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- Merry Murdermas
Back in the days prior to commencing a compassionate life, I never used to have problems going to the supermarket or shops, but these days there is a literal gauntlet of triggers that I need to side-step just to get to the vegetables; and even then I frequently need to live-censor certain parts of the shops and surrounds out of my sphere of consciousness just to be able to make it back to the checkout.
At this time of year, the morgue sections of the supermarkets spill out beyond their usual boundaries, with the surplus of freshly severed legs (from pigs as young as five and six months old) wrapped in plastic and placed on refrigerated shelves.
All traces of the individual that once was are stripped away and packaged at the ready, soon to be consumed by people who refuse to acknowledge that the body parts on which they will feast were taken from an innocent being via brutal and violent force – all to end up on a dinner plate, which hardly seems fair.
Usually I hold a hand up to shield my eyes if I have to pass through a corridor of dismembered body parts, but I find seeing these pig legs exceptionally triggering because I have met the pigs who once stood on those legs. I have heard the cries and seen tears in the eyes of these sweet and gentle animals mere moments before they are forced to endure the most horrific death imaginable; one which we audaciously label “humane”.
Pig Save 11 July 2021 The last pig save vigil I attended was back in July, and it broke my heart when I heard the news that the December vigil was cancelled. It has been months since I have been able to give comfort to animals in person, although I have crossed paths with many animals being trucked to their gory deaths since then, which I will write about soon.
Pig Save 11 July 2021Every single animal that has been born just to be killed for human consumption has a mother – one that loves her babies very much, just as much as we love babies of our species.
People from around the world united in laughter when the baby panda sneezing video did the rounds and there is no better place to observe the unbreakable and instinctive maternal bond between mother and child than when watching non-human animals interact with their babies.
Pig Save 11 July 2021 We watch nature documentaries with our families, looking on with joy and cheering when the mother rescues her stranded baby, or successfully evades a predator – it’s like we have forgotten that all animals have the same protective and loving instincts towards their babies, regardless of their species.
When a mother gives birth, all she wants to do is offer love, comfort and offer milk to her new-born, but it is a desire she will never be allowed to fulfil within the confines of animal agriculture.
Mother pig still lactating
Pig Save 11 July 2021Imagine the anguish of the new mother who is forced to watch on helplessly as someone picks up their infant to slice parts off them without any anaesthetic – listening to the screams of your baby and being powerless to intervene, all they can do is scream too.
Just because their cries are not in a human language, does not make them any less piercing to the heart when you take the time to listen.
Pig Save 11 July 2021 Pigs are highly intelligent and, despite the contrary misconception, naturally clean animals whose intelligence level is ranked higher than dogs; but sadly, they are rarely afforded the same rights as that of their “domestic” counterparts – merely “live stock”, a life awaiting death, all for the consumer’s convenience and preference to consume “bacon” or “Christmas ham”.
How much more would these animals need to resemble dogs before you realise that they are exactly the same as our beloved companion animals?
Would you let someone eat your cat or dog? If the answer if no, then how can we justify taking the life of any animal when we know how much pain and suffering it causes them?
Pig Save 11 July 2021 I want to see a world where we don’t exploit the vulnerable – regardless of their species – one in which we fuel our bodies with super-foods, not the corpses of animals who only ever knew fear, pain and torture before their violent deaths.
If the old saying carries any merit and “we are what we eat” truly, then how can we genuinely expect to thrive as individuals if we’re living on a diet of death and suffering?
Pig Save 11 July 2021 The question remains, will you choose to eat compassionately these Holidays, or will you be choosing to separate and eat other families instead?
I hope you will choose with your heart and decide to keep animals and their families off the table this year.
The only thing we need from animals is their forgiveness.
Video: Peta Australia Wishing you all a safe and happy holiday season with your loved ones and may you act with love and compassion, always.
– Stace
- Melbourne Pig Save
It was a chilly Sunday morning, April 18th, when I made the journey out to Diamond Valley Pork (DVP) in Laverton to attend my first Melbourne Pig Save Vigil and my apprehension was palpable as I arrived.
As I reached the first part of the DVP building structure, I could hear rustling and scraping sounds, was it the sound of movement coming from behind the wall – was it the sound of scared pigs awaiting their turn for the most horrific death on earth? Truly, what awaits them in the slaughterhouse is something straight out of a horror film.
I was fortunate enough to know a few of the other vigil attendees from various Animal Rights events and Jess, the vigil organiser, made me feel very welcome amongst the gathering of around 30 volunteers. At 9am we were talked through a safety briefing and instructed that two trucks would be stopped for us for five minutes each and that sadly, despite requesting permission to, we were expressly forbidden from giving water to the pigs; DVP maintain that they do this to ensure that we don’t give these terrified, dehydrated animals water with “something in it”.
Image by John Karapaladis Knowing that all you can offer these beautiful animals is five minutes of peace, calm and loving words is a hard pill to swallow and I really wasn’t sure what to expect when the first truck rolled around the corner.
Once the truck came to a stop and we were cleared to approach, I made my way to the front of the truck as it was closest to me, deciding at the last minute to throw my cane back onto the nature strip as it was only a few meters away and I really needed both hands to engage with the pigs properly.
Image by John Karapaladis The terrified pigs were crammed inside the truck’s compartments so tightly that one poor pig had become trapped and was screaming out in pain – I tried to see where the screaming pig was, but there were just too many animals for me to be able to see clearly.
Standing leg-deep in their own excrement, a lot of the pigs were foaming at the mouth (a sign of dehydration and motion sickness) and most looked quite understandably terrified.
All of the pigs looked unwell, some more battered than others, but it was easy to spot the animals who had probably had the roughest time so far – a deep sadnesss in their eyes that had glazed over the spot where their sparkle should be.
Pigs are extremely intelligent and naturally clean animals; they have complex relationships, can communicate and even learn to recognise their name in their first few weeks of life. Sadly, the animal agriculture industry has no care for the sentience of these animals, nor for their capacity to suffer and feel pain.
Image by John Karapaladis 
Image by Gina Robertson 
Image by Gina Roberston 
Image by Gina Robertson 
Image by Gina Robertson
Shortly after birth, all piglets are forced to endure a variety of bodily mutilations once they are born: such practices include teeth-cutting, tail-docking and testicle removal via scalpel – all of these are done without any anaesthesia.
Once born, piglets are isolated with their mother, confined to a farrowing crate, which prevents the mother pig from being able to turn around, they can only stand up or down.
Usually, due to their clean nature, pigs will not deficate anywhere near where they eat, but when they are confined to farrowing crates, these animals are unable to follow their natural instincts, meaning they must live in their own waste.
If a piglet becomes trapped under their mother, there is little she can do to help them and any piglet who is deemed “sickly” or “unlikely to grow to healthy slaughter weight” will be pounded against concrete (PACing), a practice also known as “thumping” in which blunt force trauma is used to kill the piglet.
We have been conditioned our entire lives to believe that there is some magical, harm-free process that turns piglets into products, but this has always been a lie.
After the pigs are forced into the slaughterhouse they are electrocuted, gassed, stabbed in the throat and then submerged in boiling water where automated arms will drag them under the water repeatedly until they either bleed out or drown – some pigs are still fully conscious when they go into the water due to the ineffectiveness of various “stunning” methods.
The cruelty of the animal agriculture industries truly know no bounds – in places like Argentina and Uraguay pregnant horses are taken to places known as “blood farms” where they will have their blood extracted to obtain the PMSG (Pregnant Mare Serum Gonadotropin) contained within.
That’s right, blood-letting pregnant horses in order to increase the litter sizes of mother pigs – the fact that companies have the audacity to call these practices “humane” really should tell you all you need to know about their true intentions towards animals.
Photo by Gina Robertson 
Photo by Gina Robertson
Going and standing face to snout with innocent individuals who are about to be tortured and dismembered for a five-minute meal isn’t an easy task, but I needed those individuals to know that they were seen, that someone cared and that not all humans are bad.
I wish I could have offered them more than love.
The only thing we need from animals is their forgiveness.
Photo by Gina Robertson 
Photo by Gina Robertson
- Tiktok Trolls Make Animal Rights Mainstream
Trolling people for attention has become a common stunt to pull amongst content creators on the video-sharing platform Tiktok and, if you caught the news from our sweet little home here in Melbourne (Naarm), Australia, then you may have come across this: TikTok pranksters Nick and Bill slammed after eating KFC in front of vegan protesters.
Last Saturday, a teenage duo who go by the Tiktok username @nickandbill, filmed themselves stuffing their mouths with boxes of KFC in front of Anonymous for the Voiceless outreachers at their weekly Cube of Truth demonstration in Bourke Street Mall.
The clip quickly went viral with over 3 million views and, unsurprisingly, the public’s reactions were quite polarised, with many people adamant that the pair were entitled to their spectacle; a sentiment that Animal Rights activists, Paul Bashir and Karen Shugg, most certainly shared.
Anonymous for the Voiceless founder, Paul Bashir, can be heard telling the boys that they are “morons”, before thanking them for their spectacle antics and even extended the olive branch to the pair, should they want to return again.
Now, in fairness, this is not the first time the two teenagers have rocked up to a Cube with giant green phallus in-hand: you may recall my second blog article which discussed my very first expereience at a Cube of Truth (including being trolled by the teen who goes by “Nick”).
Nick of @nickandbill
Photo Credit: John KarapalidisThe pair’s first attempt to cause disruption didn’t yield them any likes, in fact, the encounter was such a non-event that they went home empty-handed, with no post-worthy content to share. During the first encounter with Nick in Novemeber 2020, he revealed that he was only sixteen, so I guess I’d like to hope the youngster will gain some perspective with time.
It’s a sad world in which we live, when mocking the suffering, torture and abuse of innocent beings becomes a laughable event, click-bait for the masses.
The University of Rochester’s Health Encyclopedia gives some insight into understanding the teenage brain, saying:
The rational part of a teen’s brain isn’t fully developed and won’t be until age 25 or so.
Hopefully, given the soon-to-be-forming of their pre-frontal cortexes, there is still hope that these boys might grow up to think and function as more caring and empathetic humans in our world.
Regardless of how the stunt made viewers feel, there is no such thing as bad publicity for social justice issues and if that’s what activists have to put up with in order to get Animal Rights on the six o’clock news, then it’s a price well worth paying.
The only thing we need from animals is their forgiveness.
- Humane Slaughter is an Oxymoron
The meat and dairy industries are pretty good at convincing consumers that if they buy animal parts labelled with “humane”, “grass-fed”, “free range” et cetera, then these animals somehow suffer less and therefore it is the “best option” for the discerning animal lover who just can’t seem to stop eating the “object” of their desires.
The reality is that all animals end up in the exact same slaughterhouse, subjected to the same torturous death rituals that each of these industries have institutionalised, depending on the species they enslave and exploit of course.
The word “humane” means to show compassion or benevolence, so how exactly does one prod, cut, whip, electrocute and stab animals compassionately to death?
Photo Credit: John Karapalidis The notion of “humane slaughter” is an oxymoronic insult to the truth regarding the severe abuse and violence that animals in these industries are forced to endure.
From birth to death these innocent beings suffer in squalid conditions and are routinely sujected to a range of abuses: bodily mutilations without pain relief, recurrent rape cycles and, eventually, a ritualistic death that bears a scary resemblence to sacrificial cult practices.
For every egg you buy, millions of male chicks are mascerated or suffocated as soon as they are born. For every glass of milk you consume, a baby calf that grew inside their mother for nine months has their throat slit so that you can drink the milk that was meant for them.
We have asserted our dominance over other sentient beings so aggressively that we no longer even recognise those animals as individuals – they are merely products, commodities, the recently advertised fast food burger-combo ingredients that’s dirt cheap and only costs your health.
Photo Credit: John Karapalidis After a certain point, claiming ignorance as a supposedly informed member of society really just doesn’t cut it though and the sad reality is, unless you’re living a vegan life you are actively funding and sanctioning the abuse of animals; it really is as black and white as that. That’s not a judgement by the way, that’s just how supply and demand works and, I’m sorry, but if you insist that our predilection for the taste of dead animals body parts and secretions is more important than preventing animal abuse, well I’m afraid we’ll have to agree to disagree.
“I hold that the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man.”
MAHATMA GANDHIIf you’re against animal abuse, then stop paying for it to happen – choose to live a compassionate life that doesn’t normalise cruelty, rape, abuse and violence.
We do a grave disservice to our children the moment we teach them to be speciesist: that it’s wrong to kill a cat, but okay to kill a cow – it is our first introduction to prejudice and the one from which all other forms of prejudice stem.
The only thing we need from animals is their forgiveness.
- Street-based Animal Rights Activism
You have to give credit where credit is due, doing street-based outreach isn’t an easy gig; no two conversations will ever be alike despite the topic being the same. There is a certain element of uncertainty that fills the air when a conversation turns south; the verbal attacks become heated, tensions rise and someone storms off from an outreacher, often spitting angry looks and words towards other AV outreachers as they go, indignant about being told what their money is truly paying for: the en mass slaughter and routine abuse of some of Earth’s most gentle animals in ways that are straight out of a horror movie.
The human race wandered to a very dark place with the advent of factory farming and the reason these industries don’t want you to know what they really do to animals behind the un-monitored walls of slaughterhouses and animal agriculture farms, is because the truth is bloody, violent and evil.
Photo Credit: John Karapaladis Each time I go to a Cube of Truth I find myself going over and over the outreach conversations I had, brainstorming better responses that would have either helped me make my point, or better yet, provide information that can help people see that there is no room to adopt a reductionist attitude towards animal abuse and consuming animal products.
For many people, speciesism is the first prejudice learned in life – we are taught to love cats, dogs and horses, but that the rape, torture and murder of other animals is okay because we like the way they taste.
As a civilisation we have condemned certain species’ of animals to the most inhumane of existences – taking these thinking, feeling, loving animals and inflicting violence and abuse from the very moment they are born, until the last, horrific final moments before having their throat slit; all so that these industries can turn the remnants of their abused bodies into “products” like sandwiches and shoes.
Is it not the height of arrogance to claim that our desire for a particular taste should justify the atrocities that we commit against these innocent animals?
Photo Credit: John Karapaladis A lot of people I talk to are genuinely shocked when they witness the reality of these industries for the first time; certainly no one wants to be thought of as someone who condones animal abuse – the sad reality, however, is that most people are still walking around completely set in their brainwashed cognitive dissonance, failing to make an empathetic association between the dismembered body parts and secretions they consume and the animals themselves, innocent beings who did nothing to deserve such a life.
It is possible to shut down these industries, to end the animal holocaust and abolish animal slavery once and for all, but we can only make it happen if we keep on having these tough conversations with people; that’s why I keep going – so that I can help more people make the connection to the “why” of veganism: the victims.
Photo Credit: John Karapaladis It should be illegal for the meat and dairy indstries to be able to broadcast campaign ads that blatantly lie to consumers, mis-information that creates the belief we need meat and dairy in order to be healthy and strong when, in reality, it is these very products that are making us sick. Sadly, most people would prefer to take a pill for a medial condition rather than opting for food that could actually reduce the effects of, or even alleviate altogether, said condition.
Isn’t it sad that we still live in a world where it is legal for babies to be ripped from their mothers mere moments after birth only to have their throats slit just so we can steal their breast milk and pour it on our cereal?
Photo Credit: John Karapaladis Unfortunately there is little in this world that we have control over as individuals, but you can make a difference by simply discontinuing your support of these animal abuse industries – choose to live with kindness and go vegan, it will be the best decision you ever make.
I often hear the objection that it’s “too hard” to go vegan, but which of these is truly harder – doing a Google search in the supermarket for a plant-based alternative, or physically enduring the process of being an animal in the industries that profit from abusing them? No contest, right? Nothing could ever possibly be harder than being in the victim’s position and this is why we fight for justice.
We are living tomorrow’s history lesson, so which side of history do you want to be on?
The only thing we need from animals is their forgiveness.