01/23/2016
"I compete as a figure athlete with the PlantBuilt Vegan Muscle team. Our mission is to dispel the myth that you need animal proteins to build muscle and be a competitive athlete. I will never forget my first meet up with them in Austin, Texas in July 2014. During our initial team meeting one of our power lifting team mates decided to share some stories with us. He used to be an undercover investigator for PETA and worked on several hog farms in the south. He explained to us how he had to be there and work just like all the other farm workers, which included him castrating piglets without anesthesia, forcefully inseminating the sows (r**e), and even killing male piglets that were only hours old by slamming their bodies on the floor repeatedly until they died. It was one of the most horrific things I could ever imagine. I had seen these videos, and here was someone, on my team, that had to do that in order to get those videos out so people can see what actually goes on in slaughterhouses and on factory farms. Tears streamed down his face, and all of our faces, as he shared just how hard that was for him. He explained that he has to live with the fact that he caused harm to several animals in the hopes that he would be able to make a more global impact for hundreds and thousands of animals in the future by getting this footage out to the public. He risked everything in order to give these animals a voice. I will forever look up to him and all undercover investigators for enduring these horrific things that most of us would never be able to do. By being the eyes and voice of these helpless sentient beings." -Ashlee Harrison
"As stereotypical as it may sound, my beagle Mack is the reason for my veganism. I had someone tell me once that Iams dog food company uses beagles for animal testing. I never purchased Iams dog food brand, but I began doing some research, figuring they just fed beagles their food and observed their results while watching them frolic freely in a large open meadow filled with flowers. When I saw what actually went on during an undercover investigation into the company I was horrified! They were actually cutting open beagles while they were alive and fully conscious to examine the muscle tissue of the dogs to see how much growth had occurred and how they were responding to the diet! When they were done experimenting on them they just threw the beagles into a pit and let them starve to death or die of suffocation in plastic bags! It was truly a traumatizing experience. Watching this video lead to discovering more undercover investigations into factory farming of our "food" animals. I immediately went vegetarian with the aspiration of going completely vegan. Unfortunately, at the time we lived in a small town in Southern Oregon, where even our vegetarian friends were not supportive of us going vegan, claiming it would be impossible to avoid dairy in our meals. I made it about a month vegan before I went back to eating dairy and eggs purely due to lack of knowledge on how to make the lifestyle work for me, and the lack of support from friends and family. I remained vegetarian for about three years, however I steadily began justifying eating meat again. It started with shellfish, claiming they didn't feel pain or suffer the way land mammals do. Then a friend offered to sell us their grass-fed beef raised "humanely" and killed "humanely" on their local family farm. Before long I was back to eating a regular omnivore diet, though it never felt right. I ignored my gut instinct of not eating animals just to feel "normal" in a society that believes it's our "right" to kill animals for food.
I moved to Seattle in 2011 to finish school, and began playing roller derby. It was a very unhealthy environment for me. It felt very much like an evil sorority and my spirit had been so beat down. After trying to make it work for nearly two years I finally decided I had had enough and quit. I am a very goal oriented person and knew that I wanted to continue doing something physically active, but just going to the gym without a goal in mind was never going to work. I had been friends with Mindy Collette for several years, and I knew she did fitness modeling and figure competitions and reached out to her for some advice on how to get started. We spoke back and forth for a while and she would slowly make little suggestions on how to do this without using animal products. Mindy told me about her involvement with the PlantBuilt team. I began doing more research and sure enough stumbled on more factory farming investigation videos and decided instantly that I wanted to compete in body building and do that as a vegan! Something about it has always felt right to me. I have always had a strong love for animals, and it never felt right eating them. I also wrestled with this notion that animals were put on this earth for us to eat them. Surely not all animals were put here for that, and who decided which ones were? It's so arbitrary. We can eat pigs, but not dogs. We can eat cows, but not cats. Chickens, but not horses. But in other countries they do eat dogs and cats and horses, so are they wrong?! It has also always felt wrong to me that I was willing to eat cows, pigs, chickens, etc. but I am totally and completely unwilling to have anything to do with the killing, skinning, gutting, and preparing of their bodies to get to my plate for me to eat. If I can't kill them, why is it okay for me to pay someone else to?!
This time around the transition to veganism occurred overnight and I have never looked back! It has been incredibly easy living in Seattle, and also while traveling I do research and pack extra food as needed. I would say it hasn't been hard for me at all because this is what feels good to my soul. It aligns with my morals, values, and my core belief system on what I feel is right. Now, don't get that confused with me being perfect. I have surely made mistakes. Accidentally buying foods that contain animals products because I didn't read the label thoroughly or understand completely what certain ingredients were (there are a lot of tricky names for animals products or animal derivatives). Or forgetting to look at the label on a clothing item and finding out later that it contains wool. I have definitely made mistakes along the way, but I try hard every day to make the biggest possible impact on saving animal lives and causing the least amount of harm as I possibly can.
I am a current member of the PlantBuilt Vegan Muscle team. I compete as a figure athlete. Our mission is to dispel the myth that you need animal proteins to build muscle and be a competitive athlete. I have also participated in the No New Animal Lab march on Washington to try to halt the building of multimillion dollar underground animal testing laboratory at the University of Washington.
My favorite animal rights organizations are The Beagle Freedom Project, Mercy for Animals, Compassion Over Killing, Sea Shepard, and of course PlantBuilt.
For someone considering going vegan I say "DO IT!!!" It'll be the best decision you will ever make for your health, the environment and the animals! It's so much easier than you might think, and it's an incredibly supportive and fantastic community to be part of! You will find friends all over the world that you connect with on such a deep level through veganism, it's something that is so hard to explain, but you will feel it! Also, be kind to yourself when you make the transition, as you will likely make mistakes and possibly eat animal ingredients or buy animal products and not realize it. It's okay! It happens to all of us. Vegans are not perfect, you will never be perfect, but it's not about perfection, it's about causing the least amount of harm to animals and to our planet.
I will never forget my first meet up with the PlantBuilt team in Austin, Texas in July 2014. During our initial team meeting one of our power lifting team mates decided to share some stories with us. He use to be an undercover investigator for PETA and worked on several hog farms in the south. He explained to us how he had to be there and work just like all the other farm workers, which included him castrating piglets without anesthesia, forcefully inseminating the sows (r**e), and even killing male piglets that were only hours old by slamming their bodies on the floor repeatedly until they died. It was one of the most horrific things I could ever imagine. I had seen these videos, and here was someone, on my team, that had to do that in order to get those videos out so people can see what actually goes on in slaughterhouses and on factory farms. Tears streamed down his face, and all of our faces, as he shared just how hard that was for him. He explained that he has to live with the fact that he caused harm to several animals in the hopes that he would be able to make a more global impact for hundreds and thousands of animals in the future by getting this footage out to the public. He risked everything in order to give these animals a voice. I will forever look up to him and all undercover investigators for enduring these horrific things that most of us would never be able to do. By being the eyes and voice of these helpless sentient beings." -Ashlee Harrison
