30. Choosing Kindness

QUOTE FROM HARPER (Voice over music playing) I wasn't completely naive to the FFA system. I understood, but it was something different hearing in theory about these animals versus getting to see them, to meet them, and to truly understand what it meant to send them back to a breeder. Because even if they were at a breeder, if they have males, they will be slaughtered, and the sheep will be bred until they physically cannot anymore. And it's very different to truly know that and to see it. So I don't want to give a perception that I truly didn't understand. I did. It was the culture I was around that made it seem like I was crazy for disagreeing with what they were saying. 

HOST (Voiceover): Hello, and welcome back to the Animal Friendly Podcast. In this episode, we learn about Harper Garrison, a young student who found herself questioning her participation in an FFA program, and ultimately rescuing her lamb, Onion, and finding her a new home at a farm sanctuary. FFA is an organization founded in 1928 in America, and their website describes their programs as a path to achievement in premier leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education. The program involves young people renting or buying an animal from a farmer, and then working with that animal over a period of time to try and increase their value in agricultural terms. At the end, the students are required to either return their animal to the farmer, or they have to try and sell the animal and get the best price that they can. The organization claims to teach children leadership and agricultural skills, but for some children who develop close bonds with their animals, these projects take an emotional toll that can last a lifetime. There are groups and professionals who argue that FFA is actually teaching young people to ignore or suppress their natural empathy, and to accept an outdated and destructive method of food production, that is, animal agriculture. There are now organizations like LEAP, Leaders for Ethics, Animals and the Planet, which aim to provide an alternative program for students who want to engage with animals but don't want to be complicit in their breeding and slaughtering. The LEAP program provides education and training for high school students, covering subjects such as leadership development, wildlife and habitat conservation, food deserts and food insecurity, and much, much more, as well as hands-on compassionate animal care. LEAP says that young people have an innate empathy with all animals, until programs like FFA or 4-H teaches them how to regard so-called farm animals as commodities. It's definitely harder to imagine a program where a student would spend a year training a dog or a horse, and then be told, well, now it's time to send them off to be slaughtered, say goodbye. This would be deemed a cruel thing to do to children, to allow them to form a bond, and then to have it severed so drastically. So why don't we have sympathy for the bond they form with other animals? With that in mind, let's get on with hearing Harper's story.

HOST: So I guess the first thing to do is if you'd like to introduce yourself, and then you can tell us about Onion. 

HARPER: Hi, I'm Harper, and last year I rescued my sheep Onion from FFA. Originally, I had her through FFA, and I was told the most ethical thing I could do is rent her, because that way she was only going to be sent back for breeding. And I simmered on it all year, and the longer the year went by, I realized I couldn't continue to. As the year went by, I realized that wasn't the most ethical choice, and I wanted to send her to a sanctuary instead. And I researched...  

HOST: Sorry, can you just tell us what FFA is?  

HARPER: Yeah. FFA is a program for students to work with animals in an agricultural setting. But most of the students that are interested in FFA are interested for the hands-on experience with animals. But at the end of the season, you compete your animal, and if you buy your animal, they'll be sent to slaughter. And if you rent your animal, they will be sent back to the farmer that you bought them from. So that was the decision you were trying to wrestle with? Yes. And it took me a couple of months, because initially I did know it was wrong, but I was being told by so many adults that what I was doing was the right thing, that I felt like I was crazy. I was the only one who didn't agree with the program that I had joined. And I called a bunch of local sanctuaries to see if I even had the possibility of rehoming her. And no one answered. No one called me back. And I told myself I did the best I could do. And I had given up for a couple of weeks. But as the time grew closer that I would send her back to her farmer, I realized that I needed to do something else. And I called back, and Austin Farm Sanctuary answered my call. They were willing to take Onion, and that's where everything started. 

HOST: Okay. What were you doing with Onion at that time? What did the FFA program involve?  

HARPER: The FFA program involved training your animal and exercising them so that they can grow muscles, because they're looking at these animals to slaughter what would taste the best. And I didn't follow the program as closely. I know when we had a competition coming up, everyone was stressed with their animals. And you could see their movements become very rigid. And they were very rough on their animals. And I didn't do that. I would spend hours with her every day. But if she didn't understand the training, I knew that was my fault. And I would accept that our competitions weren't going to go well. You exercise them every day, which many students were a bit lazier. And they would put their animals on a treadmill all day. And there's a cage on top of the treadmill with just a door. And so you push your animal through it. Many, many lambs and goats are very afraid. But you held their head up on a halter, which is a leash that's wrapped around the back their head and their nose. And you would start the treadmill many times the animals will try and grasp onto the sides of the treadmill, where it was not moving and their owners would push their legs back onto the treadmill. I never did that. I was told to that it would make her look better. But I never brought my lamb on a treadmill. I would run her up and down hills. And we both didn't like that. So I settled, I found an enclosed space and I would let her run every single day. I'd be after school from about four to six-thirty. Just letting her run and graze how she naturally does. And that's how I worked her out. 

HOST: Okay, so you said you mentioned their Austin Farm Sanctuary and where it all started. So what happened? What was that big change?  

HARPER: Well, once Austin Farm Sanctuary agreed to take her, my next step was getting permission from the farmer. And I understood that Onion’s significance was because of the money that she would provide him. So I tried to raise money and I told Austin Farm Sanctuary that I was going to try and get $500. I thought they would want $500 for her because I had originally already paid $500 to rent her. And they connected me with the founder of LEAP, Danielle. And she heard my story and immediately jumped into action to help me. And she spread a GoFundMe I had made. And I was in class and I looked down at my phone. And in about three hours, I surpassed my goal of $500. And I shut down the GoFundMe. I was super proud. And I tried to ask my teacher for my farmer's contact information, because Onion was rented, and I had a contract to return her. And I couldn't find the farmer, I wasn't being helped. And I got in contact with PETA. And one of their organizations PETA to help me find his contact information. I was supposed to have a competition and he would be there. And I looked for hours trying to find him. I found families, I said, do you know this man? And I got a million descriptions. And I was told he was there, but I couldn't find him. And I found out he had left hours early. And I finally realized I needed to confess to my teacher, so that I could truly find this man. And I just told the teacher that I was interested in buying her. 

HOST (Voiceover): In the interest of privacy, we're not going to say how much the farmer wanted for onion. But Harper's teacher gave her an estimated price. 

HARPER: And it was more than $500. And I remember, I left that competition. And I found this weird prop set up that someone had clearly left in a field. And I sat there and I just started sobbing. Because I, I don't have a job. And I have no way of making it. So I thought, and that was probably the most crucial moment I had. Because that is when I would have given up. Hearing that price. My thought was I just needed to give up. I clearly, I could not do this anymore. But I knew I could not live with myself if I hadn't tried. And just as I called all the sanctuaries and they didn't answer and I lied to myself and I said I did the best I could. I realized that I still wasn't doing enough. And I needed to go back and I needed to keep trying. And at that competition, I sold an art piece at an auction for another $850. It was another piece about onion. And I ended up selling art for the first time. When I had officially raised the money for onion, I was texted by the founder of LEAP that someone had sent them a very nasty message about me and claimed that I was stealing all of the funds I had fundraised. And I really struggled with that. But I came to school and I was very lucky. I had one teacher that he understood me well. And though he wasn't happy that I didn't tell him any of this, he was still willing to help. And he got in contact with the farmer. And he was more than willing to take all the money and to break my contract. And Onion had a very, a sheep that she was very close with. Her name was Biscuit and she was my friend’s sheep. And unfortunately, Biscuit’s owner did not choose to try and break contract, which is okay. This is not realistic for most people. It certainly wouldn't have been for me any other case. Because many students truly were not happy with FFA. They love their animals. And they either understood the system well enough and there's a bit of a mental disconnect from where their animal was going. Or they didn't like it, but they accepted what was going to happen. And my friend didn't like it, but she accepted what was going to happen because she wanted another sheep the next year. There's nothing against her. I understand how the system makes everyone feel.  

HOST (Voiceover): I'm just going to take a moment here to mention some of the practical expenses involved with FFA. Here's a comment from a Facebook post made in July 2025 by someone who is in favor of the program, but discusses the increasing cost.

Quote: “Over 25 years ago, I showed lambs as a student in FFA. My very first project cost just a few hundred dollars, feed, supplements and a starter lamb to get me going. As I grew as a showman, my animals became more competitive and the expenses grew too. Now, as a parent of two children who want to show competitively, I'm staring at the cost of this journey with new eyes and quite honestly, a heavy heart. The price tags on show lambs and goats today feel overwhelming. Even the dollar per pound at the sale ring often doesn't cover the cost of the animal, much less feed, supplies, entries and travel. Making the sale is no guarantee and often, even with add-ons, it still doesn't add up to breaking even. I've always heard you don't get into FFA or 4-H to make money. It's for the life lessons and I get that. But let's be real, those lessons shouldn't come with such a high price tag that only a few can afford to learn them.” End quote. And then someone else made a comment on this post. Quote: “I feel this so much. We get literally last place every show we go to. It is so hard to put in the same work and feel looked down on by everyone at the top. Beyond the costs, there are too many families unwilling to help others learn. That is not what I want my kids to learn from all of this. My seven-year-old was told by another seven-year-old that her sheep couldn't be friends with her sheep because they were competitors”. End quote. Anyway, let's get back to Harper. She went on to talk about Onion's arrival at Austin Farm Sanctuary. 

HARPER: And I sent her to Austin Farm Sanctuary. It was a very rainy, dreary day and I felt very nervous because I knew that they were better but I still did not know what I was getting myself into. And my family drove an hour with Onion in the back of the truck and there was a cage, of course, but you could hear her bowing through the car on the highways. And we got there and everyone immediately knew who she was and immediately welcomed Onion in. And she went to a quarantine cage at first because she did turn out to be a little sick. So they kept her apart from the animals for a bit. And then she was allowed into the herd with all the other animals. And she now has a sister sheep, Olivia.  

HOST: What was her kind of reaction? Was she looking to you or looking just going along with everything, I suppose?  

HARPER: She definitely seemed confused. When she first roamed her enclosure, she was going in circles and the only person she would truly stand by was me. And because she was so far, my parents already felt that they had done enough. We were not going to visit her anytime soon. And it took about three months before I could get back. And I visited her and she was, they had their main enclosure and they had a field open to the animals that they open in the summer to graze. And she was the only one in this vast field sitting under a tree waiting. And she definitely did not seem to mesh with the animals at first. She was the leader when she was in the barn. So I think it was a very different environment for her to not be the top of the totem pole. I had a really hard time once Onion was gone because we had such a close bond and I wasn't sure if she understood what I did. Because how could she suddenly, she was in a new area and no one she knew was there and I never came back seemingly because it had taken me so long. And I really struggled. And admittedly, I still struggle a bit not having her anymore because of how close our bond was. And I was convinced she would forget me. But thankfully, if I ever asked for photos of her or anything when I miss her, they'll send me photos of her when they cut out her ear tag. Because if you've ever seen agriculture animals, they all have ear tags so that they can be identified. When they cut out her ear tag, they sent me photos and videos of it. And I'm very lucky to have found such loving owners for her and to have that space. But I still face a lot of criticism from what I did. And in hindsight, I found out it was one of my friends that exposed everything who was also in the FFA system. And they chose to send their animal to slaughter, which come to find out they really regretted by the end of the season. But I believe that they resented me to some degree because they had a very close relationship with their first ever sheep. And their sheep was in the exact same position and went back to the farmer. And I believe that they had a really hard time knowing that I did not have to send my sheep back. And I believe that's where everything came from. And I still face people who have unfriended me after what I did, because they didn't understand it. I faced a lot of criticism. I've been talked about, I do not show my face in the agriculture area of our school anymore, because there was a lot of pushback. But I don't regret anything that I did. I'm very grateful I'm in LEAP, because that gives me an opportunity to see her more than I ever did before, which is just another plus. I really I love LEAP. I love being able to be with those animals in the way that I had previously wanted, because I wasn't completely naive to the FFA system. I understood, but it was something different hearing in theory about these animals, versus getting to see them, to meet them, and to truly understand what it meant to send them back to a breeder. Because even if they were at a breeder, if they have males, they will be slaughtered. And the sheep will be bred until they physically cannot anymore. And it's very different to truly know that and to see it. So I don't want to give a perception that I truly didn't understand. I did. It was the culture I was around that made it seem like I was crazy for disagreeing with what they were saying. 

HOST: So that's a good, you mentioned LEAP there, the LEAP program. So that's a great opportunity for us to talk about it. Can you tell us what LEAP is and what the what the program is like? 

HARPER: Of course, LEAP is a program where you get hands-on experience with animals at sanctuaries. It's exactly what I wanted the FFA program to be. It's a lot more ethical when you work with the animals. I'm not exactly sure about every location, because they are all across the U.S. and recently opened in sanctuaries in Canada. But you get a buddy animal. And after a while, you can work with a specific animal of your choice a little bit more than the rest. And I immediately chose Onion, of course. And I've only done two meetings this year. My third one is next week. But we've worked with the animals. We've learned a lot about them. I used to not be a fan of pigs because I always saw them at our barn. And they were a little bit more aggressive. But meeting all the pigs at Austin Farm Sanctuary, they were so friendly. It opened my eyes. And we get vegan meals there in a lesson. And the lessons shape a bit around what the students want. We've had discussions on climate change and a vegan diet. We've helped plant flowers for events at the sanctuary. We've learned about every resident. And it's been a great experience.  

HOST: I love the way you say that, like, it's an alternative to the FFA, but it's what a lot of people going into the FFA would have liked that to be, that it was ethical and friendly and you're not kind of raising animals for slaughter. And were you into animals before that? Did you know anything about vegan advocacy? Or is this kind of a new world to you? 

HARPER: I was actually a vegetarian. I started my freshman year my entire life. I tried to be vegetarian and never stuck until my freshman year of high school. So I felt like I was very ethical within my choices. But I thought vegans were too extreme at the time. I thought as long as I'm not killing an animal, I have made the most ethical decision I could. And I think seeing animals face to face, when you notice all their different personalities, which is a very obvious thing in hindsight, but I don't think it clicked for a lot of students. You met all their different personality types. I realized that simply not eating meat wasn't enough in that I find milk was still supporting the same programs. And I'm still working on it. And my plan is in college next year to officially go vegan. But I'm not there yet. I'm still working on it. But I've always had a connection with animals. I certainly prefer dogs, I think as most kids do. And I had never truly considered it towards farm animals, to the extent that I do now.  

HOST: Right. Yeah. So one of the things that you said to me was that at a, you said you're at a B-52 concert, you were doing the PETA stunt. Were you kind of outreach? Were you talking to people?  

HARPER: Yes, I was doing outreach. I was handing out pamphlets trying to teach about veganism. It was a really great event. And my first event with PETA, because I grew a connection with them after they helped me with onion. And it was a great experience. Most people were very welcoming to the idea, which was a wonderful surprise. But I did a tabling event for PETA two more recently. And that was giving away vegan roast and encouraging people to have vegan options for Thanksgiving. And I did find people had definitely changed their perspective. It really makes you disheartened when you see how people treat their animals. And it was mostly by men, I will say that would yell more vulgar things about animals towards me seeing that. But the majority of the population was very supportive. They really liked everything we had to do. And it was a great experience to go to that concert. I they gave me the availability to bring a friend which made me feel a lot more comfortable.  

HOST: That's good to hear that you weren't getting I know you'd get some abuse, but at least you were getting some good reactions as well. That's encouraging. It's a brave thing to do. Not everybody would do it to kind of be facing the public and talking about something like that.  

HARPER: It was very difficult at first handing out the pamphlets, because everyone thought I was selling something. Or they were very interested in what I had to sell until they realized I was working with PETA. It was a huge experience. But I think it was great to get me out of my shell a bit and truly talk to people advocating because with everything I did with Onion, I felt like I was at a standstill because I saved one life. But it turned into this feeling that I wasn't doing enough.  

HOST: Yeah. And to be honest, I think almost every animal advocate that I talked to the ones even the ones I'm completely in awe of, they don't think they're doing enough. So you're not alone there. You talked about organizing a fundraiser for Austin Farm Sanctuary. Is that going ahead? Is that something you're working on?  

HOST: Yes, I'm working to have a fundraiser slash event in March. And it will have bouquet making, it'll have food vendors, hopefully some music, I'm still figuring that out. That is what I've mostly done since I've really stayed close to the organizations that took the time to help me. And so all the leftover money I had when I had originally bought Onion, I've sent to Austin Farm Sanctuary. I won a grant a while ago, and I sent that to the LEAP organization for helping me. And I'm trying to bring more money back to Austin Farm Sanctuary again. And I'm currently working on finding sponsors, which is a little bit slow, but we already have a couple. And it's hopefully going to grow in when all the budget resets.  

HOST: Very good. And that was the Pro Animal Awards grant. 

HARPER: Yes, it was. Yeah.  

HOST: So I have it here. That's an international initiative recognizing young leaders who are shaping a more compassionate world for farm animals through digital advocacy. So that's a pretty good thing to be awarded for. That's so great that you put the money back to LEAP. 

HARPER: They were the reason I got it, in my opinion, because the founder, again, I'd like to say we have a good relationship since everything she truly helped me and she helped me get my footing in the animal advocacy world. And she sent me I had seen the grant before, but she sent it to me and she thought that I had a social media post already up that would fit it well. And I thought it was a shot in the dark, but because she sent it to me, I did choose to do it. And so I definitely give thanks because that organization has helped me a lot more than anything I could have expected. I'm currently on their Youth Advisory Council, and we're fine tuning what that means, because I'm a part of their first year Youth Advisory Council, but they're helping me with the fundraiser I told you about, and they're helping guide me along the way and make sure I'm not forgetting any details in the process.  

HOST: Do you kind of see yourself in the future going into a job with animal advocacy, or is that a bit too far ahead to be looking?  

HARPER: Well, I am very indecisive about my future. I do plan in college, I want to work with PETA still because they do have remote jobs, and currently I'm a kennel tech and a veterinary technician at my job, but I hope to do wildlife biology in my future.  

HOST: Really?  

HARPER: Yes, but I'm still very undecided because there's so many paths that I didn't know and I decided on wildlife biology before any of my experience with Onion. 

HOST: Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, because of course you're only 17, so there is plenty of time to think about things. Some of us didn't know what we were doing until we were 40 or older, so don't worry about it. So do you have like, I know you mentioned Danielle Hanosh  there, have you made a lot of other contacts, other people in the Youth Council, people in PETA? Do you find there's a whole community of people working in this area, young and old?  

HARPER: Yes, there is. Being a part of the Youth Advisory Council, we become close with the members and I'm especially talking to one right now, though I'm working on my fundraiser and she did something similar recently. We both want to keep doing more, so I've started to make a lot of friends my age in the animal advocacy, vegan range, which is great because in my personal life, I live in Texas and there are not many people that agree with that and the only vegan I knew by the time I was vegetarian had chosen not to be vegan anymore. And it was very difficult, but everyone opened the door for me to find more students my age who cared about these things. I've met some people through LEAP, the In-Person Sanctuary group, and I've hung out with them in person. After the fact, I invited them to one of the PETA tabling events that I went to. I've contacted and talked to many LEAP Youth Advisory Councils and I'm a part of PETA 2's Youth Advisory Council, though I have not talked to them as much because when we have our meetings, we usually give advice on campaigns that they're planning, so I'm more focused on my work there and a little bit less social than the rest. 

HOST: I was going to ask because I think maybe Texas is a bit like Ireland. There's a very strong agricultural basis in Ireland, so it's quite strange to be a vegan in Ireland and I was thinking maybe it's the same kind of thing in Texas, so I was wondering about your school community and friends. Do people in school know about your advocacy work?  

HARPER: I'm very loud about it in what I believe. Many people don't agree with me and it's been very hard to explain it. My friends, they've accepted it. It hasn't changed much of our lives, which is great. I have been dating someone since my freshman year and that was very difficult for them because they live in a traditionally Hispanic household, so whenever I'm going out, I have a very hard time with people and I often don't eat at all because there aren't any options without meat down here. If we're going out, we're going to a steakhouse or a barbecue joint, but it's still very manageable. Luckily, I live in an area where there are vegan restaurants and such opening up. Currently, a lot of them are struggling because the plant-based diet isn't a trend anymore and that's a bit disheartening because if they close, it will leave me with few to none options when it comes to vegetarian and especially a vegan diet because I'm not vegan, but I am actively transitioning and looking for those restaurants, but even though a lot of students and peers and especially the adults don't understand it, I have met very few that actively oppose what I'm doing and try and tell me that I'm wrong. A lot of them disagree. They don't understand, but they accept my choice. 

HOST: So, I suppose I often ask people how they learn about animal advocacy or educate themselves. Is it like books, but I suppose with you, is it people or is it books or is it films? Have you watched kind of vegan films?  

HARPER: I've watched vegan films. On Netflix, there's something called Cowspiracy and that's truly what switched me. I feel like I generally understand a lot about being vegan and I see it in articles when I'm checking why don't people agree with this or why is honey not vegan and I do learn a lot through that, but I think what teaches me the most are photos because once you see something, it's hard to turn back. If you've ever heard of We Animals,  they have a lot of photography and they go into slaughterhouses and when I see that, it truly puts into perspective what you're hearing about because it's one thing to read it and to talk to people and to say animals are being slaughtered, but it's a different beast when you truly see what they're going through and I think that's taught me the most because in theory, I do understand why people are vegan now, but there's a bit of a mental disconnect with how bad it truly is for the animals and why they don't look past a cow being milked.  

HOST: It's great that you mentioned We Animals, I'm a huge fan of theirs and actually even this afternoon or this evening, about three hours before I talked to you, I was listening to Jo Anne McArthur in a webinar, so that's really funny, but their photographs are just amazing. You mentioned an art that you sold, an art project or art that you did, so are you an artist yourself?  

HARPER: Yes, I've done art my whole life and I'm in an AP art class right now and I'm building a portfolio off of my experience with Onion and animal advocacy currently, which I'm very excited about, but yes, I've done art. I had never sold an art piece before that auction. I had made a very realistic drawing of her when I first got her and in hindsight, it's very funny because she's very skinny and she wasn't shaved well, so she was very patchy, but I seem to find a lot of people that really did enjoy that piece of work.  

HOST: I've seen some of your social media posts and they're like photograph montages and that sort of thing. Do you like that or painting or do you just like trying everything? 

HARPER: I love painting and sketching more so, but I have found social media is a lot less pressuring when I make it feel more like my art and collagey and fun as opposed to perfect, pristine pictures. I think that's the best way I've learned to use it, especially around animal advocacy. I'm working on that because I have a lot of events that I go to that I can't seem to get a good photo, so I'm learning to try and collage them and make it a lot less pressure so I could share my message without worrying that I look perfect and posed while I do it.  

HOST: Do you have a full-time school? Is it a five-day week?  

HARPER: Yes, I still have a five-day week and I work strictly on weekends, so it's very busy. I was delayed on responding to your emails because I had 10-hour shifts every single day of my Thanksgiving break. I miss Thanksgiving because of it. I still have a very busy schedule, but I find that as long as I do what I'm supposed to immediately, I have a lot more time. So, I will work all throughout the day on schoolwork. Sometimes, most times during lunch, I'm working on schoolwork and so the second I get home, I go straight on my computer and I start writing more emails for sponsors for my fundraisers and coming up with a bunch of ideas to work on.  

HOST: The vet tech work, what does that involve?  

HARPER: Most of the time, I'm just administering shots. I did have a moment where I was assisting in a surgery, mostly tracking vitals. I know I'm very new, so that's mostly what I've done, but it's typically just like a nurse and a doctor. The nurse seems to be doing the most and the doctor comes in at the end and says they did this right or the doctor is performing the surgeries and we are just assisting and also helping set up, tear down, restraining a lot of dogs and helping them because when they get their shots and everything, they're very nervous. So, I will restrain the dogs and tap them so that they get distracted from their shots and that's mostly what it's involved so far, but I'm still very new to it.  

HOST: I was going to say, you learn a lot about handling animals. That kind of reminds me of the farm sanctuary. Did you have interaction with other animals besides Onion? Are you kind of able to get to visit with all the animals?  

HARPER: We got to visit all the animals. On the first day, they only let us into one pen, which I was very grateful it was Onions. They have goats there. They recently, last week, one of the goats passed away, but he had three legs and he was either blind or deaf. They certainly do have a blind goat who walks around with his head held high running into you, which is very sweet. We got to interact with the pigs. They were just these pigs just about as big as me laying down for belly rubs and we got to feed them pumpkins for Halloween, which was fun. They also have cows, such as a blind cow named Valentino, but I've yet to mess with those guys. I'm always very focused on Onion and thankfully the founder and everyone at the sanctuary understands my relationship with her. They'll let me wander off and go back to Onion during my time.  

HOST (Voiceover): I was very grateful to Harper for being so candid about her experiences and I asked if she had anything else she wanted to say before we wrap things up.  

HOST: Is there anything in particular that you want to talk about? I know in your pitch you just talked about wanting to inspire other people and to just keep trying consistently. 

HARPER: Yeah, I definitely want to share how crucial it is to just try with what you're doing because I still have an ego. I hate failing at what I do and for a very long portion of my life, I chose to do nothing at all because it felt like the choice of doing nothing was better than someone choosing it for you. My sophomore year, two years ago, I heard about an abroad program to France for art and I thought I would just try on a whim.I didn't think my art was good enough. It was a college visit and I got accepted and that's truly what changed my idea and since then I've really worked to try. As I said, I failed at being a vegetarian most of my life. You can definitely say I failed with that but my focus is I kept trying and I kept trying and I couldn't confidently tell you why I failed. I remember being in third grade and I would decide in the morning I'm a vegetarian and then by lunch I had a hot dog and I had to reset but I always just kept trying and I want to tell people how important that is because the worst thing people are going to say is no. I've truly learned believe the best in people. A lot more people are willing to help you achieve your dreams than you realize. It's very easy to be pessimistic. Seeing on social media someone getting rejected even down to it's a very hard job market but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try. Currently, I'm a vet tech but originally I was rejected to be a vet tech and then I was allowed to be a vet tech and the day before all my shifts got cancelled and I constantly wasn't allowed to train but I kept pushing and I finally got that position and I never thought I could do that. I'm lucky enough to be in a state that I don't need to yet be licensed to learn how to be a vet tech. It's just so important to try. With Onion, I failed a million times over but I'll never consider those failures because at the end I kept pushing and something is going to break. No matter what, as long as you consistently try, you will find a way to make it and I really do want people to realize that because it's such a simple message just try or and it looks like it's luck for other people but I can bet you they're trying far more than you realize. They're just not talking about their failures. 

HOST (Voiceover): And isn't that the truth and it's a great message to end on. Since we were talking about the LEAP organization, I wanted to play an excerpt from one of their board members, Dr. Crystal Heath. She is a vegan veterinarian who has often faced strong backlash from the agribusiness industry as a result of her animal advocacy. As a teenager, Dr. Heath was involved with the 4-H program and here she is speaking on the Healthification podcast about the experience.  

CRYSTAL HEATH on Healthification Podcast: Yeah, so I was a teenager and it's like any teenager in this rural area. If you loved animals, you joined 4-H and it was also sort of a pipeline to vet school. If you applied to vet school with a strong 4-H background, you were a good candidate and I was vice president of my 4-H club and we raised goats and horses and chickens but it got to the point where we kind of, me and my sister, I have a twin sister who's also in 4-H with me, our neighbors did like the pig projects and the cow projects and the sheep projects where they would raise these animals and then sell them at the county fair at the auction for meat. And we kind of like discussed like, would we do that? Get to, you know, do this project with your friends who are also doing it and we kind of ultimately decided no. And I think at the same time, we kind of got our hands on some PETA material and we're like, no, we're not gonna do this. Our goats even were dairy goats and we were supposed to breed our goats for the next year but it was discussed if we had boy goats, they would have to be sold to slaughter because there's really no market for dairy goats who are boys because they couldn't be bred and then produce milk. So, you know, decided not to breed our goats too so that meant we couldn't show our goats at the fair the next year. But it really showed me how animal loving kids can be manipulated by the social systems around them to cause harm to animals. And there's even this paper on the desensitization process that these 4-H kids go through. It's called Reproducing Dominion, Emotional Apprenticeship in the 4-H Youth Livestock Program. And it talks about the detachment that students experience and how when they're younger, they're more teary-eyed and they name their animals but it's like a sign of maturity. When you get older, you don't name your animal anymore and you care more about the money you'll get than your actual connection to the animal. And that's really how we become socialized into this process. And I just realized the stories that we are told by our elders, by the people that we respect about how to get through this life, it really shapes our own internal narratives about our relationships with animals. And you just realize that the people who aren't aligned with veganism and animal rights have just been told this story. They're not bad people. They have just been indoctrinated into this system and told this story. 

HOST (Voiceover): A part of growing up is to question what's happening around us and to wonder if there aren't better ways of doing things. Just because something is conventional doesn't mean that it's necessary or even acceptable. In a world where animal agriculture is one of the leading drivers of habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, ocean dead zones, water and land pollution, as well as climate breakdown, maybe it is time to think about dismantling the whole system. I want to say thank you again to Harper for sharing her experiences with FFA and subsequently with LEAP, PETA and Austin Farm Sanctuary. And I can only wish her lots of luck in her future endeavours. And thank you for listening and I'll see you next time.