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A former butcher, who worked in the trade for over 15 years, has gone vegan after watching powerful vegan documentary Earthlings.
A butcher of 15-years who started his career working at a small family-run butcher in South Lanarkshire has gone vegan after the Earthlings documentary inspired him to ditch animals products and his career as a butcher.
Brian Kavanagh started his career as a butcher when he was just 16, and says he did so as a way to “keep my dad quiet”, and first considered giving up animal products when his wife Rebecca became vegan.
But it was powerful vegan documentary Earthlings that finally gave him the motivation to make changes to his diet and lifestyle.
Brian was working at the butchers counter at Morrisons supermarket at the time, but felt as if he was concealing a secret from his colleagues.
Speaking to the BBC, Brian said: “I kept it to myself. I didn’t tell anyone because I was worried about them making jokes. Before I just looked at it as a piece of meat going on a dinner plate but then you see it as an animal and not just a steak.
“I was a bit depressed, it just didn’t feel good, so I had to leave.”
The former butcher now enjoys his vegan lifestyle and the benefits it brings, saying: “My skin was the first thing I noticed. I always had spots until I was 30, but my skin became a lot clearer. I feel clearer in the mind too.”
Brian now finds mealtimes at home much easier as not only are he and his wife vegan, but his two children also stick to a plant-based diet.
Since Brian no longer felt comfortable working as a butcher, he sought alternative employment at Glasgow-based vegan meat alternative company Sgaia Vegan Meats and now proudly calls himself a vegetable butcher.
Discussing his initial reservations about applying to the role, Brian said: “I was worried my background and my story might put them off, and they wouldn’t want someone who was a meat butcher for 15 years. But they were really excited about it and wanted me just as much as I wanted to work there.”
Image credit: Sgaia Vegan Meats
