How a Hunting Trip Helped Make Me Vegan

Written by peta2 intern James

I didn’t grow up around tofu and almond milk. I grew up in a family where toughness was a way of life, and hunting and fishing were how men bonded. If you could shoot, you were confident. If you could gut a fish without flinching, you were a man. It wasn’t optional; it was part of proving yourself.

At first, I went along with it because I wanted to fit in. As a kid, you don’t question the traditions everyone around you treats as normal.

I enjoyed part of it. Not the shooting, not the victory photo, not the noise. What I loved were the parts when nothing happened. Sitting quietly in the woods, surrounded by cold air and trees, watching life move around me like I wasn’t even there. Birds calling. Squirrels rummaging through leaves. Deer slowly stepping out from the tree line.

I liked feeling like a fly on the wall. Those silent mornings were what made me start thinking. When you watch an animal simply exist, you realize how much they want to keep living. They aren’t game or targets. They’re emotional, argumentative, caring, loving, happy, and sad. They’re no different from us.

The first time I killed a pheasant, everyone around me was proud. They slapped me on the back, told me good shot, and we went out to dinner to celebrate. They made it feel like a rite of passage. But all I felt was guilt.

Watching that bird struggle and go still, knowing I did that, didn’t feel like success. It felt like I had just taken something from the world that didn’t need to be taken. I felt like I destroyed something that wasn’t mine to destroy.

That moment stuck with me. And over time, it didn’t matter how normal hunting was in my family. At first, I thought something was wrong with me. I couldn’t pretend it felt right. I didn’t want to hurt animals myself, and I didn’t want to pay someone else to do it either. Slowly, quietly, I stepped away from it all and chose to live differently.

Going vegan wasn’t about rejecting where I come from or acting superior. It was about aligning my actions with what I already felt in the woods. That life matters whether or not we’re taught to value it. Real strength isn’t pulling the trigger just because you can. Real strength is choosing compassion even when the world around you says that it makes you soft.

I’m grateful for hunting in a way. It taught me that animals don’t exist for us. They exist for themselves. And that’s exactly why it made me vegan.

You can use your real strength to help animals, too, by keeping them off your plate—order our free Guide to Going Vegan for the delicious recipes and first-hand tips you need to make the switch!