Renee Olstead Quotes

If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian.

I'm vegan, though not completely religious about it. While writing 'Sapiens,' I became familiar with how we treat animals in the meat and dairy industries. I was so horrified that I didn't want to be a part of it anymore.

I became vegan because I saw footage of what really goes on in the slaughterhouses and on the dairy farms.

I became a vegetarian after I became aware of factory farming and slaughterhouses and the torture and inhumane handling of all these animals.

I haven't touched a piece of meat since I read a graphic description of Chicago's slaughterhouses when I was 12.

If slaughterhouses had glass walls the whole world would be vegetarian.

Consumers of meat, eggs and dairy products might well ask what they are supporting. Do farmers care about anyone but themselves? Can't anyone see the cow for the cheese?

I have always been an animal lover. I had a hard time disassociating the animals I cuddled with - dogs and cats, for example - from the animals on my plate, and I never really cared for the taste of meat. I always loved my Brussels sprouts.

Since we can't count on the meat, egg, and dairy industries to protect animals from the most egregious forms of cruelty, what can we, as consumers, do? Opting out of paying someone to allow animals to die in a barn fire or at the slaughterhouse seems pretty reasonable.

If you knew how meat was made, you'd probably lose your lunch.

You can't record an album called 'Meat Is Murder' and slip out for a burger.

I think if you're against cruelty and you look at what happens to animals in slaughterhouses and on factory farms, you have to be completely against eating meat.

Maybe one day the world will change, that we'll be in a luxurious position of being able to debate whether or not it's inherently wrong to eat animals, but the question doesn't matter right now.

I watched the 'Food, Inc.' documentary and was like, 'This has opened my eyes to the meat industry - maybe I should go vegetarian.' And my friend told me, 'Sadie, you're not gonna last a week.' But I'm very competitive.

When I was twenty-one, a friend gave me a book called Diet for a New America by John Robbins, which exposed the brutal practices of American factory farms. That, coupled with a lecture from Leonardo DiCaprio (when he was nineteen and I was twenty-one) about how such animals are kept and processed, made me lose my desire for factory farm pork and beef right there.

The more exposure people have to the realities of factory farming, the more we will see people rejecting it. It's already happening.

I don't like to see animals in pain. That was very uncomfortable to me. I don't like factory farming. I'm not an advocate for the meat industry.

Being a vegetarian really saves lives.

I have a tough stomach, and I've put myself through a lot. But when I first found out what happens to animals on modern factory farms and in today's slaughterhouses, I wanted to throw up - I literally couldn't believe it.

Not eating meat is a decision, eating meat is an instinct.

I'm sorry for the ducks; I love foie gras.

Most people see a documentary about the meat industry and then they become a vegetarian for a week.

I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.

I guess in general, people tend to not eat the cute animals.

I only eat meat if I go to a nice restaurant and there is an exceptional dish, or if I'm at somebody's home for a dinner, I'll eat whatever is in front of me. Otherwise, I don't eat anything that walks around and has a face.