 and welcome to Lillian's Vegan World. I'm your host, Lillian Cumick with Think Tech Hawaii. Today's show is Animal Activism in Hawaii 2021, creating awareness of animal exploitation. I would love to introduce my guest on the show today, co-founder of the Animal Rights Activist Organization, pardon me, Animal Rights Initiative, Amanda Fox. Welcome to the show. Hi, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure, Amanda, so grateful for you to come on the show. And I do want to say personally, thank you for everything that you do. Thank you so much. Thank you. It means a lot to me. Amanda, tell us about your organization, Animal Rights Initiative. Tell us what it's about. Well, it's just about how we can possibly get these animals protected, how we can stop them from being exploited and anything that we can do in the meantime to sort of protest or pass legislature or introduce new foods to bystanders on the street. Anything we can do that will be effective in helping raise awareness for the plight of these animals. That's what we're doing at Animal Rights Initiative. Amazing. When you mentioned these animals, are you talking about cats and dogs? No, I'm talking about all animals. We're not a species specific. It's any animal that's being exploited. We believe that all animals are equal. We can see with their own eyes that cats and dogs can feel pain and it's the same for all of them. They're, yeah, it's the same for all of them. So we're fighting for all of them, especially animals in the animal like that are being farmed for food or farmed for clothing. Yeah, the reason I asked that question, Amanda, is because I think people are so out of touch with animals that somehow it always comes down to like the domesticated cats and dogs that people care about. And for some reason, humans have found a way to kind of just accept or be able to just let really bad things happen to animals that are not cats or dogs and not even, you know, add an eye over it. That's why I asked. So we're in agreement that all animals, whether it's the sheep, a cow, a pig, a chicken, all animals are sentient beings. Is that correct? They feel love. They can also feel pain. They can feel cruelness, torture, all of the above. Yeah, love, fear, like you said, they love their babies. They don't want to be separated. They don't want to be scared. They feel all the same things that we are capable of feeling. It's wrong to deny that that's happening just because we have the ability to own cats and dogs in our own homes, but the pigs and cows and fish are being exploited in farms outside of our vision, you know? Like that's just because it's happening behind closed doors doesn't mean that it's okay and anybody can see that the animals feel pain. The animals feel joy. The animals want to be free. Okay, Amanda, I came across a very interesting article online. It's from theworldanimalfoundation.com and it goes through the 12 steps to become an animal advocate. It does say, quote, the best way to persuade others to adopt humane and responsible lifestyles is to set a good example. So can you quickly go through a few things that we can do like as a daily practice that will help animals in the future without having to actually be part of a demonstration or a protest? Yeah, great. And the easiest thing that we can do to help animals is to just live a vegan lifestyle or eat a plant-based diet. We can save or spare 200 animals a year just with our diet. And that's incredible. And when you really think about the extension of veganism and abolishing all animal exploitation, we're sparing animals in rodeos, sparing animals in circuses, aquariums, anything that animals could have been exploited in for their fur or for their skin, like anything. We're sparing thousands of animals when you think about that. And yeah, I would just start with eating a plant-based diet as fast as possible for most. Yeah, that's excellent advice. Are you vegan? Are you on a plant-based diet? Yeah, I've been vegan for about 12 years now. I'm actually curious. Are there any volunteers at your animal rights initiative that help with the demonstrations? Are there any that are actually not vegan? You know, we have had volunteers come that weren't vegan yet, but that didn't last very long. Once they were exposed to what we were protesting for and they saw why we were so passionate about stopping the enslavement of these animals, stopping the torture of these animals, they too were compelled to go vegan and not let this happen. We can't pay for this to happen. They were, yeah. Well, that's good to know. So for any of the viewers who are watching this show who are actually not living on a plant-based diet, you are welcome to help out at the demonstrations, if you like. Is that something that you would welcome? Oh yeah, of course. Any person that wants to help come hold a sign or write an email to their legislature or anything. We want your help. We're not judging anybody. Yeah, the animals need our help and they need us to be working together. Okay, Amanda, take us through what volunteers would do at your initiative with your organization in terms of animal activism. Sure. Well, there's a lot of different types of demonstrations that we do. So some types are just street activism where we go down to a public area and show footage like hidden surveillance footage of what's happening inside these farms. And a volunteer could just hold the screens or they can just hold the signs and let the other outreachers be speaking to the public about this or they can help us prep the tables. They can help us prep the screens. If they're not doing a street outreach event, we also do food sampling events where they can help pass out food samples or they can gather supplies and in other events that we do, we have done like protests just outside of any stores. There's a lot of ways to be involved in these demos where they're not directly outreaching to by-senders which is what causes people the most fear. You know, they can feel relaxed at these demos and know that they're supporting the demonstration that we really need the people to be holding the signs. We really need this presence. We really need this visibility. Just being there, just watching the footage is creating visibility for other people that are saying like, hey, what's going on there? Hey, why are they protesting for animal rights? Why are those animals being abused? There's people that think that's wrong and maybe I'm a person like that too. Okay, if they aren't coming to the Otis type of demonstrations, we also do legislative work where we need people's help to contact our legislators, contact our policymakers. That's something everyone can do from home. We have templates that can be sent out and anything like that can be performed. I actually sign petitions every day. I belong to PETA, P-E-T-A. You can go to their website and if you become a member, it doesn't cost anything. Becoming a member just means that they're going to email you and ask you to sign petitions that you just email out. They actually do all the work for you. They even write the messages which you can tweak anytime and I tweak them just to make them a bit more kind of relative to Hawaii. But I often get responses from Senator Shotze's office acknowledging that they have received emails. I'm sure they know my name by now because I do this literally every day and I know a lot of people that do. So that is one thing I can say to the viewers if you genuinely want to help animals, they clearly need help. Please do start, you know, it's actually what Amanda said, start signing petitions, start reaching out to your government, to your local community and do what you can for the animals. I mean, something's got to change in this world. Quite frankly, we can't keep doing this and expect just not aligning with our morals and the compassion and love that we're born with because it's human nature to love animals. We've just somehow taken a really wrong turn and allow this to go on. So again, amazing what you do. Amanda, let's take a look at some of the slides that you've provided for us. Let's see the first one. Tell us a little bit about this. Great, so that's an image of a food sampling event that we did where we were putting out free samples of different types of vegan chicken and vegan pork. So we generally in those events we'll sample a couple of different brands of like a chicken nugget or like different samples of milks like we've done a ton of different milks. And obviously the demos are really popular because we are just all really excited and we're like, hey, it's free food, just come try it. And the bystanders have never tried this before and they're always so surprised how good it is. That type of sampling is just miraculous because every single person is like, wow, I had no idea that I could still be having the same taste living my same life, but just with a vegan alternative that they sell at the same grocery store. We can get pizza and chicken nuggets at the same grocery store that we're already going to. We just need to go into a different aisle. That's it, it's brilliant. I love that. I really do love that idea of handing out, plant-based food. So most of the people in Waikiki, are they tourists that approach you during these food samplings or the demonstrations or are they locals? It depends on the night. Like a lot of times they're mostly tourists. Most of the time people are from other places in the States, but right now because of COVID there's not as many tourists because tourism has kind of cut off from a couple of areas of the world. So I would say half are local people and half are people traveling. I wanna get back to some of the footage, the video footage that you show people on the streets during the outreach program that you do. What is the initial reaction people have when they see the footage I'm gathering is footage of slaughterhouses or what kind of footage are you actually showing? Sure, well in this type of demonstration that we're speaking about where we would be showing hidden surveillance camera footage, it's footage that an undercover worker would have had to go into the farm and place or wear the camera. So it's not sensationalized footage. It's just what's happening in the farms and the bystanders walking by, they don't like it. They are shocked, they are sad, they're horrified that this is what's happening, they feel lied to, yeah, they're appalled. Everyone is appalled. And I can say that no one sees the footage of the animals being killed and feels hungry. Well, you know what they say, Amanda, sometimes the truth hurts and sometimes the truth shall set you free. We are what we are talking about animal activism in Hawaii 2021, creating awareness of animal exploitation. We are going to take a very short break and be back with more on animal exploitation with Amanda Fox, stay tuned. Aloha, I'm Dan Leif. I go by fig because I was an Air Force fighter pilot for 33 years and you have to have a nickname. I get to host, I'm Think Tech Hawaii, two shows, figments, the power of imagination and figments on reality. The power of imagination introduces you to some of my incredible friends and their life experiences, astronauts, war heroes, Hollywood writers, you name it, they're on it and you'll be inspired and entertained. And on reality, I'll give you something hard to find, non-political commentary on today's events. That's right, non-political because the vitriol doesn't help folks. So figments, power of imagination, figments, I'm reality, both on Think Tech Hawaii. Welcome back to Lillian's Vegan World. I'm your host, Lillian Cumick. And today's show is animal activism in Hawaii 2021, creating awareness of animal exploitation. I am a vegan chef, cooking instructor and cookbook author. I published my first book, Hawaii, a Vegan Paradise last year, 2020 in November. And I'm so excited to tell you about my second book, Tasting Hawaii Vegan Style. This book has over 120 vegan recipes, all plant-based and all gluten-free. So it should be hitting stores early December. You can also order the book directly from Mutual Publishing, which is a local publishing house. So you will be supporting local when you purchase this book. I'd like to welcome back my guest, Amanda Fox to the show. Welcome back, Amanda. Amanda. Great, thank you. Amanda, let's get right back into it. We're talking about your animal rights initiative. You are the co-founder and you have some upcoming events. Amanda, how, first of all, how can people get in touch with you if they want to volunteer for your organization? If they want to volunteer, we have a Facebook group. So there's a Facebook page, the Animal Rights Initiative and then there's the group. There's one specifically for Oahu and then there's a main one too. So Animal Rights Initiative group and then there's Animal Rights Initiative Oahu. Do you have an email address that you would like to share? Yeah, I would love for anybody to get into contact with me if they'd like to. It's amandahenson.ari.gmail.com. Okay, awesome. So please, anyone watching the show who really wants to make a difference can start by reaching out to Amanda and doing something to help the animals. Amanda, here's a question for you. How can children be educated about animal exploitation without scaring them? Well, that's a good question. We don't need to scare them. We don't need to show them footage of the animals being hurt. Like animals being hurt is sensitive for children. They don't want to see animals being hurt. Children are the first ones to say no, that's wrong. That's wrong. They're like, why is that happening? They don't want it to happen. They don't need as many details. They don't need as many facts because children are more connected to their heart already. Like as we grow older, we become desensitized. We have our own biases. We have our own opinions that we formulated around these diets because we're seeing them as just a diet. Whereas with a child, they see the animals for what they are, animals. So then they know that hurting animals is wrong. Simple as that. Okay. And what do you say to people who claim animal activists are aggressive and intrusive? Well, I would say to just watch TV for about an hour and see how many times you're advertised animal products. And I would say that that is really intrusive. That is really aggressive. Almost every single commercial is going to have animal products in it. And they're going to try to make you think that it's healthy. They're going to try to make you think that the animals were being treated fairly. And it's not true. It's marketing. So our protests or our demonstrations or just giving out free food, there's no way possible that we could be as in your face or as intrusive or aggressive as these marketing campaigns from these restaurants, from McDonald's, from anywhere, from Cheesecake Factory, anywhere that is exploiting animals, they should think about that as intrusive. That is actually a really great answer. I have never thought about that. And you're absolutely right. I like that. Amanda, let's take a look at another line of your slides. Tell us about this one. Great. This one, that's from another sampling that we did where we had a partnership with an animal sanctuary where they brought a rooster to the sampling. So we were passing out vegan chicken products and vegan turkey products and having a live rooster there that was totally safe that we didn't let anyone pet, just had there and was put away as soon as we felt like they needed to be treated very gently, but it was really helpful for the bystanders to be like, oh, this is the chicken that I don't want to hurt. You don't see these animals and instinctively think I want to hurt that animal. So it helps people confront the difference between our actions and what we want. Because right now, if you're not living a vegan lifestyle, you're paying people to hurt animals. And seeing the live animals there is really a big wake-up call for people to think, oh, I don't want to pay for someone to hurt that animal. Absolutely, yeah. People don't get it that they are actually, whether it's directly or indirectly, they are supporting this cruelty to continue on. So yeah, it's horrendous and it's sad at the same time. But I'm so excited with where the plant-based diet is going, it's the strongest growing diet on the planet as of today. So more and more people are giving up their knives for forks, which is awesome. In my second book, I talk a lot about the plant-based diet and veganism, the vegan lifestyle. And it's such an easy thing to do. There's nothing difficult about giving up meat and fish because it's all in the mind when you think about it. My husband is not vegan, but he eats, our home is vegan. And when we go out, he eats whatever he likes. He's not a vegan, so he'll eat meat, fish, whatever. And I say this without kidding you, that he doesn't feel very good after he eats like a burger or something like that when we go out because he's so used to eating so much plant-based food at home when he does, not stray, but when he does eat what he wants, he doesn't feel good. I can see it. I can see it without him having to say anything. You're gonna feel good when you start going plant-based and you're going to feel good emotionally as well because everything starts to align. Would you say like you become more, when you become more aware of your food and when you become more mindful of what you're eating? Like things start to shift. And that's what I think people need to do. Find that place where you can look at yourself in the mirror and go, well, I did something cool today. I didn't support any of that animal cruelty because I went vegan for a day for a meal. So you can just start there. I think what you said about going plant-based is a great way to start helping animals. So I do urge anyone who's watching the show to just give up that, give up meat even if you start once a week, that's a good start. So tell us some more daily practices, daily choices that we can make that will help animals in the future. So we can definitely sign petitions, go online, reach out to the Facebook group, your Facebook group, Animal Rights Initiative, see what's going on there. What else we can go plant-based? What other practices are there? Well, it's important to remember that veganism is not just about our diet. It's about what we're raring and what we're using too. And these products that are tested on animals too, because a lot of the products that people are using, like for beauty, for house cleaning, those animals are currently being tested on animals, or those products are currently being tested on animals that don't need to be. And plenty of those products are available at regular grocery stores, at Target. Anywhere that you're going, they have a natural option too that's not tested. If you're at the store and making a choice on what to purchase and you don't know, you can just say, Clorox tested on animals in your phone and you'll find it was tested on animals. So you can go to the next brand, seventh generation, tested on animals and you'll find it wasn't tested on animals. So you can know that you can buy that product, guilt-free, that you're not funding these cruel experiments on animals, the same way that we choose our food, the same way that we would choose not to buy cashmere or not to buy a wool sweater or anything like that, because there's no way to farm these animals in such a massive way without hurting them. There's no way. There's billions of people on the planet making these purchases. We have to make conscious consumer purchases, you know? Yeah, excellent point. And that's also not hard to do. Exactly, I mean, people walk around talking to Siri all day. You can just ask Siri if exactly what you said, if the brand that you have picked up when you're at the store is tested on animals, that's a great way to do it. And you can start by learning how to read labels. I love teaching people about reading labels, like becoming aware of what's in the product that you're buying, whether it's food or as you just pointed out, cosmetics. Very, very important point, Amanda. Thank you for sharing that. Let's have a look at another one of your slides. Great, this one's from a street outreach event that we did in Waikiki and the two people on the right, they are bystanders that attended our event. They saw the footage. They actually came and said hi to one of the dogs, my dog that I had brought to the event, because they instinctively loved my dog. They wanted to pet her and it gave us the opportunity to be like, hey, well, if you love this dog, let me show you this footage because the footage sometimes shows dog farming because it's happening all over the world. Even though it's not happening in the United States or not happening in Australia, it's happening. And they were instantly like, oh, made the connection. And they came back the next week to tell us that they had been vegan for a whole week and that they had planned to continue it. And then it wasn't as hard as they thought but they felt much better about aligning their actions with their morals. Because like you said, we're lying to ourselves if we're saying we care about animals or just don't want them to suffer but we're paying for them to suffer. So that's one of my favorite slides actually. That's awesome. That's so awesome that these bystanders came over and took that leap of faith and opened up their mind before a moment. And then went vegan for a week. Hopefully they still are practising that what they said that they enjoyed. Amanda, let's have a look at another one of your slides. Okay, this one's from a dairy event that my group protested at. We disrupted their event. It was an ice cream festival. It was a dairy ice cream festival. And so we all had our signs and we walked through we walked through and let everybody know there that the animals that made the milk that they were eating were tortured. Their babies were killed. We had the farmers had to kill the baby calves in order for those humans to have that ice cream. And it doesn't make sense because we can just have oat milk ice cream or coconut milk ice cream or soy milk or anything. Any other ice cream that doesn't involve killing already exists. So we went there with tons of activists and made it very clear that we did not think that it was okay to be celebrating this dairy ice cream festival. We did a speak out, we had speeches. It was really fun. A lot of people were really affected. They were shocked with the information that we were giving them because it had been hidden from them their whole lives thinking that these cows are just out there grazing and giving milk away freely, not being told that we're actually impregnating them forcibly and taking their babies away and hooking them up to machines where they're milked every single day. It's really painful. Amanda, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and I do wish you and your organization all the best and I support everything that you do for the animals and please to any of the viewers who are watching do reach out to Animal Rights Initiative Amanda Fox. I'm sure she'll get back to you or someone from her team can get back to you and let you know how you can help. Amanda, it's been awesome having you on the show. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. My pleasure. And to everyone else, I look forward to seeing you another time on Lillian's Vegan World. Stay safe and Aloha.