This morning I remembered a little something from my childhood. I grew up around farms, because the majority of my mum's side of the family are farmers. I knew how it all worked (although I'd never actually seen an animal slaughter). I also knew, at that age, that you needed a boy and a girl to make babies. I was about six or seven when I had this conversation:
Me: I think we should round up all the men in the world and keep them in a big room. When we need to make more babies, we can just pick one. Then they can stay there when we don't need them.
Mum: We can't do that sweetie, it would be mean. You wouldn't like to be stuck in a room forever, would you?
Me: No... but we do it to the boy cows...
Thinking back on it, I must have been aware on some level that we should treat animals the same way that we treat other humans. Obviously, I was a little misguided in my application - we treat cows this way, so we should treat people this way (and not the other way around). But the basics were there.
So, I was wondering - were any of you already thinking this way as children? Were there any indications that you might later be a vegetarian? Do you know any children now that you think may be vegetarians in the future? Share your stories
Me: I think we should round up all the men in the world and keep them in a big room. When we need to make more babies, we can just pick one. Then they can stay there when we don't need them.
Mum: We can't do that sweetie, it would be mean. You wouldn't like to be stuck in a room forever, would you?
Me: No... but we do it to the boy cows...
Thinking back on it, I must have been aware on some level that we should treat animals the same way that we treat other humans. Obviously, I was a little misguided in my application - we treat cows this way, so we should treat people this way (and not the other way around). But the basics were there.
So, I was wondering - were any of you already thinking this way as children? Were there any indications that you might later be a vegetarian? Do you know any children now that you think may be vegetarians in the future? Share your stories