Should Vegans be Silent? Roaring Silence Vancouver 2019 Joined by ARA James Aspey

This summer, hundreds of animal rights activists marched in silence through the streets of Vancouver. Our message: Animals are individuals who value their lives. They deserve respect and freedom from harm. They’re being exploited for human desires and everyone should be paying attention.

We conveyed our message without speaking by holding and displaying informational signs and by giving out pamphlets to the public.

What I loved about this march was the focus on the animals, and the messages we shared with the public without making physical noise. We illustrated our internal mourning for their suffering. I could feel that our silence energetically contributed to portraying our peaceful intentions for the world.

We were joined by international animal rights activist James Aspey, who entered this movement over 5 years ago with a 365 day vow of silence for animals. James spends a lot of time working on self-reflection and introspection through meditation in his personal life and I believe this is a huge asset to his work for animals.

Much of James’ success in his approach to outreach conversations can be attributed to his ability to listen. The time he spends not speaking with others is meaningful and contributes to how much they reflect on the topic of animal rights in their time with him.

Personally, in comparison to events that involve more talking and/or shouting, I found it less emotionally draining to participate in this action.

While there is a time and place and need for a huge variety of styles of activism, I think that using silence as a tool more often could be beneficial to everyone involved - relieving some of the mental health struggles of activists, being well-received by our intended audience and even possibly making animal liberation a reality sooner.

In terms of intersectionality, this type of activism not only includes and reaches both the extroverts and introverts of the world, but it also welcomes humans with speaking and hearing impairments, too.

Alongside the Roaring Silence march, some forms of silent activism that I regularly enjoy participating in are chalking and wearing vegan apparel. I’d love to hear yours, too, and to start a discussion on how we can continue to use silence as a tool to achieving sustainable activism and animal liberation - protecting both the human and non-human animals of the world!

Vancouver Anti-Fur March Was Powerful

This past weekend, Vancouver activists marched in solidarity with Toronto and New York City animal rights groups to let the public know that fur is cruel, unnecessary and unacceptable.

With the recent opening of a Canada Goose storefront in Vancouver, and the fact that Canada Goose kills up to 15 animals per jacket, this was inevitably one of several stops on the march. We marched throughout the Pacific Centre and made further stops at Holt Renfrew, Winners and at Nordstroms (who locked their doors in response to us).

We marched, chanted (‘THEIR FUR - NOT OURS’, ‘IT’S NOT FASHION - IT’S VIOLENCE’, ‘WHAT DO WE WANT? ANIMAL LIBERATION! WHEN DO WE WANT IT? NOW!’), and gave out pamphlets with information about the cruel fur industry.

Many people gave us nods of approval and accepted our message.

Many others walked by in Canada Goose jackets, demonstrating body language of shame or embarrassment and hiding their faces (ironically behind the dead animals on their hoods).

Do you have a jacket with fur, down or other animal materials?
Have you thought about the inherent suffering that your purchase has caused?

Asking yourself this simple question is a great way to start thinking about this issue:
Would you wear your dog?

As consumers, we can abolish this industry by:

1. Not purchasing clothing made from animals (boycotting fur, leather, wool, angora, silk, etc.).
You can also shop for vegan alternatives like Wuxly, but the ultimate cruelty-free jacket is a vegan one that already exists - check your local thrift shops!

2. Removing the fur trim and label from your existing Canada Goose jackets to avoid promoting and marketing their cruelty to others & donating your fur trim to a nearby animal shelter or sanctuary to provide comfortable bedding for rescued animals. If you need help locating a space to donate your fur trim, contact me and I will help you.

3. Trading in your non-vegan jacket for a vegan alternative. Wuxly offers up to $275 off their animal-free jackets when you trade in your down-filled and fur-lined jackets. They have partnered with homeless shelters across Canada to give these donated non-vegan jackets to people in need.

What more can you do?

Join Vancouver Fur Animal Save or your local animal rights groups, attend future events, and make our voices louder and stronger for the animals.

Tell your friends and family: #FURISDEAD and you will NOT support it.

Vancouver Chicken Save Now Stops Trucks

If slaughterhouses have nothing to hide, why are they built as windowless buildings? Why are children not brought to visit them on school trips to see how their 'food' is 'made'?

Why, when Vancouver Chicken Save was established, did Hallmark Slaughterhouse put up large tarps in the alley to block the public view of the kill floor? Why have they now installed fences to block the alley from public access completely?  

The animal agriculture industry thrives on fuelling the majority's preference to remain blissfully ignorant in what is happening to animals globally. 

Vancouver Chicken Save has quickly adopted to bearing witness to chickens on trucks within just a few days of the fence installations. We are here for the animals and we are not going away. 

Tuesday, July 31 marks our first vigil asking trucks to stop for 3 minutes so that we can bear witness to the baby chickens, share their stories, and truly see them in this one stage of their lives of victimization and exploitation.

What is different about this new form of bearing witness from the activists' perspectives?

More time spent with the animals means more connection, more grieving, and a truer and more powerful concept of reality. 

There was an obvious extension of aggression and mistreatment of beings from the workers towards humans - something that is sadly inevitable in a workplace that is built on violence. Some truck drivers were extremely aggressive to the point where I seriously feared the safety of my fellow activists and friends. Workers laughed, insinuated that we were crazy, and motioned for the trucks to keep driving despite several humans being within inches of the truck front and in danger.

It was emotional and difficult, but as always - it was nothing compared to what the animals are going through. 

At Hallmark Slaughterhouse in Vancouver, about 90,000 chickens are killed each day. Globally, more than 150,000,000,000 land animals are killed every year. 

These chickens are only 30-40 days old, despite the fact that healthy chickens can live to 10-20 years. These chickens are confined, crammed, and filthy. What's coming next for them on the kill floor is beyond what most of us can even imagine experiencing. 

Animals feel pain, they have families and they want to live - just like us.

I challenge you to take a quick look at the Animal Slaughter Counter and to watch the newly released and highly accredited film Dominion to begin to comprehend the gravity of their situation. 

Try Challenge22, a free 22 day vegan challenge with access to recipes, tips, videos, more than 400 mentors and even professional nutritional support. Check out my Resources page for my top documentaries, books, recipe sites and more. 

Please consider what you would want others to do if you were in the place of the animals and take a stance against cruelty.

Join Vancouver Chicken Save, find a save group near you, or start a new chapter. Find and join a vegan facebook group in your region for support and community from fellow animal lovers.  

Whatever you decide to do, please start making steps towards liberating the animals from their unnecessary suffering. Together we can make the world a more loving place. 

Vancouver Chicken Save Honours Overworked Slaughterhouse Employees

Vancouver Chicken Save activists met at 5am on Saturday, March 24th to begin a 13 hour vigil in honour of Bao Min Cheng, a worker who passed away of heart failure after a 13 hour shift at Hallmark Slaughterhouse, and in honour of the chickens who are intentionally killed here each day. 

51 activists came out and thousands of people were exposed to our message, which was simple: slaughterhouses are hell for the animals and hell for the workers, and we are capable of making more compassionate choices. 

Each day, 90 thousand chickens are killed at this slaughterhouse in Vancouver. These individuals are almost always babies and are always completely innocent. They have families, they value their lives, and they want to live, just like us. 

Our 13 hour activism "shift" was spent bearing witness to the chickens in their final moments of life, while also discussing and honouring the human victims of the industry with each other and with the public.

Slaughterhouse workers are often immigrants who have many barriers to employment and are left with no other option but to work in such violent places. They suffer from trauma, mental health disorders and exhaustion from being overworked and exploited. Bao Min Cheng was consistently working 70 hour work weeks when he passed away of heart failure. 

Due to misinformation and numbed compassion, I believe the consumers of animal products are victims of the industry, too. However, as this message is hitting the streets and the mainstream media more and more often, people are becoming aware of the injustices within the industry and are becoming very receptive to learning about veganism.

The amount of honking, thumb ups, fists of solidarity, and nods of approval from the vehicles passing by was really encouraging.

In honour of Bao Min Cheng, who had a family with 4 children when he passed away at the young age of 42, and the 90 thousand chickens who are slaughtered at this location each day, thank you for opening your eyes and hearts to this message. 

| photos: Tosha Lobsinger is my Photographer |

Cube of Truth Marathon in Vancouver

I joined Anonymous for the Voiceless for a 3 day cube of truth (+ wall of truth) marathon at a busy transit station in Vancouver on the final 3 days of 2017. 

We shared powerful footage of industry-standard (yet rarely seen) factory farm and slaughterhouse procedures and had educational conversations with the public as they watched.  

Why I love the cube of truth:

When Paul McCartney said "If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian," vegetarian was the word for vegan. What he meant, and what is so true, is that if animals were being abused outside of the windowless + camera-banned concrete walls of slaughterhouses, the injustice would be exposed and people would reject it. 

The cube of truth shows people what's happening to animals worldwide, at all times, and behind closed doors. It's the truth - and the truth will set you free.  

As people got off the subway/bus and walked by this busy intersection (Cambie + Broadway), they were drawn to our display and curious about our message. 

Most people were shocked to learn that:

1. 50% of baby chicks that are born are either ground up alive or suffocated in a plastic bag in their first few days of life, simply because they were born male and therefore are not profitable to the egg industry. 

2. Baby cows are taken from their mothers within a few days of birth so they do not 'steal' milk ($$$) from the industry, and they are then slaughtered for veal. 

3. Humans thrive on a whole-foods plant-based diet. 

I was grateful that we were openly and genuinely appreciated by the people we encountered. 

We were given many hugs. We were thanked over and over for our time and efforts, for displaying important footage, and for the conversations and resources we shared. We were completely respected on the streets of Vancouver. 

In the final 3 days of 2017, 77 animal rights volunteers worked together to reach crowds of people, with an estimated 360 individuals who were empowered and ready to embrace veganism after meeting us.

If you feel inspired, I urge you to honour your personal interest and embark on a wonderful pursuit of knowledge. Watch Earthlings at home and then make your way through the rest of these powerful resources: peacepeopleproject.com/resources

Here's to living with compassion + truth on our sides in 2018! 
 

| photos: Tosha Lobsinger is my Photographer |