Longtime Butcher Secretly Goes Vegan After Watching Earthlings

United Kingdom-resident Brian Kavanagh recently left his 15-year-long career as a butcher to pursue a career that aligned with his ethical beliefs. Kavanagh began working as a butcher when he was 16, a move he made to please his father. Now a father of two himself, Kavanagh was initially influenced by his vegan wife to consider removing animal products from his diet. While working at a meat counter at grocery store Morrison’s, Kavanagh made the decision to go vegan after watching animal-rights documentary Earthlings. “I kept it to myself,” Kavanagh told BBC. “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 works at vegan company Sgaia Vegan Meats, using his expertise to craft plant-based “mheats” such as bacon, burgers, and sausage. “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,” Kavanagh said. “But they were really excited about it and wanted me just as much as I wanted to work there.”