Frankly, it was the most horrifying experience of my life, and after departing that morning I made the most important decision of my life: to become a vegetarian; to leave my career and become an advocate for social justice.

But I was not yet a vegan. I didn’t know enough yet. I still thought that dairy was the bucolic, peaceful image of green pastures and crystal streams, rolling hills and the poetry of Wordsworth and Shelley. Little did I know that behind every dairy wall was a cruel industrial juggernaut; a vile gulag of despair.

Eventually I discovered the truth — that milk was meat in liquid form … It was during a business trip when I saw a milkman dragging and whipping a cow. She had been badly injured in an accident with a lorry. To get her to move, he was throwing chili powder in her eyes and shoving sharp objects in her anus. He had a chain around her neck and forced her to walk with a broken leg and severe injuries to her spine. Beside her walked her scrawny, starving and terrified calf — ribs protruding and skinny legs trembling … At the slaughterhouse gate, he unchained her. But before he did so — the bastard milked her.

If that sight does not change the heart of a man, nothing will.”

~ inspired by Philip Wollen