Hi Everyone,
On Sunday, 21st April, my sister (@vegoutt-travel) and I presented at the Irish Vegan Festival in Belfast. This was our third time attending the event and our second time presenting. We presented for the first time in 2022.
Picking a Topic
Vegan events are typically attended by vegans. Most people become vegan because they believe in animal rights, and several others become vegan for a healthy lifestyle. Most of the presentations at the events are about animal cruelty or the benefits of a vegan diet. Most of the audience already understands these points; it is like preaching to the choir. Hence, they are vegan. Most of these types of presentations are more suited to non-vegan audiences.
I wanted to present something that is not talked about as much in vegan circles. Two years ago, I discussed people’s reasons for reducing meat consumption. This considered a broader group of people that also included vegetarians, semi-vegetarians, pescatarians, and flexitarians. Each group’s primary motivations varied. I discussed these using different surveys. What were the implications for meat and dairy consumption as well as the consumption of alternatives to meat and dairy?
The initial plan was to present at the festival in 2023. However, this was not to be. We did not end up with a time slot to present. However, we had already decided what to present. The presentation was to be based on a post I wrote in January 2023. This post was titled ‘Manipulated for Us’. The post discusses how we, as humans, manipulate the world around us for our own benefit. This post discussed how we change our natural landscape to build huge cities, use various resources to build literally everything we use. The post continues by explaining how we manipulate animals for our own benefit. This part of the post was going to be the focus of our presentation at the Vegan Festival.
A few months after the initial post, I also posted a video in my back garden. The video and post were titled ‘Manipulated for Us: Introducing Hamlet and Lily’. In this video, I provide a very off-the-cuff discussion about how animals are manipulated for us. I pay extra attention to Hamlet the Happy Pig and Lily Goat. This was also a full introduction video to these two amazing characters.
Content of the Video
Our presentation at the Vegan Festival was a combination of my post from a year earlier and the video I made with Hamlet and Lily. I included an additional section about plants. So many of our fruits have been manipulated to be bigger, or have fewer or no seeds. The bulk of my presentation was about how animals are manipulated through breeding to give us more of what we want. See examples below.
- Chickens are bred to grow faster and be bigger, as well as lay more eggs (approximately 20 times more than they would in the wild).
- Cattle are either bred to be bigger and more muscular for more meat or bred to produce more milk.
- Pigs are bred to be bigger for meat and smaller to be pets. They are sometimes bred for organ transplants for humans because they are so similar to us.
- Sheep are bred to grow more and thicker wool.
- Racehorses are bred to be stronger and faster to have more stamina.
- Dogs are bred for hundreds of different reasons. This type of breeding has produced weaknesses in most dog breeds.
My section of the presentation ended by asking what would happen to all these animals if people stopped killing them for meat or using them for other purposes. They already occupy an enormous amount of land. This amount of land is far less than they need to have a decent quality of life. Even if there was sufficient land for them, they are not capable of surviving in the wild. They have been altered so that they are dependent on us.
So what is next? I strongly disagree with culling. I believe the solution is to gradually bring down the numbers. Eventually, the remaining animals can be moved to sanctuaries. People could even have them on their properties if they have the right environment to cater to them. We owe them that much.
My sister took over the presentation. She talked about Hamlet the Happy Pig and Lily Goat. She described what they were like and what was needed to look after them. Taking care of a happy pig has its challenges. Looking after a goat is not so difficult.
She also discussed a former factory farm chicken named Black Betty. She had suffered greatly from the days when she laid an egg a day. After being brought out of that environment, she only laid one egg a month. She finished the presentation off with a discussion about our adopted dogs.
Our presentation lasted roughly around an hour. We both presented for about half an hour each.
References from the Video
- AI Images of plastic surgery and designer babies generated by Bing AI
- New York City skyline sourced from Istockphoto
- Dubai floods sourced from Business Insider
- Population growth figures sourced from The Industrial Revolution
- Rural-urban migration figures sourced from Urbanet
- Global GDP and GDP per capita sourced from Our World in Data
- Minerals used in a lifetime sourced from USGS
- Annual average food consumption sourced from FoodHow.com
- Lifetime number of clothing items sourced from Huffington Post
- Fruit comparisons sourced from Daily Mail and Inside the World of Cellular Biology
- Animals and how people use them sourced from Wikipedia
- Image of Indian Aurochs sourced from Wikipedia
- Image of Wild Boar sourced from Wikipedia
- Image of Mouflon sourced from Wikipedia
- Image of Tarpan sourced from Wikipedia
- Image of Red Jungle Fowl sourced from Wikipedia
- Chicken sizes and Ross 308 Vox and United Poultry Concerns
- US egg statistics sourced from United Egg Producers
- Different breeds of cattle sourced from NayTurr
- Image of Knickers the Steer sourced from The Verge
- Beef production sourced from USDA
- Milk yield per cow sourced from ResearchGate and Statista
- Poland China pig image sourced from A to Z Animals
- Picture of various pig sizes (Mini pig to Big Bill) sourced from Change.org petition on mini pigs
- Picture of a variety of coloured pigs sourced from Radio IQ WVTF
- Image of award winning giant pig sourced from Gardens Desigusxpro
- Image of giant pig in china Daily Mail
- Wild boar and domestic pig comparison sourced from A to Z Animails
- Lesser beasts story (abusing pigs for profit) sourced from Business Insider
- Genetic engineering of pigs sourced from MIT Technological Review, SingularityHub and Global reaserch
- Image of Chris the sheep sourced from BuzzFeed News
- Image of Baarack the sheep sourced from NDTV
- Sheep breed information sourced from Sheep 201
- Image of racehorse Black Caviar sourced from Wikipedia
- Dog breeds and their health issues sourced from Fetch
- Mammals and birds in captivity sourced from the Guardian
- Number of animals killed every year Our World in Data
- Video of annual animal deaths sourced Daily Loud X account. It was converted to a gif.
- More information on the number of animals killed annually on Our World in Data and on another page on Our World in Data
- Animal Kill Clock can be accessed at AnimalClock
- Song: ‘Legend of Hamlet the Pig’ was created by Suno
Some Nice Food from the Event
Before we could do any of the above, we needed some delicious food. Here is a sample of what we ate.
My New Book, Sapien Loop
I have published an ebook on Amazon; it is titled ‘Sapien Loop: End of an Era’. The book is fiction. I do not normally write fiction. However, I felt it was appropriate considering what is happening in the world today. Freedom is the most important thing we have, but we are gradually losing it. I have covered this in many of my posts.
In the story, most citizens do not understand the concept of freedom because they have never really experienced it. In essence, the story is about an alien world that might represent our not-so-distant future. There are many other elements to the story that are an abstract and exaggerated version of our reality. I believe this book to be an important read, and I believe it has the potential to change the way you think.
Brief Summary of Sapien Lopp
This story is based on the fictional planet Sapia and its sole country, Sapey. Sapey is portrayed as a form of utopia for all its citizens. No poverty. No war. Almost no crime. Opportunities for all.
This was enough for most citizens, but not all. In one of the small regions, some of the citizens had become discontent. They felt something important was missing in their lives. Their discontent did not go unnoticed. Some of the Sapey elite wanted to weaponise this discontent to gain more power. This created more chaos than they anticipated. This led to further widespread social unrest.
On top of the chaos, ambition and greed provoked another enemy. This enemy was on a mission to settle both new and old scores.
If you want to buy a copy of the book, below are links to the relevant Amazon websites for each country it is available in. The book is priced at approximately US$5.08.
- Amazon USA
- Amazon UK
- Amazon Germany
- Amazon France
- Amazon Spain
- Amazon Italy
- Amazon Netherlands
- Amazon Japan
- Amazon Brazil
- Amazon Canada
- Amazon Mexico
- Amazon Australia
- Amazon India
I am also running monthly contests where participants are required to answer questions based on the book. The prize is 30 Hive Power plus upvotes for the first twelve entries. You can recover the cost of the book with just one win.
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Hi @spectrumecons
I'm really happy to see you here, in my community, you are more than welcome, both you and your sister @vegoutt-travel. Regarding your post, it's a pleasure to know that in other countries veganism is an organized and constant movement, I can't say the same about my country, and even less about the area where I live, since it's a rural area, with an economy based on animal exploitation, (well, what's left of the economy, since my country is really destroyed on all levels).
Now, regarding your presentation at the festival, I think it's great that you approached it from the perspective of animal rights, because that's what makes people aware and change our way of life. Knowing that an animal, (pet or not), can think, feel and express emotions is the core of being vegan or not. I hope that initiatives like this festival will be maintained over time, because I firmly believe that being vegan or not is a decision that must be made consciously and according to the possibilities and circumstances of each person, not as something imposed or obligatory, and the transition must take place based on the possibilities of each person, as this is what will allow this decision to be maintained over time.
I hope that your book will be successful and read by many people. I think it will be the opening for many more publications.
Hugs!
Most things cannot be forced on people or society. People need to reach their own conclusions. I do not tell people to be vegan. I show and explain to them what is happening to animals. It's not difficult to see that they are treated cruelly. When people realise that is the case, and that they have the power to stop some of that cruelty, we hope that they take the next step and do so.
Many people make the change, but sadly also many do not stick to it. Overall, the number of vegans and vegetarians are increasing, but so are the number of animals being killed. Progress is slow, but the world would not be able to handle rapid progress anyway.
Thank you for sharing your presentation. It was very educational, and you explained a lot of things clearly. I do agree that selective breeding can get out of hand especially with the dogs. I know a lot of the livestock were necessary especially in the older times, but since we now have options, we can start reducing our dependence on them.
I'm glad you liked the presentation. Breeding of animals goes back centuries. Sadly, there is not much we can do about the changes we have bred into them. It seems unlikely they will ever be able to live in the wild again. I still have hope we can sanctuaries once their populations become manageable.
If we can identify how they were when they were living in the wild, we can slowly revert them again. I've seen how some dog breeders are fixing some dogs like the pug by bringing their snout back. For animals like sheep where there isn't cruelty, I don't think we need to change much. The owners usually take good care of them and shear the wool.
It may sound plausible, but changing an animal so that it can exist in the wild is not an easy feat. The existing wild reversions of them are struggling. Some have already become extinct. An easier approach would be to conserve their wild versions rather than attempt to change the domestic versions into something similar to the wild versions. The existing wild versions also have the benefit of evolution, which has adopted them in the most relevant ways.
Even if we do succeed in changing domestic animals into a viable wild animal that could survive, we may end up causing an imbalance somewhere else in the ecosystem, which could turn out to be catastrophic in the long run.
I guess that's true. But do all of them still have wild versions available?
I would say more like close relatives.
Didn't know @vegoutt-travel was your sister. Good presentation, that Chihuahua's story is inspirational, who knew without medication they dog could live to 10, it's outstanding now the dog went that far even when it wasn't supposed to.
For my medical conditions I stayed a long time without medication, but now I'm going back to taking medications to help my conditions.
Dogs can get sick and sometimes it is difficult to know what to do. Vets push hard for you to give them treatment when it's not always necessary. Some are being cautious, but some just want the extra money. Vets can be very expensive. With Ruby, she had cancer so we had to do something. Having it surgically removed was the right choice. She is now cancer free and doing great.
Well most medical personnel, even for humans will push for treatments, because it's mostly about the business and the money more than any other thing
Yeah, profits play a huge in our current medical structure.
Thank you @spectrumecons for your great sharing. It's informative and educational.
Hopefully more similar sharing will be posted in future.
Have a nice day!
Thanks.
Whenever we have a presentation, I'll post it.
I mostly just post regular written blog content.
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