My friends, not my food

A while back, my friend Thy gave me a children's book called That's Why We Don't Eat Meat. She thought it might be a cool book for me (as a person who doesn't eat meat) to read to my daughter Eloise, and it is. While there are some scary moments involving factory farms, the main way author/artist Ruby Roth explains why vegans and vegetarians eat the way they do is to help foster compassion for livestock. She not only compares farm animals to pets, but shows them to be members of their own families, and illustrates how they share feelings and needs with humans. Yes, it shows the ecological benefits of eating low on the food chain, too. The verbiage is a little wordy for my two-year-old, although she likes the pictures. However, her six-year-old cousin was quite stricken by it. Check out Ruby and her book for yourself at http://www.wedonteatanimals.com/.