Veganism is surging into the mainstream everyone's vegan now
restaurants and supermarkets a rapidly expanding their big novel in the mainstream media talking about veganism more than they ever have before I
don't need to
just of just
biologically
And and in our development as a species we develop even that we've we've grown
K9t where hey Millennials well it looks very flat and blunt like a cow's that's the molars at the back, but the canines
What is fueling this rising interest part of it can be attributed to the influence of vegan celebrities by Miley Cyrus?
I'm bigoted and athletes not Lewis Hamilton. I do feel the best
I've ever felt in my life and 132 years physically I feel the best I've ever felt
I feel incredibly clean and healthy and groundbreaking documentaries like what the hell
Documentary what the hell the film challenges of the way Americans E, and links meat and animal products to illness
And it's causing many to go vegan
In this special report we take a look at one of the key engines that's been driving the growth of veganism
over the last two years
Anonymous for the voiceless for AV is an animal rights organization that's known for its cube of truth Street demonstration
founded in April 2016 in Sydney Australia by Australian couple Paul Bashir Assad alemdar II
The cube has now on global
spreading to
441 cities in 56 countries
AV estimates that at least eighty four thousand people have gone away from their demonstrations
seriously considering making the switch to a plant-based diet
activist George Martin brought the queue to the UK in December 2016
The simplicity and effectiveness of the demo saw it soon spread all over the UK now operating in 56 different cities
But who are these activists they're spending their Saturdays on the streets showing slaughterhouse passage in the cold people
and they really is aggressive and militant as the mainstream media might want to believe and
How did the public react to these potentially inflammatory demos happening on their streets in their towns and cities across the UK?
Plant-based news went to Bristol UK to find out
Welcome to this special edition of plant-based news spotlights
I'm Patrick crumb a ke vegan Pat, and I'm reporting today on the largest ever, cuba truth
That's going on in this city of bristol
Which is actually the second city to have a cuba truth demonstration and as you can see behind me?
There's one cube over here
and we've got actually two cubes going on today so lots of activists coming out here to show their support for animal rights and
I want to be seeing really if the mainstream media is right about this militant aggressive vegan
Activist idea speaks on the activists and also I speak to some of the public as well to see what they think of the queue
So druid could you explain to us a bit about how the cube actually works so?
This it's sort of split up into two teams now the cube team are actually the non interactive part of the demo
So they have to stand there still they don't talk
They're the guys that wear the masks wore whole and they hold the signs all they show the footage now
It's their job to sort of just stand there presenting them with the footage the true so to speak and then
The outreach team and the ones that actually engage with the public
Asking the public questions about the sort of footage that they're looking at
trying to get people to
Actually open up their minds and actually think about what they're buying when they go into a store because most people I actually think about
It yeah, and what's the the idea of the masks? What would you what does that bring to it?
It's part of the actual aesthetic and it's very effective because people are down the street
And they think hang on what's going on here
And they actually want to go up and approach sort of and watch the footage and it's that sort of
Statuesque feel that I think the mask gives about it, so you don't talk to those people you're just there to you know
They're the sort of faceless people just and the the the focus so to speak is on the footage
Yeah, showing so people feel more comfortable watching saying if someone's not looking right at them
I guess that's it you wouldn't want to go out to someone just sort of look them in the eye
That's it and how do the outreach work do people like do they go up to?
Anyone just anyone and talk to them or how does that work?
Yes
so if you're on the outreach team obviously if you if you're looking around and you sort of see someone who's looking engaged in the
Footage then you would go up to those people approach them
So we're not sort of chasing people down the street with a leaflet or anything like that if it's been a productive conversation
Then we'll hand them one of our cards, and we've got specialised cards
I'll just show to the camera there, so that's a card with our website. Okay, one of the older cards
We've got we've got some newer ones than that so it's the card with our website on
that's got links to all the good vegan stuff on there cowspiracy and forks over knives and all the
Earthlings all that sort of stuff
If someone's interested in veganism seen the footage you've got that
Sort of really easy way for them to follow up on that and learn more about it
And hopefully make a kind of bad choice absolutely and that's all right we want people to actually go away
Taking something from this demo and that's what we also want to be objective with our counts as well, so what we do
Is we keep a tally of how many people we spoke to that we think took veganism seriously?
And who will actually go away with the intention of looking into veganism
And potentially making the switch and at the end of each demo we actually announced that tally and you know so far in their UK
We've estimated that we potentially converted thousands of people to at least you know either go over the world nor or at least massively reduce
Their consumption of animal products these guys have been getting involved in the cubes today. Have you have been been inside the cube?
Yeah, we were inside the cube for quite some time
Good hour or so freezing cold, that's commitment. Yeah. It's pretty cold out. That's standing still wouldn't it guys
Why did you guys feel like you wanted to come out here today and sort of?
Spend your Saturday doing this rather than just just putting your feet up. Where is well we all love animals only and
You know we've seen a lot of stuff lately
Netflix, and we save hundreds of other people and
pretty shocked about what's on there and we really want to make a change then we and
feel that animals a little more respect and
Well, we've all gone vegan a few months ago
And it's going very well. I want to give that message to people how you find in eating vegan
I
Find it quite easy um I
Found it kind of hard to give up eggs though because I really liked them
But it's weird
Even though you really like eggs woman what is it? Why do you feel like it's important not to eat them because
Animals are being really badly treated
So it's not it's not fair to fast to treat them badly. Just for eggs really is it
I'm here with John John. What do you think of yes going on here today? I think it's it's very good cause
Sometimes something does need to be fed state the meat industry particular. He's he's pretty horrendous
I've seen I've seen a lot of these videos before
It's good, but like it's getting a lot more exposure people are seeing some things so you're not vegan yourself right no
No, I'm not going a vegetarian which makes me feel a bit bad actually stood here, but yeah, it's something
I've definitely thought about okay, so Saudis when you see these guys here
Do you think of them as sort of militant aggressive people? What do you think of these activists?
No, I mean
I think I think the sort of the the anonymous masks have got like a
Bad rap because I'm sort of other like particular hate groups have used
The before and I just admit when I walk down here. I was like hark and what's this going on you know?
It's it EDL or something, but I see those like animals and stuff. Oh, yeah fair game
You know so you think they've got no they've got a fair point to be out here showing this
Yeah, it's definitely right you know that people don't say things then you're never gonna get change
Are you change things to happen so yeah, so when did you go vegan? So it's been about two weeks now and
Literally is because of the tuber - yeah
literally just bumped into guy and we had a long discussion and
He recommended the document you what the house and literally after that vegan over and I threw out
He stocked up on seeds being lentils vegetables
So you milk and yeah
Don't be like this guy. You know what it should be this easy. Yeah, how important. Do you see this cube?
demonstration
Says to create new vegans well. It's a very powerful form of activism. It's one of the most effective forms of activism
I've seen and if it's if the outreach is done correctly it can be a very effective
communication they're
Obviously bringing what happens in a slaughterhouse and on farms?
Into the public is a great way to steer the public away from consuming animal products. I don't know any other
I don't know a more powerful form of activism than showing someone what happens into in a slaughterhouse because it dispels the myth
inside their brain that they've
Manufactured through some type of programming, so they go well is that really what happens in a slaughterhouse?
Yeah, so the a slaughterhouse footage doesn't lie does it yeah
And would you would you think the advantage of?
Being out here showing and then be able to have a conversation rather than just sending people videos and facebooking and YouTube
What do you think the benefit is when you can speak to people in real life? Well because there's a danger in showing people
slaughterhouse footage and animal cruelty footage because then they think or
without a
Conversation they might think that they can just go buy a free-range or go to the local butcher where they kill them humanely
But when you have an outreach you can explain to them. There's no humane way to do this. Yeah, this is horrible
What's happening in this particular farm, but there's no humane way to?
Exploit an animal to enslave an animal so with an outreach you can give them the full comprehensive a comprehensive abolition
Idea of veganism so when you saw this today, what were your first reactions, I thought it was really shocking
The way that the animals are being treated. Did you have a look at some of the footage then yeah, it's still a lot blood
Seemed so fifties like that before anyway
Yeah sort of on Facebook you see the sort of odd things about the way animals are three years. Yeah
And this is quite shocking especially if you see it just in the centre of town as well you see a demonstration about site you
Think you must be quite important. What do you think of the marked as oh I?
Recognized that it was the anonymous
That immediately captured my interest
coming
Getting you guys eat meat and things like that. What do you think of people? I asked vegans who are showing this stuff
I think it's good to raise awareness
How it happens because you don't always see behind the scenes you see the meat in the supermarket
But you don't really think about how it got there
So it's interesting a lot of people say to vegans they don't like them pushing their views on
Have you ever heard that sort of thing and kind of being aggressive?
Do you see it like that as we're doing that or do you see it? I mean? How do you see that I?
Don't really think it is because it's not as if you're going up to people in the street
And you're like showering your views at them. I think it's better that way because a lot of the time
If it is like fly posting and someone
Kind of telling you oh you have to be weak and people wouldn't listen, but if you can see it
Then it's like a different story really
Yeah, I think it's the same way like you're not exactly you asked about our opinion
You didn't like you didn't try and force it down as she like showed us
And then we started making our own minds up and obviously most people were going to think the way these animals been treated is shocking
Because it is you can see in a bit nobody can argue that it's not
So I guess like the way you've allowed people to give their opinions quite. Good rather than sort of shoving it down at friends
I've seen this they kind of made you think of it about what you're eating a bit more
Like I'd never really paid attention to talk veganism thing that much before
It's made me think about it if we gave you some information
Would you be open to having look at and checking out some some links and websites and documentaries?
Definitely well, thanks for talking to us appreciate it
Thank you all right, so I'm here today with Pete, and how did you get involved with the Cuba tree?
last year February which was the first Bristol Cuba truth, and I just become vegan as I saw the new year's resolution and
saw something like a little bit of online stuff that I came up and
Thought I'm gonna go down and support these guys more like in a supportive way thinking like I'll come and get involved
And they spoke to a really inspirational guy called Jayesh
very well known within the the a v-cube society, so he's a really good guy, and and I think
He thought I was vegan, and he and I could like have a really good conversation with him
I think the thing that was really good for me was he told me that it wasn't just good enough to be vegan
To actually speak up for the animals was was almost a moral imperative
for being vegan, and I I really got that concept that I felt like
I'd made the transition, so I've done my bit you know, but actually then speaking to him
Absolutely, I think well this actually isn't good enough
And we do need we all need to play our part because as I was ignorant one day
If someone no one has spoken to me
I'd have never made that transition, and it's it's really our kind of duty to kind of spread the word so yeah
He was a real inspiration to me to come out and join it a lot of people think they think
They might think of activism is like a chore that they have to sort of do for the animals as like a thing they have
To do but I mean do you find yourself in quite enjoying the activities immediately Cuba trees oh absolutely?
It's already uplifting
There's nothing no better feeling there's a go away and to think that you've lit a spark in somebody that
They didn't have before they go here, and they can walk away with information
I think they they don't see you as someone who's trying to sell them something. They only see what's on the cause
There's the truth and I think when you give people with the truth
There's there's very little to clap for it's a powerful thing
Yeah, absolutely so I came down to the Cuba truth about a year ago, and actually met Patrick there
He was doing some outreach, and I was already a vegetarian at the time, but considered going vegan for for a few weeks
And I think something away with a few leaflets. I think it was well
told you a bit about dairy because
Because I was saying about I think I said to you a lot of people they drink dairy every day
But they have no idea how what the process behind that was so I think you said to me
There was the fact that we're doing the milk from another species, and I kind of went away thinking
You know what that is absolutely mad and never thought about that
No like that right okay, and then once you once you learn about daring things. You just made the switch
Did you yeah so I started think about other things kind of like you know especially how we treat
You know the females of that species, and then the more I thought about it
I kind of figured that is actually all a bit and that stuff, and we should definitely I should definitely give up area
I've been doing so far. I've not been doing any activism. I went vegan two years ago and
It's about time I get on it yes. Yeah, but you said you've been doing you've been in the cube for a little bit
Yeah, I've been doing I've been holding the sign, and yeah people a lot of people are interested in what we're doing today
So that's good sort of going as you expected, or is there anything that you didn't really quite expect I?
Don't I didn't know what to expect as I've never been to anything like this before so it's a really interesting experience. It's great
Question
If the animals were able to communicate to humans so farm animals and things like that. What do you think they would say to humans?
Please don't do this the
Simplest thing yes, they would say he's gonna do this to me and this or anything else that you want to share today
Yes, say you know
One of the best images I see in the centre for a long long period and that presentation is well done
Thank you for doing this
What would you say to people at home
You maybe don't get into much activism and just just vegan what would you say to them in terms of making that next step?
I would say that you know there's a huge injustice going on and you're standing beside and watching it happen and
That is an injustice in itself so as a vegan you're a vegan for a reason
Because you found out about something now if you're gonna be a bystander and witness something horrific happen without speaking out about it
Where is the justice in that so I'd say
Don't be scared off by the word activism
You can advocate in the most polite respectful way that you want
You can advocate in your own way doesn't even have to be straight outreach
It can be cooking food it can be any other form of
Advocacy you choose that best resonates with you, so don't be scared off by the word
But as long as we're all doing something because now that you know you have the duty to act
Great, thanks for that Joe and just want to say thanks for representing veganism in such a great way on the media recently in punch
Cheers mate yes, brother
If you'd like to get involved go to anonymous for the voiceless dot org and click the locations to find your nearest cube
Then follow the link to join the Facebook group
If there's no, cube in your area, and you'd like to set one up simply contact a via facebook messenger
We hope you enjoyed this episode of plant-based news spotlight. Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time
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