Vegan activist Carbstrong was jailed for gun crime
A “PEACEFUL” vegan activist was imprisoned for gun crime and told farmers to kill themselves, The Daily Telegraph can reveal as he prepares for his biggest day of protests.
Joey Carbstrong, who has more than 50,000 followers on social media and has become the face of the movement in recent weeks, also compared farmers to Hitler and said that what worked in stopping the Nazis “was tactical vio- lence”. He is currently touring the UK attending vigils and holding workshops and will next week join in two days of action in the West Midlands.
After hitting the headlines when he confronted Jeremy Vine over a ham sandwich, Carbstrong took to daytime television publicly to condemn “any death threats and name-calling”, saying he practises “peaceful, non-violent advocacy” and insisting “I do not hate farmers”.
But as the Australian, whose real name is Joseph Armstrong, is adopted as an unofficial spokesman for vegans, The Telegraph can reveal that in the past he had used a very different approach in which he said dairy farmers were “worse than Nazi Germany” and that the “non-existence” of people who eat fish “would benefit the planet”.
He openly admits that he has a very colourful history and was involved in drugs and violence before converting to veganism during a spell in prison.
After leaving school in year nine in Adelaide he quickly developed a heavy drug addiction, starting with cannabis at age 14 and then turning to alcohol and methamphetamine at 15, ecstasy and hallucinogens at 16, and then heroin, cocaine and benzodiazepines. He had various jobs, including at a car factory and as a building labourer, before going on welfare at age 22 as his drug dependency worsened.
By his own admission, he became involved in the city’s gangs and court documents show he amassed a lengthy criminal record, including three assaults.
In September 2011, he was arrested when police found a loaded, sawn-off pump-action rifle down the front of his trousers, which he apparently planned to take to a drug deal. In his motel room, officers found 29 bullets hidden in a sock inside a chair lining, a flickknife beneath his mattress and another inside the hood of his jacket, as well as numerous expensive watches. He also had a £200-a-day methamphetamine habit. For these offences, as well as giving police a false name and storing ammunition in his car and house, he eventually spent six months in jail.
The Youtube star says that his time sober helped him turn his life around and says that he has “evolved” since he began his activism two years ago.