This is why I am a vegan.

I have pending posts on chia pudding and CSA box recipes, but today is a difficult day in the vegan blogosphere and my appetite is gone. Everyone is covering Mercy for Animals' investigation of an Ohio dairy farm.

At this point, I have yet to watch the video. I have seen stills, and read descriptions, and wiped tears from my eyes, but I can't watch it here at work, b/c I know that I will be destroyed for the day.

So many others have covered this in a calmer way than I can at this point, so I pulled some of the most important words.

"This is probably the most gratuitous, sustained, sadistic animal abuse I have ever seen. The video depicts calculated, deliberate cruelty, based not on momentary rage but on taking pleasure through causing pain to cows and calves who are defenseless."
-Dr. Bernard Rollin, Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University

"As more and more investigations like this continue to make their way into the light, we must ask ourselves how commonplace treatment like this really is. If undercover investigators are able to capture this much gratuitous abuse, what must go unseen? When living, feeling, emotional and intelligent animals are forced to endure a reality like this, there is no sufficient excuse."
-Joshua Katcher, “The Discerning Brute”

There is no reason to consume animal products other than selfishness, laziness, sadism, or ignorance.

Even if you refuse to give them up, surely you can't condone this. Watch the video. Think about whether or not you're funding what you see. And stand up.

When you're finished, go here, because you're going to need it.