Between a rock and a hard place

The horror stories about animals on farms and at the abattoir are a cause of some grief for vegans but not only vegans. They horrify and confront sensitive non-vegans too, but for them it’s mixed with a fear of finding out too much. Whatever they do hear always implicates them personally, and more so when they realise the scale of the atrocity. If their heart isn’t touched by what is shown or described, then we can assume we’re dealing with a cold hearted person, or possibly a person trying to bury their head in the sand.
We may feel depressed about the animal holocaust, but it’s a question of whether or not we are prepared to act to prevent it (or rather act to discontinue our support of it). How horrific do the stories have to be, to make us boldly step away from it? Or does the engender such fear in us that we dare not under any circumstances act in defiance of members of our own family and network of friends? People-pressure and social acceptability are so powerful in our society that solo flight is almost out of the question. We can’t act independently even though we know we should. Animals, from which our foods come, are badly used and we know it. But even though we feel guilt, even though we know animal foods are nutritionally dangerous, we may yet not be able to act. It’s a choice of doing nothing or going all the way - there are no in betweens. And once gone ‘all the way’, in reality, there’s no going back. It’s as if we step out of one world into another, one level of maturity into another.