VEGANISM BY FLEUR

WHAT DOES VEGANISM MEAN TO ME?

If I’d been asked that question 5 years ago I would have reeled off all of the reasons I was plant based.

The animals, my health, the planet. At a push I might have checked that my make-up was cruelty free and maybe opted for faux over leather. Skip forward to today and now, I truly understand. Imagine there was a baby, yours, a friends, a strangers, and the babies life was in danger, immediate, life ending danger and you were a witness.

You might not be able to save them but you were sure as shit going to try. You would do anything in your power to stop it, right? And you would have very strong feelings about the people going to do the baby harm.

That’s how I feel about every single animal on the planet and the people exploiting them. I’m not just talking about animals being bred into existence to feed humans who could live off plants. Or about people paying to watch horses run to their deaths or piling donkeys up with tourists. I’m talking about every single animal that has ever been viewed as a commodity.

As a way of ‘improving the human experience’.

Entertainment, food, clothing, experiments, pets, sports.

We have coerced and manipulated their lives so much, we don’t even recognise we’re doing it, but what about them? Their lives? Are they worth so little to us that we breed them just to serve us? Yikes.

I could speak for hours about why we don’t need their flesh for protein or their wool to keep warm but what will that achieve? A backlash of excuses. Until we recognise that animals deserve their right to life, without human intervention, nothing will change.

This isn’t about love, or even recognising that sentient beings exist other than humans. It’s a basic admission of respect.

Respecting other individuals right to live and understanding that we should be living without exploiting them.

Animal liberation is possible.

This isn’t about emptying cages (although every cage SHOULD be empty) it’s about emptying our own minds of the way we perceive animals which put them in the cages, zoos, farms, aquariums, slaughterhouses and the world in the first place.

We have manipulated their reproductive systems, torn apart their families, bred animals into an abhorrent life, all for our own gain.

Sure, some people don’t care, hand on their heart couldn’t give a shit BUT there are others that don’t know any better. I was one of those people.

I know there are more and I am doing everything in my power to reach them.

I strongly believe that every single activist counts. Some people will respond to large demonstrations, some to quiet conversations, some to displays or art and others to imagery.

The movement needs us all. It also needs everyone who understands the concept of veganism to be actively reaching those who don’t. Little by little won’t do.

This is urgent, after all. It’s life or death. 

FLEURS INSTAGRAM