More vegan than vegetarian. Labels suck.

I've been having some very good (and some not so very good but at least not bad) discussions lately that are encouraging me to spell out to the world just where I stand.

Do I feel that an animal should die because humans want to consume it? Yes. Do I feel that any animal should be fed an unnatural diet, live in it's own piss and shit, with barely enough room for it's body, no room to turn around or stretch for it's entire life, never seeing the light of day, treated worse than any human prisoner, and finally literally tortured to death because humans want to consume it (and because the USDA is the greediest organization ever?). NO.

This is why I am NOT a vegetarian.

I don't qualify as vegan either. Though the veal industry is the worse offender in my eyes of animal cruelty which is why you won't see me eating dairy. (plus the unexpected health benefits of quitting dairy are pretty damn stellar, but that's just a plus).

I read labels to avoid any dairy, and any conventional egg ingredients. I eat meat that people I know have hunted, and I eat bison from NorthStar Bison since they are raised to live normal bison lives on huge swaths of land and then killed quick and mercifully.

I can't look at leather or wool the same way ever again.

I am admittedly hypocritical in a few ways - I will eat eggs from a particular local farm. Sure the hens have great lives and are not forced in anyway to overproduce and tax their bodies to death. They get lots of room and outside time. The hypocritical part is that I know that to get an egg laying hen, baby male chicks end up dieing and not in a humane way. Macular degeneration runs in my family and I'm bound to get it, and there's a TON of lutein in eggs, plus they're super healthy otherwise and I fraking love them. With that said, I've gone from eating one a day to one a week, and I take lutein supplements (wish I remembered to do that more often!).

Also, I'll eat fried potatoes that are fried in the same oil as meat. While I think it's a stretch to call it hypocritical, it still is in a way. But, if I were to get that anal retentive I'd go crazy.

I'll eat fish. Not factory farmed due to the waste, nastiness that you end up eating in the meat and pollution factors. Fish that's caught in the wild has it's own issues- there's a TON of by product from catching various seafoods- but it's the lesser of 2 evils as at least the byproduct (read: gobs of sea animals caught and killed that were not being fished for) gets tossed back into the ocean to feed other fish and bottom dwellers. This may change for me one day, but not today. Like eggs, I don't eat as much fish as I used too either.

Also, I'll drink Guinness. This comes back to fish since they use ingless (is that right?) aka fish bladders to filter out the yeast after fermentation. Nothing in the world comes close to Guinness for me. Sure this may change too someday. I could give up Ranch dressing (which I used to eat almost daily) but I just don't have the want, urge or guilt enough to give up Guinness.

I'll eat honey. Tho I've never eaten it on a regular basis- a little jar of it lasts us almost 2 years usually. I didn't know before how the queens were de-winged, and didn't realize that as we take honey it messes with the worker bee's heads. I do support bee keepers tho since the honey bee population is threatened.

So you see, I'm not vegan or vegetarian. What the hell am I then? Not eating factory farmed meat, conventional eggs or any dairy makes me a vegan in 99% of the eyes of the restaurant industry. As well as most passerbys, even some friends and some family. Out in the real world it's a hell of a lot easier to just say I'm vegan than to explained my choices of eating that just has no label.

I feel very comfortable in my choices and never have I been asked "why do you eat that bison, don't you know it's murder!" and gotten so defensive as to instead of reply with an answer to clarify my reasons say "I'll give up bison when you give up dairy." There is no worked up defense in me for my choices because I am at peace with them. I will answer your questions and I will tell you what I have learned and I will be open to hear what you have to say. But I promise I will never not answer a question about my eating habits because I feel bad about them.

OK with all this said I must say that anything anyone does to lessen animal cruelty is A-OKAY in my book. Hell yes. Baby steps is what usually gets any big job done. Most people have no idea of the horrors that happen to get the food to their plates, ya know? Hell I didn't know these horrors less than a year ago! And so any steps in the right direction are awesomesauce and I love you for taking the steps that you do take.