 And in Newland China, dogs are food. They'd laugh at us if I tried to defend a dog from being slaughtered. They'd laugh at me. Just like they laugh at me at the front of the cow slaughterhouse. They do. They laugh at us. Make fun of us, beat their horns, and say, oh, they're bacon, they don't matter. And we're trying to defend these innocent animals that are no different to a dog. Okay, but this is how society catches up. Okay, but first, any truth is ridiculed at the start, isn't it? Okay, then it's violently opposed? Okay, three stages of truth. Then people get aggressive with me, and that happens. They're closer than what you think. And then it's accepted as self-evident. So all truth passes through these stages. Any movement of justice, the black rights movement, women's rights, the suffragettes, okay, women's rights, they come up against this, oh, women deserve rights. They were laughing at them. Laughing at them, weren't they? Laughing at people saying black people should integrate into society. And this is just a sign of the times. Quite an uncomfortable thing to talk about. Not everyone wants to know that, you know, their lifestyle choices might be harming animals. It's not like you're eating meat, you're eating an animal. You're eating someone, not something. The animals are victims. Do you believe animals are victims? Well, no. You don't believe animals are victims? And I want to talk about how we can help animals, and it's quite a simple thing, and not everyone is aware that by buying certain products, we are contributing to some of the worst animal abuse that happens on Earth. 98% of all animal cruelty happens in the meat, dairy and egg industries. 99% of animals are factory farmed, and the other 1% still go to a slaughterhouse. Animal use in this day and age is completely unnecessary. It's something from the stone ages and needs to be left in the past. They exist for their own reasons, man. Not to serve us and not so we can eat them. No, no, you're right there. Do you think it's necessary for you to consume animals? Do you know what necessary means? No, I mean... Unnecessity. No, I choose to do it. You choose to do it. Who am I to judge you? You know, I used to be in games using drugs, hurting people around me, committing conscious violence. Not unconscious violence. And I was eating animals. So, I don't think I'm better than anyone. I'm here just to spread my truth, okay? And to help animals. I'm not trying to make anyone feel bad or judged or anything like that. If anything, I'm the one who should be judged. Do you think people would want to eat animals if they seen them in a slaughterhouse? Yeah. We're not naturally drawn to eat dead animals, are we? But when it's taken away from the animal and put in a little package. And it makes sense, because putting a dead body inside of yours would be good for you. Look what they go through. Okay, and why I say stab animals to death is because all animals are stabbed to death. Okay? They are shocked, they are stunned, but they all stabbed in the throat, every single animal. So, I'm not over exaggerating when I say they are stabbed to death. Fish are stabbed to death. Chickens are stabbed to death. They're all stabbed to death. You're loving animals. And with the other hand, there's a knife in it. That food on your plate came from the body of an individual with a personality and they were scared and they didn't want to die. You don't really have to get angry. You've got the truth on your side here. Okay, my name is Joey and the reason that we're standing at the front of this slaughterhouse is because we live in a society of animal lovers, but we love and care for some animals, dogs, cats, but we condemn others to a slaughterhouse for our dinner plates and we're here standing against that. So here we are at the front of this slaughterhouse here. What the slaughterhouses have been doing is rearranging trucks because they know that someone with a lot of publicity is going to be at their slaughterhouse. It's kind of wearing on me because a lot of people are coming out to these vigils for their first time and it's because I'm there. How many first timers we got here? A lot of first timers. Put your hands up first save. Excellent. Wow. Wow. More than hut. Wow. That's amazing. And it's because I'm there. Okay. So it's great that I'm getting them out there but I really want them to have the experience of bearing witness. The slaughterhouses are, you know, playing little tricks on us. Which they're going to do that so... Apparently every slaughterhouse is slightly different. They could have prepared for this. The newspapers knew about this. You wouldn't look at that and think it was a slaughterhouse, would you? It just looks like a little house. Well that is the back there. They hide it from people. Slaughterhouses are usually on the far outskirts of town. So they can drive trucks in and the public don't see the animals. It's very demotivating. Okay, because when I bear witness to animals it really motivates me and inspires me. And the last three vigils I've been to they've done this. So it's making me feel like I don't want to stand out the front there. And I feel quite exhausted at the moment. And I'm a bit grumpy and I'm giving Laura a bit of a hard time as well. Which is... She's on the other end of it. But I guess this is all just part of it. It's cold out there and it does take a lot of energy out of me. But you just never know. We might be waiting around here for two hours then five trucks come. Anyways, just what we're going to start doing is give you a little bit of... So a little bit of behind the scenes of how I'm feeling and what's going through my head. And you know, I don't want anyone to think that because I'm having... I'm feeling a bit tired or something. You know, having a bit of a rough time here and there that that is going to stop me. So don't get worried about me. Sometimes I feel really, really depressed and sad. Like how the animals make me feel. But I don't give up because I realize that they're doing it a lot harder. This always happens. So this has been happening for a while now. Ups and downs. I don't always publicize my ups and downs. But I want to give you a bit more of a full-rounded idea of what full-time activism entails. So it's about money for you. It's not about the lives of innocent animals. You're making money off the lives of innocent animals. If there were dogs in there, would you... You don't think animals are innocent? Do you believe animals are innocent? You know they're innocent, don't you? Animals. But you've got to find out what it is that drives you and always remember that, especially when it gets hard. But yeah, don't get worried. I've been fighting this battle for a little while now. Um... Yeah. That's it, but I'm done. We get people to connect with animals and once they connect with animals they're less likely to condemn them to a slaughterhouse through their food choices. Okay, so that's a truck full of dead bodies. They've been coming out all day. Obviously if slaughterhouses had glass walls not many people would want to be consuming flesh. Is there any moral difference between a dog and a pig? No. Okay, so why do you think we treat pigs like objects and dogs like friends? Honestly, I don't know. I respect you all right, you do what you want. I do what I want. Do you respect animals? Yeah, but I don't. Yeah, but dogs in the back. You've got dogs in the back? Yeah. Do you care for your dogs? Yeah. Wow, and all discrimination is a learned behavior. Okay, so racism is a learned behavior. Kids aren't just innately racist. It's something that they're taught. Okay, so we're not innately speciesist. As a child we think chickens are beautiful. It's something we're taught. We're taught cows, pigs, chickens, and lambs, and fish are food. Therefore, products. Therefore, treated like objects. What do you consume other animals? Think about that. You wouldn't eat your dogs but you eat cows. They're the same. They're the same. They're the same in the ways that matter. They suffer, they feel pain, they don't want to die. Is that true? You've never heard that before, have you? A lot more out there. A lot more people seem to be doing what I can tell. The movement is growing exponentially. You can do a 22-day vegan challenge. Your hair won't fall out, mate, trust me. So this great hair actually goes down quite deep. And the reason for it is that if animals try to run out of here, this is the only exit, and their feet get stuck in here in their legs and they can't run out. They can't escape even if they tried. So how sick is that? It's a great thing to be a part of. It's one of the most powerful forms of activism I've done and I'll talk to you more about that if you come in. Who's coming to the workshop? Okay, I'll talk to you about it at the workshop. All right, good work. About vegan advocacy. So how to advocate for animals in a respectful way. Giving people effective tools to be advocates for animals. I'd like people to go straight from not being vegan to speaking up against it. That would be ideal. I had a fire inside of my chest, okay? And I couldn't explain it, but it was there. Every time I woke up it was there every day. Every day I felt like I'd wasted another day. Do you think there's a humane way to take an animal's life? Well, I mean taking one isn't really humane at all. Okay, yeah. If you had to, the most painless way possible. If you had to. So if you had to take someone's life, in what situation would you have to take someone's life? Yeah, in self-defense. Then it becomes justified, doesn't it? So if you keep asking questions, you get them to think. People don't think for themselves these days. They let the TV think for them. They let the doctors think for them. They let their parents think for them. You want them to think for themselves. In some sense everything is conscious. Stones, through vegetables, through animals. You think rocks are conscious? In some way, yeah. Rocks are conscious. So a rock would be conscious like a puppy dog is conscious? No, it would be conscious in a different way. Okay, so do you believe a rock is sentient? Do you know what sentience is? Self-aware, aware of their own existence. You cut a carrot in half. It's a lot different to cutting a puppy dog in half. And every aspect of yourself, your intuition, everything will tell you that that puppy dog has suffered and that carrot hasn't. Now each question should lead them to the vegan conclusion. Okay, so you think a rock would feel pain and suffer? Possibly. A rock would feel pain and suffer? Possibly. Okay. Wow. It's possible. Yeah. It's possible that, you know, a lot of things are possible, aren't they? Do you have evidence for your claim though? I've never seen anything more effective than this. You're really watching people just wake up right there in front of your eyes. So they avoid pain and suffering, don't they, animals? Like if you tried to hurt an animal, they tried to avoid it? So if they're avoiding something, they don't like it, yeah? Yeah. And you could probably see that the animal doesn't like what we're doing to them if we're causing them pain and suffering, yeah? I'm sure when I go to Thompson's, the animals are not going to be very happy. Yeah. Okay. So they don't want to die, basically, animals? No. Okay. You don't get the same feeling if you're seeing a... Well, when you do watch animals be slaughtered in front of your face, tell me if it gives you the same feeling seeing an apple get cut in half. Right. Okay. I'm good point. Okay. We start viewing beings as products. We have a problem in society. Human beings as products. Any being as a product, a resource, we have a problem. So do you think it's okay to turn sentient beings into products? Into food. Into products, yeah. Yeah. Farm food. Yeah. Do you think we have alternatives to sentient beings? It's a big industry, man. They want to sell as much as possible. They don't think of animals as beings that deserve rights. At the moment, animals are slaves with no rights. They are products. Treating them properly doesn't involve shooting someone and chopping them into pieces, yeah? Someone. They're a someone. They're not a something. Animals aren't things. Well, basically... Do you think animals are things? No, I don't think they're things. Okay. They're animals. Yeah, we are animals. Yeah. It's not hard to convince someone that stabbing an animal to death is wrong. Because if we're going to eat cows for protein and iron, okay? There's iron and protein and dog flesh, but we're not going to stab a dog to get this iron and protein, are we? Do you think a dog has more moral value than an apple? Should we treat a dog the same as we treat a potato? I think you should treat them all equally well. Do you think you treat a potato the same as you treat a puppy dog? Do you know what I mean? Like, we chop potatoes up and we fry them in a fry. Do you think we should do that to a puppy dog? No. Okay. We're not going to use certain animals to exploit them for the nutrients in their bodies, but we do with these other animals like there's no other way. It's very hard to break a habit and so if you thought thousands and thousands and thousands of generations eating it, then it can be very hard. Yeah. You feel to break that. Okay. So the habit involves a victim, yeah? It's a choice that people make. It's a choice. It's a choice that people make. Yeah, but so are other immoral things that involve sentient victims. Well, I don't really want to bring morality into it that much. Bring this into the picture. We've had thousands of alternatives. Okay. So does sensory pleasure justify an immoral act to an innocent victim? Again, you've brought in the immoral acts very quickly. Well, I can tell you some other immoral acts that people derive sensory pleasure out of. Yeah. Sexual assault is one. Okay. Now they derive... I'm not saying rape is the same as eating animals, but I'm saying there's a pleasure response and a victim. Pleasure response and a victim. So a rapist gets sensory pleasure out of an immoral act. Okay. Now, eating animals, an animal has to suffer and die for it. Not just suffer. They don't have to suffer. They get shot in the head and killed for it. Okay. And we get sensory pleasure out of it. That's what you said. Animals taste good. Okay. How is... Meat tastes good. I didn't say animals taste good. Do you remember my... Meat is animal. That's a euphemism you're using. Do you eat dead animal bodies? Yeah. What do you mean by a dead animal body? Like dead birds or dead cows or... Oh, you don't eat animals at all? Do you eat dead fish? I don't eat fish. Like do you eat beefy? Yeah. Is that what it is? It's not beef. Beef is a euphemism, okay? They use them words to trick you into thinking that it's food. Well... Well, you know that... I thought you meant like... Come on, man. You know you know what beef is. Okay. So you eat dead animals, yeah? It's not... It's flesh. What was that cheese that you said? Oh, yeah. It's flesh from a dead animal. Pig or... Meat is a piece of an animal. Cow, beef. They're euphemisms. No, they're words and they mean something to me. No, they've been... They're part of the process. They help your... They help your... I'm still learning myself. Well... Well, saying something... You can't eat a pig because it keeps moving around. You can eat pork because it stays still on the plate. But it's a piece of an animal. Yeah, of course it is. Okay, so you're eating animals when you eat pork? I'm eating meat. I don't like the language that takes away from what it actually was. So you eat dead birds? I'm not actually a fan of them. Yes, you should die. I eat loads of fish and plants. So you eat dead fish, basically, so... Okay, so... But you can't eat fish. I don't eat animals at all. You're calling an animal a product? Yeah. Because you know what I do for a living? Yeah, but we use words like meat and pork and beef to steer us away that it comes from an actual animal. Yeah, maybe. Yeah, of course this language helps us ignore the fact that we're actually eating slaughterhouse food. Animals that didn't want to die. This is how culture, eating animal culture come about. Yeah. Yeah. And vegans are maybe going to change it. I would never ask anyone to respect someone's choice to cause suffering or a killing to an innocent being. I mean, I respect you as a vegan, but can you respect me as an omnivore? Well, only four years ago I was eating animals probably more than anyone else. I respect you as a person. Have I got the right to live as I live? I respect you as a person, but I do not respect your choice to affect an innocent being, because there's a victim involved in that. I can never respect that, but I will show you respect, that you're exercising your right to hurt other beings. I've never asked you to respect that choice, but I've asked you to show them respect, okay? Because they don't know, and it was a time when you didn't know. If it was just a personal choice, I wouldn't even be standing here. If you wanted to get pissed with your mates and no worries that you're affecting your own health, you're not hurting anyone around you, I wouldn't even be standing here, but there's an innocent being that cannot speak for themselves involved in your choice, okay? And that's the same with any other form of injustice. People think that you need meat for protein. No, bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. After being vegan for a while and seeing all the bodybuilders and athletes and people doing amazing on plant-based eating, you realise how ludicrous that is. I also learnt about heart disease. Heart disease is the number one killer on earth, about 17 million people a year die of heart disease. No one really talks about the cause of it, though. You take tablets for your cholesterol. All you have to do is stop eating cholesterol. The thing is, these animal foods are killing people, okay? And the overwhelming mountains of science that supports that, it's just, it's crazy that this isn't so mainstream that it's just publicised everywhere. But these industries have vested interest. Your consumers, they don't want to turn you off their product. Okay? We're stabbing them to death for an unnecessary reason. Okay? We know we don't need it for health. We've got a mountain of science now. Peer-reviewed journals. Anyone know what a peer review is? Okay? It's when they get a bunch of scientists to agree that this science is legitimate. So they get a study done by a bunch of scientists. Another bunch of scientists sit around and they go, okay, yep, that is an unbiased study. So they all work together, don't they? Pharmaceutical industry, the meat and dairy industry, they're all lapping it up. The doctors will prescribe you medication for a lifestyle illness. They can't make money off telling you to eat fruits and vegetables, can they? Because you'll never be in that office again, will you? Heart disease surgeons don't want you to stop eating cholesterol. You're paying for their holiday. The British Dietetics Association and the American Dietetics Association start with a declaration saying that vegan diets are healthy for all stages of life, including pregnancy, infancy and athletes. So taking saturated fat, cholesterol and carcinogenic meat out of your diet isn't a bad thing for your children. But that's not why I'm here. I'm not here to dispel the pharmaceutical industry or do anything like that. I'm here to speak for animals and that's it. If it's unnecessary to consume the flesh or things that come out of them, why are we doing it to them for? Just ask yourself that question. Veganism is a diet. It's not a diet. Vegetarianism is a diet. It's where you don't eat meat. Veganism is a philosophy which extends to diet. That's pretty cruel. That particular slaughterhouse there. Luckily I get my free range eggs. Luckily the slaughterhouse that down the road from my fancy butcher doesn't kill him like that. Or that will say there's a better way to do this. That animal got really well taken care of. It was respected. I understand that. It was like it had a name and everything. Do you think that's even more of a portrayal? No, no. To care for someone and then to end their life when you don't need to. In that animal's eyes, the animal would have felt betrayed. You are raised. Organic barn raised hens straight to the same slaughterhouse to be hung upside down and have their throat slashed open and the flesh ripped off of their bones just like every factory farm raised hen. No different. Now this is a welfareist message and we're not about animal welfare. We want a free animals. We don't want happy slaves. You think the animals should be treated with high welfare before they are shot in their head and chopped up into pieces. There's no humane way to do this and there's no humane way to exploit someone and treat them as a product. This is where you need to bring it to if it does go down that cruelty welfareist trap. You probably spend a lot of time talking to family members you don't want to hear it. Friends who just think that you've gone silly. But here you speak to people that are really interested because the ones who are interested actually stop. That's a really fulfilling thing to do. You don't feel as isolated. You have a community of vegans who want the same thing as you do. If you turn someone vegan in one conversation usually they've been thinking about it. So they're already most of the way there. You're alright like as much as I tried to sort it. Justify it. Yeah it's like every day I wake up it's more like... There's contradictions there isn't there? I struggle to see the point in it a lot now. So that's why we're passionate about it. No I don't judge. I don't go you're a bad person because I was a victim of the same conditioning. Exactly the same for years till I was 26. I'm 31 now. Holding two opposing beliefs. I love animals but I kill them for their bodies. If you get them to a point where you've got them bang I've got them they don't have a response they're going wow. The penny drop moment they probably won't admit it to you but you go that really nice talking to you here's a card watch some of them you know have a think about it. You've done your job send them off. So I'm just helping wake people up and go hey that's not me. That's not a product. That was an animal. Okay. All right well have you got like a card exactly. Yeah here. Keep getting involved with doing outreach. You know and this is how we make change. People here have never a lot of people here have never even heard about veganism you know this might be the first conversation they ever have on this topic. So you know you can just change someone right there in front of your eyes and you can watch them transform. So it's an amazing feeling. Don't use this as being programmed for many years. Okay use this. You can't program your heart. Okay. Conscience. With the slaughterhouses if they want to play that game that's fine. You know then we'll just you know we'll just won't tell them when we're coming. We're going to pack up. Pack up all the signs. Pack up all the food. Pack up all the tables. Take it all to the car. Okay. And about 15 minutes we're going to hang out in the cars. All right. And then we'll come back. Yeah try and trick them. They trick us. We'll trick them. You filming? They can't stop us from bearing witness. They can try but I don't think that's going to work.