Love your neighbor applies to animals too, says vegan activist
James Aspey to speak at TA’s 5th annual Vegan Congress
“I can’t think of one logical reason why my life matters more than an animal’s life,” prominent Australian animal rights activist James Aspey told The Jerusalem Post over a vegan breakfast in Tel Aviv on Sunday. “If you take humans off the planet everything thrives, but if you take ants or bees off the planet, everything collapses.”
Aspey is in Israel for the fifth annual Vegan Congress, set to be held on Thursday and Friday in Tel Aviv, where he will give a talk titled “How to Have Peace in a Violent World.”
After talking about “speciesism” as a form of prejudice against particular groups of living beings, Aspey asked, “Why do we think it’s okay to kill a chicken and not a dog, while other societies think it’s okay to kill a dog but not a cow?” The answer, he said, is that culture has normalized violence against certain individuals by an industry “built on forced breeding, confinement, enslavement and execution.”
“Conclusive peer-reviewed scientific studies prove that animal products are totally unnecessary for our health or survival and we actually increase our chances of living a longer, healthier, disease-free life by consuming only a plant-based diet,” he continued, pointing to a 2009 American Dietetic Association study by way of reference.
Aspey said there are no essential nutrients in animal products that can’t be found in plant sources, and asserted that there are delicious vegan versions of all popular meals.
“We should look past species and stop discriminating. All beings deserve respect, not just humans and not just dogs, dolphins or whales. While you are still purchasing animal products, you are the oppressor and all harm done to animals before they end up on your plate is on your hands,” he told the Post.
Detailing the environmental damage caused by animal products industries, Aspey said he was confident that a vegan world would be healthier and more sustainable.
Aspey will be speaking at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beersheba and Tel Aviv University during the next two weeks of his Israel visit.
The passionate 31-year-old activist has beaten cancer, drug addiction and bulimia and replaced them with a healthy vegan lifestyle, and that aspires to educate and inspire others. He is known for having taken a one year vow of silence, having cycled 5,000 km. and having gotten tattooed for 25 hours in his quest to raise awareness for animal rights.
“Ultimately I’m trying to lift people up and share knowledge that has changed my life and saved so many others,” he said.
Aspey pointed out that studies have found a connection between violence and against animals and violence against people, specifically that slaughterhouse workers are more prone to violence. This was found by University of Windsor criminology Prof. Amy Fitzgerald in 2010, and by the Australian Society and Animals journal in 2013, he said.
This is Aspey’s second time visiting Israel, and like any high-profile figure coming to the country, he has had to defend his choice of travel to critics on social media, some of whom have accused him of being a hypocrite. He, however, pointed out the hypocrisy in their silence when he travels to other countries. “Nobody told me to boycott the USA when I went there and look at what’s going on with guns over there,” he said.
“If I was going to boycott a place because of the violence the country is responsible for, I would have nowhere to live, because humans and animals are killed in my country and every country, and personally I’m opposed to violence against all species,” Aspey emphasized.
“I don’t agree with violence at all, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to boycott a country if I have an opportunity to talk about how to create peace there,” he added.
“Aspey’s Golden Rule” is similar to a key Jewish principle that one should “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
“Veganism is about treating others with the respect that you would want to be treated yourself,” he said.
Continuing to embrace Jewish terminology, Aspey concluded that he sees the vegan movement as an or la goyim, a “light unto the nations.”
“In the Jewish spirit of tikkun olam [repairing the world], veganism is the most practical, far-reaching choice we should all make as consumers for a more peaceful world,” he said.