Robert Grillo
Robert Grillo
American animal rights activist
Founder,
Free From Harm
(1965 - )
"The act of going vegan opens us up to unraveling the layers of deception and misinformation that blind us to the harms we are causing this planet, and veganism often leads us on a journey that does not just end with replacing animal products. As vegan pioneer donald Watson articulated many decades ago, the journey is about exploring what is 'possible and the practical' in reducing harm in the world."
"Should we just stop advocating for human rights because the world will never completely stop buying products of sweatshop labor? This is the wrong logic to solve social problems. We don't base our advocacy on what a desensitized public will or will not do. We base it on the facts. We base it on reality. The reality is that we no longer need to consume animals and can easily make other choices (most of us). When we can easily make this choice, why wouldn't we? Can you admit that basic fact? Are you willing to ask others that basic question?"
"When a conflict arises between otherwise progressive people and the animal foods they like, they can completely abandon their belief in social justice and - ironically - aggressively defend the opposite, the very systems of exploitation and violence against people, the environment and animals they claim to oppose."
"'Meat' is the language of objectification — an attempt to turn a 'someone' into a 'something.' By referring to an animal as 'meat,' the meat industry seeks to create a moral vacuum in the minds of consumers, a complete disconnection between the animal’s identity and their flesh product. 'Meat' is their packaged commodity, presented just like all the other products on the store shelves, divorced from the living individuals they once were — individuals whose lives were each shaped by a unique set of experiences, interests, emotions, thoughts, memories, likes, dislikes, desires, joys, fears, attachments, families, friends, losses and pains. We need to take back the language for the animal’s sake. Eating 'meat' is eating an animal, an animal corpse."
