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I haven’t done a post about animal rights/animal advocacy in a loooong time.  I’m way overdue, don’t you think?!  Here’s something I wrote up a long while back and it was just sitting in a computer file…

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In my continuing quest to try to figure out why some people go vegan & some people don’t (even if it seems like they should “know better”), I think I have broken it down to 3 components…ALL 3 which must be in place in order for someone to go vegan and– more importantly– stay vegan:

1. Empathy. Complete empathy. Nothing partial about it. You must be able to put yourself fully in the position of other animals.

2. Taking personal responsibility to act. Never leaving it for someone else to deal with. Feeling an obligation to help.

3. Permanently staying in those states of “empathy” & “taking personal responsibility.”

So…if #1 isn’t there, you will be able to justify just about any form of animal use on the basis of “it’s not that bad” or “it’s okay because it’s not me.” Vegetarians could fall in this category. “Happy meat” eaters could fall in this category when they partially empathize but they don’t completely empathize so they try to eat “less” cruel but not cruelty “free.”

If #2 isn’t there, then you will always leave the “action” to others.

If #3 isn’t there, then you have the people who may feel compelled to stop eating animals one day but then they go back to old habits pretty soon after, when they allow themselves to “forget” about the horrors.

On January 18, 2013, I got my second tattoo, by the lovely Savannah Beck at Mordor Tattoo.

Mordor Tattoo

Mordor Tattoo

My first tattoo was “Vegan,” on the top of my right wrist.  The second is “269,” on the inside of my left wrist.  I chose to have these vegan tattoos inscribed where they are visible to others every day of the year.  The purpose is to facilitate a dialogue with people who may be interested in veganism.  My primary motive is to help end the unnecessary exploitation and killing of non-human animals.  A secondary motive is to attract like-minded people into my circle of friendship.

Please visit the 269life website to learn more about the global 269 movement.

Here is the powerful 269 mission statement:

“The nameless, faceless victims whose bodies are used to feed us, obviously had desires and feelings before their throats were slit open with cold, calculated brutality. It’s strange, we define ourselves as a “law abiding, moral” society, and yet routinely massacre innocent beings.

The branding of the calf’s number, chosen by the industry to be “269”, is for us, an act of solidarity and immortalization. We hope to be able to raise awareness and empathy towards those, whose cries of terror and pain are only heard by steel bars and the blood stained walls of the slaughterhouses.

We are all equal in our suffering, and if humanity has any chance of surviving and evolving, we must accept that oppression of the weak – whether excused by gender, race or species – lacks any rationality and fundamental sensitivity towards those who may not cry out using our language, but feel pain no less than us.

So we ask: What will happen with the individual numbered “269”?
Is his life not more meaningful than a pointless, sanguinary practice?”

269 Tattoo

269 Tattoo

Go Vegan...for LIFE.

Go Vegan…for LIFE.

"There are those who are appalled because I am so vocal about injustice, yet I am equally appalled by their silence." Lujene Clark

“Every time you purchase animal products you pay assassins to murder sentient beings for you.”

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"My purpose is not to offend you, it is to provoke you to think." Unknown

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