June 2009 – Page 2 – Animal Rights The Abolitionist Approach

A Smart Idea About Community Education

June 14, 2009/in Blog/by Gary L. Francione

Dear Colleagues:

Elizabeth Collins, an abolitionist advocate and podcaster from New Zealand, shared with me an idea about creative, nonviolent abolitionist vegan education. I pass it along to you.

Elizabeth is in the process of constructing a stall that she will use to provide community education about animal rights and veganism. She wants to use the videos from this site—Theory of Animal Rights, Animals as Property, and Animal Rights vs. Animal Welfare—but finds it impractical to take her laptop into the streets. So she is going to print each slide and create albums or “flip books” that will allow people who come to her stall to read relatively brief and accessible presentations about the central ideas of the abolitionist approach. She and her colleagues can answer any questions or provide any desired further discussion. She is also distributing our abolitionist pamphlet and other abolitionist vegan literature.

For those who want to use our videos to do community education on animal rights and veganism but where the videos cannot be projected or shown on a computer, these albums or “flip books” seem to be an excellent solution.

Becoming vegan and educating others about veganism are the most important forms of activism in which you can engage. Share with others the simple idea: Go vegan. It easy, it’s good for your health and the well being of the planet, and, most importantly, it’s the right thing to do.

Gary L. Francione
© 2009 Gary L. Francione

Taking Care of our HOME

June 8, 2009/in Blog/by Gary L. Francione

Dear Colleagues:

On Friday, June 5—World Environment Day—a remarkable documentary called HOME was released in over 50 countries in movie theaters, on TV, and on the Internet.

HOME is the story of the earth and the evolution of sentient life, and how human beings have, in a fairly short time, brought our planet to the brink of disaster.

I urge you to watch this documentary, which will be available until June 14 at YouTube. Encourage your friends and family to watch. It’s free and worth every single second of the 93 minutes of its length. The narration is intelligent and those who know little about ecology will come away with considerable expertise. Those who are already knowledgeable will learn even more.

The photography is absolutely stunning. Every frame is something that could easily be a photograph on your wall.

As far as the animal issue is concerned, HOME is better by miles than Al Gore’s document, An Inconvenient Truth, which was a surprise given that some of HOME’s sponsors produce animal products. There is explicit criticism of intensive agriculture and discussion about the inefficient use of resources (grains, water) used to produce meat. Although the film certainly does not advocate veganism, that is the logical implication of its message. As I have argued for longer than I care to remember, anyone who cares at all about the environment should be vegan even if she/he does not care about the moral issue involved in animal exploitation.

HOME is a desperately needed wake-up call. We humans—especially those of us who live in rich, industrialized nations—need to understand the sheer insanity of the lifestyle we consider as “normal.”

Watch HOME.