hey everyone welcome to a new video i
hope you're all doing well in today's
video
i'm going to be going through some
questions that you guys asked me over on
instagram
so if you did submit a question and
thank you very much for doing so
and i really hope you enjoy the
questions that i'll be addressing in
today's video so let's get into it so
the first question
is what do i do with lever that i bought
when i wasn't a vegan now this is a
really good question
and it was a question i was asked a lot
and i think the reason why it gets asked
a lot is because there's no real clear
answer is there there's a multitude of
different things we can do but none of
them seem perfect i think the reality is
that none of them are perfect
the way i see it there's probably five
options that we have
number one would be donating everything
to a charity shop
number two donating everything to a
homeless shelter number three would just
be throwing everything away
number four would be maybe selling these
items online and then donating the money
that we make to
an animal shelter or to an animal rights
organization and
number five would be wearing the items
out now none of those options feel
perfect
because of course they're not personally
when i went vegan i took all of my
animal derived clothings anything that
was wool
silk leather and i donated those items
to a charity shop
in hindsight was that the best thing to
do i'm not sure
i think with my jumpers and coats and
shoes i'd have definitely given them to
a homeless shelter if i was to re-do
that
decision but that's what i decided to do
now obviously i think it really depends
on your personal
financial situation as well because not
everyone's in this situation where they
can afford to rebuy
trainers and boots and coats and jumpers
and so
people don't often have the luxury of
being able to donate those items and
re-buy vegan versions so i think it's
about doing what works best for you and
the situation that you're in
i know people who've done pretty much
all of those things really morally i
don't think there's much difference
between
any of those options it really just
comes down to doing what you personally
feel
most comfortable doing with the life and
situation that you're living so the next
question is
is there anything you dislike about
being a vegan yes
there is and the question kind of
summarizes it nicely which is that i
dislike
that being a vegan is a thing the fact
that we live in a world where
people who don't want to cause
unnecessary suffering to animals
are the ones who are given a label as if
well
we know this is true we exist outside of
the norms of society
now that to me doesn't make any sense
because really being a vegan should be
the default
not wanting to cause suffering when we
don't have to
should just be the default position of
society and yet
the world that we live in doesn't
operate like that now of course it seems
fairly obvious that really it should be
the of way around it should be that
those who
kill animals and cause unnecessary
suffering they're the ones who should be
given
the label because really if we lived in
a morally just society
those would be the people who'd be
acting outside of
the moral guidelines of that society the
fact that we live in a world where we
cause
untold suffering to trillions of animals
and then we consider that to be the norm
that to me just doesn't make
any sense at all and so i really dislike
that i dislike the fact that
i have to be a vegan i dislike the fact
that it was something
i had to realize i should be the fact
that people that don't want to cause
suffering
are given a label and exist outside of
the norms
of society that to me just really
summarizes
the crux of the problem and why we have
such a a huge task ahead of us
because we have to change that mentality
and that mindset that says that being a
vegan is something that deserves a label
it isn't just a thing that is
the standard way we all live by default
of course
that's what i want to achieve and of
course i know many of you want to
achieve as well
is a world where being a vegan is no
longer a thing
we don't call someone a vegan we just
say that is a person who's abiding by
the moral rules
of the society that we live in which is
of course don't cause suffering when we
don't have to before we get to the next
question
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for sponsoring today's video so the next
question is isn't it annoying watching
videos farmers post online
of their cute animals yes it is it is
so annoying and frustrating when farmers
post these videos and these images and
the captions that they write to go along
with them they never talk about the
reality of what's happening to these
animals so they'll maybe film a cute
piglet who's just been born but what
they won't say is that oh in six months
time
this piglet is going to be in a gas
chamber being gassed to death they
never say that or the farmers will film
a newborn calf and they'll say isn't
this
newborn calf so beautiful and everyone
comments saying oh they're so lovely
but what the farmer hasn't said is
they've just gone into the pen where the
mother and this calf were together
and the farmer doesn't say they've just
picked the calf up and taken them out
of the pen and away from their mother
they don't mention that suspiciously
enough and they don't mention the fact
that that newborn calf is going to be
exploited
and then sent to a slaughterhouse when
they can no longer be exploited for
money
why is it that they always leave out the
details of what they actually do to
these animals i wonder if it's because
they know just as well as we vegans know
that people don't like to know the
reality of what happens in these
industries and actually what happens to
animals
people want to be sold this wonderful
ideal
that farmers care about their animals
and the animals are so happy and they're
so cute and they live these
wonderful lives and everything's amazing
and fantastic that's what they want
people to believe that's what farmers
want consumers to believe and that's
what consumers
want to believe as well now what's
interesting of course is that
if farmers actually did show what
happens to these animals the mutilations
and the slaughtering of these animals
well tick-tock and instagram would
censor and remove those videos anyway
and doesn't that just say everything we
need to know about the industry
an industry that we can't even show the
reality of online
because if you do those videos will be
censored because they're graphic or
social media platformers don't think
that it's something people should see
and yet it's perfectly acceptable for
people to pay for these things to happen
to animals and it's perfectly acceptable
for the farmers and the industries
to glamorize what they do to animals but
the reality now that's too much
i think part of the problem is people
online are now used to seeing videos
of animals in sanctuaries maybe the dodo
videos are a good example
and so we've got used to the idea of
seeing these happy animals and to me
what farmers are doing right now is it
seems that they're trying to capitalize
on the popularity of cute animal videos
and so they show these videos of baby
animals on their farms
to try and take advantage of how people
enjoy watching videos of cute animals
and in return they're trying to build up
the trust of the consumer by saying look
how much we care about our animals
but what of course makes these two
situations different is that
videos taking place in sanctuaries are
from animals who've been rescued
from these farmers the people who want
to kill these animals and profit off
their exploitation
and death i mean in reality what we're
seeing with these tick tock and
instagram videos of
farmers filming happy animals is really
just a social media version
of the adverts that our parents and
grandparents were shown it's really just
a social media version of the
happy farms and happy animals that lie
that we've perpetuated to us for decades
this is just the updated version for
millennials and gen zeus so the next
question is do you think lab meat is
ethical
even though it comes from an animal now
up until now there have been ethical
problems in the production of cell
cultured meat
such as using fetal bovine serum but
apparently from now on that will no
longer have to be something we do
because we have a plant-based
alternative instead
and so what that means is that even the
ethical problems related to lab grown
meats are no longer a thing because
what we could do theoretically is take a
feather from a chicken that chicken
could be living a happy life
in an animal sanctuary for instance and
then you could create
meat which to me is just absolutely
amazing and so remarkable so
yes i do think it's ethical and i think
it's going to become increasingly more
ethical as time goes by
and i think importantly it's going to be
an absolute game changer and help
animals
so so much now that being said i can't
deny the fact that i am
disappointed and frustrated that we live
in a world
where people need something like lab
grown meat to stop them from killing
animals now i use that word
need very loosely because of course we
don't need lab grown meat but the
mentality of speciesism
and the mindset of what we do to animals
is so ingrained
that people perceive lab grown meat to
be a need in order to get people to
change and
as much as i wish that wasn't a reality
the animals are dying
every single day and the environment is
crumbling and degrading all around us
and we really don't have time to wait
and so i wish that i could click my
fingers and
make everyone an ethical vegan from
tomorrow onwards but that's not the
reality of the world that we live in
and i think that cell cultured meat is
an incredible opportunity
to bring about significant change in a
very short space of time and so for me
i don't just think it's ethical i think
it's necessary and so yeah i do support
although i can't deny
i am frustrated that it's a thing that
needs to exist
to get people to change so the next
question is have you ever visited a
factory farm
yes i have i visited several factory
farms but i've also visited farms that
are not
classified as being factory farms so
these were like outdoor bread outdoor
raid farms i've been to a pig farm
that is not a factory farm and i've also
been to dairy farms they're not
classified as
factory farms i think the important
thing to recognize and the things that's
become
painfully apparent to me from visiting
these different types of farms
is that morally they're all the same
there's just as much animal suffering on
a dairy farm as there is on a factory
pig farm i've seen just as much
suffering in the eyes of the animals on
these different types of farms and so
i think as vegans we have to be aware
and hopefully as non-vegans we have to
become aware as well
that factory farms are not the point
where the suffering begins
and they're not the point where what we
do to animals becomes immoral
even an animal who's in a farm that's
not a factory farm is still suffering
it's still been exploited and is
ultimately still going to be killed in
the same slaughterhouse and so i've been
to
a wide range of different farms but the
unfortunate reality is they're all
terrible for animals and bad things
happen to animals and all these farms
and ultimately
all of these farms are breeding animals
to take them to slaughterhouses and so
as vegans we have to be opposed
to all these different systems of
farming and we shouldn't think that
factory farms
are the real enemy because the real
enemy is animal exploitation in all its
forms and the mindset
that allows us to facilitate systems
that do exploit animals that's what we
need to target not just
situations of farming that are
classified in a certain way
but instead the mindset that not only
allows the existence of factory farms
but allows the existence of any form of
animal exploitation to take place
so that brings us to the end of the
video thank you to those of you who
submitted questions i really hope that
you liked the ones
that i responded to and i hope you
enjoyed this video in general i know
it's
a little bit different so i hope that
you liked it but let me know down below
in the comments if you did and also
let me know what you thought of my
responses to the questions and what you
think of the questions
that were asked as well particularly i
think the one about the lever items i'm
always interested to know what other
people think about that
and also lab gram meeks of course that's
a big conversation right now and
will continue to be as time goes by
thank you so much for watching
i very much appreciate it and i will see
you all in the next video
[Music]
so