Live export should have been banned ‘yesterday’ as
they say. There is just no way we can control what people in other countries will do to our innocent livestock,
and therefore pretending we can somehow make it
“better” is simply a waste of time and we should instead be concentrating on ending inhumane practices
on our own turf and then not letting our animals be
sent elsewhere.
message to everyone else.
I find there to be an odd "high school jock" kind of
behaviour between vegans/non vegans. The non vegans are the jocks and the vegans are the nerds, who
are seen as being uncool, because apathy and laughing
at others' misfortune is still seen as 'cool' in this world
- which I honestly find pretty pathetic and I think it
could be the end of us.
When it comes to politics, who do you feel is the
party most dedicated to sharing the importance of
Animal Welfare and equity?
What misconceptions on vegan life do you think
said general public has?
If I am picking out of our two party preferred system, I suppose the Labour party would be the lesser
of two evils, begin that they did say they would make
moves to ban live export if they were elected (which
they sadly were not). The Greens are obviously trying
a bit harder, being that they wish to ban live export
all together, and there's also the Animal Justice Party,
but sadly neither of these parties are likely to have as
much power as they need in the near future, especially
when these animals are dying every day, every hour,
every minute. I suppose it's great that we do have a
government who isn't unchallengable, in that if we as
a people lobby enough, we can make a di?erence. I
don't think we can leave these decisions up to the government, we must demand them ourselves.
Is there anything wrong with the way Vegans are
treated by the general public?
I think there are some big misconceptions, as well as
there being many di?erent types of vegans. I guess you
can basically cast people into two groups, the quiet vegans who don't much talk about their lifestyle choices,
and the vegans who will publicly and vocally discuss
their morals. With the second group, there are people,
such as myself, who find it more e?ective to quietly talk
about the harder things like animal abuse and slaughter, and instead try to shed light on the health benefits
and delicious food that comes along with a vegan diet,
and give people alternatives to cruelty borne products.
These people are generally better received by the public, however some people are not a?ected by such a
passive approach to education, and therefore not everyone will listen when these people speak. With the
other type of vocal vegan, these people are generally
pretty angry and not afraid to condemn someone for
not following their beliefs (after you watch a documentary like Earthlings, it's much easier to understand the
actions of these people). Some people do react well to
this kind of lecturing, and say it helped them to change
their minds on veganism. However, these are probably
also the people who cause the most o?ence to non vegans, calling them out on their behaviour (which they
quite possibly don't yet realise the impact of yet). But
the information does need to get out there by someone, the graphic, gruesome truth, and I suppose it's
going to take both types of vocal vegans to convey that
The biggest ones are probably that vegans eat boring
food aka plain lettuce, grass, endless salads… and the
other being that vegans have a superiority complex.
I'd say the latter is true, but I don't even think that's a
problem, because I don't see what's wrong with feeling
like a good person for going out of your way, changing
your entire lifestyle, for the benefit of all earthlings.
As for the former, well, completely untrue! There are so
many vegan products that are intended to deliciously
replace animal products, there is 'chick'n' and 'cheeses'
(so many cheeses) and sausages and 12 non dairy milk
alternatives, and realistically apart from the fact that
some of these are fairly processed foods and probably
not great for everyday consumption, you can basically
keep eating the same foods you always have and just
switch out a few ingredients! Most people get over the
cravings for these products pretty quickly, and go for
a whole foods, plant based diet, much healthier and
very rewarding! Not to mention endlessly tasty and
never dull!
What do you think the future holds for animals
and animal rights activists in the Australian Political and social landscape?
We meed to realise that we are absolutely destroying our earth, and that we need to get rid of animal
abuse and focus on nurturing ourselves and the environment, because otherwise we're all going to end up
with heart disease and cancer and the world is going
to collapse under the weight of our greed and disconnect from nature. So we either wake and up and take
action, or lead humanity into an early grave.
What do you feel vegans need to do in order to
take the fight for animal welfare further?
Let nothing stop you! Let your heart guide you to take
the right actions, be a voice for those who are voiceless, don't let the 'jocks' of the world get you down they will come to realise in time that you were right,
and you, being the good kind hearted person you are,
will be ready to receive them with open arms.
Animals are our fellows, we are not above them, and
we just need to keep fighting until they are free - then
we too will be free.
By Thomas Cafe