Please don’t make fun of me

When I say I’m a vegan

Because you say you love Fluffy

And turn around to eat his animal brethren.

I love animals in the same way that you do,

And I consider them with every action I take,

Every move that is made,

With every word that I say.

 

All of me wishes that when we stand against cruelty

We mean not just the pets but also the industry,

That I don’t have to think of cow raping

When I see easy cheese can squeezing,

That I don’t hear screaming

When I see bacon sizzling.

Because I swear it hurts the animals

More than it hurts me,

More than it hurts

The meat eaters across the street.

 

Have you seen the shows

Where the flesh eaters cry “no”

When they see the light go

Out of the lamb’s deep brown eyes

And hear her cries

And watch her die.

 

I know it’s about the elephants slaving every day,

I know it’s about the puppies kicked in the face,

About the kitten getting starved,

About the pets that get mauled

By the cruel humans

That have the gall.

But why is it illegal to leave

Pets in hot cars

When it’s perfectly fine

To kill a baby for your veal?

To skin a being for fashion?

To stab the bodies of the breathing?

 

Have you seen the videos

Of cows being so excited

To see grass for the first time?

Of mommies seeing their babies

So they happy cry?

And of them crying again

When children are stolen away,

To be ground up for deli meat

In the next few days?

 

Animal cruelty is not limited to

The adorable species we choose to value

Because speciesism also hurts you.

The dairy industry is ruining the environment,

It’s hurting the water supply

And destroying digestive tracts.

The same goes for eggs and for meat,

As the corporations feed us deceit.

So, yes, love your puppy,

Love your kitten,

Love your pet fish.

Cry when Scales dies

But don’t you dare try

To justify

Putting salmon on the dinner table.

How do you like your chicken?

Deep fried?

But you keep your canary

In the cage by your bedside.

What we have isn’t speciesism,

It’s selective care.

But why do butchers go insane,

After the inhumanity

Of killing for several years?

 

My cause isn’t a self-righteous one,

It’s a fight for universal well being

For my parents sitting next to me,

For lack of eating with humanity,

Because the ozone layer is dying

And because parents are crying

As their children die for food

And as kids in poverty are starving.

If we didn’t have to have steak

That only tastes good with flavoring,

Billions of people wouldn’t die

Because of starving

Or clotting

Heart attacks, and there would be less memory decaying.

So for the love of the people

You happen to care about,

Don’t poke your meat at me

Because all I want

Is the best future there can be.

 

My children will live in a world of oceans without fishies,

Of drought spreading to oases,

Of excitement to see a single tree.

I want to promise that

I gave it all I had

When I stopped eating the things

That only did me bad

When I ate them for dinner

Which killed the starving lads

Living below the poverty line.

 

Protecting the puppies

Is a valiant act to deliver,

But I believe the same

Of saving people’s damaged livers.

Our bodies can’t take

The poisons that we feed them,

So my fight is for the whole world

And not with a negative motivation.

When the animal product industry

Does more damage than cars

And plastic bags,

I believe our focus

Is to have a different kind of saving plan.

We hate that dogs are eaten

For the sake of Chinese tradition,

So I feel the same way

About your cows and chicken.

So I beg

For the environment

For the death rates

For the speciesism,

 

Don’t judge me for my veganism.