A positive thing
The Animalist — Why do you care about animals?
Sam Tucker — Because pain is pain and suffering is suffering, regardless of the species of the victim. There are many ways that humans and other animals are different, but in our ability to suffer, we are identical. Animals are sentient, thinking, feeling creatures and deserve to be treated as such. Virtually everybody is opposed to animal cruelty, they love the animals they share their homes with and there is mass public outrage when the media airs stories about animal abuse. So most people care about animals and are already against unnecessary animal suffering. I simply apply that same logic to the animals that are the most brutally abused in our society, farmed animals.
T.A. — Who are you, where are you from and who do you work for?
S. T. — I’m Sam Tucker and I’m the Australia and New Zealand Outreach Coordinator for Vegan Outreach. I was born in New Zealand, but now I travel all across both Australia and New Zealand handing out leaflets at universities, encouraging students to eliminate or reduce animal products in their diet.
T.A. — What piece of advice would you give someone who cares about animals but eats meat?
S. T. — The vast majority of animals who are abused and killed by humans are farmed animals. So if you want to help animals, the best way you can do so is to eliminate or reduce meat, dairy and eggs in your diet. This doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing thing, if everybody simply reduced their consumption of animals by half, billions of animals would be saved. So try out some vegan and vegetarian recipes, experiment with new foods, go to a local vegan restaurant or head along to a potluck. Every vegan meal you eat is a win for the animals, even if you don’t go completely vegan. View it as a positive thing, an opportunity to try all sorts of new and delicious foods you might not have given a go before. Or stick to what you know and replace animal products with cruelty free substitutes in your favourite recipes. If you want any more information on how to start making some animal-friendly changes to your diet, order a free Guide to Cruelty Free Eating from Vegan Outreach.
T.A. — What piece of advice would you give anybody who cares about animals and wants to encourage people around them to take into consideration the interests of non-human persons?
S. T. — Being positive and friendly really is the key to being an effective advocate for animals in my opinion. When confronted by the realities of the cruelty of the meat, dairy and egg industries, it’s easy for people to get on the defensive and feel that vegans are personally attacking or judging them. We need to show people that this isn’t the case. Instead, we should approach activism with the understanding that most people do actually care about animals and are against animal cruelty, they are generally just unaware of the amount of suffering that farmed animals experience and how easy it is to replace meat, dairy and eggs. We also need to always focus the discussion on the key issue, which is the suffering of animals, not personal purity or far-fetched hypothetical examples.
T.A. — Can you share any interesting (perhaps amusing) experiences about giving leaflets on going vegan at universities?
S. T. — There was one time I was leafleting a university where I had heard security didn’t respect freedom of speech very much and that there was a good chance they might ask me to leave. I had only been leafleting for 30 minutes before a security guard approached me asking what I was handing out. I was sure that my day of leafleting would be over before it really began. But it turns out that she was vegetarian and just wanted to get a copy to show her friends! She even told me the best spots to leaflet on campus and because of that we handed out 1500 leaflets that day, a new record for that university.
