IT IS SO SAD. I remember the day as if it happened yesterday. My little sister Jaylin and I were sitting and watching Sesame Street and we saw Big Bird on the TV and Jaylin ran to the TV and yelled at the top of her lungs, “Big Bird! I wuv Big Bird!” Then we started dancing around to the Sesame Street music because the show was going on. Then Jaylin said, “Big Bird go bye-bye,” and she started crying. Then I thought about what she said and I started crying too. I realized that Big Bird was a bird. A chicken, that we eat. If someone ate him, he could really be gone forever.

At that moment I told my mom that I did not want to eat chicken anymore. Then I thought about all the other Sesame Street animals that I watched on TV with my sister Jaylin and I told my mom that I did not want to eat animals anymore because it was too sad to think of us eating these Sesame Street characters that Jaylin runs to the TV to see. There is Rosy the Cow and Elmo’s fish Dorothy. If they weren’t protected by the Sesame Street police, then they could be eaten by one of us and I did not want to be a part of that. I loved to see Jaylin’s face light up when Elmo’s World would start and Elmo and Dorothy would talk to us. If there were no more Dorothy.....Uhhh, the thought of it is making me sad.

I told my mom that I did not want to be the reason Jaylin never stopped crying for Big Bird because he went bye-bye for good. My mom was really cool about it. She told me, “Don’t worry, sweetie. You do not have to eat any more animals if you do not want to.” Then my mom started making me all kinds of cool pasta and vegetable dishes. What was really cool was when my mom stopped eating meat also because she agreed with me and did not want to see Jaylin cry forever because Big Bird and Dorothy were gone for good because someone ate them.

Since then we have been a non-eating Big Bird, Dorothy, and Rosy family. We only eat pasta and vegetables. No more meat for my family. I was able to save some relatives of Big Bird and Dorothy from my family’s stomachs.