Emily: Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. Today
I'm honored to be joined by my friend and mentor Gary Yourofsky who has graciously agreed
to be here and answer questions that you, the Bite Size Vegan audience, have sent to
me. I'm going to be releasing this interview in a series of videos so be sure to stay tuned
to the channel. Gary I just wanted to thank you so much for taking time out of your busy
schedule to be here and answer some of these questions.
Gary: Anything for you Emily. Emily: Thank you.
Emily: Where do you draw the line with harming other beings? People will often bring up well
what about bacteria or ants or other bugs? Are all beings equal to each other in that
sense?
Gary: All the insects, not the bacteria. Let's not be ridiculous, we all wash our hands and
single celled organisms are insentient beings as far as my research shows. But listen, if
you are being attacked, and that's what bacteria 9 times out of 10 do, you have a right to
defend yourself. As for insects, I dig most insects. I don't kill any, but I'm starting
to appreciate more and more of them as the years go by. In fact our backyard right now
is filled with grasshoppers and crickets. In fact this morning when I left Detroit,
there was a grasshopper I swear this big, on the garage and Erica and I were out there
and we were just face-to-face in awe for about 15 minutes looking at this beautiful creature.
Butterflies obviously all that stuff. In fact the bees, the bees and I get along really
well because I've now added, not that I've ever excluded bee's from my circle of compassion,
but I'm now saying honey eaters in the current speech, I'm pointing that out. Because I'm
tired of the vegan community now allowing honey in. So I think the bees know what I'm
doing, and I get along. I actually had about 12 bees living out back. We had a little bird
feeder with raisins and seeds in there, but none of the birds would come. All of a sudden
12 bees would show up every day and we could walk right by and look at them, and they just
ignored us so I think insects are some of the coolest creatures on the planet. Spiders
and I, for those that know me well, they terrify me more than anything. I think there's only
two things in hell, fire and spiders. But that doesn't mean that I kill them, I do not
kill spiders. They get caught in my house immediately, in a cup, and you've got to go
outside. The other insects, I actually don't mind if they stay in the house sometimes.
I rescued a stink bug once, never even knew what a stink bug was until we took a picture
of it and looked it up online. Instead of putting him outside I put him in the flower
pot. And then one night Erica said I'm being dive bombed by some creature in here. And
I'm like, it could be that stink bug I put in the plant. She goes you left him in the
house? I think they're pretty cool. But include insects in your circle of compassion, they're
animals too, they're creatures. Check out my animal intelligence essay by the way on
my website. Some of the coolest creatures, in fact I can tell you a quick story, and
you can punch this up on YouTube anytime. Ants, some of the most amazing beings on this
planet. If there is a flood, ants will actually get together and lock arms and legs and form
a raft. And then a few of the higher up ants in the community will go get the queen ant
and bring her on top of the ant raft. And then the raft will float down until the flood
has ended, all this to save the queen ant. That's how altruistic ants and other insects
and all animals can be if you just pay attention and start to notice what's going on. So include
insects. Bacteria, spare me the nonsense. Somebody asked me that in the Georgia Tech
speech that's online and I made a joke that what are you, with people for the ethical
treatment of bacteria? And the whole thing is stupid. I love how people bring up issues
or things that they are not even involved in. It's not like there's a group out there
fighting to save bacteria. So all people want to do when they bring that up to a vegan is
try to catch us in a contradiction. We are doing just fine, there are no contradictions
here. You guys are walking contradictions, you guys are walking graveyards of murdered
animals. You claim that you are holy and compassionate, and then you commit atrocities and commit
evil acts every single day. So everybody who is not vegan needs to look in the mirror and
start analyzing themselves instead of the vegans in the world.
Emily: Gary I just want to thank you so much for giving us your time and I've been asked
on behalf of so many of my viewers to just thank you for everything that you do. So thank
you so much.
Gary: Thank you, keep on. Everybody pass her stuff around, it's tight stuff, honestly.
Bitesizevegan.com, share it.
Emily: Stay tuned to the Bitesizevegan channel for more installations of Gary's interview.
I'll also be posting bonus footage of questions that don't make it to the channel, into the
VIP section of Bitesizevegan.com, which you can access for free by signing up for the
nugget newsletter. Give the video a thumbs up if you enjoyed it, and be sure to subscribe
so that you never miss a nugget. Now go live vegan and I'll see you soon.