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I started my last internship late april. This one is at a farm. See to graduate we have to do one 5 week internship in a veterinary clinic and one in a "research facility" (both unpaid) but luckily certain facilities fall into the "research" category that don't involve experimenting on animals. Hematology/Biology labs (where blood tests and such get sent to) but also zoos and farms. Hey, I'm not gonna question it. I got the farm, which is actually a university campus farm. I work mostly just in the dairy barn, so it's been pretty great. Well, minus the 5am starting time. HOWEVER... I worked with the hens one day. The conditions these hens are kept in is just...tear jerking. And this is ABOVE regulations. Not only that, we were packing them onto the truck to be sent off for slaughter (I guess they retire their hens each year and get a new flock in the summer) The carts these 3000 hens were packed into was enough to make me gag but the WAY people were putting them in "like laundry" the manager was actually instructing me to stuff them in like laundry. Afterwards they all sat outside drinking gaterade and eating donuts, so were they really in THAT much of a rush that they couldn't place them in a lil more carefully...maybe make sure none of them broke any wings going in?

I kept a stiff upper lip. I did indeed help out, sort of. In my own, slow and gentle way. But on the drive home I cried like a baby. And now I can't in good conscious continue eating conventionally raised meat. Ive been eating a lot of fish though.

For the vegetarians/Vegans in the group. Any suggestions on how to properly supplement my diet would be great. I'm actually anemic to begin with. Well, last I checked. I don't know if being on the pill and therefor having a much lighter period has affected that. So I've been taken "blood builder" by mega foods, a whole foods iron supplement. I believe I'm okay for protein. Between the fish, the greek yogurt, eggs etc. (I buy eggs from a local family farm) I'm pretty sure I'm okay. I'm just not sure what kind of fats I might be missing.

It's been over 2 weeks. I did eat chicken on 2 occasions because I bought it before my internship started and didn't want it to go to waste. But I haven't had any cravings. Sometimes it's a lil hard to come up with meal plans because I'm more restricted. Sometimes I see items on sale that I loved and it's a lil frustrating. MOSTLY other people who don't support me are frustrating. Everyone at work says they went vegetarian for a week after doing their internship on a farm. That it won't last. One night I was so exhausted from being up since 4am all week and shoveling all day and I got pissed off at my mother and she blamed it on me no longer eating meat. Which to me was equally as infuriating as if I had gotten mad at some guy and he presumed I was on my period. And I was like I ATE CHICKEN YESTERDAY you ignorant b***h (okay I said the last part in my head) So she then assumed I had given up already and went out and bought me some lamb.

*Sigh* but apart from that it's going well. I'm going to finish up the chicken I had bought slowly over the next week and then I don't intend to eat meat unless it's humanely raised and slaughtered or would otherwise be wasted (I don't tell anyone about the later part cause I know they would purposely buy enough meat for everyone and guilt me into eating it.) Course given the price of humanely raised meats, it will probably be a rare treat.

Oh gawd no, Vegan is an intense commitment and lifestyle change. Like I try to stick to free range eggs BUT I know that the breads, cakes etc that I buy do not use free range eggs. I'm not about to give up all food that contains eggs, milk, honey etc. I think that would limit my diet WAY too much. I hope that in supporting local humanely run farms and drastically cutting down my consumtion of conventional dairy and by cutting out my consumption of conventional meat hopefully in the long run, it'll have a slight impact on the number of chickens raised for meat. I think that's enough on my part for now.

The dairy cows are actually quite well treated. From birth until adulthood they have a decent sized pen with other heifers their age, which is cleaned regularly. By 13-18 months they are bred and then they get put out to pasture for 8 months (I think this depends on the season in which they get bred though. If they are confirmed pregnant in the spring they are very lucky and spend the summer outside.) They come in about 3 weeks before their due date, spend most of that time in a big cushy pen. Then after they give birth, they get a day max with their calf and they join the milking line for their whole lactation. This is the only part that really sucks. The milking line is the main barn where they all stay in these lil stalls just big enough to stand up, lie down...sort of stretch out but not even big enough to turn around. So they don't get to walk, they must be bored out their minds and lactation lasts the better part of a year. As they start to wean they are bred again. So they eventually may get to go outside again, depending on the season. But aside from being probably bored to death, the regulations for cattle care is much higher than with chickens. For example, to be dehorned, they must be anesthetized. So in that respect, I don't feel so bad about drinking milk. I just don't trust the beef companies or the slaughter houses.