I’ve Never Eaten Animals

I grew up in rural England with the message that animals are our friends — who would want to eat their friends?

Elizabeth Sulis Kim
Published in
9 min readJul 15, 2019

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Photo by Kyle Arcilla on Unsplash

Near my childhood home were fields upon fields of pigs and cows. In spring there were lambs, albeit briefly. Some people commented on how nice it was to see these animals when driving by, but our family thought we’d rather not see them at all. We’d have rather seen non-domesticated wild breeds roaming free, their destinies not pre-determined from birth. The message I received from an early age: “animals are our friends”. I was never forbidden from eating them, but who would want to eat their friends?

Growing up vegetarian in a rural region of England in the 90s, I could never have imagined how much the world would change in my lifetime. With the recent veganism boom, it’s become easier than ever to ditch animals products; there are more and more vegan options and socially people are increasingly open to the idea. I remember when things were harder.

I was always close to animals, particularly our cats who felt more like sisters. I also prised mice and voles from their mouths and rescued little birds who fell from their nests. I once returned a…

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Elizabeth Sulis Kim
Tenderly

Elizabeth is a London-based writer with bylines in The Guardian, Refinery29, The Independent, and Stylist, among others, and editor of Cunning Folk Magazine.