When the rest of the world was getting ready for the Thanksgiving 2018, Laura Ray and Arjun Sharma were preparing something totally different.
As animal activists and vegans — which means they don’t eat any meat including turkey, eggs and dairy products —they abstain any use of animal products and reject the commodity status of animals.
After retiring, Ray became a full-time animal activist. She works with six animal rights organizations, including People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) and Anonymous for the Voiceless. She has been a vegan for 20 years.
Sharma is a leader of a student organization of Northeastern University, called “Cruelty-Free.” After going vegan for two years, he feels healthier and less likely to get sick.
However, both Ray and Sharma said they only going vegan is not enough but they need to fight for animals. The two weeks before Thanksgiving 2018, from Nov. 8 to Nov. 22, witnessed their efforts for animal liberation.
Ray’s presentation:
Nov. 8, Northeastern University
“Do you value taste over life?”
Ray said she would ask like that when meat-eaters say they do not care about animals.
She moved her hands up and down like a balance, indicating one side was life and the other side was taste as she asked the question to the members of Cruelty-Free.
Ray attended with her dogs and in a pullover with the logo for Anonymous for the Voiceless, an international animal rights organization she works with.
Ray said she was inspired to become a vegetarian by three things: a vegetarian cookbook by animal activist Linda McCartney, a Smiths' song “Meat Is Murder” and her first dog.
“Seeing my dog has his personality, little routines and quirks, and how he feels everything we do,” Ray said. “I just was like, ‘Wow, animals are really awesome and they need a voice.’”
Ultimately, it was a book written by the PETA President, Ingrid Newkirk, that turned her a vegan in 1999.
“Because people don’t relate to farm animals,” said Ray. She said people love their pets but do not care much about farm animals that allows them to eat meat. Ray added that many people give up all kinds of meat except fish because they feel fish is not exactly cute and cuddly.
“But the pigs, cows, chicken and fish are no different than your dog or cat,” she said.
Ray continued: “Imagine you’re reaching for a mango or something in a tree. All of a sudden something just grabs your arm, pulls you up and you can’t breathe anymore. Right, that’s what it’s like for a fish.”
She said Ray emphasized it took fish about seven minutes to die after being yanked out of the water. “It isn’t a pretty death. It isn’t a nice death.”
“If there was a pig here and I want to kill that pig, would you stop me?” she asked the group.
“Many people, of course, they say, ‘No’ if I wanted to kill an animal right in front of them. What is the difference you’re paying someone to kill them for you?” she said. “There is really no difference.”
A student asked Ray what would she do if her families and friends are not vegans over for dinner. The student said he sometimes felt embarrassed when having meals with his meat-eater friends.
“That’s true,” said Ray. “Sometimes people might say like, ‘You are a crazy vegan.’”
She shared the experience that her sister didn’t want her to go to her nephew’s wedding because her sister worried she would go around and ask people to go vegan.
“I said to my sister, ‘You don’t know me,’ and didn’t talk to her for a long time,” Ray said.
But now her family members are all vegans because of her. Her nephew married a woman who is a vegan and her sister went vegan to lower her cholesterol.
Ray said she would ask meat-eaters to try vegan food and let them realize vegan good is delicious. “I have never met one meat-eater say they don’t like the food in a vegan restaurant,” she added.
Another student said a lot of time he had positive experiences when a group of meat-eaters noticed that he ordered something vegan when they were out at a restaurant.
“They say, ‘You are a vegan. That’s so cool,’” he said. Then they ask more questions and sometimes they say they should do like that, he said.
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The presentation lasted for about one and a half hours. In the end, Ray shared some vegan flyers, recipes, and a DVD, “Glass Walls,” narrated by Paul McCartney to students.
“Cube of Truth:”
Nov. 9, Summer Street, Boston
People in Guy Fawkes masks and black jackets are holding big TV sets broadcasting bloody footage and or holding signs with the word, “Truth,” that’s what bystanders would see about the “Cube of Truth.”
Ray and other members of the Anonymous for the Voiceless group do the “Cube of Truth” demonstration every Friday evening at the corner of Summer Street.
The bloody footage is depicting animal exploitation.
Paul Bashir, the co-founder of the Anonymous for the Voiceless, came up with the “Cube of Truth” idea, Ray said.
“I’m so excited about this organization,” she said. The Anonymous for the Voiceless was founded in 2016 in Australia and now has chapters all over the world.
Some walked away without noticing their “Cube of Truth;” some had a glance and were scared by the footage so they moved faster and seemed do not want to see it anymore; some stopped to watch the footage carefully. There were panic, horror and anger on their faces and they covered their faces with their hands.
If someone watches carefully, a member of the Anonymous for the Voiceless will approach and talk to the passersby, about veganism. And if someone takes the conversation seriously, he or she will get a card with several vegan websites where they can find more information about veganism.
It was raining heavily at that night. Fortunately, they were standing under the roof of a shopping mall. Ray distributed hand warmers to everyone. It was cold.
She said two of them usually hold the TV sets for two hours, and others take turns. All the members are local residents from all ages and they volunteer to do that.
“We sent out 34 cards tonight,” Laura said to other members and they cheered. They took a group photo and finished their “Cube of Truth.”
“Boston Protest Canada Goose:”
Nov. 11, Prudential Center
“Shame! Shame! Shame on you! Shame on you for what you do!”
About 20 PETA members, including Ray, was boycotting Canada Goose, a clothing brand, outside the Prudential Center where a Canada Goose store is on the first floor.
According to the flyers they sent out:
“Wild coyotes trapped for Canada Goose can suffer for days-from blood loss, shock, dehydration, frostbite, gangrene, and attacks by other predators. Victims may further injure themselves as they try to escape, and mothers desperate to get back to their defenseless pups may even attempt to chew off their own limbs.
When the trapper returns, animals who haven’t already died are killed by being strangled, stomped on or bludgeoned.
Canada Goose products cause ducks and geese to suffer, too…”
Debbi Joffe, a pedestrian who was wearing Canada Goose with that coyote fur, said, she thought the animal activists are right. If she knew what Canada Goose had done, she would not buy the product.
Renee Knight and Jay Knight, a couple from Madison, Wisconsin, who walked by the protest said they agree with the animal activists but don’t like the way they were demonstrating.
While the demonstration was going on, there were people waiting on line to shop at the Canada Goose store.
The Chants Protesting Canada Goose
Their skins
not ours
their fur
not ours
their down
not ours.
Shame shame
Shame on you
Shame on you
for what you do
Canada Goose has blood on their hands
Canada Goose has blood on their hands
Fur trade
Death trade
Animal fur is not fashion
Where the hell is your compassion
Goose down is not fashion
Where the hell is your compassion
The fur trade is a lie
How many animals have to die
Canada Goose
Shut them down
Canada Goose is
Animal abuse
Because it’s
Your money
Your fault
Your greed
Your fault
Your silence
Your fault
Their blood
Your fault
Their Screams
Your fault
Their lives
Your fault
There’s no excuse
For animal abuse
Blood blood blood on your hands
Blood blood blood on your hands
It’s not beauty
it’s violence
It’s not fashion
It’s violence
All the torture all the pain
Canada Goose you’re to blame
Hey hey ho ho
Canada Goose has got to go
Hey hey ho ho
Canada Goose has got to go
For the animals we will fight
Until you treat them right
Animal’s lives are their right
We will not give up the fight
Vegan Potluck:
Nov.15, Northeastern University
“I think one day we will look back on eating meat and realize it is one of the worst things in history, sort of like how we look back on slavery,” said Sharma, the leader of Cruelty-Free, a vegan student organization of Northeastern University.
He was making a vegan macaroni for the potluck held by Cruelty-Free. He said the organization was founded three years ago but became inactive last year because of the founder’s graduation. He and other members are trying to make it active again.
He is the only vegan in his family and most of his friends are not vegans. He said going vegan hadn’t brought a negative effect on his social circle.
Other members of Cruelty-Free brought vegan pie, vegan cake, fried rice and snacks to share. They also compiled a list of good vegan restaurants and snacks at the end of the potluck.
“Speak up for turkeys”
Nov. 18, Copley Square
A passerby disagreed the proposal of giving up serving turkeys for Thanksgiving dinner and argued with PETA members at the Copley Square, Boston, when they were doing a demonstration.
“Go to watch the video. Go to watch the video,” Ray said to her.
The video graphically depicted how turkeys were killed in a slaughter. There was a lot of bloody footage.
The passerby said she used to be a cook and she thinks it is human nature to eat meat and such a demonstration can’t change anything.
Such a disagreement didn’t bother Ray. “Here is my motto: if I can make one person think in a day, I have accomplished something,” she said.
Ray distributed hand warmers to her partners. They were holding signs saying, “Give turkeys a reason to give thanks” and “If you don’t eat your dog why eating a turkey?”
The 11 animal activists who came to the “Speak up for turkeys” demonstration have been doing demonstrations together many times. And there was a university student who came for this PETA protest for the first time. She learned the event by Facebook and felt to do something for animals.
The protest lasted for about two hours and, at its conclusion, the participants took their usual group photo.
On Thanksgiving Day, Sharma spent time with his family. His brother and sister ate turkey, while he didn’t. He stuck to his insisted his beliefs. And instead of preparing for Black Friday, Ray was preparing for their “Fur-Free Friday” demonstration.
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