Listen HERE Part two of my interview with Adam Kochanowicz from The Vegan News , The National Vegan Examiner and abolitionistvegans.org . We continue our talk about activism, abolition versus welfare, and the best news of all - there are vegans EVERYWHERE! And remember to check out http://abolitionistvegans.org/ where you can get all you need to make your own Vegan Kiosk! If you have new ideas and modifications to suit different places and needs - please do it, and update us and share this with ...
Jul 12, 2009
Listen HERE This week I interview Adam Kochanowicz from The Vegan News ! We talk about what Adam found out after he discovered veganism, packed his bags and went to Europe, looking for the animal rights movement, and looking to find out what people meant when they called themselves "animal rights activists" to see what kind of action they were taking. We talk about veganism, abolition, and all that good stuff. Check out Adam's bio at the National Vegan Examiner, I recommend reading the great art...
Jul 11, 2009
Listen HERE This week I read an essay written by Eva Batt, long standing member of the UK Vegan society. It is so well written, I am going to print it out and hand it around as part of my activism. Thanks to Nathan Schneider who has it available on his blog Vegan Abolitionist and to Randy Sandberg who added it to the text page here at Abolitionist Approach One of the things I loved about the article was this point: "...veganism has no connection with any political party or system, national or in...
Jul 03, 2009
Listen HERE Talking about sincere animal rights and vegan activism and believing in the message. Please contact your local soymilk supplier and ASK THEM WHAT THEY FILTER THE SOYBEANS THROUGH - i.e do they use silk? We are trying to find out, and if they do, we want everyone to write and make a case so they will stop doing that. In the meantime Sarah has a great recipe for homemade soy milk at The Vegan Mentor see Making Soy Milk We also talk about Animal Rights July which I would love to replica...
Jun 30, 2009
Listen HERE In part one of this interview we talk about Dr. Yates early involvement in the beginnings of the animal rights movement in Britain and the changes he has noticed since then till now, his writings and studies as a sociologist with regard to human behaviour, community activism and grass roots movements, and why we need more vegans! I hope you enjoy the interview! Stay tuned for part two....
Jun 30, 2009
Listen HERE This week I talk about some great local activism done by Sam, a NZ Vegan who is 13 years old, who blew me away with his new website, the first real website from New Zealand that gets to the truth of what dairy products really are, using a New Zealand perspective which is so important in our culture, and spreading the word about veganism in a very effective way! NZ Dairy Cruelty Thanks Sam! I am very grateful, I can now recommend this site to local people to show them the truth right ...
Jun 22, 2009
Listen HERE Today I make an announcement, and also finally respond to the hugely publicised campaign by the NZ animal welfare group S.A.F.E to promote "free range" pork consumption. I must admit I really let the side down. I wallowed in a level of self indulgment that is really inexcusable, especially from someone such as myself who claims to be such an activist. I apologise. I didn't write any letters to the papers or participate in any discussions, because I allowed myself to be negative. Well...
Jun 08, 2009
Listen HERE I am trying to bring the abolitionist movement down here to New Zealand where it doesn't exist at all, and to do that I need to get out in the community and work on my people skills and gear them towards the culture I live in, while at the same time trying to circumvent the wasteful tangents they get led down by the expensive, publicized and highly promoted welfare campaigns that are getting people all hung up on the size of cages and whatnot, as opposed to talking about the real iss...
May 31, 2009
Listen HERE Today there was a story from here in New Zealand that I just had to mention, funny how things closer to home can seem to affect you more - wrongly or rightly I am as prone to that as anyone else. I mourn this tiger and I remind myself that the pig slaughtered in Egypt from swine flu paranoia or the chicken gassed in Canada by KFC or the "free range" hen in Austria being slaughtered at the end of her short tortured life or the rat in the lab in Kentucky or the sable in the fur farm in...
May 27, 2009
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May 24, 2009
Listen HERE This is a big subject, and I realize there are so many more things I could say than I said, and so many more reasons I could add to the ones I gave, but I hope I at least got it across why I feel the way I do about this issue and why I personally agree that we should not have companion animals or pets anymore than we should have food animals, clothing animals or animals for entertainment or scientific research. Firstly this is the link to the video from Hurricane Katrina of which I e...
May 17, 2009
Listen HERE We talk about how easy it is to go vegan and the kinds of questions and opposition that are encountered daily in the life of a vegan and we discuss ideas about how to deal with them. I hope that everyone enjoyed listening and please let us know if you have had a similar experience to that of William's. We would love to hear your story and try to help you in any way we can. Thank you to William Paul for coming on the show, and for sharing your story....
May 11, 2009
Listen HERE Part one of the interview with William Paul, a student at Selwyn College in Auckland, New Zealand, in which he relates the events that occurred the day he informed the school he was an ethical vegan and therefore would not be wearing the footwear dictated by the mandatory school uniform policy. This is a very important issue and I hope William's story inspires other young people not only to go vegan and to stay vegan, but also to demand the respect their decision is entitled to, to t...
May 11, 2009
Listen HERE Just want to say I was never trying to hide my identity! I am proud of who I am. I just thought my nickname was unusual and unique and would draw attention, and there are so many Elizabeth Collins out there. I am NOT the Elizabeth Collins that writes/wrote articles for PETA!!! Anyway, my friends from New York have been calling me Knuckles for as long as I can remember, it is my nickname, but everyone knows my real name because that is how it is shown on Gary Francione's site for exam...
May 07, 2009
Listen HERE Hi I made an embarrassing mistake in my last episode. Please accept my apologies to Dan Cudahy and Roger Yates for messing up. Roger's website is On Human-Nonhuman Relations: http://human-nonhuman.blogspot.com/ and Dan's website is called Unpopular Vegan Essays: http://unpopularveganessays.blogspot.com/ I am so sorry for making that mistake. Please check out these great blogs. Forgive me Dan and Roger....
May 04, 2009
Listen HERE This week I talk about my personal experiences trying to work and earn a living as a vegan in a non-vegan world. I also talk about an interesting reaction I had (the way I reacted not the other people) upon being given my very first opportunity ever to address a group of relative strangers about veganism. I also talk about Colleen Patrick-Goudreau with whom many people are already very familiar. So far I have not done any more than go to the iTunes Store and read a few of the 255 rev...
May 01, 2009
Listen HERE This Episode I mention how important it is to be in touch with reality no matter how painful it is. I think it is the best way to live, and it also allows us to embrace life, and only by being in touch with the reality of the world we are living in can we be effective in helping to better that world. I talk about the dreams I have which are not fantasies, but rather are about a future that I will probably never get to live long enough to see, which is however, a plausible future, a p...
Apr 19, 2009
Listen HERE This week I try to articulate my thoughts about abolition veganism as a movement, as a cause that is becoming reality, because I am starting to think that we are at the beginning of something that may one day, albeit perhaps long after we are gone, be called a movement. The more people I am finding out about who are promoting abolitionist veganism, the more I realize that something has really begun. Something that actually will make a difference, unlike the last 200 years. It's very ...
Apr 11, 2009
Listen HERE This week I say hi and thank you to people who listened to the Gary Francione interview and other episodes and got in touch with me to offer support and I have provided links to their fantastic websites in my list of links. I reinforce why I am only comfortable with peaceful, abolitionist vegan activism, because otherwise I would not be being true to myself. I talk about how animals, unlike women or human slaves, will never be able to start their own movement or create an agenda or a...
Apr 05, 2009
Listen HERE Part 2 of my interview with Professor Gary Francione in which we continue the discussion of abolitionist veganism as a concept and as a method of activism. We also discuss the importance of the promotion of peace and non-violence in contrast to the troubling violence committed by some animal activists. We talk about the relationship between Human Rights and Animal Rights. We discuss capitalizing on peoples' empathy towards animals, and using that to expose them to the truth of the ma...
Mar 30, 2009
Listen HERE This week I have a very special guest on the show, Professor Gary Francione! Anyone who has listened to my podcast knows that I am a huge admirer of Professor Francione. His words and his philosophy of abolition are what inspired me to change my life, he is my favourite speaker on the issues, of course, and is an amazing person to have a discussion with. In Part 1 of the interview I ask Professor Francione to talk about his beginnings as an animal activist, how he developed his theor...
Mar 30, 2009
Listen HERE This week I want to clarify what I mean when I talk about being patient and tolerant. Unfortunately, at this point in time, we are fighting against something that is actually publicly defended as morally justified, unlike other causes such as fighting against racism or child abuse, and unlike those other causes we do not have the majority opinion, or even 20% or even 10% hell we don't even have 5% of public opinion on our side, so until we get enough of a percentage of people who tru...
Mar 22, 2009
Listen HERE This week I have a special guest on the show, Jordan Wyatt, who joins me from the South Island of New Zealand, from the city of Invercargill. We talk about protesting, activism and his experience as a young male vegan. We also talk about how it is to live in a small town or city where there are no resources for vegans for things like personal care products etc. Also a shout out to Nancy and Nick who are listeners who sent me emails all the way from America and Canada. Thanks so much ...
Mar 17, 2009
Listen HERE This week I talk about what I eat in general, and about supplementing your vegan diet with either vitamin B12 supplements or vitamin B12 fortified foods. I read directly from four sources and I enclose the following links to those sources: http://www.nzfsa.govt.nz/processed-food-retail-sale/fact-sheets/iodinelongqas.htm http://www.vegansociety.com/food/nutrition/b12/ http://www.vegsoc.org/info/b12.html http://www.abolitionistapproach.com/?p=298 In the episode I mention a nutrition ch...
Mar 08, 2009
Listen HERE In this episode I address the comment left on my blog post Episode 6, and also an email I received (I think from the same person?) that had a similar reaction to my use of the word obese. It is my first negative reaction and it is very enlightening! I updated the blog description of Episode 6 also, to address the same. Thanks to everyone who has provided input, positive and negative, it is all very useful and helpful. Also in this episode I am very happy to relate a story that confir...
Feb 28, 2009
Listen HERE This episode I speak about the use of animals as entertainment, and also my reaction to a couple of pictures from a "cute" and "entertaining" email that appears to be making the rounds at the moment. As always I talk about how we must change the absolute fundamental way that people see all non-human animals, or we will never change anything.
Feb 23, 2009
Listen HERE This week I added a little new age music to kick things off, it may not be everyone's cup of tea but at least I now have music on my podcast. I talk about the positive aspect of the total moral schizophrenia that we human beings have with regard to our treatment of animals, and try to look at one side of the thinking as being an opportunity to take advantage of.
Feb 15, 2009
Listen HERE This episode I address some issues coming from a male point of view, and try to address one of the common misconceptions about all vegans being super skinny and I name a couple of famous female vegans. (I also want to mention that Martina Navratilova is a vegan and you can check out how buff she is). I will say that one thing you probably will never see is an OBESE vegan, which is different from full figured or large bodied. Obesity is very very unhealthy and I doubt very much you ca...
Feb 06, 2009
