Category Archives: Humans

I urge all advocates

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I urge all advocates for animal rights, all vegans and anyone who cares about nonviolence, justice, morality and respect, and who wants to see an end to oppression, discrimination and slavery, to go vegan, to nonviolently promote veganism unequivocally in everything they say and do as an advocate, and to unequivocally oppose all discrimination, including against our fellow human beings, in everything they say and do and in their actions as a member of their community.
~ Elizabeth Collins (November 8, 2011)

Source: Interview with Elizabeth Collins of NZ Vegan Podcast and AAVA

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Justice and respect for all living beings is the ideal focus

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Justice and respect for all living beings is the ideal focus. Regardless of how various factions approach the problem, if we stand steady with a message of all beings’ rights not to be owned or used—no exceptions, no excuses—we’ll at least be on the ethical high road.
~ Leah Comerford (November 7, 2011)

Source: Interview with Leah Comerford, artist and editor for The Abolitionist

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Slavery is Slavery

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As a vegan, I avoid supporting any industry that uses slave labor. It does not matter to me whether the slave walks on two feet or four, has hair or fur, has dark skin or light, is male or female, is young or old, etcetera, etc.

What does matter to me, is if the slave is sentient. That’s all that should matter to anyone who stands against slavery. Because, slavery is wrong. It hurts, it kills, and it cannot ever be made right. It can only be abolished.

As an abolitionist, I educate the public about the horrors of slavery and how we all need to do our part to end it. I feel that part is twofold—stop funding it and inspire others to do the same. Sure, there will be those who continue to support slavery. That is out of our hands. All we can do is change ourselves, educate the masses, and be living examples of what it means to be vegan abolitionists.

Think, then Go Vegan!

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To sustainably bring an end to modern slavery

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To sustainably bring an end to modern slavery, four main areas of focus must be addressed. First is the demand for inexpensively manufactured goods and sex services, since this demand is met by the cheap—or free—labor of those who are acutely economically vulnerable. Second, gender inequality and bias must be addressed in all countries to reduce the stigma and abuse of sexual exploitation. Third, there must be a unified international response to strategies of prevention and awareness, and, fourth, impunity must end, for victims will continue to remain silent and not seek medical, psychological or legal attention if they feel there is no available retribution or safe care. History has clearly illustrated that impunity for traffickers only serves to exacerbate its use.
~ Cassandra Clifford (December 17, 2010)

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Abolition is a much greater evil

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Without inquiring whether it [Slavery] be evil, as most insist, or good, as some contend, unquestionably it is a vast, stupendous, and vital American reality. In the Middle States, the temperate zone of American republican continental union, holding together the slave-holding southwest and slave-hating northeast, there should and must be considerate and patriotic Americans enough, independent of all foreign influences, neither owning slaves, nor hating those who do, even if regretting slavery, willing to accept historical, political, and philosophical ascertainment that, whether slavery be evil or not, modern external abolition is a much greater evil. Vouched by irrefutable English and American authority, negro slavery in America may be so vindicated that no American need shrink from its communion. Its abrupt, forcible, or extrinsic removal would be a tremendous catastrophe. Dismembering the United States and destroying the American republic would tend not to abolish, but perpetuate slavery. Few in this meridian have any practical knowledge of much abused slavery. Its English denunciation, adopted by New England, is merely remote and theoretical philanthropy, national or sectional prejudice. Such of us as live in Pennsylvania, where for a long time there have been no slaves, can be moved by no natural impulse to defend their ownership. If descended from New England, the bias must be otherwise. But every lover of his country should desire to vindicate its institutions, of which this is one, from foreign detraction and its American adoption.
~ Charles J. Ingersoll (1856)

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I do not love all animals

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Contrary to popular belief, even though I am vegan I do not love all animals. That is, although I do love some human as well as nonhuman animals—such as many of my family members, friends, and adopted companions—I do not love every animal on Earth.

In fact, the idea of an “animal lover” sounds rather odd to me. Seriously, who really loves all animals? Or, most likely to be more precise, who loves all nonhuman animals? Now, I’m sure there will be comments from folks who claim to love all animals, but I still think it’s an odd statement. First and foremost, how can someone love someone else (and we’re talking trillions of them here) who they’ve never met?

Secondly, what about ticks? Yes, they are animals just like humans, kittens, puppies, and baby seals are animals. Do “animal lovers” love ticks? All ticks? Because, if they don’t then the term “animal lover” needs to be downgraded to something less encompassing such as “loves some animals” which, of course, would apply to me as well.

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A debt bondage that can be equated legally with modern slavery

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More and more people including young women are on the move, at a time when changing patterns of production and consumption are in turn affecting demand for labour. … A particular problem throughout the world has been the manipulation of financial credit, locking poor people into severe indebtedness and in the worst cases a debt bondage that can be equated legally with modern slavery.
~ Roger Plant (October 30, 2007)

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