The Whittlesea Leader had an article this morning ("Bundoora Vegan Hits the Mark") about an upcoming World Vegan Day event in Melbourne and interviewed one of its organizers, Mark Reece. One particular snippet with Reece reminded me of why it is that I get a little apprehensive when the significance of the dietary aspect of veganism (such as in this article) is stressed, more so than on all of the possible ways in which vegans refuse to exploit nonhuman animals (e.g. not wearing clothing made of animal body parts, avoiding personal hygiene products that contain animal products, etc.). In the article, Reece explained veganism by stating that it is "a plant-based diet excluding animal products, with some vegans also choosing not to wear animal products such as leather and wool".
To a vegan, there is no difference between either eating part of a nonhuman animal or wearing part of a nonhuman animal. In both cases, the animal has been treated like a thing and exploited. In both cases, the nonhuman animal has been enslaved, made to suffer and slaughtered.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Getting it Wrong in Australia
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9 comments:
AARGGH!
How disappointing that the very person organising World Vegan Day doesn't seem to know his stuff :(
As an Australian vegan, I am very disappointed to read this. :(
It's as if some vegans don't want to come across as too extreme, so they're leaving a little bit of "wiggle-room" for potential converts.
We all should have the courage of our convictions and be proud that we've decided against oppression, violence and death.
Peace, coexistence, compassion, kindness. Vegan rocks!
My experience tells me over and over like a wise old clock that never fails....
That if you're not living vegan for ethical reasons you're constantly getting it wrong.
Hi guys,
as one of the event organisers of World Vegan Day, I can certainly say that we know vegans don't wear animal products either!
I'll check up on the article, but I'm pretty sure that it would be a misquote or something similar.
In our information sheet to stallholders we list these sorts of things as no nos for vegans as well, including things like wool.
Unfortunately over the years journalists and media have misquoted, misunderstood or got it downright wrong on the message we try to get through, as they can possibly do with any news story.
Just take it with a grain of salt if you ever come across anything like this in the media from a World Vegan Day organiser/spokesperson, it definitely won't be our message!
Any queries feel free to email me at meghandotstreetatgmaildotcom (just change the dots and the at).
Cheers.
p.s. Just checked through the article again, they couldn't even get his name right! It's Reece Marks, not Mark Reece! sigh.....
Thanks for the clarification. Will you or Marks be attempting to get them to alter the article?
No problems. We won't be attempting to get the article corrected at this late stage, I barely have time to scratch myself let alone do anything like that. 3 days out and we are all hands on deck working around the clock (some of us sneakily at our paid jobs) to get the festival happening. If I'd known about it earlier then I would have, I'll see if I can give the website updater a call to put a message up about it on the wvd website.
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