Animals: Tradition - Philosophy - Religion Article from All-Creatures.org





Freedom from the Chains of Eating Meat

From Fr Donatello Iocco, SARX: For All God's Creatures
July 2022

Fr Donatello Iocco, priest at St. Ambrose Church, Toronto, reflects upon his shock at discovering the truth behind the meat industry and how his subsequent decision to go vegan brought about a sense of spiritual freedom. "After seeing what happens to the poor animals and people who work in such conditions, I decided I was no longer willing to participate in this appalling cycle of violence."

[Also see Fr Iocco's St. Ambrose Roman Catholic Church]

cattle truck

Fr Donatello Iocco, priest at St. Ambrose Church, Toronto, reflects upon his shock at discovering the truth behind the meat industry and how his subsequent decision to go vegan brought about a sense of spiritual freedom.

In 2016 my life changed for the second time, physically and spiritually. My niece urged me to watch a documentary on Netflix called Vegucated (film 2011). The documentary features three omnivorous New Yorkers who agree to follow a vegan diet for six weeks to see what the experience is like for them.

My niece warned me that there were some parts in the film that are very difficult to watch and added; “you probably won’t eat animal products anymore!” When she told me that, I hesitated and it took me a few days before finally watching the film. I remember thinking: “why are certain animals used as for food and some others not?” I had some idea about how cows were killed for beef but didn’t know what was really involved. In any case, these thoughts were easily forgotten when I went to buy meat neatly packaged at the grocery store. I reasoned to myself that farmed animals probably had no real emotions and they likely didn’t have an understanding of the situation they are in.

Theologically speaking, at this time I thought such animals were given by God to human beings to use and eat as they wanted.

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