Aurora's Animal Rights Advocates

MY VEGAN STORY

 

Hello, and Thank you for taking interest in our Animal Rights Advocate group.

 

My name is Katie Barber and this is my story of how I became vegan and started

this group.

 

My love for animals has always been strong and today I am a Registered Veterinary

Technician. I have always been an animal lover having various pets (Cats, Dogs,

Hamster, Rats, Birds, Fish) growing up and having a mother who loved to care for

wildlife. As I grew I learned about how animals are misunderstood and mistreated

and I wanted to help save as many as I could. So I went to school to become a

Veterinary Technician (an animal nurse).

 

I can remember multiple occasions in my life from various people telling me “you cant save them all”, but I wanted to.

 

The thought of being a vegetarian came to mind (I had never heard of a vegan) but being a picking eating kid I loved my meat and hated my vegetables.

 

When I was 26 a coworker told me about a group of compassionate people who “bear witness” to animals on their way to slaughter. This turned out to be the group Toronto Pig Save http://www.torontopigsave.org/ , the TPS is a group of compassionate individuals who watch as the “Death trucks” full of innocent souls approach, are unloaded, and leave the slaughterhouses here in Toronto. They do public outreach with leaflets, sometimes video and lots of great volunteers.  I started following them on Facebook I thought they were amazing people and wanted to build my confidence so I could join them. I attended the March To Close Down Slaughter Houses  http://www.mtcas.org/ and was blown away at the energy and kindness from the people at the event. I met several people that day who help talk to me about making the switch from vegetarian to vegan. Another huge hurdle was giving up cheese and milk. I started cutting dairy from my diet right away after some new friends told me about vegan cheese. I was hard at first I had to stop drinking milk in my tea, no more cereal. I didn’t eat cheese for a month and the first time I had a veggie burger I hated it. But over time my taste buds change or I forgot what a meat burger tasted like and any veggie burger was amazing. By September 2013 I went vegan-cutting dairy from my diet.

 

I started attending Vigils with Toronto Pig Save (Before Quality Meat Packers shut down) in July of 2013 and was over taken by the love and compassion of this group of its caring individuals. Everyone I met came from different backgrounds and had a great story of how and why they went Vegan. I also started to help out with vigils in any way I could make posters, leafleting, and showing my support. Toronto still has two Cow slaughterhouses and one Chicken murder facility.

 

My new friends took me under their wind and taught me how to leaflet and hold protests for all kinds. Thank you!

After a few months of attending vigils, outreach leafleting and protests in Toronto I started looking for other Activist groups in my area of Aurora but found nothing. So I have started a Facebook group, Aurora’s Animal Rights Advocates. The focus is helping people open their eyes and understand the truth behind the way animals are treated by industry. I hope to awaken the minds of individuals who are living with no real understanding of how animals are really treated for food, science, entertainment, fashion etc. We plan to host leafleting events, potlucks, movie nights, Vegan food give always, and bear witness to animals at the Newmarket Meat Packers and King Cole Ducks Farm at Warden and Aurora Rd.

 

After a couple weeks I had some following online and was meeting a couple people from my area who were also vegan. I found a protest in my area, the first one was a Rodeo Protest and Janette and I were they only ones there in the rain. Janette and I hit if it off and she has always been there to help me with events in Aurora, Thank you Janette for believing in me! A couple month later I met another local woman named Grace, who is a fantastic vegan cook/baker, she too has always been there to help support any event we have lined up. Thank you Grace for keeping me going!

 

"If we could live happy & health lives without harming others . . .  Why wouldn't we?" - Edgars Mission

 

Thank you for reading my story.