Can you believe we’re into March already? This year is already proving to be such an exciting one for the vegan movement. There’s so much terrific stuff happening! Here are just some of them:
This month’s wins
Joey Carbstrong releases new documentary. Hot on the heels of #Februdairy, the incomparable Joey Carbstrong has released a brand new documentary titled ‘Milk: Make Your Own Mind Up‘. This 40-minute film exposes the dairy industry and the practices ‘they’d rather you NOT know about’. While the film does include graphic images that some viewers may find disturbing, these images are simply depicting typical practices within the industry, shown truthfully. Joey asks the vegan community to please share this important documentary with those who need to see it, so they can make an informed choice whether they want to continue consuming and supporting these products – or not.
Anticarnist launches new apparel designs. New season, new gear! Exciting new designs are now up for pre-order on the Anticarnist online store! In their latest range Anticarnist tackles the issue of leather, fur and down. It couldn’t have come at a better time as over the past few months activists have been hitting the news worldwide for protesting US and Canadian retail outlets over their choice to endorse and sell items of clothing featuring these barbaric materials. These t-shirt designs are ideal for any vegan wanting to wear their beliefs proudly and make people question wearing a skin that is not their own.
Watch our full-length ‘Activist’ interview with Anticarnist founder and creative genius Carina Campbell-Gedge.
Animal protection issues dominate Australian Parliamentary agenda. Animal Justice Party MP Emma Hurst has been kicking butt over in Australia, where animal protection issues have been high on the list of priorities in the state of New South Wales. Thanks to her tireless campaigning and advocacy, the abuse of dolphins in the name of so-called ‘entertainment’ is coming to an end. No more dolphins will be born into an industry with backyard pools, or be forced to do circus-style tricks. New regulations will effectively stop any future dolphin ‘abuse-ment’ park from setting up in NSW and end the breeding of dolphins, whales and porpoises for entertainment.
Emma says: ‘These changes were urgently needed to ensure no more animals are born into this collapsing industry. A dolphin born today could live for up to 50 years, meaning they could still be in a dolphinarium in 2070. The writing is on the wall – these animals were not born to perform. They do not exist for our entertainment. They deserve a life worth living, and NSW has recognised this with these new regulations. Queensland is now the only state in Australia still breeding dolphins for entertainment and it’s a global embarrassment. The Animal Justice Party will be working to get similar Regulations past in QLD – it’s time to #EmptyTheTanks Australia-wide’.
This is just one of the campaigns Emma and her team have been fighting for on behalf of the animals. To keep up with their incredible and inspiring work, be sure to follow her on Facebook or her main website.
Vegan Evan has his sights set on US Presidency. We love Vegan Evan! The plucky and adorable 10-year-old has his sights firmly set on a 2048 campaign to be the President of the United States of America. This brilliant young activist has a bright future ahead of him and has already featured in campaigns such as Million Dollar Vegan, where he challenged President Donald Trump to go vegan. For the full story, read this awesome article from our friends at The Vegan Review.
Seaspiracy is on its way! Fans of groundbreaking documentaries Cowspiracy and What the Health will be delighted to hear about this latest new addition from director and producer, Kip Andersen. Fellow director Ali Tabrizi gave an insight as to what we can expect in this upcoming film in a recent statement. ‘When we embarked on the journey to expose the leading threat to our seas, we had no idea of the sheer scale of what we were about to uncover. What made things even more shocking though, was the fact governments and environmental groups are complicit and profiting off its demise’.
The documentary is due to air March 24th on Netflix and the Vegan FTA team couldn’t be more excited! Kip’s documentaries have already resulted in countless people around the world going vegan (including our very own Gareth!) We can’t wait to see what kind of positive impact Seaspiracy will potentially have on sealife, the planet and people. Be sure to add it to your Netflix watchlist! For more information, and to be notified immediately when it is due to air, follow Seaspiracy on Facebook or sign up on their website.
To see more news and stories from the past month, head to our website or our Facebook page.
Sanctuary of the Month: Rowdy Girl Sanctuary
Renee and Tommy King’s story is an incredible tale of how a multigenerational Texas cattle rancher made the switch from farm to sanctuary. All too often when immersed in and conditioned to the farming lifestyle, the disconnection between animals and sentient beings is overwhelming. When Renee started to make that connection however, she realised she had to do something about it. ‘I could not stand to watch the babies leave their mamas even one more time to go to the sale barn FOR SLAUGHTER’, she said. Husband Tommy was ‘at the end of his rope’ with the ranching business and ready to sell up but rather than let the cows go elsewhere, Renee encouraged Tommy to take a leap of faith and start a sanctuary. Knowing the huge investment in every herd of cattle, she offered to buy the herd from her husband and with the help of compassionate vegans across the world donating via Indiegogo they achieved it!
Rowdy Girl Sanctuary was born and ever since, the proudly vegan couple have continued to share their unique experiences, vegan way of life, compassionate farming, and veganic gardening with everyday fellow Texans and the world to help make it a better place. Renee is also the founder of the Rancher Advocacy Program, designed to help support farmers who want to transition into non-animal agriculture and help them to find solutions.
Just like any other sanctuary, Rowdy Girl has its fair share of challenges and none more so than in February when Texas faced an extreme winter storm. The wild weather hammered the sanctuary’s emergency budget and created dire conditions for animals across the state. Renee and her team have done an incredible job during this trying time but right now they need all the support they can get to keep up their work for the animals.
To learn more about their story, and the different ways you can help Rowdy Girl Sanctuary, check out their website or make a donation.
Activist of the Month: Alexandra Paul
Many people will recognise Alexandra Paul from her five-year starring role as Lt. Stephanie Holden in the TV series Baywatch, as well as the many other Hollywood films and TV series she has starred in. However her animal activism achievements makes an equally lengthy and impressive line-up. With multiple rescues, slaughterhouse sit-ins and protests under her belt, Alexandra is a seasoned activist with a rap sheet to prove it. This beautiful soul is a serious badass! An accomplished athlete, she makes the perfect pairing with Olympian track cyclist Dotsie Bausch in hosting the weekly Switch4Good podcast, dedicated to educating and encouraging people around the world to ditch dairy for good.
Thank you Alexandra for your years of dedicated activism and for being a powerful voice for the animals! To learn more about Alexandra’s extensive career and advocacy, visit her website at http://alexandrapaul.com/.
READ: Insights from an ex-dairy farmer turned vegan activist
Before she became vegan, Vegan FTA’s Jackie worked on dairy and beef farms for 18 years in New Zealand. While she struggles to forgive herself for her past, today Jackie dedicates her life to putting an end to the industry she was once a part of. Being able to expose the industry from the inside, and use the knowledge and experience she gained from her past life gives Jackie a unique perspective from both sides and enables her to help other activists advocate better against the dairy industry. Having also been a professional writer for many years, Jackie uses this media as a form of activism and as well as Vegan FTA, she produces content for other organisations such as Surge, Free From Harm and Switch4Good. Here is some of her recent work from the past month, each sharing powerful in-depth insights into the reality of dairy.
Switch4Good – https://switch4good.org/tillys-story/
WATCH: The Cranky Vegan
As you can imagine, keeping an ear to the ground for news and constantly researching for our upcoming interviews means we consume a massive amount of vegan content from a variety of sources. It’s always exciting finding new sources of inspiration and when we find a YouTuber or podcaster we like, we can’t get enough! Gareth’s favourite right now is Jake Conroy, aka ‘The Cranky Vegan’. His content focuses on rethinking the strategies and tactics of the grassroots animal rights and vegan movement, a cause that is very close to our heart at Vegan FTA. With new videos and topical goodness each week, you’re guaranteed to learn something and quite probably have a good chuckle at the same time, as Jake tells it like it is.
Check out his YouTube channel for heaps of bingeworthy content, or give him a follow on all the usual platforms.
Activist Season 2 – have you been watching?
At the time of writing this newsletter, we have released the first four episodes of the second season, featuring in-depths interviews with the following outstanding activists:
Episode 1 – Captain Paul Watson
Episode 2 – Michael Greger, M.D.
Our Episode 5 is also an absolute corker, featuring Ban Trophy Hunting campaign founder, Eduardo Goncalves, who left both Gareth and Jackie uncharacteristically speechless! If you didn’t get a chance to see either this month’s episodes, or any of our previous ones from Season 1 during their live airing, you can catch up on them any time on our YouTube channel ‘Activist Series’ playlist.
With every episode of ‘Activist’ we record, the more it empowers us to fight harder for the animals and refreshes us with new ideas of how we can achieve that goal. In the coming weeks we will be delving into many more topics and creating meaningful stories to connect humans and animals.
Being able to produce and share the lessons we learn from these activists to you, our community is the most important work we have ever done. Creating new vegans and more importantly creating effective and efficient activists helps drive our goal for a compassionate and caring vegan world. A huge thank you goes out to everyone who is joining us on this mission and supporting us in creating this resource for animal rights advocacy.
Have you got your Vegan FTA t-shirts yet?
We’ve teamed up with our friends at Defender of Animals Clothing to bring you an exclusive range of t-shirts designed by us, as well as an awesome tote bag so you can carry us wherever you go! They are fantastic and better yet, Defender of Animals is very kindly donating all profits from the sale of these unique products to Vegan FTA, to help us in the work we do. All products are made from organic cotton and printed in the UK in a renewable energy powered factory. Top quality apparel made by activists, for activists. Getting your hands on one (or more!) is only a click away! Check out the order page – and while you’re at it, be sure to check out the rest of their awesome designs too!
Become a Vegan FTA supporter!
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