http://www.aquarianonline.com/grace-under-pressure/Being Vegan in an ‘Omni’ WorldBy ROBIN SMYTH
There is something about the vegan lifestyle that either mystifies or angers the rest of the earth’s human population. In secret, some vegans may call this meat and dairy consuming demographic “carnies,” as in carnivore, or “omnis,” for omnivore. From personal and shared experience, the vegan consensus, in this city at least, is that most non-vegan people don’t really understand why we chose veganism or what it is that we sometimes have to tolerate.
Holding one’s head up in the face of judgment and insensitivity takes a modicum of grace and restraint; it’s definitely not always easy to feel targeted for making choices based on compassion. Speaking for myself and in a general sense, vegans are only too willing to (kindly) share insight and recipes in the most non-judgmental and welcoming way possible.
I have bitten back retorts to incredibly mean and hurtful comments at work, while dining in public and on social media. I have dreaded, left or declined events based on how I have been treated by others in attendance. Without getting into an explicit rant about cruelty to animals and detailing exactly what speciesism is and why it should be eradicated, I’d far rather stick to observing some of the challenges that vegans face as a minority in an omnivorous society.
First of all, even though product selection has vastly improved in recent years, shopping for vegan items is an Olympic event-sized challenge. It can be described as a treasure hunt, with vegan chocolate cake as a big fat prize at the finale for finding cruelty-free hair colour and lotion in under six hours without using the Internet or the “call a vegan friend” option.
A massive thank you goes out to local eateries for updating their menus and approach to vegan cuisine, because we, as a collective, also enjoy dining out on occasion. Every now and again, though, the ponderous task of explaining meat and dairy-free to an unenlightened server can be so daunting, a person almost wants to head home and just fry up a block of tofu already.
My favourite server-related experience was being offered chicken as a vegetable option while a table full of my non-vegan friends collapsed with laughter. I had their sympathy, and they could not believe any functioning person thought that a chicken was grown in a garden. I ended up having a very large order of french fries for dinner as I could not trust the “deer in the headlights” head-tilting server to bring me foods that didn’t have parents. Without my friend the potato, I would have gone hungry on many such dinner dates.
Family dinners can sometimes feel like a slow descent into a flaming hot pit of despair, wherein the vegan option is generally a tossed salad with no dressing and a glass of water with an organic lemon wedge jauntily garnishing the rim. When I have brought my own meatless, dairy-free entrée (to ensure I get adequately fed), it gets immediately hoovered up by everyone else at the table, with everyone looking wildly surprised and making “I can’t believe it’s so yummy!” noises. Sigh.
The most uncomfortable thing about being vegan by far is having to explain my choice to others and being put in a place where I am meant to defend myself.
Pass. Thanks for asking, though.
Most vegans are nonconfrontational and would choose not to escalate a discussion into a raging debate on whether or not plants have feelings. It’s incredibly inappropriate to expect a person to detail and defend a personal life choice, and it’s not a very comfortable place to be, trust me.
Yes, we have all seen the rabid, picketing, placard-wearing, bucket-of-blood-throwing activists in the media. I want to state honestly that they are not a true depiction of the vast majority of vegans and their behaviour. For every group of true believers, there are always a few extremists. Unfortunately, these are the people that will inevitably be featured on the evening news or in your Facebook feed.
Most of the vegans I know are truly gentle souls who wouldn’t dream of telling another person how to live their lives. Myself included. Would we like to see the world go vegan? Absolutely and for many reasons. The best advice I can give on lifestyle choices, if indeed my advice is welcome, is to do some research on what the documented and verifiable impacts of your choices are on you, your family, other living creatures and our planet.
The decision to live compassionately, gently and graciously then is yours to make.
There is something about the vegan lifestyle that either mystifies or angers the rest of the earth’s human population. In secret, some vegans may call this meat and dairy consuming demographic “carnies,” as in carnivore, or “omnis,” for omnivore. From personal and shared experience, the vegan consensus, in this city at least, is that most non-vegan people don’t really understand why we chose veganism or what it is that we sometimes have to tolerate.
Holding one’s head up in the face of judgment and insensitivity takes a modicum of grace and restraint; it’s definitely not always easy to feel targeted for making choices based on compassion. Speaking for myself and in a general sense, vegans are only too willing to (kindly) share insight and recipes in the most non-judgmental and welcoming way possible.
I have bitten back retorts to incredibly mean and hurtful comments at work, while dining in public and on social media. I have dreaded, left or declined events based on how I have been treated by others in attendance. Without getting into an explicit rant about cruelty to animals and detailing exactly what speciesism is and why it should be eradicated, I’d far rather stick to observing some of the challenges that vegans face as a minority in an omnivorous society.
First of all, even though product selection has vastly improved in recent years, shopping for vegan items is an Olympic event-sized challenge. It can be described as a treasure hunt, with vegan chocolate cake as a big fat prize at the finale for finding cruelty-free hair colour and lotion in under six hours without using the Internet or the “call a vegan friend” option.
A massive thank you goes out to local eateries for updating their menus and approach to vegan cuisine, because we, as a collective, also enjoy dining out on occasion. Every now and again, though, the ponderous task of explaining meat and dairy-free to an unenlightened server can be so daunting, a person almost wants to head home and just fry up a block of tofu already.
My favourite server-related experience was being offered chicken as a vegetable option while a table full of my non-vegan friends collapsed with laughter. I had their sympathy, and they could not believe any functioning person thought that a chicken was grown in a garden. I ended up having a very large order of french fries for dinner as I could not trust the “deer in the headlights” head-tilting server to bring me foods that didn’t have parents. Without my friend the potato, I would have gone hungry on many such dinner dates.
Family dinners can sometimes feel like a slow descent into a flaming hot pit of despair, wherein the vegan option is generally a tossed salad with no dressing and a glass of water with an organic lemon wedge jauntily garnishing the rim. When I have brought my own meatless, dairy-free entrée (to ensure I get adequately fed), it gets immediately hoovered up by everyone else at the table, with everyone looking wildly surprised and making “I can’t believe it’s so yummy!” noises. Sigh.
The most uncomfortable thing about being vegan by far is having to explain my choice to others and being put in a place where I am meant to defend myself.
Pass. Thanks for asking, though.
Most vegans are nonconfrontational and would choose not to escalate a discussion into a raging debate on whether or not plants have feelings. It’s incredibly inappropriate to expect a person to detail and defend a personal life choice, and it’s not a very comfortable place to be, trust me.
Yes, we have all seen the rabid, picketing, placard-wearing, bucket-of-blood-throwing activists in the media. I want to state honestly that they are not a true depiction of the vast majority of vegans and their behaviour. For every group of true believers, there are always a few extremists. Unfortunately, these are the people that will inevitably be featured on the evening news or in your Facebook feed.
Most of the vegans I know are truly gentle souls who wouldn’t dream of telling another person how to live their lives. Myself included. Would we like to see the world go vegan? Absolutely and for many reasons. The best advice I can give on lifestyle choices, if indeed my advice is welcome, is to do some research on what the documented and verifiable impacts of your choices are on you, your family, other living creatures and our planet.
The decision to live compassionately, gently and graciously then is yours to make.
www.communitynewscommons.org/our-city/education/animal-rights-group-takes-aim-at-bull-riders/
Animal rights group takes aim at bull ridersBy Robin Smyth on October 3, 2016
Posted in Downtown, Education, Health & Safety, Sports | Tagged For the Animals, Protest, Vegans, Voices for the Voiceless
As a member of the newly created local animal advocacy group, Taking Action for Animals in Winnipeg, I participated in our inaugural protest — the Professional Bull Riders event held at MTS Centre on Sat. Sept. 17, and I think we did a pretty good job.
I was both nervous and excited to publicly raise my voice in support of the voiceless.
The first protest of Taking Action for Animals in Winnipeg was held outside MTS Centre before a Professional Bull Riding event.
Most of the Taking Action for Animals in Winnipeg members are vegan and live by a do no harm set of values. Being vegan means that a person does not support the commodification of animals and adheres to a plant based diet as well as refrains from using animal derived products and by products. Vegans follow these guidelines in support of the belief that animals belong to themselves, not humans.
Based on this lifestyle, as a group we prepared for the event, strategizing the protest location, creating signs, exchanging words of moral support and comfort. For most of us, meeting on the corner of Portage Ave. and Smith St. was our first in person introduction.
The overall tone of the group was one of a shared common goal infused with a fiery passion to defend the defenseless.
Protesters demonstrating outside MTS Centre.
As each member of our small group arrived, warm and heartfelt greetings were exchanged. For the entirety of the protest we supported one another with smiles, hugs and cheers when our efforts were acknowledged in a positive way.
During the two hours we leafleted, circulated signage and verbally interacted with various curious and/or angry bystanders, our group remained focused on the truth of our presence outside MTS Centre.
We stood strong on behalf of the captive and innocent participants of the bull riding event. We stood with signs held high and hearts full of love for the bulls we could not save from a life of imprisonment and slavery. We bore the verbal abuse, jeers, dirty looks and the finger pointing, for the sake of the animals who did not choose the life they are forced to live. Bulls do not volunteer for this life, they are born or sold into it.
For the uninformed, bull riding may certainly seem like an exciting sport; clever marketing and promotional advertisements work their magic to ensure that the illusion cloaks the reality.
But behind the scenes, the spotlight dulls and the ugly truth can be seen. For the eight seconds of thrill riding the audience sees, the bulls are denied their freedom, paying the ultimate price of a life of confinement and drudgery.
Taking Action for Animals in Winnipeg spoke with Andrew Giangola, Head of Communications at PBR regarding allegations of abuse and torture that surround the bull riding industry. Mr. Giangola said the animals are treated with the utmost care and are given more than adequate downtime between and during events.
Assurances by those associated with PBR that bulls are not mistreated brings little comfort, which is why our group stands behind the purpose of the protest. Because of ongoing controversy surrounding bull riding “entertainment” as a whole, it is the goal of Taking Action for Animals in Winnipeg to support animal rights whenever possible.
For an animal meant to be roaming free in fields and meadows to be confined to small quarters is a travesty and a shame on humans. For these innocent and majestic bulls we suspect are prodded with electricity and treated with painful tail pulling techniques, shame on humans. For helpless animals to be carted from venue to venue, treated as nothing more than a commodity, shame on humans.
For a tiny group of ten vegan animal advocates to stand fast in the face of insensitive and cruel passersby and cowboys, amazing. For a 17 year old girl to form an animal advocacy group and organize a protest event, amazing. For the same group of people to sit together after the protest to organize more information sharing and animal protection events, amazing.
Our purpose as a group is to shine the light of justice into the darkness of animal abuse. We believe that education is the key to opening eyes and hearts in order to reveal what the animal entertainment, factory farming, dairy farming and poultry industries do not want you to know.
The veils must be parted, the lies can no longer be tolerated. The truth is our mission and with each future action and protest, we invite you to add your voice to ours as we speak up to save the animals.
Animal rights group takes aim at bull ridersBy Robin Smyth on October 3, 2016
Posted in Downtown, Education, Health & Safety, Sports | Tagged For the Animals, Protest, Vegans, Voices for the Voiceless
As a member of the newly created local animal advocacy group, Taking Action for Animals in Winnipeg, I participated in our inaugural protest — the Professional Bull Riders event held at MTS Centre on Sat. Sept. 17, and I think we did a pretty good job.
I was both nervous and excited to publicly raise my voice in support of the voiceless.
The first protest of Taking Action for Animals in Winnipeg was held outside MTS Centre before a Professional Bull Riding event.
Most of the Taking Action for Animals in Winnipeg members are vegan and live by a do no harm set of values. Being vegan means that a person does not support the commodification of animals and adheres to a plant based diet as well as refrains from using animal derived products and by products. Vegans follow these guidelines in support of the belief that animals belong to themselves, not humans.
Based on this lifestyle, as a group we prepared for the event, strategizing the protest location, creating signs, exchanging words of moral support and comfort. For most of us, meeting on the corner of Portage Ave. and Smith St. was our first in person introduction.
The overall tone of the group was one of a shared common goal infused with a fiery passion to defend the defenseless.
Protesters demonstrating outside MTS Centre.
As each member of our small group arrived, warm and heartfelt greetings were exchanged. For the entirety of the protest we supported one another with smiles, hugs and cheers when our efforts were acknowledged in a positive way.
During the two hours we leafleted, circulated signage and verbally interacted with various curious and/or angry bystanders, our group remained focused on the truth of our presence outside MTS Centre.
We stood strong on behalf of the captive and innocent participants of the bull riding event. We stood with signs held high and hearts full of love for the bulls we could not save from a life of imprisonment and slavery. We bore the verbal abuse, jeers, dirty looks and the finger pointing, for the sake of the animals who did not choose the life they are forced to live. Bulls do not volunteer for this life, they are born or sold into it.
For the uninformed, bull riding may certainly seem like an exciting sport; clever marketing and promotional advertisements work their magic to ensure that the illusion cloaks the reality.
But behind the scenes, the spotlight dulls and the ugly truth can be seen. For the eight seconds of thrill riding the audience sees, the bulls are denied their freedom, paying the ultimate price of a life of confinement and drudgery.
Taking Action for Animals in Winnipeg spoke with Andrew Giangola, Head of Communications at PBR regarding allegations of abuse and torture that surround the bull riding industry. Mr. Giangola said the animals are treated with the utmost care and are given more than adequate downtime between and during events.
Assurances by those associated with PBR that bulls are not mistreated brings little comfort, which is why our group stands behind the purpose of the protest. Because of ongoing controversy surrounding bull riding “entertainment” as a whole, it is the goal of Taking Action for Animals in Winnipeg to support animal rights whenever possible.
For an animal meant to be roaming free in fields and meadows to be confined to small quarters is a travesty and a shame on humans. For these innocent and majestic bulls we suspect are prodded with electricity and treated with painful tail pulling techniques, shame on humans. For helpless animals to be carted from venue to venue, treated as nothing more than a commodity, shame on humans.
For a tiny group of ten vegan animal advocates to stand fast in the face of insensitive and cruel passersby and cowboys, amazing. For a 17 year old girl to form an animal advocacy group and organize a protest event, amazing. For the same group of people to sit together after the protest to organize more information sharing and animal protection events, amazing.
Our purpose as a group is to shine the light of justice into the darkness of animal abuse. We believe that education is the key to opening eyes and hearts in order to reveal what the animal entertainment, factory farming, dairy farming and poultry industries do not want you to know.
The veils must be parted, the lies can no longer be tolerated. The truth is our mission and with each future action and protest, we invite you to add your voice to ours as we speak up to save the animals.