Vegan Soapbox: How long have you been involved in the animal rights movement? How/why did you go vegan?

Michael A. Weber: I have been vegan and somewhat involved with animal rights since high school. I was primarily working on human and environmental rights until 2009, when I shifted my main focus to animals raised for food, who die and suffer in larger numbers than any other beings (human or nonhuman) on the planet.

At age 14, in my French class, we learned how to say the names of farmed animals, the sounds and call they make, and their cuts of meat in French. For instance, the French say that pigs go “groin groin”, not “oink”. It just hit me then that the meat I was eating came from animals. Of course, I already knew that, but making it so blatant was a life-changing moment for me. I became a vegetarian more or less overnight and never looked back. Going vegan was the logical next step a few years later at age 17. 

Vegan Soapbox: What’s your favorite vegan meal(s)? Favorite hair gel/ soap/deodorant/ clothing brand/ or other vegan nonfood item? Favorite AR book/film/album?

Michael: I have WAY too many favorite meals, haha. I make a lot of seitan and a lot of things with kale and broccoli. So a favorite would probably be some pan-fried seitan cutlets topped with some variation of a creamy cashew/tofu sauce, a side of steamed broccoli, a side of sautéed kale, and if I’m feeling like being healthy, a dessert of a banana/soymilk shake. If I’m not feeling as health-conscious…maybe a slice of carrot cake.

I really like the shoes by Vegetarian Shoes, which are vegan, sweatshop-free, and stylish. I don’t use a wide range of other products – mostly Dr. Bronner’s liquid soap, and Dessert Essence deodorant, which is the only vegan deodorant I have found to really do the trick. My favorite AR book is Melanie Joy’s Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows. 

Vegan Soapbox: How long have you been with FARM? What did you like most (and what did you like least) about organizing the Animal Rights Conference?

Michael: I have been with FARM since February 2009, and I am now the Program Director, which involves overseeing our grassroots campaigns, educational programs, and helping craft our strategy and vision. My favorite part about organizing the conference is that I get paid to talk and email with the best leaders of our movement. If I had to say something I dislike about it, it’s probably that I’m so busy onsite that I don’t get to meet nearly as many of the great attendees and I speakers as I would like to. 

Vegan Soapbox: What’s the most effective thing someone can do for animals… in 15 minutes?… in an hour or two?… in a day or week?… in a couple weeks, months, or years?

Michael: I believe that conversations (two-way, not one-way) are the most effective tool we have to reach people one-by-one. Because of this, I’d say the most effective thing someone could do with 15 minutes is refine their response to the most common question they receive. For example, if I notice that I always get asked about where all the animals would go if the world went vegan, and if I notice that my standard response turns people off by seeming high-and-mighty, then it’s probably time to refine my response. In 15 minutes, I can come up with a firm but compassionate response that doesn’t deny my hopes for a vegan world, but doesn’t also doesn’t waste time focusing on a scenario decades or centuries away when there are animals dying now that our choices can help.  

In a couple hours or a full day, I recommend an event that has the potential to reach lots of people and to intimately engage those willing to stick around. The most effective event in my opinion that achieves this is Pay Per View, which involves offering passersby $1 to watch four minutes of animal farming and slaughter footage. We give a leaflet to people who turn us down, and at each event up to several hundred people watch the video and have conversations with us. More at www.farmusa.org/PPV 

With months or more, an activist should map out their strengths (and weaknesses) and decide how they can best utilize those strengths to help the largest number of animals. This might be on their own, with a local group, or on the national/international scale. 

Vegan Soapbox: What do you see in the future regarding our movement? Are large successes likely, do you think? What do you think are the biggest obstacles we will have to overcome?

Michael: The biggest obstacle we face is that most people won’t go vegan until institutions stop making animal products so widespread, convenient, and desirable, but most institutions won’t do this until most people want it. Our movement is finding successes, and I only see more in the future, at working simultaneously to reach individuals with our message, and making their transition easier with the availability of vegan products, information, support, etc. 

Vegan Soapbox: What’s been your biggest personal challenge to being an effective animal activist/advocate?

Michael: Besides wanting to do way more than I have time for all the time? I struggle with giving people the message they need even when it’s not the message I want to offer. For example, I want everyone to know about the hoax of humane meat, and some people are ready for that message. But others should probably receive information more based on factory farming, health, etc. It’s difficult to strike a balance between being honest/uncompromising but also effective and relatable. 

Vegan Soapbox: Any other advice/ words of wisdom that you’d like to share?

Michael: My answers have been too long already. I think I’m done

Thanks go out to Michael who was kind enough to offer his time and insight for this interview. And thanks go out to you too for reading this interview and being a part of Vegan Soapbox. Thanks.

From the Vegan Outreach blog:

Consider President Clinton’s situation. He is very rich and powerful, and can afford to have any chef prepare him anything he wants. He is very close to his outspoken daughter who has been vegan for many years. Yet it still took extremely serious health problems, his daughter’s wedding, and a desire to live to see grandchildren to get him to finally eat a more plant-based diet (but still including fish).

So yes, it is clear that the health argument has an impact on rich, powerful men with vegan daughters, personal chefs, and nearly-fatal heart problems.

Geez. Color me depressed, uninspired, and downright disinterested in advocating for veganism. Great job, Matt Ball. Thanks for the discouragement.

Listen, I know it’s difficult to do vegan education while keeping the faith that people can change and become more compassionate beings who value the lives of animals. I know it’s easy to look at the history of limited success that the animal movement has made and try to blame activists for the lack of progress.

It’s not the activists’ fault! It’s just that the problem of animal exploitation is a really big, really tricky, really old problem and it’s going to take a heck of a lot of effort to fix it.

If you discount President Clinton’s ringing endorsement of Drs. Campbell, Esselstyn, Ornish, Barnard, and other doctors who recommend a vegan or nearly vegan diet to prevent or reverse health problems such as heart disease and diabetes, well I just don’t know what to say. Perhaps you’re too burned out right now to rejoice in this victory. Perhaps you need a vacation.

Because treating positive news about veganism as though it’s merely an expression of rich white man’s privilege, as it is actually interpreted and acted on in the real world by vegans, has quashed the enthusiasm of potential activists, making them feel as though they can’t possibly say or do the right thing so they may as well just give up entirely.

Our movement is desperate for hope, desperate for good news. Anyone involved in animal rights sees far too much suffering and death to be able to stay sane without some good news every now and then. Let us have our small victories and glories. Keep the cynicism to yourself.

Here is a quote from the official website for International Women’s Day about what the day currently represents:

“The new millennium has witnessed a significant change and attitudinal shift in both women’s and society’s thoughts about women’s equality and emancipation. Many from a younger generation feel that ‘all the battles have been won for women’ while many feminists from the 1970′s know only too well the longevity and ingrained complexity of patriarchy. With more women in the boardroom, greater equality in legislative rights, and an increased critical mass of women’s visibility as impressive role models in every aspect of life, one could think that women have gained true equality. The unfortunate fact is that women are still not paid equally to that of their male counterparts, women still are not present in equal numbers in business or politics, and globally women’s education, health and the violence against them is worse than that of men.”

“However, great improvements have been made. We do have female astronauts and prime ministers, school girls are welcomed into university, women can work and have a family, women have real choices. And so the tone and nature of IWD has, for the past few years, moved from being a reminder about the negatives to a celebration of the positives.” (source; emphasis added)

Because of the new IWD tone, it’s rather interesting that a small group of people who label themselves “abolitionist vegan feminists” have made a group statement for International Women’s Day and in the statement, they chose to focus on sexism within the animal rights movement rather than on celebrating the victories of vegan women or the victories of female animals.

I think I’ll go ahead and celebrate some victories…

One of the best examples of a victory are the “Vicktory Dogs” at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary. Meet two of the dogs rescued from Micheal Vick’s dogfighting rings:

Little Red arrived at Best Friends covered in facial scars. Her teeth had been filed down. She was probably a “bait” dog – a dog who is used as practice for other dogs. Other, more aggressive dogs attacked her in their fight “training.”
Best Friends describes her victory:

“Needless to say, when she arrived at Best Friends, Little Red was scared of everybody. If you walked up to her, she would quickly scurry away in fear. But then, after just a few weeks at the sanctuary, something incredible happened. Little Red smiled. She actually smiled. The corners of her mouth lifted and she wagged her tail. Now, when she sees her caregivers coming, she runs toward them instead of away!”

Georgia‘s ears were cropped and she had scars all over her face. Her tail had evidence of having been broken many times. She had no teeth. She didn’t trust anybody.

But after some time at the sanctuary, she made a special friend in John Garcia, a dog behaviorist, and she’s traveled as a pitbull spokes-dog, demonstrating that even fighting dogs can be rehabilitated into gentle companions.

Another example of victory within the animal rights and feminist movements is the fact that more and more women are writing books about veganism! Here are some examples:

Melanie Joy has written a book called “Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism.” The book, according to Publisher’s Weekly,

“offers an absorbing examination of why humans feel affection and compassion for certain animals but are callous to the suffering of others—especially those slaughtered for our consumption. She takes Eric Schlosser, Michael Pollan, and Jonathan Safran Foer’s well-trod route and investigates factory farming, exposing how cruelly the animals are treated, the hazards that meatpacking workers face, and the environmental impact of raising 10 billion animals for food each year. She uses her factory farm–to–table narrative to buttress her real thesis: meat-eating or carnism, is an oppressive ideology as noxious as racism.”

Ruby Roth wrote a children’s book called “That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals: A Book About Vegans, Vegetarians, and All Living Things.” Wired wrote this about the book:

“That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals succeeds in raising awareness about where our food comes from and how our food choices affect other creatures and the environment. Roth touches on the conditions animals raised on factory farms endure…but she doesn’t get overly graphic…That’s Why We Don’t Eat Animals nicely connected the dots between how humans treat animals and the impact our species has on the planet as a whole, with the basic premise being that a more enlightened attitude toward our food sources (of course, ideally that would mean becoming vegetarian) translates into a healthier planet.”

Breeze Harper compiled an anthology entitled, “Sistah Vegan: Food, Identity, Health, and Society: Black Female Vegans Speak.” The book is a collection of voices of North American black-identified vegans. The book’s description:

Collectively, these activists are de-colonizing their bodies and minds via whole-foods veganism. By kicking junk-food habits, the more than thirty contributors all show the way toward longer, stronger, and healthier lives. Suffering from type-2 diabetes, hypertension, high blood pressure, and overweight need not be the way women of color are doomed to be victimized and live out their mature lives. There are healthy alternatives. [...]Thought-provoking for the identification and dismantling of environmental racism, ecological devastation, and other social injustices, Sistah Vegan is an in-your-face handbook for our time. It calls upon all of us to make radical changes for the betterment of ourselves, our planet, and by extension everyone.

Back to female nonhuman sucesses…

Farm Sanctuary tells Gloria‘s story:

“Gloria lived at a racetrack, but she wasn’t there to run, and she didn’t. She couldn’t. Nor could she roam or graze or lounge in the grass. For the first eight years of her life, the little goat was kept tied up in a barn. [...] Other goats like Gloria languish behind the scenes at horse-racing tracks, where their presence is believed to calm high-strung racehorses. These goats are seen merely as tools to enhance the performance of their equine companions, and their own needs are often egregiously neglected. [...]Now in recovery, Gloria continues to grow healthier and enjoys the attention of interns and staff members [...]No longer tied up, no longer weighed down, Gloria was for the first time free to walk wherever she pleased, and she did.”

Now, I’d like to highlight some female animal advocates.

Kris Carr has redefined “sexy” in her books, film, and website: “Crazy, Sexy Life.” She is described as:

“an irreverent foot soldier in the fight against disease, Carr inspires countless individuals and their families to make the link between personal and planetary health by adopting a plant-based diet and improving lifestyle choices. Her witty anecdotes, and tips for tackling adversity motivate her audiences to become empowered wellness activists.”

Mariann Sullivan and Jasmin Singer began a website and podcast called “Our Hen House” which is “a central clearinghouse for all kinds of ideas on how individuals can make change for animals.” The pair does stuff like talk to “The Dosa Man” and “feed compassion.”

Lastly, I’m going to go ahead and give myself a little pat on the back here by counting a major vegan outreach effort in Las Vegas that I spear-headed, “The Vegas Billboard Project.” The grassroots group that I help organize, Vegas Veg*, worked with Mercy For Animals (MFA) to produce nine pro-animal billboards located throughout the Vegas valley. The billboards will be viewed over 10 million times!

This is just a very small slice of the incredible things that women are doing for animals and each other. These stories represent a few of the feminist victories within the animal rights movement. These and similar success stories are something we should ALL continue to acknowledge and celebrate, regardless of our diversity of opinions regarding other aspects of the movement.