In my former “career” as a newspaper reporter, I learned how to approach strangers. I learned one approach for breaking the ice, to make a new contact feel more at ease, is to say that we have something in common. Maybe we went to the same high school, formerly lived in the same community, or even had a mutual friend or acquaintance.
I used this approach Friday night when an unfamiliar face with an exotic first name asked me and my friend Chris whether she could join us at our table at a downtown Prescott cafe. It was during one of the busiest nights of the year: the Acker Night Musical Showcase. Sure, we said, and she joined us. Chris left shortly afterward to go to another venue.
Understandably, Armaiti May was reserved at first. However, I immediately sensed a commonality when she said she is a small-animal veterinarian. I told her my late father, Herbert, was a small-animal veterinarian who graduated from Michigan State University and operated his practice in San Bernardino, California. Armaiti, which means “Devotion to God,” was born and raised in Santa Monica, California, and graduated from veterinary school at the University of California, Davis. She makes house calls for dogs and cats, splitting her time between Chino Valley and clients she serves in the Los Angeles area.
Before leaving the establishment, she handed me a flier for a screening and discussion Sunday of the 2011 documentary Vegucated, about three meat and cheese lovers who agree to adopt a vegan diet for six weeks. While not a vegan, I was curious in part because I wrote a satirical saga in five newspaper columns 20 years ago about three Vegan Pagans who remove a wooden steer from atop a steakhouse in a fictional Utah town and hold it for ransom until the restaurant owner agrees to add vegetarian plates. After the cub newspaper reporter writes a brief about the theft, the Vegan Pagans call her and arrange to meet at a secret location. They wear masks of animals, and one of them tells the reporter, “Cattle are not chattel.” The sheriff vows to catch them, but the wily women outwit local authorities.
I described the Vegan Pagans as neo-Bohemian outliers who were willing to break the law to achieve their goals. Twenty years later, veganism has become more mainstream. Then as now, vegans are motivated by concerns for their health, the treatment of animals and protecting the environment. They are more particular when it comes to their diets than vegetarians. They abstain from consuming other animal products such as cheese and wearing clothes derived from animals.
A small group arrived at Armaiti’s house across an unpaved road from a neighbor who raises chickens and goats. Vegucated starts with old scenes of “cow country” and cartoon footages, and segues into the trio who agree to take the vegan diet challenge intent on losing weight, looking good and feeling healthy: Tesla, Brian and Ellen. The film shows the brutal treatment of livestock in industrial (also known as factory) farms that includes cattle being branded without the use of anesthesia and pig babies being torn from their mothers. Vegucated also cites threats to the environment from factory farms, such as methane gases emitted by cattle and contamination from pig farms.
When the six-week period ends, the trio gets a clean bill of health from a doctor. They lost weight, and their blood pressure and cholesterol levels dropped. Tesla and Ellen decide to stick with a vegan diet while Brian says he would be mostly vegan.
After the screening, Armaiti led a discussion with 10 others besides me who stayed. She told me she has been a vegan for 23 years – more than half of her life – and was raised as a vegetarian by her mother. She said she has prescribed a vegan diet for dogs and referred to a website.
“Cats are harder to feed vegan,” Armaiti said. “I have two cats that are vegan.”
I told her how my father disliked cats because they are predators that kill birds. I mentioned I saw a cat eat a snake in Kentucky.
Armaiti, who has practiced veterinary medicine for 17 years, provided handouts afterward and had a signup sheet for participants to leave their phone numbers and email addresses. One person who attended, Evon, said she learned about Armaiti through a Meetup.com group on documentary films.
“This is information that everyone should be exposed to so they can make better choices for themselves, their families and the planet,” Evon said afterward. She became a vegan in 2018.
Becoming a vegan is a major life choice—and change. People have eaten meat since prehistoric times when they were hunters and gatherers. I can see how farmers could perceive veganism as a threat to their livelihoods.
A friend in Longview, Texas, Melissa, told me she gave up veganism after three years. She owns an insurance agency and is a former hospice nurse.
“I became vegan to help my husband lower his cholesterol without medication,” Melissa wrote in a Facebook message. “We went back to eating meat because it was difficult to maintain a vegan lifestyle in ‘meat and potatoes’ East Texas, and I couldn't keep my B12 levels up naturally. It was just easier to give in. I felt great most of the time that I was vegan, but I don't know if I'd go back to completely vegan. I still limit my meat intake and have vegetarian days pretty often.”
Melissa concluded with a smile emoji, “Man, I forgot how much I love cheese! I could never give it up again.”
Armaiti clarified after the posting that her nonprofit organization, VAPA (Veterinary Association for the Protection of Animals), sponsored the screening of Vegucated. For more information, log onto https://vapavets.org.
Albeit paced and judging by comments, the popularity of Ken’s Newsletter appears to be growing! My hope it continues that way.
Personally, I’m kinda torn on the vegan stuff. While short term results indicate improved health, it remains questionable if a biological life form after eons of evolving instantly benefits from such a significant change.
‘My doctor smokes Camels’, remember?