03.12.07
My Life’s Passion: Helping Animals
Our dog Farrah with my older brothers Steve, Mike, and me when I was very young and frightfully fashion conscious.
Here is the transcript of the first speech I gave to the members of DC’s Capital I Toastmasters after I joined their group. The first speech is known as the “Ice Breaker” because its purpose is to introduce yourself to the rest of the club members. Enjoy!
My Life’s Passion: Helping Animals
Mr. Toastmaster, fellow members and guests, when I was in elementary school, my parents gave me an allowance of a dollar a week. I would take that money, bike to McDonalds, buy two hamburgers, and devour them. Considering how much I loved eating burgers, fish sticks, and sausage pizza, I could have never guessed that I would devote my life to promoting vegetarianism, and yet this is exactly what has happened.
For my introductory speech I will share with you how my relationship with my dog and witnessing animal mistreatment has shaped the choices I made about my education, career, and life in general.
I was born the youngest of three sons in Eugene, Oregon in 1973. My dad was a pediatrician with his own private practice and my mom stayed busy trying to keep us kids out of trouble. When I was very young, we adopted a black standard poodle named Farrah. She was a fun, mischievous, bundle of energy, and she helped me shape my view of animals.
Farrah quickly learned the rules of the house. Don’t piss on the floor. Don’t chew the shoes. And don’t sit on the couches. She was also smart enough to know that the last rule only applied when my mom was at home.
As soon as mom left, Farrah was on the couch with my brothers and me. But when Farrah heard the garage door opening, she would leap from the couch and innocently lay on the carpet like a perfect angel.
Farrah loved going on jogs. At the sight of her leash she would repeatedly spring several feet into the air, like a huge furry pogo stick. Similar displays happened before car rides, playing Frisbee, or going outside.
She could also be very sweet and loving. When we sat on the couch, she would lay beside us and place her head in our laps. If there was ever any commotion, or one of us was in trouble, she would be there to help in any way – even if that usually meant barking at whatever the problem was.
Farrah’s biggest fear was being abandoned. If she saw us lugging our packed suitcases down the stairs form our bedrooms, she would start whimpering, pacing back and forth, and give us the most heart-wrenching look.
Before learning that millions of healthy dogs, cats, and rabbits are put down in shelters each year because of a lack of loving homes, we bred Farrah. We would never do this now. Still, here is my family from left to right: me, mom, dad, Farrah (in front), Steve and Mike, and Farrah’s nine puppies.
Ultimately, Farrah taught me that animals have their own personalities, emotional lives, likes and dislikes, and a life that is meaningful to them. I hated to see her suffer, and, by extension, I do not like to see any animals suffer.
Now, as I youth, it was my impression that everyone was against causing animals unnecessary suffering, and that cruelty to animals was against the law. But I got my first introduction to institutional animal mistreatment during my sixth grade Spanish class.
It had a bullfighting unit where we learned how the picador, a man who rode a blindfolded horse, would jab a long spear between the bull’s shoulder blades. Then men called banderilleros would stick wooden poles with sharp, barbed metal ends into the bull’s shoulders.
By the time the matador entered the ring, the bull was already bleeding profusely. The matador would then make the bull run at his cape for some time before thrusting a long sword into him. Seeing a bunch of grown men torment and kill an animal for sport turned my stomach.
But since then I’ve learned I don’t have to leave America to find institutional animal mistreatment. I have now visited numerous farms where animals are raised for food or clothing or both. I have seen mink, dairy, egg, fish, chicken, turkey, and pig farms. I’ve visited stockyards and slaughterhouses.
At every location I see animals overcrowded in large sheds or confined in tiny cages or stalls with little room to move; in filthy, disease-ridden conditions; treated like unfeeling machines. I see sick animals denied veterinary care. I see animals who have endured painful mutilations like castration, debeaking and branding without the aid of painkillers.
But this isn’t my persuasive speech, so I will spare you the details.
Needless to say, having witnessed animal mistreatment makes me motivated to end it. It is clear to me that animals raised for food and clothing suffer. And in a country where we can get fresh fruits and vegetables year round, where every grocery store has thousands of nutritious vegetarian food options to chose from, and where synthetic coats are warmer and less expensive than fur, it seems to me that this suffering is completely unnecessary.
As a result, my commitment to helping animals has affected my life in many ways. First, I went vegetarian in 9th grade. For the rest of high school, my ears were worn down into little nubs from constantly hearing the question, “but where do you get your protein?” So I got a degree in nutrition from the University of Minnesota and now I respond, “Adequate protein is found in beans, nuts, vegetables, and grains. If you eat a varied vegetarian diet and consume enough calories to maintain a reasonable body weight, you are going to get your protein.”
My parents and me at my college graduation in 1996.
Not wanting my money to support animal cruelty, I started purchasing toothpastes, soaps, and dish detergents from cruelty free companies that do not test their products on animals. I also stopped purchasing products that contained fur, leather, or wool.
These changes allowed me to live my values, but the problem of animal cruelty remained. So for the past seven years I have worked as a humane educator. During this time I have given thousands of presentations to students in a variety of schools and colleges, encouraging them to be kind to animals and each other.
Now I am writing a book which will be a short introduction to animal protection. My hope is that the five-or-so people who read it will reflect on how their daily decisions impact animals and be encouraged to make compassionate choices.
To close, helping animals is my passion in life. That’s what gets me up in the morning. And that’s what keeps me active during the day.
Now, instead of eating a hamburger at McDonalds, I eat the veggie burger at Burger King, and I feel that much the better for it.
Mr. Toastmaster.
The End
For more info on incorporating vegetarian meals into your diet, please visit TryVeg.org and GoVeg.com. Thanks!
This text was written in 2007 by Freeman Wicklund of FreemanWicklund.org, and it may be freely reprinted or distributed in any e-zine, e-mail, newsletter or blog as long as this sentence and Web link are included.