Sunday 20 Septembre: Journée de l'animal

Sunday -- la journée du patrimoine -- I spent approximately 6 hours tabling for veganism with an organization called "Vegan.fr" at a big gathering of AR orgs, centering around the sale of rescued cats and dogs. Vegan.fr is an abolitionist organisation, it is comprised of approximately 19 people, 7 of whom were at the actual event. It was very interesting to see the same divisions in the animal rights movement in France as in the states; the abolitionist/welfarist organizations do *not* get along very well. Seeing as I happened to stumble upon vegan.fr first, I did chill with them, but I fall somewhere between the abolitionist/welfarist argument. I honestly do not believe that the abolitionist approach will get people to consider veganism, even if it *is* the more moral approach (most of the people running these so called vegetarian organizations are vegan anyway). Maybe it's too capitalist of me to say, but I think it's all about numbers -- if there are 100 cows dying in the next ten minutes, I don't want to give those 100 cows solidarity by telling their exploiters that they deserve the absolute best and that we should treat them as equals, though I thoroughly believe it. I think that veganism is not an easy perspective to gain all at once, which is why so many vegans are vegetarians first -- it takes a bit to realize just how much consciousness these animals have. And once you stop eating meat, *then* it's much easier to question milk and cheese. Again, I *never* *ever* give people vegetarian recipes that include cheese and milk. I simply call my regime vegetarian so people don't tell me to fuck off. Once there are more vegetarians on the earth, then I think that the abolitionist movement can become stronger. Again, I am in no way saying we don't need exclusively vegan organizations, but my experience with this highly-exclusive, virtually purist vegan organization turned me off. Dressing in all black and bickering amongst other vegans just isn't making much sense to me. I understand those people who don't want to fight for bigger cages -- i am n0 fan of that. But advocating a vegetarian diet or a veg diet rather than bluntly saying GO VEGAN is fine. It's about numbers, it's about the movement, it's about change. Animals are dying every second, and we unfortunately all play into exploitation in small ways, so I am of the mindset that i do not support injustice in my personal life, and I advocate for justice. However, I do so as an activist, as a vegangelist, not as a philosopher. I have strong principles and philosophy about speciesism, but I do not want to be an unopened textbook, I want to be change.

Someone once told me "The only way you can attract bees is with... agave nectar." I think I want to make a shirt out of this.

http://cleda.over-blog.com/article-36189929.html

UPDATE: I just stumbled upon this article, and it seems quite appropriate: Tension between Vegans & Vegetarians