Seafood (Or, Sea Animals)

When people find out I don't eat meat, they sometimes say something like this: "You don't even eat fish? Not even shellfish? They don't feel anything!"

My family frequents a beach and discovered clams there one day last summer. They went nuts and clammed like crazy. It was fun for everyone and also produced a large, fresh, free dinner. They went back almost every week that summer, and still go back sometimes. I did my fair share of clamming too. I even bought a shucking knife because I wanted to eat clams on the half shell. I actually sat on the beach with live clams in my hands, working very hard to drive their shells open so I could eat them.

And that's exactly my point, and the reason why I choose not to eat sea animals: that I had to work so freakin hard to open every clam shell. Every clam I met was fighting for its life. I had plucked it from its home and then I was invading its body. It knew, and it was literally holding on for dear life.

Like the clam, I am a living animal who's aware of my surroundings and has a strong desire to continue living. My personal worst fear is war. That I will be snatched from my home, taken somewhere, and be mercilessly used or killed. That I will be treated as a faceless, nameless, soulless being who needs to suffer, or be used for sport or pleasure, or just be gotten rid of. I would want to not be touched against my will or be injured, but most of all, I would just want a chance to live. Please, just let me live.

I don't want to submit anyone to my worst nightmare. Not even a clam.

How do people respond to your food choices? How do you explain your food choices?


Vegan on a Shoestring