Dear Mom, I can’t wait to come home for Christmas, but there’s one thing I’m dreading—Christmas dinner. You know I love eating with everyone, but when I see meat, I can’t help but think of the kind of life and death that animal had … scary and painful. I picture that bird on the table being killed. If you knew how upset it made me, I don’t think you would want it there. Mom, these animals value their lives and would enjoy things like sunshine and companionship if only they weren’t bred to grow so large so fast that they often become crippled and then are crammed into crates and shipped to slaughter. When it comes to fear and pain, there’s no difference between the animals people eat and our lovely dogs, Milli and Janice. I don’t have all the answers, but I do know that if you saw these animals and the way they are treated, seeing meat would make you upset, too. Well, I’ve seen it, and it is worse than you can imagine. I know it’s traditional to eat turkeys at these meals, but you know, if tradition justified cruelty, we’d still have slaves. Christmas would still be Christmas with vegetarian dishes on the table. In fact, I think it’s more in the spirit of Christ to avoid animal cruelty. There’s a video I want you to see. It’s called “Meet Your Meat,” and you can see it at http://www.meetyourmeat.com. Scroll down to the bottom and click on the picture of the chick (and just remember that if it’s painful to watch, these animals had to actually experience it). Here are some more things I want you to know: • More than 9 billion chicks spend their lives in cramped, feces-encrusted cages, they get respiratory infections, then workers hang them upside down and slit their delicate throats. • Calves on dairy farms are taken away from their moms and locked into veal crates. They lie cramped in the dark, in urine, vomit, and feces. Their moms are repeatedly impregnated so that we can drink the milk that was meant for their calves. When they can’t produce enough milk, they’ll be hung upside down and workers will slit their throats. • Pigs, cows, lambs, and other animals are trucked to slaughterhouses in weather extremes so hot that they die from a heatstroke or so cold that they freeze or suffer from frostbite. • Animals in slaughterhouses are routinely skinned, gutted, and dismembered while still conscious. Even the Washington Post highlighted statements from a slaughterhouse worker who testified in court that some cows who had spent 45 minutes on the slaughter line, having their throats cut, their skins removed, and their feet and legs cut off were still conscious and even struggled to get away. • Pigs are often bludgeoned to death or sent to boiling hair-removal baths while still conscious. Mother pigs are kept in crates so small that they cannot move or turn around. Their muscles atrophy. They go lame. Then farmers drag or kick them to the slaughter truck, angry because they can’t move quickly. I know you, Mom. You take such good care of Milli, Janice, and all our animals. You’re the one who taught me to be kind to animals. Besides being cruel, meat-eating is linked to the top three killers in this country—heart disease, cancer, and stroke. I don’t want to lose you to any of those diseases! It’s also terrible for the environment. Among other things, animal waste from factory farms pollutes our groundwater and rivers. Please watch the video. It would mean so much to me. Nothing could make me happier if you decided to forgo the meat, at the very least for this one meal. Thanks for reading this and for being such a great mom. Can’t wait to see you! With love, Brenda