Tell us about your own vegan journey and a little bit about you now.
Because I grew up in a rural farming village in the 70s and 80s, veganism — and even vegetarianism — was unheard of. Like most rural kids though, I participated in an agriculture program for budding animal producers called 4H. As part of its Animal Husbandry course, I chose and raised a calf and spent long hours getting to know and care for him. When the town fair came around, I enrolled him, believing it to be some sort of bovine beauty pageant. It was only when I recognised the man bidding on my calf in the audience as the town butcher that I realised what I had done, but no amount of pleading or tears allowed the calf to be returned to me. Because I was directly responsible for this calfʼs death, I was able to make the connection between my own meat consumption and the betrayal and death of animals. I dropped meat the next day — that was 35 years ago. Later, after beginning my work as a farmed animal cruelty investigator, I went vegan. It was the best decision Iʼve ever made.