What I eat
 &
what I don't eat

A free animal isn't locked up in a cage or shed, nor behind barbed wire. It goes wherever it wants to. According to this defenition no horses, pigs or cows in the Netherlands are free. Luckily some chicken are. I happen to know of a farmer who has chicken walk freely over his yard. That's where I buy my eggs, even though it is more than 100 kilometers from home.

So I didn't stop eating animals, I only stopped eating unfree animals, as well as their products, for example milk, cheese and eggs.

Januari 2001
During a long walk on a long pier in Wijk aan Zee, I met a fisherman. He showed me 2 cods, who were both still alive. I took one in my hands and I was shocked by the agony in his eyes. I asked myself wether or not I'd be strong enough to kill this animal with my own hands, in order to eat it, but the only answer that came through was 'no'.
This left me with the conclusion that I had to stop eating fish.
Now, before I eat an animal, I ask myself the same question every time.


Resuming:

1) I don't eat, nor wear anything made of, or made by, unfree animals.

2) I don't eat animals I wouldn't kill with my own hands.

So what do I eat?

Approxiametaly all nonvertebrates; mussels, shrimps and calimari for example. And occasionaly a bigger animal. In november 2004 I ate an Argentinian cow for example.

So I have no problems with eating and killing animals. But I do have problems with enslaving and exploiting them. This is the point that so many people never seem to understand.

If you have gotten this far already, the following fact may interest you as well: I have never drunk coffee.
Since even this simple phrase also is often misunderstood, I have made a typical conversation:

Do you want milk and sugar in your coffee, Werner?
No, thank you. I don't drink coffee.

You don't? Never?
No, I have never even tasted it.

Really? How come? Don't you like it?
I really wouldn't know. As I said, I have never even tasted it.