An Xtra-Xtra LARGE Collection of Vegan Stories

As I'll explain this post is a matter of housekeeping...

Initially I wanted this blog to be a collection of daily (or weekly) posts about new people who told their stories of awakening... My thought was that by writing the Provoked blog as well... what more could there be to tell?

Well here on Once Upon a Vegan, there's never been an absence of news or of personal insights, but rather the time and the figuring of what order to prioritize what in. Throw in a bit of procrastination and my "Stories" drafts folder was over-flowing. So now I'll pass them along as I originally intended to do.

The good news is that there's so many coming-out-vegan pieces that I'd never catch up unless it was by posting this "multi"-one all in one go. So here it is!

There's videos and essays - Some came to be vegan for health or the environment... Many in hopes of living the best ethical life they could in their treatment towards nonhumans. There's some names you might already know and some you may never forget... 

Thanks for bearing with me as I do some spring-cleaning as I pass on these stories that deserve to be repeated.

*********************

“I was watching Animals Australia’s exposure of live export on television and thought, ‘I can’t watch this.’ I wanted to block my ears and change the channel, then I realised I had to witness this, no matter how much it traumatised me personally. I knew I had to become part of this and acknowledge fully the cruelty that happens to billions of animals all over the world, every second. I was wearing leather shoes which I looked at and felt ill that I was wearing a by-product of the cruelty. I cried for days.


“I realised it was time to become vegan and to commit truly to animal welfare. My life then shifted in a beautiful way. I stepped into what I believe in wholeheartedly – that my lifestyle would not support animal cruelty – and hopefully I can encourage others how easy it is to not use animal products.”
Rach Moran





More on Youtube:

Get Real with Rory Freedman and more Skinny Bitch stories:
Cara
Lisa Tabari
Owen
Kristina Besse
Todd Moore




Don Johnson - Inspired by Gandhi and Albert Schweitzer has been vegetarian since 1963, and vegan since 1991
An interview with José González of Animals Australia
Sarah Taylor creator of the popular blog “The Vegan Next Door”, and the author of “Vegan in 30 Days”
Why I Transitioned to A Meat Free Diet and Became A Vegan
Gratex - Became friends with a bird outside his apartment window and questioned his relationship with all other creatures.
Peysi - An 11 year old girl thanks Gary Yourofsky for his speech that openned her eyes to the plight of nonhumans.
Djehuty Ma'at-Ra - In 1995 adopted a "plant based diet" for the health benefits
Brain Boy - Sarcastically relays the "Dangers of being vegan"

And Tim Shieff says "I realized it was pleasure without conscience." He passionately covers all the issues!

Rose Elisabeth - After watching Earthlings wonder's how and why people can't sympathize with the animals. 
Hoang Mai is an NDP Member of Parliament for Brossard--La Prairie. "I realised we don't need to make animals suffer."
Why I am Vegan
Jennifer made the connection through a report on eating dogs in Asia. She says "reason allows no contradiction".
Paulina Logan - Sings her musical vegan story
Ari Evergreen - Always thought of herself as an animal lover... 
Mayim Bialik
Becoming a Vegetarian - From Writer/Director of NextNik

***********************************************

Rebecca Stucki - Learned of "The realities of what animal production entails — the deaths, the “culling,” the breaking up of the animals’ social and familial structures, and most of all, the personalities and individuality of the so-called “farm” animals that most people haven’t experienced or even considered." 

Dan Barton was inspired to go vegan after reading Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer

77 year old body builder Jim Morris says animals should have the "freedom to live in its natural environment, with its own kind, making its own decisions. I believe the law should prohibit the enslavement of all non-human species for any purpose whatever." 

Dianne "Veggiegirl" Wenz:
When I fully accepted that “treatment” is not the issue, but using animals for our gain IS the issue, I knew I had to go vegan.  It was not a choice anymore.  It was a duty.  A moral obligation.  I was afraid of how my husband and family would react, but that didn’t matter anymore.  I could no longer wait until everyone around me changed, because if I did that it would never happen.  I had to be the one to do what I knew was right, no matter what.  It scared the hell out of me, but i did it.

Freeheel Vegan says "When I fully accepted that “treatment” is not the issue, but using animals for our gain IS the issue, I knew I had to go vegan.  It was not a choice anymore.  It was a duty.  A moral obligation." 

Andrew Kirschner  realized the absurdity at a fund raising event to help cats and dogs when "veal" and chickens were served on the buffet. 

Natalie Cunningham: "I stumbled across an article about veganism purely by chance. I cannot even remember which one it was or where it was from but it was detailed enough to make me realise that I was feeling the same grief that the baby cow feels when he is taken away from his mummy, my mother felt the same fear on her road to death that the beef cattle feel as they approached the slaughterhouse – I realised that we are all the same. Another neural pathway creation!"

A collection of Vegan Conversions at Eating Plants

KD Traegner From Your Daily Vegan: "Being vegan is not about being radical – it is about being ethical." 

Seth Falcon - From an L.A. Youth publications says his aunt's veganism changed his entire family!

Karen Interlandi - "I had been told by a dog trainer a few years back not to attribute human emotions onto animals. I had agreed to this at the time, but then I started to think, well, why can’t animals experience the same range of emotions and feelings that we have? Do humans have exclusive rights to being happy or sad, or the feeling of loss or grief? Can anyone explain the pure joy that your dog displays when you they greet you at the front door as anything other than love?

That lead to me realising that every piece of meat that I ate was at some stage an animal’s baby.  I suddenly didn’t want to eat someone’s babies anymore."   

Lisa Hewus and her reaction to seeing the film Earthlings

Claire Crossan

Roger Yates - Owner of On Non-Human Relations, and vegan since 1979

Elizabeth Reflects on Her 4-H Experience and Her Path to Becoming Vegan

5 reasons I wish I’d gone vegan sooner.

A day in the slaughterhouse - That's why I became vegetarian (warning graphic images)
at the age of 38, I witnessed a truckload of chickens that were in such horrific conditions that I was completely shaken to my core. At that moment I knew I would never eat sentient animals again. Networking on Facebook educated me to the violence in the egg and diary industries. Ethically, I knew I had to give up some old favorites like ice cream and milk chocolate. Today I do not miss those foods at all. There are great alternatives and like I like to say, nothing tastes as good as being vegan feels.

Jo-Anne McArthur / The Ghosts In Our Machine: Why I Became Vegan

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO CHANGE THE WORLD: WHY I BECAME VEGETARIAN
AT AGE 86 Sherrey Reim Glickman

Losing My Leg To Cancer Inspired Me To Become A Voice For Farm Animals Jenny Brown

A collection of Stories from Vegan Mainstream

Jersey City Vegan - Vegan Like Me Series

Ready for Plan B - Vegan Testamonials

This Dish is Veg:
Stephanie
Shana Kurz
Alexandra
Lisa Dawn
Samantha
Leolin
Ashley Kiefer
Lindsay Geller
Julia
Joanna Tenderro
Andee Bingham
Neva Davis
Peter
Catherine Mullins
Erin Fergus

From The Veg Monologues Vegans Telling Their Stories:
Jennifer’s Story:I cried a lot that night. I knew what I had to do. I had to give up eating animals. It was the only possible choice I could make now that I allowed myself to see the truth of the cruelty. 
Cassie’s Story:We then heard a gun shot. We went back inside and the cow was strung up by the neck and slit from end to end . . . my soul was ripped apart that day.
Veronique’s Story:When I was a kid, my dad kept bunnies in the backyard who I used to feed through their cages. It never occurred to me that they were the ones I ended up eating. 
Kathy Foster’s Story:I went to sleep that night and woke up a vegan. 

Veg Vids Testimonials

The New Vegan Age

*************************

Well those are the stories I've accumulated and am now happy to pass on. Certainly there are enough reasons to authenticate the very valid choice ethical people are making.

But wait! There is one more very special story I'm saving for a post all it's own. Please come back... It is my favorite story to tell! ;)