Honestly, I don't start off all of my articles like this (with a call for an apology and an encouragement to go vegan). But your agent has said in the Huffington Post that you were contacted by a number of animal advocacy groups, including PeTA, Friends of Animals, and others. Gary L. Francione and Myl�ne Ouelett have already blogged about this, and I don't like to feel left out.
It's also worth noting that Francione has invited just about anyone who wants to do so to discuss this issue on his podcast. It might be worthwhile for you (or anyone else) to take him up on the offer. I was on his podcast last week, and I can say that both he and Roger Yates are very nice people.
Your agent has also claimed that you received threats, and I am sorry if that has been the case. But it sounds now like you (or someone in your organization) was not being completely forthcoming about your being threatened. I am certainly not saying that you are lying. I am not saying that anyone in question is lying.
Certainly, individuals act of their own accord regardless of what groups or leaders may want them to do on all sides. What I am saying is that falsehoods and half-truths have absolutely no place in public discourse, and that nowhere is that more true that in the advocacy for other animals. I believe that when anyone misleads the public that s/h/ze should apologize for doing so. That goes for everyone, and I'll get back to that in a bit.
But getting back to the story, rather than simply say no, or yes, or can you explain to me why? You said:
�Every skater is wearing skates made out of cow,� Weir said.
�Maybe I�m wearing a cute little fox while everyone else is wearing cow, but we�re all still wearing animals.�
Sure, but what follows out of that is not that you should feel free to use fur but that you shouldn't use leather or fur (or dairy, or eggs or other animal products or labor). I know the groups in question probably didn't explain this very well to you, and it's wonderful that you saw the obvious contradiction. I'm just saying that you should keep going. Pursue that to its logical conclusion: take the rights of all other animals seriously and go vegan.
Now, I'm not going to agave-coat it. And other advocates may boo me or demand apologies or harangue me on Twitter and Facebook all they like, but I am not going to be silenced: I think these campaigns (regardless of the group doing it) were misguided. It's nothing personal. But I think just asking you not to wear fur asked you to do less than you should; I am always opposed to that. I think single issues campaigns confuse the public about what they owe other animals (veganism, abolition and in those cases where it is appropriate, care).
I also think that single issues campaigns often have speciesist overtones insofar as they actively suggest or passively lead people to believe that some species are more important than others, or that some kinds of treatment are worse than others, and so on. But more important, I believe that the only substantial 'victory' for nonhuman animals is the social, legal and personal acknowledgement of their personhood and all of the changes to human life that that entails.
Bans on particular types of treatment and use do not remove animals from the property system and magically make them into legal or moral persons; so, I do not support organizations or campaigns (regardless of their labels or claims) that focus on that kind of work. Again, it's nothing personal. I just believe that you (and everyone else) should take the rights of other animals seriously, and abolitionist veganism, as one of my colleagues likes to say, is the starting point.
As an advocate, I keep it simple. I am a proponent of three simple sentences: Other animals are moral persons who have at least one basic right not to be used as property and I think you should go vegan. Did you know that going vegan is simple and straightforward and the most important thing you can do to help other animals? How can I help you with the transition? In the interests of full disclosure, I got the idea for these three sentences from the work of someone else.
So, how can I help you with your transition? I want you to not only not use fur, I want you also to not use leather. I think you should eat an entirely plant-based diet. I want you to replace all the cleaners you have (vinegar works wonders!), your personal deodorant, your hair gel � everything you possibly can, with alternatives that contribute the absolute least possible to animal suffering and exploitation. That includes products tested on other animals and products manufactured with animal processes.
I want you to stop going to the circus if you do (I don't know you personally � you may not be a fan) and I think you should stop patronizing films, TV and other entertainment produced with animal "actors". I think you should also think carefully and arrange your other behaviours in such as way to contribute as little as possible to the suffering and exploitation of other animals.
To be clear, I am not asking you to do anything beyond the pale. I am not asking you to stop taking life-saving medication. I am not asking you to sacrifice your grandmother to a hungry tiger if the three of you are trapped in a lifeboat. I am not asking you to stop walking on sidewalks. I am not asking you to support the rights of sheep to vote.
Nor am I asking you to martyr yourself. I am asking you to pick up some alternatives at the local grocery, maybe do some Internet shopping, to buy some new clothes, to read a book and, more important, to start thinking about and living your life more fully and completely in a way that contributes the least possible to the harm and suffering of other animals.
I'm asking you to fill your life with all of the overwhelming number of alternatives that justice, virtue and most of all, love allow. That's what vegan means.
Abolitionists propose to end the property status of nonhuman animals and restoring their personhood. We believe that other animals are persons who are sentient, have interests (e.g., an interest in not feeling pain, in continuing their lives), and so, they have a right not to be used as property. Abolitionists believe that in light of that right, everyone should go vegan, that prejudices against other animals are irrational (we refer to this as 'speciesism' and we think of it as being as objectionable as racism or sexism), and that we should all work toward the abolition of the property status of nonhuman animals.
Whether we call them free living, domesticated, whether they are "state" property (e.g., some species in controlled habitats), "personal" property (e.g., a rescued pit bull), "institutional" property (e.g., cows in family or factory farms) or property "waiting to be claimed" (e.g., foxes in nature), animals have a right not to be used as property. There may be minor legal differences between types of property, but property is still property.
All animals are property or 'property waiting to be claimed' through labor (e.g., through hunting). That includes honey bees, zebras, cats, dogs, elephants, otters, cuttlefish and a world full of millions and millions of species whose name you and I will probably never know. They are moral persons just by being sentient, and they should all be treated as moral persons. None of them is properly safe (even the ones we love and care for personally in our own homes) until the property status of animals is abolished. Working to end the property status of animals means working to end the property status of all animals, wherever they live.
But I can't entirely blame you if you were confused, There's been a lot of (very) silly talk on the Internet about veganism lately. Some people have suggested that veganism only applies only to food animals, and I'm telling you that that's not the case. Some people have suggested that eating free range veal makes you a level one vegan. That is also not the case.
In addition to avoiding animals use for food, clothing and entertainment, vegans also try to avoid the suffering and exploitation we cause to other animals whether by actively destroying their habitats whether they are orang-utans or neighborhood squirrels, or with the passive apathy involved with leaving an injured person alone on a roadside. In short, abolitionist vegans take animals seriously as moral persons in the widest possible sense of "seriously". I also think you should also consider lending your personal time, if possible, to promoting veganism, animal adoption/care and abolition.
If I can do it, so can you. In about ten minutes, I am going to eat the tofu salad I made with shiitake mushrooms, wakame, onions (and tofu!). It's going to be delicious. Then I'm going to go thrifting for some suit trousers (no wool or silk). Then I'm probably going to do yoga. When I'm done, I might play scrabble, pet my cats, work on my dissertation, design a flier or any of the other countless things I do to fill my life that don't involve unjustified and inexcusable animal use.
I've said it before, but it bears repeating: abolitionist veganism is a life that goes well. I'm writing this letter not because I want donations or because I expect anyone to thank me for it. Actually, I'll probably be personally attacked by other advocates for writing it (the downside to our community is that there is a lot of scene drama). I'm writing it because I believe in you as an agent of change. I believe that veganism is what we other animals, and that it's also better for the ecosystem (and the other animals who live in it) and for ourselves (as animals to whom we also owe a duty of care and nonviolence). Most of all, though, I'm writing this letter because I believe in you.
Getting back to the apology, if you or anyone else in your organization misled the public (which sounds like it may be the case) I think you should think hard and long about a public apology. The work of animal advocates is often very misguided, but the overwhelming majority of animal advocates care very seriously and sincerely about nonviolence, about the rights of other persons (human and non), and about changing the world for the better. Having apologized myself a lot over the years, I can say that apologizing is very often the right thing to do when we do the wrong thing. But even if you don't apologize, you should definitely go vegan.
Even if you're not Johnny Weir, you should go vegan today. If you're not an abolitionist, you can learn more about the approach at www.abolitionistapproach.com or by reading my previous articles.
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