Calgary Vegan Society

“I’d rather die than go vegan”. This was said by me during covid upon having a health scare. I meant it too. With the world going quiet during covid, I was able to really dig into the health side of a Whole Food Plant Based Diet. I watched documentaries like What the Health and Forks Over Knives along with discovering wonderful resources such as the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine’s plethora of resources on a variety of Health Topics, the NutritionFacts.org website and listened to How Not to Die by Dr. Michael Greger (there’s even a documentary that came on this year). I immersed myself in information that could quite frankly, save my life and sadly, my conclusion was ‘I’d rather die than go vegan.’

Then, my doctor suggested I go on cholesterol medication. I hate pills. Armed with knowledge of what I could do to potentially prevent and (in some cases) reverse disease, I asked if he would give me a chance to change my diet before starting the pills.   My doctor agreed, though he mentioned he didn’t believe diet could help me.   Three months later, I returned, having significantly reduced my cholesterol to a point where pills were not needed.   My new way of eating caught my attention. Then, as humans tend to do, I slipped and went on a cheese eating binge for about two weeks.

In an attempt to get myself off the cheese once and for all, I listened to The Cheese Trap by Dr. Neal Barnard and later started watching documentaries on what happens to the animals in animal agriculture in an attempt to become just horrified enough that I would stay away from cheese and other animal products and it worked beyond my original intention. I only intended to stop consuming animals and instead became an animal activist in the process.

Picture with Dr. Neal Barnard

I never went back to eating cheese (or any animals for that matter), but I did continue to LEARN about the animals. I veganized my social media feed and endlessly consumed all of the content I could find (old and new) to better understand what happens and how I could help. There are a few key things early on that really stuck with me. I started following Earthling Ed and I’d like to quote a clip from this video at about the 18:57 to 21:15 mark where he says: I came across an analogy and the analogy goes:

“There’s a blind person walking down the road and at the end of the road there’s a hole and on the other side of the road there is a person who can see and is watching the blind person walk towards the hole.   If the blind person falls into the hole, it’s the fault of the person who can see but says nothing.

I thought wow, isn’t that remarkable. Because we are the ones who know.   We do see the trucks on the streets. We do know what happens to animals. We are aware of the damage it causes to our planet, and we are aware of the fact that these animals are incredible, beautiful creatures that deserve their right to life. Other people aren’t aware of that. They are still blinded by the systems that we were all blinded to. If people keep doing what they do, causing suffering and degradation and we don’t do anything about it, it’s actually our fault if those things continue. It’s not the fault of the people who can’t see what they’re doing or who live unconsciously.   It’s not the fault of the people who have never been given a chance to see the other side of the story.   It’s our fault if these things continue. So, we have a responsibility to actually do everything that we can, because whilst we are the ones who see, we are the ones who have to stop it. That’s a hard pill to swallow, it is. Because we are not participating in the violence anymore, non-participation doesn’t stop the violence if others are still continuing to perpetuate the violence. To be a bystander to violence while allowing others to continue is to still be complicit in that violence.

Veganism is non-participation, it is not taking part in an action, but vegan activism is the next step. It’s not only not participating, it is actively intervening whilst others do the bad things and that’s why that’s the moral baseline.   We wouldn’t just see that in the street and allow it to happen, so nor should we allow it to happen behind walls where it’s happening every day and we just don’t see it.’

Another key moment for me was Animal Justice had launched the Animal Justice Academy, which is a FREE self-paced course. It was in the very first module of this course where Camille Labchuck, Executive Director, explained Animal Sentience, Rights and Exploitation and gave a definition for Animal Liberation, a term I had honestly never heard before.   I wrote this on a sticky note and stuck it to my computer monitor as a reminder to myself of my new beliefs and to never forget. The note is still there today.

Animal Liberation note

Module 4 of this course featured Jake Conroy (aka The Cranky Vegan) talking about Pressure Campaigns & Getting Rid of the “Moral Baseline.” This quote from this module also stuck with me:

“It’s weird that people would eat animals and love them too. I agree with that. But people do it all the time. In fact, at least in the United States, the majority of the population does that.

You know, if you look at statistics and polls of like, who are opposed to animal cruelty or animal abuse, something like 90% or 94% of the US population thinks there shouldn’t be any animal cruelty on factory farms. Well, obviously there’s a disconnect there, right? But it’s important to note that, like 94% of the population it presented with the question, should animals be abused on farms? The answer is no.

So, there are people that, for whatever reason, even if it’s a little inkling in there, believe that animal cruelty is wrong. Majority of the population. But they’re not vegan or vegetarian. So, it’s my opinion that we need to harness that power. And I think if we allow people to fight for animals in ways that they want to fight for them while they’re not vegan, our movement grows exponentially – our activist base grows.”

Organized horse vigil

My personal takeaway from everything I was learning was to get involved.   Even though I myself may not have been ‘perfect’ yet in terms of my own lifestyle as well as my own style of how I’d like to advocate for the animals, I jumped right in.   I simultaneously became vegan as well as an animal activist. I don’t remember being one without the other. In truth, I started advocating before I was fully vegan so do not let perfection get in your way of helping.

Michelle Oberg with Reporter in the Brave Cage Experience

A wonderful starting point for anyone looking to get involved is the Animal Justice Action Team. Animal Justice is the only organization of its kind making sure that animals have a legal voice in Canada. Their team of compassionate lawyers and advocates fights for stronger legal protections for animals and they are Canada’s only national animal law advocacy organization.

Michelle Oberg at Animal Justice booth with Ali Pester

More than once, other vegans have said to me something along the lines of “I don’t want to stand on the street and hold a sign, or they don’t want to stand in the street and talk to people.” Ok then, don’t do that. What strengths and skills can you offer to this justice movement to help the animals?   In other words, how can you get involved?

I do not want to get into a fulsome list of what advocacy means and instead will share some of the things I have personally done. My hope is to simply inspire more folks to get active. I hope to spark inspiration for how you can take part or to perhaps trigger your own ideas or even to plant a seed to get you thinking about the benefits of including animal advocacy in your life. As my friend Ram said during his recent National Animal Rights Day Speech, advocacy brings him joy, and I couldn’t agree more.

Broad Categories:

1. Community Change (building vegan community and/or bringing veganism into communities you are a part of)

2. Individual Change (Outreach & Education)

3. Corporate Change (Pressure Campaigns)

4. Political Change (Government & Legal Advocacy)

Some things I have personally done:

• Virtual meetings with Federal MP with a focus on relationship building and increasing awareness on animal issues and Bills my MP can support;
• Signing Federal Government e-petitions. You can search ‘animal’ as an example to find a petition that is currently open to sign;
• Gathering signatures for a Federal Petition and finding an MP to present it;
• Organize and participate in vigils, protests and street outreach;
• Sign up for the Animal Justice Action Team and take all virtual and in person actions;
• Organize street outreach and protests;
• Help moderate Animal Justice Action Team Facebook page as well as Animal Justice panels.
• Bring a vegan meal to the office (40+ people) and provide resources.   This has even resulted in people offering to donate to an animal organization I recommend as a thank you for the meal.
• Donating to an organization such as Animal Justice and/or fundraising for an organization. Using your personal story and passion to tap into your networks.
• Tabling at Calgary Vegan Society events.
• Talking to the mainstream media and publicly speaking about animal issues any chance I get. I have no social media game, but if you do, creating graphics and sharing content can be very impactful.
• There are Codes of Practice for handling farm animals in Canada and periodically, there is a public comment period. I find the Vancouver Humane Society to be quite good at notifying the public when we can take action and comment. They even provide tips on filling out the survey such as with the recent Practice of the Care and Handling of Beef Cattle.

My hope is for everyone’s activism to be sustainable, which is a theme my coach, Kimberly Carroll, Coach for Changemakers has helped me with.   After all, what good am I to the animals if I am burned out and stop advocating? Your activism should be something you feel good about and is a good match for you. We are exposed to so much as animal advocates and Kimberly has taught me that taking care of myself IS activism.

Michelle Oberg

Volunteer Mobilization Lead, Animal Justice

Author Bio:

Vegan for five years, Michelle has organized with We The Free, co-organized
Calgary’s first National Animal Rights Day, and currently serves as the Volunteer Mobilization Lead for Animal Justice in Calgary.

Known as Pizza Addict to Vegan, she shared her transformative health journey on her own  blog  and  the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine  podcast.

Inspired by the  Earthlings documentary, Michelle is dedicated to standing up for ALL animals and being a shining light for veganism, inspiring others to embrace  compassion and become advocates for animals.