About Me: Hi. =]

My name's Amber & I live in a little hick town.

I became a full-time vegan at the beginning of the year (it's the only New Years resolution I've ever been able to stick to); I was a strict vegetarian for 15 years before that.

I don't personally know anyone else who is veggie, so I rely heavily on the internet (like the Space & VegHaven.net) for interaction on any level with like-minded individuals.

I freakin LOOOOOOOVE my puppy!


Find more photos like this on VegHaven.org

How I became a veggie: I grew up on a little mini-farm with chickens, goats, bunnies, a pig... and being the shy loner that I was, these animals were better company to me than most people. I considered them my friends, & many of these "dumb farm animals" became fond of me too - chickens would squat down when they saw me coming so I could pick them up to pet & hold them, "Pig" the pig would happily come greet me when I came around his pen.

I have several memories of this place that will forever be with me, that have surely shaped me into the compassionate vegan & lover of all life that I am today. While most of my happy childhood memories of times with animals are pleasantly vague, it's the traumatizing events that remain vivid in my mind: I will never ever forget the shrieks of the rabbits being stapled to a tree in preparation to be skinned, the chickens running around wildly with their heads cut off, the shock of hearing my dad tell me that a butcher was coming over tomorrow to slaughter Pig (in a weird twist of fate, Pig died that night. Although devastated, I was relieved that he died of natural causes & was not going to end up on our dinner table). I had a pet turkey that was attacked by a dog - I bundled him up & tried to make him comfortable, then watched the life slowly leave his beautiful little eyes as I bawled.

It was somewhere around this time - I was about 12 - that I decided that I was NOT going to eat meat anymore, & that was that. Mom & dad weren't happy - they claimed to "forget" sometimes, at which point I would bitch & remove any meat from my meal & set it aside. Eventually they learned that I was quite serious & eating plenty of healthy non-meatstuffs, so they backed off & accepted that I was "the weird daughter" (my switch to vegetarianism was quickly succeeded by multiple hair-dyings, body piercings, & a developing taste in punk rock & goth music).

I tried to go vegan when I was about 19 (so this would've been around 1999), but I was a poor starving college student & resources were scarce even then, so I failed. Accidentally tumbled across Vegan-Shani's Myspace profile in late 2007, & after a couple conversations with her that vegan "light" turned on. I haven't looked back since.