数的录影带给大家看。我真的觉得人们需要不断地注意到动物所经历过的痛苦，因为在你盘子的上一大块肉，曾经是一只活生生的生命，牠们与我们曾分享过共同的事物。

Oaknim Lamagna, Kansas
Since I can remember, I have always had an extremely strong bond with animals. I had an abusive childhood, and the only time I can recall feeling safe was when I was around an animal. I simply feel closer to them, more comfortable; I can relate to animals much easier than I can to people.

When I was in fifth grade, I decided that I didn’t want to eat meat anymore. Surprisingly, I had a teacher that year who was a vegetarian. After school one day, she gave me a book about factory farms that opened my eyes to the horrors of a world so violent, so far from the idyllic farms children believe cows and chickens live on that I ran from the classroom to vomit. It was a difficult transition, [because] a lot of my family believes that “that’s what animals are for” (eating). But, I couldn’t stand the fact that every time I saw a cow, a chicken, a fish, or a pig, they were seen as nothing more than “animals,” that when they were babies, everyone oohed and ahhed but then went to eat a hamburger or a chicken nugget. I didn’t understand how you could take the life of an innocent animal just so you could put it in your mouth. I was vegetarian for about six years but then gave up. I forgot about the pain that animals endure just to wind up as food, and I was tired of being made fun of or nagged at during every meal.

Then, about a year ago, I decided to become vegan. I knew that I had been making the wrong choice for over four years and that I was never going to make that decision ever again. Since then, I’ve converted many people to a vegan or vegetarian diet, handed out leaflets, and shown countless videos. I really feel that people need to constantly be aware of what animals go through because, after so long, you really forget that the hunk of meat on your plate used to be alive, it used to enjoy the same things people do.

　 我父亲在一个屠宰场工作，但直到我10岁或11岁时才知道他真正在做什么。在一个夏天的日子，他让我陪他一起在屠宰场工作一天，当时从我眼中所看的景象，至今依然无法忘掉。虽然我从未见过真正的宰杀情形，但动物哭号的声音响彻整个空气中，牠们的声音至今久久未散。那天回家之后，我告诉我妈我再也不吃任何被杀的东西了。

　 三十年过去了，我从未后悔过我的决定，甚至我还说服了我母亲以及其他朋友成为完全的素食者，因为地球上的每个生命都应该有免于死亡威胁的权力，自由且自在的生活着。

--- (完)

Jackie Wood, Illinois
My dad worked at a slaughterhouse, and I wasn’t aware until I was 10 or 11 what it was he actually did. He let me accompany him to work one day over the summer, and the sight that met my eyes I will never forget. Although I never saw the actual killing, the cries from the animals cut through the air and have haunted me ever since. That day I went home and told [my] mom I never wanted to eat anything that had been killed again.

It’s now been 30 years, and I’ve never regretted my decision and have even convinced my mom and several friends to go vegan. Every living creature on this planet deserves to live out their life fully and free from the threat of untimely death.