Category Archives: FAQ

Property – what it means to be ‘owned’

Posted on February 25, 2020 by There's an Elephant in the Room

I’ve written about ‘property’ before but it’s a topic that bears repeating. Maybe I’ll stumble across new ways of expressing the monstrous abomination that owning other individuals represents. As the crushing impacts of widespread climate-collapse increase in frequency, along with … Continue reading →

Posted in FAQ, property status | Tagged animal rights, climate catastrophe, climate crisis, climate disaster, exotic meat, foie gras, hunting, kangaroos, koala, legal, livestock, macerator, owned, property, property status, shark fin, speciesism, standard practice, trophy hunting, veal, welfare, welfare standards, zoonotic | 7 Comments

Straight talking about ‘factory farming’

Posted on July 11, 2019 by There's an Elephant in the Room

There seems to be some sort of blind spot in our collective consciousness about the term ‘factory farming’ and all the various types of *CAFO in which our numerous species of victims are incarcerated. For a start, the creating of … Continue reading →

Posted in Advocacy, factory farming, FAQ, Global disasters, Terminology | Tagged animal agriculture, animal rights, CAFO, ecological disaster, environmental destruction, ethical, factory, factory farming, family farm, farming, feed conversion ratio, health, humane, locally raised, organic farm, planetary collapse, planetary destruction, welfare | 9 Comments

Wool; it’s been pulled over our eyes for too long

Posted on April 27, 2019 by There's an Elephant in the Room

‘ Baa, baa, black sheep, have you any wool? Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full! One for the master, And one for the dame, One for the little boy Who lives down the lane. Able to recite this before … Continue reading →

Posted in Addressing resistance to change, FAQ, wool | Tagged alpaca, angora, cashmere, castration, crotching, crutching, docking, domestication, ear notching, ear tagging, exploitation, goats, history of domestication, industry, llama, mouflon, mulesing, myths, natural, profit, rabbits, selective breeding, shearing, sheep, sixth extinction, victims, waste, wool | 13 Comments

Petitions and single issues – where’s the harm? – FAQ

Posted on March 10, 2019 by There's an Elephant in the Room

I was recently asked the following very well articulated question by a friend who is a committed activist and vegan advocate; I understand why we don’t want to put effort into single-issue causes, especially those that are so blatantly speciesist … Continue reading →

Posted in FAQ, Single Issue Campaigns, Speciesism | Tagged advocacy, animal rights, antispeciesism, betrayal, campaigner, campaigns, counter productive, death penalty, euthanasia, execution, harm, Harm reduction, innocent, otherisation, petitions, promoting harm, regulation, regulatory reform, rights, Single Issue Campaigns, speciesism, speciesist, veganism, welfare, xenophobia, xenophobic | 9 Comments

‘What are cows for?’

Posted on December 17, 2018 by There's an Elephant in the Room

A recent comment on a post read, ‘What do you think cows are for?’ The writer was raging against the facts relating to dairy use and consumption. It was clear that they saw nothing wrong with their question as a line of … Continue reading →

Posted in FAQ, Nonhuman family members | Tagged breast milk, cats, chickens, Chickens and eggs, childhood, companions, consumer demand, cows, dogs, milk, pigs, sentience, sentient, sheep, vegan, veganism, violence | 4 Comments

‘Surely taking milk and eggs doesn’t kill?’ – FAQ

Posted on July 9, 2018 by There's an Elephant in the Room

There are many who persist in the notion that taking milk and eggs from other individuals does not result in their deaths. It’s an assertion that’s frequently seen on social media and it simply could not be more incorrect. In … Continue reading →

Posted in Chickens and eggs, dairy, FAQ | Tagged breast milk, chickens, Chickens and eggs, commodification, dairy, death, harm, lactation, milk, sentience, slaughter, truth, vegan, victims, violence | 12 Comments

We’re so vain – thoughts on intelligence

Posted on April 17, 2018 by There's an Elephant in the Room

Another comment that often appears amongst the arsenal of tired old excuses that humans cling to in their attempts to justify the use of members of other species, centres around presumptions of superior intelligence when compared with every other species … Continue reading →

Posted in Addressing resistance to change, FAQ, Speciesism | Tagged advocacy, awakening, Chickens and eggs, commodification, consumer demand, dairy, death, Earth day, harm, human superiority, intelligence, moral choices, resources, rights, sentience, speciesism, truth, vegan, veganism, victims, violence | 7 Comments

The way it’s always been and if we stop they’ll become extinct

Posted on April 9, 2018 by There's an Elephant in the Room

‘ Humans have been using other animals since the beginning of time.’ ‘It’s always been this way.’ ‘If we stop farming them they’ll become extinct.’ The idea that ‘nothing can change from the way it’s always been done’, is commonly … Continue reading →

Posted in Addressing resistance to change, FAQ | Tagged backyard, battery, chickens, Chickens and eggs, consumer demand, Cruelty, domestication, environment, extinct, extinction, factory, free range, genetic modification, harm, hens, humane, justice, sanctuary, selective breeding, slaughter, Torture, vegan, veganism, victims, violence | 9 Comments

To kill vast numbers, we must ‘farm’ vast numbers

Posted on January 2, 2018 by There's an Elephant in the Room

When we are not vegan, and if we consider it at all, we sometimes have the idea that the reproduction of ‘farmed’ individuals is somehow a natural process and our use of their bodies for eggs, milk and body parts … Continue reading →

Posted in Addressing resistance to change, FAQ, Statistics | Tagged artificial insemination, awakening, commodification, consumer demand, resources, sentience, slaughter, slaughter numbers, Statistics, veganism, victims, violence | 7 Comments

Sentience – what does it actually mean?

Posted on November 22, 2017 by There's an Elephant in the Room

We frequently see it stated that the individuals whose lives, bodies, and reproductive systems we use, are sentient. So what actually is sentience? Human animals and the vast majority of other animal species that our species uses, harms and kills, … Continue reading →

Posted in FAQ, Sentience, What is ...? | Tagged anthropomorphism, commodification, consumer demand, harm, human superiority, humane, justice, resources, sentience, slaughter, speciesism, Torture, veganism, victims, violence, welfare | 45 Comments