I wrote this piece in 2016 but wish to add an experience just lived through on an artist’s residency. As ever in the intro chat I described my prime directive and motivation as Vegan Artivist for human and non-human Animal Liberation. Hoping, as ever, that others might be inclined to talk to me. Nobody else mentioned the V word, until on the first group walk a lady siddled up to me and said like a quiet confession that she had been Vegan for 35 years. Wow, fantastic, but why keep it to yourself, Lovely? Not wanting to impose or be judgy or annoying, fear of putting people off, honouring the journey of each person… came back the platitudinous excuses for not standing up and being a Voice. This prompted a familiar examination of conscience along the lines of “maybe the ‘pushy averse’ vegans inspire as many as us overt ones do”. As usual I cannot take that chance, having been the sole vegan almost everywhere for decades from 1969, and feeling an absolutely obsessive imperative to raise the Vegan flag at every opportunity, regardless of any perceivedly alienating effect upon relationships, and in society.

Now that more people are coming on board with veganism, I find it necessary to push the envelope and challenge them about our relationship with animals, most especially pets. Simply redefining pets as rescued companions is not adequate…we must be honest about our attachments to and use of fellow Earthlings. I have come out about my compulsive horse rescuing past, and the pain of giving that up as I became more aware of the less than perfect dynamic operating. I made every excuse to carry on : no shoes/ no bits/ no riding/ no rugs/ no stables/ natural this and herd-led that. It was a journey and a process walked ahead of the human pack like most of my steps, in order to be free and translucent for the benefit of those to come.

It feels absolutely vital right now that vegan visionaries, co-creators of the new world we are willing into being, address the future for other beings. It is screaming out from me that they must be given their own land, water, space, free from human contamination. Our duty of care to them demands this. We have so much reparation to accomplish, so much restorative justice to complete, to all species. Because the domesecrated creatures have been engineered to be incapable of living a natural existence, this requires them to be prevented from breeding so that they are the last of their kind to suffer, and that when the last of them dies our collective shame and sorrow may start to heal. Of course they will be supplied with their proper food and essential veterinary care, but the future is not sanctuaries where people can go and interfere with them and feel good about being with them. Sanctuaries are at best a temporary regrettable necessity, a transition stage for them, not for us. The folks who say “My dream is to have a sanctuary” are really expressing a form of pet ownership only one notch above the mainstream abusive attachment issues. Animals need to be with their own kind, unmolested by us, and any future interaction between us and them can only be initiated by them on their terms, should they deem us worthy. All animals should be wild and free. Only then will our own freedom and wildness be liberated.

I welcome those ready to discuss these sorts of issues, because we have to be very clear about what is right and where we are aiming for. Please join me here and on my Vegantopia, Art, Activism FB page which I formed to focus upon these issues. They need not be difficult or divisive if we follow our hearts and hear what the animals have to say about their own lives and future, remembering it is about them, not us with our ludicrous dramas and egos.