Happy World Vegan Day! 🌱
Recently I've been thinking a lot about my personal vegan journey.
A friend told me once that he hates receiving gifts based on his veganism (we've all had the classic 'vegan hamper' full of cereal bars and sugar-free chocolate, right?!), because, as far as he's concerned, it's the least interesting thing about him. As someone with various interests and hobbies, he finds it weird that his avoidance of animal products would be the standout thing for someone choosing what present to buy him.
I get that, in a way. But it made me think about myself. Because in contrast, I feel that my veganism may just be the most obvious thing about me. The effort to cause minimal harm informs pretty much everything I do. I'll choose places to go based on what food I can try there. I buy clothes, make-up, toiletries and household products based on what they're made of and what they're packaged in. I HATE driving at night, because the fear of hitting a small being as they try to cross the road is too much to handle. Ethical veganism is a lifestyle choice, and it's pretty all-encompassing. Does that make me a bore? Maybe. Do I care? Not at all. Because I HATE what we do to our fellow beings and I'll do everything in my power to avoid being a part of it.
I felt good for my first few years of vegan life, flying high on the knowledge that I was really doing the best I could for animals and living in a way that reflected what I believed in.
That was until a few years ago, when someone close to me told me
"As far as animals are concerned, you're as good as a dead person"
😐
I really bristled. It rankled a lot. Probably because as soon as the words came out of his mouth, I realised he was right. Just as I'd been vegetarian for many years and thought I was doing all I could to avoid contributing to animal suffering - only to realise that actually, that wasn't the case at all - I now found myself in the same position in my veganism. Yes, I was eschewing animal products in my food, clothing and toiletries, but as he said...I made no difference to an animal in a slaughterhouse than someone who simply didn't exist.
So I stepped up.
I cried at my first animal rights protest. Not because I was scared, or didn't want to be there, but because I was completely overwhelmed at being surrounded by people like me - people who were angry, people who were shouting out against injustice and cruelty, people who were armed with facts, people who didn't care that others were laughing at us...it just made them shout louder. It was the most liberating and empowering experience, and though I was there alone, I felt a wonderful sense of community.
My journey into activism has been a slow one, but I now feel that I'm using my voice. I don't feel that I'm doing enough, but that's something to work on. I'm definitely doing more than someone who doesn't exist.
Some simple facts:
If you think that shoving pigs into gas chambers is wrong - you should be vegan
If you think killing baby cows so that we can use the milk their mothers made for them is wrong - you should be vegan
If you think breeding birds to grow at such an unnatural rate that their legs can't support their own body weight is wrong - you should be vegan
If you think rubbing chemicals and cosmetics onto the skin of animals or forcing those things down their throats to find out how toxic they are is wrong - you should be vegan
...If you're not vegan, you're paying for all of those things to happen. Daily. Every hour. Every minute.
For animals, the world is darker than ever. The scale of harm being inflicted upon them is incomprehensible. Animals in farms and in cages need every single one of us who have our eyes open to be shouting from the rooftops for them. Because they can't do it themselves, and they're stuck in the merciless grip of a multi-billion dollar industry who've spent generations normalising abuse.
There are so many amazing organisations working to end the suffering. Please join one 🙂 💚
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