MOST little children love their cuddly toys and pets and don't associate meat with killing. By the time they realise where their meat comes from they have been conditioned to eat meat habitually without question.

I believed that animals and birds were put on earth for us to use, and that they were treated well and humanely killed until one day I accidentally found myself inside a barn full of caged hens - a battery farm.

I was horrified because I've always hated cruelty. How could this be allowed in my country -known worldwide as a nation of animal lovers?

This motivated me to study all the other ways that we legalise cruelty to the innocent, voiceless creatures who live under our tyranny.

It is endless - we torture them to death by the million in useless attempts to find cures or to test products.

We cram them into factory farms where thousands of millions suffer terribly before being cruelly crammed into lorries to be transported to the terror of the slaughterhouse. In fact everywhere where profit is involved cruelty is legal.

I refused to be a part of this hypocrisy so I became vegan, I boycotted products tested on animals, and joined all the animal rights societies I could find.

Later on I found that a vegan lifestyle is not only healthier for us, and good for the animals but ideal for the environment.

If you care about animals and yourself why not try it?

You may be pleasantly surprised to find how good you feel and how easy it is.

J RAWLINGS, Bournemouth.