tips for disabled people who cannot go vegan

pull-the-tooth:

queeranarchism:

sofitlolz:

I’m disabled & vegan,  w/epilepsy, so I’m fine on a plant-based diet, but I am aware that there’s a lot of people who cannot go vegetarian or vegan, so here’s just a wee list of things you can do if you’re keen on animal activism

• Get involved & raise awareness! Sign up for any protests etc for animal rights in your area, maybe talk to abled/neurotypical friends and family, and get them to cut down some of their animal product consumption!
• Veganism is about doing what is possible, not what is going to harm you! So never be too hard on yourself
• When you hear people in the vegan community calling meat-eaters animal abusers/carnists, etc, keep in mind that this refers to people who can change but won’t. It’s kind of like when I talk about straight people. If I say that straight people are homophobic, I don’t mean every singe straight person is (I’m comparing here, not equating. sexuality has nothing to do with eating meat/disability)
• Don’t let people on either side use you as an excuse. Don’t let vegans say that x disabled person can be vegan therefore all disabled people can be vegan, but also don’t let abled meat-eaters use you (a.k.a “I have a friend”) as an excuse to keep eating meat. 
• If there is any animal product you can cut down on, then definitely cut down! Tiny steps have a massive impact on supply&demand.
• Don’t buy leather, fur, silk, wool, etc (this does not mean that you should get rid of all your clothes. If you have to buy a new jacket, look for one made with faux leather!)
• If you’re rich (lol what) , buy from local farms. 
• If you’re getting a pet, adopt! My cat is from a shelter and he is the most wonderful baby. I love him. 
• And again, don’t be too hard on yourself. You aren’t the problem here

There’s probably loads more, so feel free to add! 

– remember that ethical consumption is (1) unaccomplishable. None of your totally vegan friends are doing zero harm in any way. & (2) multifaceted. If you wanna consume as ethically as possible, getting local and season products, recycling, repairing, getting second hand stuff, avoiding plastics, etc etc are all great ways of reducing harm. It’s not all about meat.
– if you can: go skipping or get people to go skipping and share the results with you. Skipping often yields lots and lots of meat that will stop you from buying meat for a long time. Meat that is already thrown away does not effect the supply and demand cycle in any way.
– A lot of foodbanks do not offer a vegan option. If your friends get animal products from foodbanks that they’re gonna throw away, ask them to give it to you instead.
– remember that consumption impact is always minor compared to structural impact. If your activism disrupt a small part of the meat industry in a meaningful way that is better than a hundred people going vegan.
– Don’t let anyone tell you that you are not doing enough. That’s up to you to decide.
– if a vegan is ableist to you because you are not totally vegan, they suck big time. Save a pig, eat an ableist vegan.

Not to mention that most animal rights groups do as much or more to harm animals and the environment as the corps they fight by killing or euthanising many of the animals under their care because they don’t know how to care for them, do it improperly and get them sick, or simply can’t afford them or destroying ecosystems by releasing invasive, non-native, or simply too many animals into the wild, many of which starve b/c they were raised in captivity or are released into the wrong ecosystem.

Anything for that false sense of superiority, rite?

Actually, I hate this kind of bullshit and I’m sad to see it under a post I had any part in. ‘Radical animal rights activists don’t know what they’re doing’ is bullshit of the same degree as ‘people who destroy property don’t care about politics’ or ‘if someone got beat up by cops they probably deserved it’. B.U.L.L.S.H.I.T. And if people actually considered activist voices they’re know that.

People who break laws as part of their activism can not defend themselves openly and as a result news on these topics is dominated by people who know nothing about it or who actively oppose the activists. Radical groups publish their own perspectives in press releases, magazines, websites, blogs etc but they can only do so once they are sure that their publication won’t endanger anyone involved. Since most media either don’t bother to get the activist perspective or don’t consider something news 2 weeks after the fact, activist perspectives are often completely absent from the mainstream perspective and as a result bullshit like ‘activists don’t consider the consequences of their actions’ can thrive. Examples of a few actions that went very wrong get repeated over and over as if they’re representative of the activism even though they’re anything but. 

The simple truth is: when an activist choses a radical illegal action they are risking physical violence to their person, they are risking imprisonment, in some cases their are risking death. Ask yourself: do you really think activists would do that without carefully considering their consequences of their actions? Does that sound at all likely to you? 

It doesn’t sound likely to me. In fact, I know from experience that it’s bullshit. In reality, activists risk a lot when they take illegal action and as a result so so much planning, debating and boring meetings precede most actions and so much analysis and evaluation comes after it. Pros and cons get measured extensively. 

And sure, sometimes people still make the wrong choice but if you haven’t been at the table when the decision was made it is likely you don’t have a good idea of what all the options were and why these choices were made. It is easy to look at a fuck up and claim that ignorance was the cause when you weren’t the one making a dificult choice. The truth is that when you do this you are the one using a false sense of superiority to cover up your own ignorance.  

If an article suggests that activists ‘didn’t think about their actions’, you should immediately throw that article in the trash. The person who wrote it has never spoken to a radical activist in their lives.