Abolitionist Again

So. You may have noticed my silence since my last post. It was weird, after writing that, the universe started hammering me with messages opposing my stance. Everywhere I turned there were compelling arguments against welfarism and amazing people doing amazing things from an abolitionist perspective; essays, lectures, blogs, and Facebook updates. So after being confronted with damning evidence in favour of being abolitionist; here I am with my tail between my legs having to admit that I was wrong.

I thought using the angle of animal welfare as a gateway for getting meat eaters to listen to my views was the best way to go. For example, I was chatting with my dad, aunt and uncle last week. Usually they switch off and/or take the piss out of me when I preach that killing animals for food is inherently wrong. This time my opener was much better received. 

''Fine whatever, you don't agree with me that animals shouldn't be killed for food. But surely, you agree with me that they shouldn't be intensively farmed and subject to torture and excruciating conditions just so that we can buy meat cheaply?''

They agreed, then they listened to my rants on factory farms and for once I wasn't having to defend my position. And there you have it; 3 more meat eaters who now know what happens in factory farms who didn't know before. Success!

Well at least I thought so. Of course they listened. Of course they agreed with me. Of course they were more open. But that doesn't mean there was any sort of breakthrough. They listened because they weren't being accused of doing anything wrong. I was telling them that it's fine to eat meat. I was telling them that the only thing they are guilty of, is not knowing the truth, and that's not their fault is it? Pandering to them like this isn't going to break down any barriers. Do I really believe that any of them are going to make a committed effort to stop buying factory farmed produce? Come on, as if! And even if they did, I was convincing myself that this would be a half way step to veganism, but it's not! People who believe they're doing enough by buying higher welfare meat are even harder to 'convert'!

If I expect anyone to change, they need to hear the harsh truth. The full truth. That animals are not ours to use, full stop. That's the message that needs to be heard because everything hinges on that. If more people believed that, fur farms, meat farms, dairy farms, puppy mills, none of them would exist anyway! We wouldn't need to pussy foot around these people and beg them to torture the animals in a nicer way. The fundamental core issue that animal use is just plain bad is what the animals need people to be pushing.

But as long as we have people fighting in any way they can for the animals, that's a good thing, right? Nope. Not only does this attitude not help, it is actually detrimental to the cause. It sets it all back a step. You just have to listen to people proudly proclaiming that they only buy free range eggs to know that it's all bollocks. It just allows people to plod on ignorantly through life with their eyes closed.

Will my family be as open to hearing my views that eating meat is heinous altogether? Absolutely not. Will they taunt me and tell me they don't care how cute the pig is because its bacon is just too goddamn tasty? Yep. Will they tell me that Jesus ate fish? Yup. Will I go round in circles and continue having the same conversations with every single person I converse with on the matter? You bet. Will they be pissed off and call me a nutter and laugh at me behind my back? I can guarantee it. 

But that's OK. Telling people the whole story, that's the only thing that's gonna change the way they think. They react in that typical way because I make them uncomfortable, (i.e. it's working!) I force them to see the truth and they'll hate me for a while because of it. But there aren't any short cuts. Yeah, I might feel better when they politely listen and agree with me that cages should be bigger blah blah blah but that's selfish, it's not doing anything to help the animals so what's the point? 

My First Demo!

I've mentioned before that I've wanted to get out there and be more active with animal rights. I'm not exactly sure where I fit yet, not sure where my time is best spent or which area I'm most passionate about. But when plans for a Beagle breeding facility for dogs used for vivisection applied for planning permission close to where I live, I knew this was the best place to start.

Here's me (one of the dogs) on the evening news!



Just in case any of you who watched the clip were fooled into believing that ''the re-development and modernisation is in the best welfare interests of the animals'' let me just point out that currently, the facility holds 5 dogs, and the application is for TWO THOUSAND cages. Also it's important to note that the clip of Beagles scamping around happily was supplied to the TV channel by a group who promote animal testing. B & K have admitted to only letting the dogs out to run around like that for 10 minutes every few days, I would have liked to have seen some footage that truly represents their dire conditions!

In any case, I am absolutely delighted that this is gaining national interest. There have been a number of similar protests this week and certainly the most exciting development is that following occupation by animal rights activists, Marshall BioResources in Italy, the largest breeding facility in Europe has been temporarily shut down after a police raid revealed horrific welfare violations. Things are really happening, and never has the famous Margaret Mead quote rang so true for me:

''Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.''

Vegan Meetings

I have had such a brilliant past few days! Until Wednesday, would you believe it - I had never met another real life vegan, apart from Dan, my boyfriend, but we went vegan together so he has nothing new to offer me, in the nicest way possible - haha!

So after being inspired by people like Veganelder to get off my ass and do more for our furry friends, I got in contact with a few fellow vegans on Facebook who told me about a public meeting that was being held on Wednesday to discuss plans for a Beagle breeding facility (for use in medical testing) which is planning to open near where I live.

I arrived and noticed there was tea and coffee on offer, I couldn't see any milk and then I spied a carton of non dairy stuff and instantly I knew I'd found myself a bunch of like minded people.

The speakers were absolutely brilliant, so inspiring and full of amazing information that really opened my eyes about vivisection. I've started to write another post to summarise what I've learned, and I'll share that soon. What I loved most was that they were extremely intelligent intellectuals, ex doctors and surgeons, don't you just love having those people on our side?! They relied on facts and while they also felt passionately and some of them clearly were very emotional about the plight of our beloved animals, (a few tears were shed) they reminded us all to focus on the evidence that we can prove is not based on opinion as a way to get our message heard and make real change. Very enlightening. I know if I want to spread our message this is exactly what I have to do. There's no point ranting to people about how cute animals are and how against speciesism I am, that's just my opinion. The way to get them to listen is to provide facts. And now I'm starting to gather quite the collection of them to support my views.

Two of my favourite 'speakers' took pride of place at the front of the room, and sat patiently as a reminder to us all who we are fighting for. It was so cute, I noticed that they made noises at some very opportune moments during the speeches, it was as if they knew we were talking about helping their friends :-)

What snooty little posers :-)

At the end of the meeting some people stuck around and I had the fortune of meeting this wonderful group of activists.

It's so exciting and motivating to be around people who care. We're all keeping in touch and will be getting involved in various protests and outreach. In fact, Paris and I actually stopped at a butchers and fishmongers on the way home and stuck some PETA stickers on their doors, teehee. Sshh, don't tell anyone.

Then last night I went to an event ran by the local vegan group, which I've only just discovered too! We all went to the local vegetarian restaurant and ate a feast of Persian vegan food. The food was fabulous and I scoffed the best chocolate cake known to man. I tried to get a picture but it was too dark, booo.

While there we noticed one of the ladies at the table was also at the meeting the previous night so we exchanged emails and she is very active with animal rights so hopefully she has some things I can help out with too.

Thank you so much to those of you who suggest I join a vegan group, it is absolutely the best thing I could have done, and I'm just delighted to have met such wonderful people. I had no idea there were so many of us hiding in my little city!

I'm literally fizzing with excitement at the people I've met and the things they've taught me that already I could fill a book! Don't worry this manic post is almost over and I won't bombard you with it all at once, but expect lots of excited future posts!

Yayyy! Happy happy happy :-)