I’ve just seen something that has left me feeling very upset and shaky

I think it’s the annual festival in China involving dogs, I have been avidly avoiding this for a couple of days now.

Images like that do stay with you.
If I were you I wouldn't focus on it unless you can do something practical and positive to counteract it.

You can do something positive by cutting down on meat eating.

It may be about the Yulin festival inChina. Every June, they kill and eat about 10,000 dags and cats. They keep them in terrible conditions, then use barbaric methods to kill them - they burn them alive, skin them whilst alive, hang them and blowtorch them. Abhorrent.

sorry about my typing, my cat is sitting partly on my keyboard..............

PinkCakes

sorry about my typing, my cat is sitting partly on my keyboard..............

Your cat obviously can't read, PinkCakes
Things haven't changed, then, even after the pandemic which started similarly.

The problem is, Whitewavewave, once seen you can't unsee it.
Likewise reading about the Yulin Festival.

You are not obliged to eat what you mentioned, I avoid saying or writing the word unless I absolutely have to.

You could become vegan. I did years ago. I have never been happier.

www.vegansociety.com/

You could if you wish become vegan overnight, but many people transition, perhaps vegan food on each Tuesday, then maybe two days a week, and eventually becoming totally vegan.

Some vegan food is made to be a vegan alternative to animal exploitation products, looks like, tastes much like, but actually I avoid those things as I don't want my food to look like animal exploitation products.

No animal died in the production of my food.

Best to inform the doctor, if you have a blood test ask for B12 to be included, it is not only vegans who can be deficient in B12, but I think that B12 is not usually routinely checked for anybody unless they get bad symptoms. I asked and it was added in, no problem.

The vegan society has a policy (I checked before I joined) of never showing pictures of animals being hurt or abused. All their pictures are of animals who are safe in sanctuaries.

Being vegan is wider than just food. Things like avoiding wearing wool and leather if possible. Avoiding cosmetics and toiletries that use bits of exploited animals.

In this world there is often a presumption that people will accept animal exploitation as normal, but there is no need to be a fellow traveler with that if you choose not to be.

You don't need to go out campaigning or declaring yourself to be a vegan as the mainstream stereotypes suggest.

For me it is not enough to be vegetarian, they accept the dairy industry. Vegans don't.

Vegans need to be aware of getting enough vitamin B12, but there are many fortified products, like many of the Alpro range of products, many of which are good for protein too.

Recent case law has made being vegan a protected belief.

I do wish they would put warnings on upsetting videos (Facebook does sometimes). If I come across an upsetting image, it can stay with me for days. I know we eat meat and in order to do that animals have to be killed - I just wish it was always done humanely and without the animal having to be transported live for hours. It is beyond me how anyone can be cruel to an animal and yes I do realise that I am a hypocrite, if I had to kill an animal for food, I would most certainly do without. I do however try to always buy free range and Red Tractor Assured it's the least I can do.

Yes I find as I get older that I can’t deal with such atrocity as I previously was able to do.

Any sentient being should never be treated with anything but respect.

I thought the Yulin festival was going to be banned! Especially since this barbaric mistreatment is what has caused a global pandemic(not the festival itself but the way stray,unregulated,disgustingly treated animals are used for food in china) It boils my blood that in this day and age animals are treated like this.I have managed to avoid seeing anything online for quite a while.What I have seen in the past about the fur trade and this festival have haunted me.You can find Petitions and donate to various foundations that are helping these poor animals.Im sorry for what the OP has seen.I know how it feels

FarNorth

You can do something positive by cutting down on meat eating.

Yes of course, but it has no bearing on the situation Wwmk2 saw.
To relieve her of that image she has to do something to counteract it, or work hard to ignore it.

It is such a weird situation, because I can’t possibly watch it, yet feel guilty if I ignore such suffering.

The only thing to do is donate, sign petitions etc. But that seems such a petty little thing to do in the face of such suffering.

Curlywhirly

I do wish they would put warnings on upsetting videos (Facebook does sometimes). If I come across an upsetting image, it can stay with me for days. I know we eat meat and in order to do that animals have to be killed - I just wish it was always done humanely and without the animal having to be transported live for hours. It is beyond me how anyone can be cruel to an animal and yes I do realise that I am a hypocrite, if I had to kill an animal for food, I would most certainly do without. I do however try to always buy free range and Red Tractor Assured it's the least I can do.

You don't have to eat it.

You could become vegan.

It is a lot easier these days than it was.

No need to be vegetarian first, they tolerate the dairy industry.

It is easy to transition if you choose to do so.

www.vegansociety.com/

Your whole perspective on life may alter and increase your inner peace.

I think we get the gist ElderlyPerson and at a guess, we all know about being a vegan, thanks.

Whitewave it’s unfortunate you saw that, in a while the images will join others we have seen that are distasteful, far away I’d suggesting reading a complex recipe/book or watching something that engrosses you.
If we can all chose higher welfare meat and poultry it strangles the market for less than ideal conditions of the products we buy. However, none are as barbaric as the scenes you viewed.

Whitewavemark2

It is such a weird situation, because I can’t possibly watch it, yet feel guilty if I ignore such suffering.

The only thing to do is donate, sign petitions etc. But that seems such a petty little thing to do in the face of such suffering.

Yes I think I understand
But if that's all you can do for now it's very helpful.
And you have highlighted the problem and influenced me to do the same!

So called humane meat production is not humane at all, it is still taking life from a living soul.

Higher welfare is a euphemism.

If you are concerned about animal welfare, becoming vegan is the way ahead.

There is no need to eat their bodies anymore than there is a need to smoke or drink alcohol. It is just choice. You are free to make your choices.

I thought the Yulin festival had been banned as well PurpleStar it's horrific I agree Whitewave so many of the animals sick and injured.
There seems little we can do on the face of it but I agree with *Jaxjacky about higher welfare meat etc.

Have you a link to a support group Wwmk2?
But preferably one with NO pictures!! ??

And I choose to eat meat and poultry as do many others, your evangelism is not really helping Whitewave address her immediate concerns.

If you go through many street markets in China you will see live animals and birds treated atrociously stuffed in tiny cages enough to turn many a sensitive stomach. I expect you’d feel the same if you visited the kill line in any abattoir in this country. It was witnessing animal cruelty as a young child that made me refuse to eat meat ( much to my mothers consternation) and I’ve lived healthily for 60 odd years without it.

Whilst not defending China’s animal killing techniques at all it isn’t just China by a long long shot do watch the Northern European s killing of tuna and other fish see the bloodbath and suffering that goes into it I m not vegan but I don’t eat meat and since watching a video of the suffering of fish I no longer eat fish I don’t need it I have a very good diet without either meat of fish occasionally I miss the taste but not nearly enough to make me want to eat either again
Check out Spain s animal rites with bull fighting and the bull run in the streets horrendous bit no one says much and all still keep visiting
Lots of hypocrisy surrounding animal rites

Wrong rites sorry

I'm a meat eater and would have been horrified at seeing that too. However, knowing it happens does not stop me being a meat eater. I buy free range, named farm meat and pay about four times the price, eg, for a chicken, than a supermarket chicken. and I eat less meat as a result. I have no intention of being vegetarian let alone vegan and being a fussy eater would probably starve to death as I don't eat much if anything of what they eat.

I realise vegans are keen to bang the drum but I can assure you my inner peace is perfectly fine thanks although WTF that has to do with the subject I can't imagine.. I don't have to eat pulses and grains and beans and reconstituted stuff to achieve it.

If all meat eaters became vegan in the west, it would have no impact on the barbaric way animals are treated in other parts of the world.

I'm now off to cook a juicy sirloin steak with all the trimmings.

Elderlyperson
your whole perspective on life may alter and increase your inner peace
If your recent posts are anything to go by your diet hasn’t done anything on your perspective on life and you don’t appear to have much inner peace