Book Highlight: The Lucky Ones

This informative, passionate memoir follows Jenny Brown, founder and owner of Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary as she delves into her journey into animal rights, particularly farm animals and veganism.

Beginning at age 10 when she was diagnosed with cancer, she had to have her leg amputated. Her mother sought to ease the pain a little by giving in and getting her a pet kitten whm she named Boogie. Not only did the animal ease the pain, physically and emotionally, it was the first brush with another being that caused Jenny to look outside herself. She began to think about animals, their intelligence/emotion and what we humans do to them. She resolved that she would take the best care of her kitten, and would go on to devote a career advocating for animal welfare.

She admits that it wasn’t a smooth transition. When she was a teenager, she had worked at McDonalds, the dissociation between the chickens we eat and the living, breathing chickens still strong.

But Brown has a way of digesting the information to informatively explain why it became important to her to go vegan as well as pointing the propoganda and brainwashing the corporate meat industries that encourage the rapid consumption of meats. Which is their point but it gets hard to swallow when she details what goes on in the factories and how they treat the animals.

She pulls no punches, which is her goal as she describes the hell that these animals are forced into, and the fates that her rescued animals have almost escaped. It is horrible, and she brings up good points, one that struck me was:

Some people feel sympathy for my animals as they are so intelligent, how could we let them be killed? I ask, even if the animal was dumb, does that give us the right to abuse and kill it as if it was a worthless life?

As for Brown, I enjoy her voice. She admits that she can be overpassionate and emotional, part of her journey is learning to rein in that anger and sadness of fighting what seems like an endless battle. AS well as trying not to be like the aggressive PETA protester she is inside because she knows her argument will not be seen as strong. But that passion comes from a sincere place, plus she is humorous as she relates her fangirl moment of getting an email from Paul McCartney as well as the occasional embarassing moments like her prosthetic leg flying off during cheerleading. Plus she goes into detail of her work as a documentarian and the process in creating a educational farm sanctuary, showing all her hard work and the bounds of research she put into it.

Additionally, she offers recipes, books, documentaries and websites for those interested in learning more about animal rights and veganism that I am planning to add to my TBR pile. Plus it really has made me consider trying out the vegan diet. Which I said the last time I read this, but this time I mean it.