I'm not naive.

I find it somewhat disturbingly comical that because I am vegan, people believe that I am overly sensitive to death or blood. There have been numerous examples, often small, where someone will end a conversation or not tell me something about an animal being hurt because they think that I do not want to hear about it. That I don't know what bad things happen to animals. That I want to be naive almost. Yet, I do want to hear about ways that are animals are exploited. That is why I am vegan, I am quite aware of animals because I have gone through the effort to face the disturbing aspects of animal exploitation in the United States.

But friends, when I walk into a room please do stop your conversation about that cat your heard in the news somewhere far away who was starved by their owner, because there is no possible way that I could bear to know a fact like that after watching Earthlings, reading Animal to Edible or Eating Animals.

I know that animals get hurt. And I know far more than the average consumer of how humans hurt animals. It disturbs me and I despise this violence towards animals, but I become more numb to it. And to think that others might find me to be unwilling to discuss animal death frusturates me.