Growing up in Holland I ate meat on a daily basis, beef, pork, veal,
horsemeat (!), turkey, crab and lobster, venison, including wild duck,
pheasant, deer, hare and boar. Never thought about it, even if I loved
animals all my life. I never saw the connection between loving animals
and loving to eat them.
It was not until I was 47 years old that I was in a Dutch restaurant
and had ordered rabbit stew. When it was put in front of me, my husband
jokingly remarked: ah, look at all those little rabbit bones. I looked
at them and I suddenly 'got it'. I was absolutely shocked.
When I got back to Canada I took a vegetarian cooking course and cooked
vegetarian for one whole year for my family, after which they could
decide whether to stay vegetarians or go back to eating meat. When the
year was up, one daughter and I remained vegetarians, my husband and
other daughter choosing to eat meat.
But we never ate turkey again for christmas, easter or any other
holidays and slowly even the 2 non-vegetarians stopped eating meat on a
daily basis and regularly do eat tofu-based dinners.

I occasionally eat fish, but never crabs and lobsters as I am repulsed
by how they are kept alive at supermarkets before being bought and
boiled alive. I also reduced the meats I feed my pets and every time I
am in a supermarket I leave little anti-meat leaflets somewhere in that
store or put anti-meat stickers on what's lying in the meat-department.
I also try to 'accidentally' paste those stickers on doors to KFC or
other fast food places.
Only free-range eggs are in my fridge now.
When I have guests over for dinner, neither my appetizers nor the
dinner consists of any kind of meat. When family from Holland or
anywhere else comes to stay at my house, I forewarn them that they will
not get to eat meat in my house.
When I go out for dinner to restaurants I always order a vegetarian
meal and if there's nothing interesting on the menu, I enjoy ordering a
typical meat-dinner, but tell the waiter to tell the cook to create an
acceptable substitute for the meat.
Often cooks come to our table afterwards to inquire whether it 'was
creative enough' and they seem to enjoy exercising their creative
abilities.

Still, it is most unfortunate that billions of animals will continue to
suffer for a long, long time to come, as meat-eaters are in the
majority by far and as long as people continue to think that they need
meat in order to be healthy (and fat..), meats will be served wherever
food is being served.
If only we could have stickers put on all those fast foods containing
beef saying " For every pound of beef you do NOT eat, you're saving
more water than in a whole year of showering".... Perhaps the
environmental issues will finally win over another segment of the
meat-eating population.