Saturday, March 06, 2010

The Importance of Vegan Advocacy

Educating others about veganism is one of the six principles of the abolitionist approach to animal rights. Promoting anything less is promoting or endorsing the continued use of animals, and one's own decision to become vegan is merely a starting point in terms of everything we can do to teach others to stop using animals as property. As Vincent Guihan points out in his latest blog post at We Other Animals, educating others about veganism literally "lay[s] the groundwork for abolition" but there is so much more in addition to it that abolitionists can and should do for nonhuman animals.

Check out my friend Pao as she throws her own two cents in to discuss why we should be advocating for veganism (check out her YouTube channel for more videos at porolita22). For more information about the abolitionist approach to animal rights, visit Prof. Gary L. Francione's website, Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach.



2 comments:

LoncheraV said...

Thank you for sharing my video Mylène.

I think it is very important we address this issues. I've gotten a lot of positive messages from vegetarian subscribers in regards of this video. I think we shouldn't be scared away from speaking about veganism to people. Those who really are "vegetarian" because they want to help non human animals (as was I) will be open to the concept of veganism and make the change.

The problem with not addressing this issues is that people get stuck in being vegetarian and that is stops short from actually doing what's right for non human animals.
Also, I have noticed that speaking about veganism to people is very productive, I am currently helping out 2 friends from real life that have decided to go vegan after watching my videos and speaking to them about going vegan and understanding the problem of animal use. There is no need to water-down our message, those who truly care about this will make the change. It's not people we're "attacking" (Though criticism is not attacking, as they say) but their consumption of the products of exploitation, vegetarian or omni alike.

:)

c said...

Paola, I love your videos and they are always so so powerful. You always bring up epiphanies that I would have never thought of.

I always emphasize that we present veganism very confidently and that usually works. When you take out numerous examples of animal exploitation and then put it into a human context, I found it to be really effective. It makes people stop and do a double take. It renders them speechless--not in that "oh crap, you got me into a corner and I don't have a comeback" way but in that "OMG. You're right. That doesn't make sense" manner.