Until about 20 years ago I was an avid meat eater. I liked all kinds of meat and most days we had some kind of meat for at least one meal. In spite of this both my wife and I had always loved animals, (or so we thought.) We had both grown up with dogs and / or cats and we were even involved with an animal charity. It is a sanctuary for animals of all kinds. There are horses and donkeys, sheep, goats, cattle and of course dogs and cats. We used to go there most weekends to walk the dogs and do whatever we could to help out. Whilst we were there we sometimes had a sandwich in the café that is on site. Usually it would be ham, or perhaps beef or chicken. For some reason we couldn't see the absurdity of feeding and caring for a cow in the field and then coming inside to have part of another one for lunch.

At this time I worked for a major manufacturer of white goods. (Washing machines, dishwashers etc.) One day I visited a customer to repair her washing machine. At the time I had two dogs and this lady had three, so we soon got round to doggie talk. The washer was soon repaired but it was quite a while later that I left that house. One thing that this new friend said to me was "how is it that you have two dogs and you say you love animals, but you eat them?" She was a vegetarian, and at that time I wasn't. When I came home that night I told my wife what my customer had said. Although she could see the logic it still didn't make us stop eating meat. We obviously weren't going to be an easy case.

One of the things that made it hard for us to see the part we were playing in the slaughter of animals was the way that meat is presented in the shops and supermarkets. So neatly packaged in polystyrene and cellophane, you could almost be forgiven for wondering if the pathetic little pieces were ever part of a living being. Another excuse I used to comfort myself with was, "well, it's dead now. If I don't eat it someone else will. There is no way I can save this animal's life by not buying this meat." And that brings us right to the point.

What finally made me become vegetarian, and it happened overnight, just like that, was an eerie realisation that I was a link in a chain that started with the birth of a calf or pig or sheep. Through it's early life on the farm and all the pain that inevitably goes with that, then to the journey in the slatted trucks ending with the fear and pain of death. I was a link in that chain. I realised that if I fell out of the chain my link would be instantly replaced by someone else, and the overall effect on an animal's fate would be zero, but all the same, I no longer wanted to be a part of that chain of cruelty. So, after all my preaching about how we should be kind to animals and all my smug, self-righteousness, giving up our weekends to help the sanctuary, what it eventually took was a realisation based on abject selfishness.

I compared it to a man who wants to build a house in beautiful woodland. Unless he is multi-talented this man will employ various tradesmen to undertake the building of his house, and when it is finished he will just see the end result. A fine home for himself and his family. He doesn't need to know if the electrician has put in ring mains or in-line sockets, or if the joiner has used beech wood or ash. He has trusted these tradesmen to do their job correctly without his interference. He also doesn't need to know about the ten fine mature trees that were felled to make way for his house and garden, with the subsequent loss of their homes to various wildlife. He doesn't need to know any of this but he cannot escape the fact that he is involved in it. Indeed, he is the cause of it, because it was he who wanted his house to be built. He is a link in the chain, and when you buy a piece of meat at the supermarket, you are a link in the chain of causation that led to that animal being born and being killed and everything that happened in between.

It didn't do my sense of ego much good to find that I needed a selfish motive to become a veggie, but that doesn't matter, the sooner we are rid of the sense of ego and the sooner we can move forward anyway. So, the question is quite clear. Do you want to be a link in the chain of suffering that ends in death by buying and eating meat, or will you drop out of the chain with wisdom? OK, that animal is already dead, there is nothing you can do for it now, but what you can do is not be part of the process that ended with the sorry, flat packet you have in your hand.