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Vegan Children
Walking With My Children: Vegetarian Virtues in Action
by Meaghan McKenna-Porcelly
Imagine you are taking an afternoon drive when you find yourself in the
country, off the beaten path, winding through farmland and cornfields. You
come across a small hamlet--it's a tiny little town, existing of only a
couple of dozen homes, surrounded on three sides by farm and one side by
waterfalls spilling along a tributary of the nearby Hudson River. This
village is relaxed, quiet and serene compared to many. This is where I live
with my family - my husband, my three and a half year
old son and my seven month old baby girl.
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The winters here stretch over nearly six months. As the days start to get
longer and Mother Nature begins her long awaited thaw, we start to walk. We
walk a long loop of road through cornfields and farms. Along the way we meet
our neighbors-pigs, cows, sheep, goat, geese, chicken and other farm
animals. Living here has opened my eyes even wider to the importance of
vegetarianism, and the benefit that this choice is giving my children.
My son has made friends with the animals that live in our
neighborhood-especially the gentle sheep. When we visit, we love to bring them
some of our food and touch their soft wool. We are their friends as well, that
is for certain. They line up when they hear us coming, they wait for us near
the fence. When it is time for us to leave they "baa" us goodbye.
As we walk I can see that my children are happy. Regularly taking this walk and visiting
the animals has become an important part of our lives. I walk in silence and
think about some of the virtues my children are learning from the very
beginning of their lives through vegetarianism: compassion, caring and
kindness are a few. There is no double standard of being taught to love
other living beings while simultaneously harming them for food. They learn
gentleness, affection, and respect. They understand concern, sensitivity,
equality and tolerance. I also think, and hope, there is a healthy sense of
pride.
Our walk can be difficult some days. We see the inadequate facility that the
cows live in. It can be so hard to visit the pigs in their gloomy pen that
we often just pass them by. In this way, my children are seeing the harsh
realities of hardship, distress, misfortune and suffering-plain and simple.
Still, we hope to bring some happiness to all of the animals that we visit
along the way. By our actions of eating a cruelty-free diet, renouncing
leather and the fast-food industry we have become quiet activists for the
well-being of these neighborhood animals, as well as all others across the
globe.
We tread lightly. We walk in spring with the flowers, summer with the
butterflies, and fall with the fields overflowing with colorful pumpkins and
squash. I am proud of them and happy with my choices. Without
dragging around the burden of animal cruelty, I watch my children play as
these words come to mind: lighthearted, carefree, gentle and fun. This is
the way that childhood should be.
Meaghan McKenna-Porcelly is a stay at home mom of two wonderful children, a
freelance writer, and the operator of Kana's Kitchen, an organic vegetarian
baking company in Upstate New York.
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