{"id":8009,"date":"2018-09-28T15:58:25","date_gmt":"2018-09-28T23:58:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/?p=8009"},"modified":"2018-10-02T16:02:20","modified_gmt":"2018-10-03T00:02:20","slug":"vandalism-or-vigils-vegans-are-divided-over-how-to-get-people-to-quit-meat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/2018\/09\/28\/vandalism-or-vigils-vegans-are-divided-over-how-to-get-people-to-quit-meat\/","title":{"rendered":"Vandalism Or Vigils? Vegans Are Divided Over How To Get People To Quit Meat"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM – AUG 25:
25-08-18 Whitehall Street (London)
Pic shows a man using a megaphone on the march.
The Official Animal Rights March is an annual vegan march founded by UK animal rights organisation Surge. The march taking over the streets of London, demanding an end to all animal oppression.
PHOTOGRAPH BY Brais G. Rouco \/ Barcroft Images (Photo credit should read Brais G. Rouco \/ Barcroft Media via Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Huffington Post<\/em><\/p>\n

Instead of radical veganism, some activists want to show it\u2019s \u201cfun, accessible and attractive to people.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Butchers in France called for police protection<\/a> after six people were arrested following incidents of vandalism at shops selling meat and dairy products. In the U.K., a family-run butcher was sprayed with the words \u201cStop Killing Animals. Go Vegan\u201d and claimed<\/a> to have received a petrol-bomb threat. And, in Canada, activists disrupted diners<\/a> in a Toronto steakhouse to lecture them on animal rights.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

For animal rights activists, veganism is only a starting point for ending the killing of animals. \u201cOnce vegan, we believe there is a moral imperative to spread the message as well as take measures to stop the atrocities involved with the production of meat, dairy and egg products,\u201d said a spokesperson for the Animal Liberation Front, which speaks on behalf of individuals and groups engaging in often illegal protests.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Civil disobedience and the physical targeting of individuals and their property is justified, according to the Animal Liberation Front. \u201cWe support all of these measures, and hope they continue to escalate until the message is understood,\u201d said a spokesperson.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Animal<\/p>\n
\n
ANDREW LICHTENSTEIN VIA GETTY IMAGES<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>
Animal rights activists, including members of the Animal Liberation Front, Peta, various animal rescue groups, and vegans, in the annual Animal Rights March on September 1, 2018 in New York City.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

Though reports of militant veganism have become commonplace in the media, they\u2019re at odds with an alternative perspective that such approaches are not the way to take veganism mainstream.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Not all vegan or animal rights activists are confrontational. In the city of Vernon, just outside Los Angeles, people regularly gather for a peaceful \u201cpig vigil\u201d in protest against pigs being brought to a slaughterhouse.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The protest is organized by a local chapter of the animal rights group\u00a0The Save Movement<\/a>, which encourages people to take and share photos and videos of the animals\u2019 last moments of life, but to be peaceful and nonjudgemental, and to \u201csmile when possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Vegan activist Ed Winters, who himself has been a victim<\/a> of violence while protesting, said he has changed his own approach. \u201cI used to be loud and abrasive, but I feel that was pushing people away.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Winters said the term \u201cmilitant veganism\u201d has often been used to demonize vegans. Angry forms of protest are a result of people becoming frustrated that others do not feel the same way as them, he said. Winters said he now supports \u201cnonviolent activism,\u201d in which people can make their points but do not alienate others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Not everyone feels vegans need to be vocal. Judy Nadel and Damien Clarkson, who founded the plants-based events company Vevolution in the U.K. and U.S., said they felt uncomfortable with the vegan culture they engaged with after giving up meat and dairy in 2015.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

To go mainstream,\u00a0Nadel and Clarkson said, the movement needs to become much less judgemental and more inclusive toward people who are perhaps only experimenting with veganism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The most successful form of activism, they said, has been the innovation in vegan food products, like meat-free burgers and dairy-free milk. U.S. retail sales of plant-based meats have risen<\/a>\u00a017 percent over the past year, with products including the brand Beyond Meat, which has seen a sales uplift of 70 percent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"Meatless<\/p>\n
\n
DREW ANGERER VIA GETTY IMAGES<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>
Meatless \u2018Impossible Sliders\u2019 served at a White Castle restaurant in New York City. \u00a0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\n

\u201cI don\u2019t agree with people saying you have to be on the street screaming and shouting. Protest has a place, but real change is coming from creating businesses, being compassionate and making plant-based more accessible to people,\u201d said Clarkson, \u201cThat\u2019s the reason vegan has gone mainstream.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Between 2 percent and 6 percent of Americans now identify<\/a> themselves as vegetarians, up from just 1.2 percent in the late 1970s.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

The danger of confrontational types of activism is that it creates an expectation of perfection that is too much for the majority of people, said Jodi Monelle, founder of livekindly<\/a>, a vegan and plant-based news website.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

If veganism wants to continue growing, it has to ditch that model of perfection, Monelle said, pointing out that around 40 percent of visitors to her website classified themselves as non-vegan. \u201cThe puritanical view of veganism needs to shift in order for us to make change. A lot of new vegans drop out because they can\u2019t meet those standards overnight.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Monelle said activism that turns into abuse or involves physical harm is counter-productive because it taints the view of vegans. \u201cWe\u2019re all on this journey of self-improvement and we\u2019re all at different stages. We want to show veganism not as restrictive, but fun, accessible and attractive to people.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Activist Winters has a similar view: \u201cWe all have a moral obligation to do something, but what we do is subjective to each individual.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

For more content and to be part of the \u201cThis New World\u201d<\/a>\u00a0community, follow our Facebook page.<\/p>\n

HuffPost\u2019s \u201cThis New World<\/a>\u201d series is funded by Partners for a New Economy and the Kendeda Fund. All content is editorially independent, with no influence or input from the foundations. If you have an idea or tip for the editorial series, send an email to thisnewworld@huffpost.com<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Huffington Post Instead of radical veganism, some activists want to show it\u2019s \u201cfun, accessible and attractive to people.\u201d Butchers in France called for police protection after six people were arrested following incidents of vandalism at shops selling meat and dairy products. In the U.K., a family-run butcher was sprayed with the words \u201cStop Killing Animals. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8010,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8009"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8009"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8011,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8009\/revisions\/8011"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}