Vegan outreach - sharing about veganism is important and can be easy

Today (read last week, when I started writing this) I have had a great day. I was out with Buddy And Ahimsa (companion dogs) for about 5 hours. We were exploring a new part of the forest. They had a lot of fun exploring, and playing in the forest, puddles and rivers. I was reading some in a very important and enlightening book called Presence: The Art of Peace and Happiness by Rupert Spira (see non-duality.rupertspira.com/ ). I was putting up some Lost Animals-posters - http://www.lost-animals.net/ - on trees and electricity poles.

When we approached our cabin there was another dog (and human person :) nearby. The other person asked if they wanted to play, and I said, yes. So I let the dogs of their leashes. I try to have them off their leashes as much as possible and they are totally free when we are in the forest, but some people are unfortunately afraid of rottweilers. So they enjoyed their time with the other dog and were very sensitive and respectful. The other dog seemed to be a bit cautious and was talking using some calming signals after playing for a bit, so Ahimsa and Buddy just stood close to him. It was great to see that they got along so well. It is much harder when dogs are on a leash, and you meet another dog, and the other dog owner doesn’t want them to greet the other dog. Then the dogs can get nervous and insecure and start barking. Ahimsa, Buddy and the other dog had a very nice time :)
I and the other human person had a great conversation. We talked and after a while I led the discussion into veganism. She wondered if I was the one that had put up the flier about veganism that she had seen on a tree while walking in the forest :) I explained why it is wrong to exploit animals.

She shared some about her plans to use bees for honey. I asked her if she believes that bees are sentient beings. She said of course, and told about some amazing things she had read about them. I asked her if she thinks they have an interest of keeping their honey; and explained some more after she answered. She wondered for how long that I had been a vegan, and if it had happened at once or in different steps. I told her that I became a vegan when I realized that it is wrong to exploit animals for food, clothing or any other purpose. I said that I first stopped consuming meat and fish, and when I realized that animals are harmed and exploited for honey, dairy, eggs, and other purposes, I also stopped with this. She was interested in hearing what I was saying. I gave her a flier, and contact information.

For more tips on vegan education, see the above Lost Animals-link and: http://bloganders.blogspot.no/2014/04/vegan-education-planting-seeds-to-grow.html

Vegan Outreach sell out the animals

Some good comments about Vegan Outreach selling out the animals.
This is exactly why TAVS is vital to the animal rights movement. TAVS has never and will never sell out *any* animal interests.

Inside a “Vegan” Outreach leaflet-
"The objective is to reduce suffering, not to attain personal purity or perfection"

"Years of eating less meat and eggs will prevent more suffering than a brief stint on a vegan diet, so it’s more important to take an approach you can sustain. If you make exceptions, such as eating meat on certain occasions, you’ll still make a big difference by eating vegetarian the rest of the time." Chris P

John Griffith This is what results from adopting a utilitarian ethic in advocacy work. We hear many vegans echoing this same line. Please, please, please, educate yourself, and reject utilitarianism. Abolition requires a rights-centric approach. Only a rights-centric approach will liberate the animals.

Jamison Scala My hearts breaking reading this. Lets promote animal exploitation and make people feel good about it. <If you make exceptions, such as eating meat on certain occasions, you'll still make a big difference by eating vegetarian the rest of the time.> If you make exceptions, such as raping women on certain occasions, you'll still make a big difference by not raping them everyday. Let's give people a moral pass so they can increase the donations and fuck the animals. I wrote a post about long term vegans yesterday and the common theme was the majority of vegans wished someone would have told them about veganism 
sooner.

Chris Palmieri The problem here is that it treats the use of nonhuman animals as a morally neutral act and treats abstaining from them as a morally positive act.

They treat it the same way we might treat charitable giving. Donating money to help folks in need is considered a moral positive, while simply not donating at all is morally neutral. You didn't hurt the folks in need but you didn't help them either.

The problem is this doesn't translate to nonhuman exploitation because using animals is a direct harm to them, a morally negative act. Veganism is a neutral act. It's the least we can do. Adoption/fostering and wildlife rehabilitation/protection could be considered moral positives.

What this in effect does is normalize animal exploitation.

Vegan education vs single issue campaigns and animal welfare reform

For each hour, we can choose to either devote it to change the root problem of people's thinking, to enable them to understand that all animal exploitation, including all domestication, is wrong. It is a zero sum game.

Or we can choose to devote it to e.g. single issue campaigns, which never change people's mentatlity at its roots. They don't make people understand that all animal exploitation is wrong. Such campaigns, including efforts to trying to regulate the law through 'animal welfare reform', have been popular for the last hundreds of years - yet the animal exploitation in the world increases for every day. They have very little impact, since they don't transform people's worldview and mentatlity about animals. We can't and shouldn't force people to change their worldview; but we should spend our time dedicated to do our best effort to educate in a way, which will enable them to change their worldview. First of all we need to plant a vegan seed in order to enable them go vegan. If we plant a seed of e.g. that only fur is wrong, it will not help them to understand the necessity to go vegan.

What is starting to turn the tide, and what is causing more and more people to go vegans, is a grass root movements of people who inspires our friends to go vegan, e.g. through study groups of World Peace Diet, table conversations at work about veganism, and vegan outreach tables.

I regularly see and hear about people going vegan through vegan education (mine and others). E.g. this weekend where I was involved in a discussion in a spiritual Facebook-group about veganism, a person understood the necessity of going vegan. We have so much to learn also about how we educate our friends about veganism.
Here is more information and links about the problem of single issue-campaigns:
http://bloganders.blogspot.no/2013/03/single-issue-campaigns-such-as-anti-fur.html

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I would also like to share this about the efficiency of vegan education:
NZ Vegan did a street stall promoting veganism on Queen Street yesterday!

I asked how it went and the response was: "Really amazing, and such a palpable difference from when I started doing this - the common theme now is "I have been thinking about going vegan" or "I just went vegan recently" or "I am vegan yay!" or "my friend/girlfriend/cousin is vegan". It's happening! It's really happening!!!"

This is awesomely exciting news! I just got a message the other day from a nonvegan woman who said she is now committed to going vegan!

I am definitely doing my "Free vegan cupcake with a conversation" stall SOON! What are you doing to help nonhumans?
From this website: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Clare-Is-Vegan/360638237346574

If you are not vegan please read through the recommended links in the menu at the right section. Go vegan if you understand it is morally wrong to exploit, enslave, hurt and kill animals for "taste", habit or convenience. Going vegan is the only morally right thing to do: www.vegankit.com

 

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More Reading:

Protests have been part of our history and all cultures of the world for the longest. Protests have been part of our history and all cultures of the world for the longest. People have protested all sorts of things, from war to poverty to women’s rights and animal rights. But how useful is it to even protest? With this article, I am possibly bringing a controversial take on the effectiveness of protests but I need to make a point here.

The need to protest is something I completely understand. I did protest in the past, against wars, for immigrant rights, against fur and animal cruelty. Then I came to realize that it was a waste of my time. The reason for this is that it has little educational value.

http://thebusyvegan.xanga.com/773175137/why-protests-are-for-the-most-part-useless/

 

Veronique Perrot HC I get similar responses when i go out there with Vegan education. There are obviously always a few who yell "i love meat" to you but its just the typical defense mechanism when a truth is put in your face and you don't want to face it. On the other hand, i did demos against vivisection where cards were handed out about the bad guys of UCLA. People signed them for the poor monkeys and when back to business as usual and very likely forgot about them the next day while they were munching on their cholesterol/heart disease laden sausage pizzas.

 

Veronique Perrot HC I understand what you're saying Leigh but I am less concerned about doing "what's right" (and I don't think most protests fall into that category) versus doing what's right for the animals, as in what is the most effective and what will help them the most. I am not advocating instant gratifications, which is what protesters do when they think yelling at the institutional abusers will accomplish. That is pointless. Because it doesn't eliminate the demand, wastes time and resources which could be better spent with actual vegan education. There is a lot less instant gratification or ego boosting at talking to people about Veganism, because it is not spectacular or lacks shock value. You have no way to judge the effect in the long term.