IT'S because I've been vegan for most of my life that I hate animal farming so much.
I can't for the life of me see why we need to subsidise farmers for a product we just don't need.
To me it's a bit like alcohol - people enjoy it, but they don't need it. Plus no other business gets as much financial support that animal farmers get.
I've often heard people say it's because farmers feed the nation. In reality it's because people were so rationed during the war, that politicians decided the public would never go without their pound of flesh again.
Hence the reason animal welfare took a back seat, while factory farms spread out of control.
People often tell me that they can't function without meat. I just shake my head in disbelief and put it to them that I'm able to trek the mountains of North Wales with energy to spare.
I also tell them that people eat far too much meat for their own good, and its costing the NHS a fortune.
But even so-called animal-loving pet owners can't see the connection between the animals they cuddle on their laps and the meat on their plates.
It's as if farm animals are not really animals at all!
They just appear in the butchers’ windows or wrapped in cellophane on supermarket shelves.
"Reality", a painting by Jean Bennington
However the burdens placed on (so-called) livestock are cruel in the extreme.
For instance, farm animals have to endure separation, castration, tail docking, ear tagging, transportation, noisy markets and the slaughterhouse.
Also cows are kept in an almost permanent state of pregnancy, whilst at the same time being forced to produce far more milk than they would naturally produce.
This is why some go on to develop painful mastitis. For you, this means pus cells get into the milk you drink - nice, eh!
Basically these animals are treated like milking machines, milk that was meant for the calf is drunk by you.
Cows and calves in a filthy cattle yard
But just to compound a cow’s suffering, her calf is removed to be fattened up for meat (leaving her grief stricken).
Still not enough! Some calves not good enough for beef are either shot at birth (merciful for the calf, I say) or find themselves being exported to the European veal crates (which unfortunately are still in use on some farms).
Veal to those that don't know it, is produced by making the calf extremely ill by denying it iron.
The consequences of this is that the calf gets very weak and goes blind.
By the time he's ready for slaughter, he will have spent his entire short life in a wooden crate, never having seen daylight or a green field - so the poor thing will be only too happy for the slaughterman to pull the trigger.
Even then I suppose the sound of other terrified animals being bullied into the killing hold will be that much more heightened for a blind animal..
Now back to subsidies for meat farmers. Why should my husband have to give around £200-£300 out of his wage packet every year for a product we neither want or need?
I've no objection to subsidies for crop farmers - they are the ones at the mercy of the elements and they need all the help we can give them. Plus we all need vegetables.
But before you start accusing me of being a lettuce-nibbling bunny-hugger, who should mind her own business, it is everyone's business to speak out against atrocities, whether it affects people or animals.
Nothing should detract from that responsibility.
It is all the more depressing when there are so many different kinds of food you can eat these days, without the need for any meat or dairy to pass your lips.
You can even get dairy free ice-cream and probiotic soya for yoghurt lovers. And guess what? You can't tell the difference.
To me animal farming is all about animal exploitation - no wonder I'm a veggie.
