The first activist thing I did in DC when I moved there was to do what I always did when I got to a new town.
I would go to the dog pound.
Alex Pacheco was a student at George Washington University, and he came in one day and offered to volunteer.
The head of the dog pound, her name was Ingrid Newkirk.
He was also a vegan, and I was not.
I was a vegetarian.
And he teased me about putting milk in my tea.
I had a cup of tea every morning and I put condensed milk in it.
And he said, do you eat veal?
And I said to him, of course I don't.
We haven't eaten veal in my house since I was seven.
And he said, but there's a little bit of veal in every glass of milk.
I looked at him as if he was crazy, and he explained, he said, do you think there are retirement at homes for cows?
Well, I guess not.
He said, why do you think there's a veal industry?
It's because you have to do something with the calves when you take them away from the mother so that you can steal the milk that nature intended for them and sell it.
Uh oh.
Can't have milk in the tea then, can I?
She was ten years older than me, so she.
She was more savvy than me.