Our Vegan Journey
We're Sonia and Brian.
Welcome to the story of our vegan journey.
Image of Polly in shopping cart, rescue at Goats of Anarchy. Credit Leanne Lauricella. Used with permission.
Meet Our Family:
Partners in life, sharing a journey shaped by compassion, advocacy, and lots of laughter and love.
Parents to our precious rescue, Allie.
Sonia and Brian Covington
Allie Covington
Journey Highlights:
Our journey began in 2017 with a little goat named Polly, rescued by Goats of Anarchy. Learning about her disabilities and the compassion shown to her opened our eyes to the broader realities of animal suffering and the food system.
Our next chapter began...
Encouraged by the sanctuary’s founder, the first weekend in May 2017 we explored documentaries like Farm to Fridge, Cowspiracy, Forks Over Knives, and What the Health. What we saw was painful yet eye‑opening and transformative, the cruelty of factory farming, the hidden costs of dairy and eggs, not financial, but the harm behind them, and the profound impact of our choices on animals, our health, our planet, and humanity.
We instantly made the commitment to become vegan - there was no other choice for either of us. Factory farming was brutal in every way. The cruelty was incomprehensible. We simply couldn’t support any of it! We cleared our home of animal products in our fridge, by-products wherever possible, embraced plant‑based cooking, and discovered that vegan food is not only compassionate but delicious. We aligned our values with our actions, continuing to make changes big and small to reduce harm and live more sustainably.
Today, after 26 years of marriage and 9 years of living vegan together, we feel deeply grateful for this shared path. For us, veganism is not just a diet, it’s a commitment to compassion, advocacy, and love. And we’ve learned that shifting away from animal agriculture could also help address world hunger, since the grain currently fed to livestock could instead nourish hundreds of millions of people around the world.
Our journey of learning and living vegan continues...
Full Journey:
Our vegan journey began with a little goat named Polly. In January 2017, I stumbled across an article with a photo of a goat in a shopping cart at a Tractor Supply. I was puzzled, thinking why would someone dress a goat in a onesie duck costume and bring her into a store in a shopping cart. Yet, it was important not to judge anyone without first seeking to understand their reasons, so I read the article.
I learned Polly lived at an animal sanctuary and was a blind, neurologically challenged goat. Blankets comforted her but when she stood, they would fall off. The founder came up with the idea of the onesie and she instantly felt safe, often falling asleep in it. She was simply joining the staff on a trip for supplies.
I was moved beyond words and immediately went to the sanctuary on Instagram @goatsofanarchy and then their website, goatsofanarchy.org, to learn more about the founder and her work. The founder, Leanne Lauricella, runs the non-profit sanctuary Goats of Anarchy in New Jersey. In their words, “Goats of Anarchy is a vegan farm sanctuary with a focus on goats with disabilities. We rescue and rehabilitate animals who are sick, injured, abused, blind, broken, missing limbs, or have other disabilities, and we give them a forever home.”
I spent a lot of time going through the posts Leanne shared because I never follow anyone, unless family and close friends, who’s not bringing me joy, laughter, educational information, enlightenment, or wisdom. I kept noticing how her posts linked the animals’ struggles back to the foods we eat and the realities of factory farming.
These posts began to connect the sanctuary’s work with the larger food system, and that’s when dairy came into focus. One post in particular, in late April 2017, Leanne brought up the hidden cost of dairy and cheese, not financial, but the harm behind them. It was not only deeply troubling, but I was also very confused, especially since I loved cheese so much, so I had to understand more. I sent Leanne a DM asking what she meant by her comment. She didn’t judge me but kindly responded with “Do your homework. Learn where your food comes from and the items you consume.”
Our next chapter began...
She recommended several documentaries to watch which were available at the time, with the short 12-minute video Farm to Fridge by Mercy for Animals touching on all factory farming industries being mentioned. I genuinely (and ignorantly) thought cows and goats always produced milk, then products were created from that milk, from dairy products to my favorite weakness, any and all cheeses. Breaking that illusion was painful. Leanne’s words to me meant I had to learn more.
The first weekend in May 2017, Brian and I watched Farm to Fridge. It was extremely difficult to watch. I learned how much was shielded from consumers in the reality of food production, not just the meat industry but dairy and eggs. To be honest, it was traumatizing and made me physically ill. The blinders were removed from us both. We couldn’t unsee the truth.
That same weekend we watched several other documentaries online, from the focus being on animals, like Cowspiracy, and health, like What the Health and Forks Over Knives, to those with impacts on our planet and humanity. Beyond our personal journey, we also learned how interconnected food choices are with global justice. We instantly made the commitment to become vegan - there was no other choice for either of us. Factory farming was brutal in every way. The cruelty was incomprehensible. We simply couldn’t support any of it!
We cleared out all animal products in our fridge and began the process of eliminating animal by-products in our home. It was a very emotional weekend for us both. We knew that small, incremental changes would help reduce our impact on animals, the planet, and humanity, not paying others to cause harm for our consumption. I recall my first visit to the grocery store, after watching these films, left me in tears. It’s difficult to explain but when I walked by the meat section of the store, all I could see was packaged body parts of a sentient animal bred for our consumption. It was the same when I went to the dairy and eggs aisle.
Taking a step back, my husband and I, in January 2017, had been married 18 years at the time. We had decided to explore a vegetarian diet, eliminating meat and only eating what animals produced (dairy, eggs). One of the seeds for us was regularly passing a cow pasture to visit our home being built. We had begun to research ways to get protein needed without meat and had already eliminated red meat (hubby started before me). We only consumed white meat (chicken and turkey) and he also seafood (I never liked seafood), while working to phase them out too as we learned more about plant proteins.
We are avid cooks and bakers too. Learning new recipes with easy substitutions was crucial for us to thrive. By following vegan chefs and content creators online, we discovered how to recreate classic dishes and explore new ones. Over time, we became better and better at it, even being asked to bring dishes to gatherings with friends, from pulled “pork” made with jackfruit and “chickn” pot pie made with soy curls, to pumpkin cheesecake made with vegan cream cheese. It was proof that vegan food is incredible and delicious, while created with compassion and not harming any living being.
Growing up, we consumed a Western diet, with both of our family's eating meat, dairy, and eggs. Neither of us questioned what we ate because we were eating what was customary and traditional in our families and cultures. We were also subjected to ongoing messaging everywhere that reinforced the idea that humans needed to eat meat for protein and drink milk for calcium. We were familiar with other dietary lifestyles like the Mediterranean diet, vegetarian diet, and vegan diet, yet there was so much we didn’t know about the power of plants until we were older and began to learn more. When we look back at our journey to where we are today, we see that we shared many similarities but also had important differences.
For me, like most children, I was expected to eat what was prepared for our family. I struggled to eat chicken on the bone because my brain immediately went to the animal. My dad and two of my three brothers were, and remain, avid fishermen and hunters. My dad had several bucks mounted on the wall in our home growing up, and every time I looked at them, I felt sadness. They would prepare the meat and eat it, but I couldn’t bring myself to do the same. I loved going to zoos and, sadly, ignorantly thought all the animals were rescued and there to be cared for, some were, but most were not. I loved aquariums, like Sea World, yet I always thought about the animals and kept trying to figure out where they went after the shows. I imagined they had a larger area to swim freely, not realizing they were forcibly taken from the ocean for our entertainment. In every instance, seeds were being planted. I loved animals, yet sadly only some were considered worthy of life. It breaks my heart to realize how disconnected I was from the truth.
For Brian, the rule in his family was to try something before saying you didn’t like it. He was always open to trying new foods. He and his dad enjoyed sampling a variety of wild, exotic dishes. He fished with his dad and friends, and would clean and cook the fish. Brian often cooked for himself and enjoyed it. He said he didn’t associate the animal with the food at the time because it was simply part of the food chain. Looking back now, he recognizes that disconnect.
In late 2017, for our wedding anniversary, we visited Polly, Leanne, and all her rescued animals at Goats of Anarchy. It was such an emotional experience for me. It’s hard to describe how beautiful it was to see the little goat who sparked a dramatic change in me, and ultimately us both. When we talked to Leanne, she was very surprised we both went vegan together. We’ve since learned it’s not typical for partners to go vegan at the same time. In fact, we had a family member ask us "Who changed who?", as if one person was to blame. We chuckled and explained, our blinders were removed after learning the truth together and we were thankful to be fully aligned in our decision to make this change. We’re currently the only two in both our families who follow a vegan lifestyle, but we’ve seen several of them, along with friends, begin to incorporate more plant‑based foods into their diets, which is incredible.
For us, it was simply our values aligning with our actions and we both felt it important to be the change we wanted to see. We ended up going back to visit the sanctuary at her new larger 30-acre location in late 2018. I recall gently stroking Polly, who had a little drool hanging from her mouth with the sunlight on her face. Although blind, she was content, happy, and safe. I cried each time I was there. We’ve since visited other incredible sanctuaries and support them and their work.
As of November 26, 2025, Brian and I have been married 26 years and both vegan 9 years. It’s hard to put into words how incredible it is to have a life partner so equally in sync with you. He’s such a loving human, to family, friends, strangers, to me, and our fur baby. I’m so blessed to be on this vegan journey with him. This change only brought us closer. It’s why we felt this site would be helpful, to share what we’ve learned along the way with you.
Another important factor for us was education. We learned so much, from our food consumption and household goods, to our health, and impact to our planet and humanity. For example, each year, more than one‑third of global crop production is grown specifically to feed farmed animals, yet only about 12% of those calories ever reach humans as meat or dairy. Studies show that if the grain currently fed to livestock were consumed directly by people, it could feed hundreds of millions; in the U.S. alone, enough to nourish nearly 800 million people.
For us, veganism is not just a diet, it’s a commitment to compassion, advocacy, and love.
Our journey of learning and living vegan continues...
