What a great perspective!  Thank you for sharing this!

Beautiful and valid point Ari, thank you for sharing. I have brought up this same topic many times to others as a life-long vegetarian (and now vegan), and love to see others who share the same feeling. That quote at the end is priceless!!

Very thoughtful & true. I especially like the quote at the end. My kids love animals and already, at 4 & 2 1/2, they ask questions about where our food comes from. When I told my mom that my 4 year old had made the connection on her own that meat is an animal and was sad about that, she told me that I did the same thing at that age. I came from a meat eating family so the response was different for me then my daughter. I'm glad we had already made the decision to veganize our home before those questions came up, I honestly would never have been able to look into those heart broken little eyes and tell her that eating animals is okay.

http://vegetarianwhohatestofu.blogspot.com/

Love this. Kindness is our default.

Wow.  Despite being vegan for 13 years and veg for 18, I never thought about aour innate kindness towards animals in this way.  So enlightening!  Thank you Ari for this lesson and for an amazing piece.

Love it!  Thanks for sharing!

Wow, this is amazing!

Wonderful!  Loved the end!

I would be interested in watching the talk show clip if anyone knows which show it was on.

This is a great perspective and very well said.  Thank you for sharing! I am tempted to send this to many of my non-vegan friends who don't seem to realize or give any thought to where their food comes from.  They laugh about eating animals without ever thinking what those animals go through to get to their plates.  Thank you Alicia and Ari!

What a thoughtful message. Thank you, Ari, and thank you, Alicia, for posting. 

Alicia, it's a hard question - for those of us who are on board with the kind life, it's so hard to imagine why others are desensitized to their innate kindness. But, I do think it has a lot to do with the way we get our food - no one really has to face the killing, the factory farms, etc., when they pick up a package of meat at the grocery store, or order something at a restaurant.

And, secondly, I think a lot of it has to do with taste. People think meat tastes good. And, they don't necessarily care about treatment of animals to start with, and they don't have to face the killing - they just want their food to taste good. So, as much as I wish more people would care about the way animals are treated, I really think that turning others to a plant-based life is only going to be effective through their tastebuds and their stomachs. We have to give others the experience of plant-based food that is hearty, delicious, and overall, leaves you feeling healthier. Once they have that experience, they will/may start to change. 

www.thevegpost.com

I agree wholeheartedly!  I've often thought, if people had to go out and kill the animals they're planning on eating, there would be a lot less meat eaters in the world.

--Emily Sweet  http://www.onesweetvegan.com/

Very thoughtful and beautifully said! I think the show he refers to is an episode of Oprah when she had Lisa Ling and Kathy Freston on. I love what Sir Paul McCartney says, "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, we would all be vegetarians."

Love that!  Wonderful - and true - perspective.  We "learn" an awful lot of bad behavior.  This is a great commentary.  Thanks!

i love it!!  i was recently working a similar thought around in my own mind, but i couldn't put it into words...especially not as eloquently as ari has.  thank you so very much for sharing and i hope more non-vegans see this and it makes them think.