Activism

Becoming vegan is just the first step. If you want to not only withdraw your own participation in the genocide against non-human animals, but also do your part to make this world a better place for all life, your next step is becoming active in defense of animals.

There are a lot of ways to actively help animals. Some of the most common ways include:

• Raising awareness of a vegan lifestyle, animal liberation, and the animal agriculture industry through methods such as handing out leaflets, showing video footage of factory farms and slaughterhouses on a TV in a public setting, setting up an information table, showing virtual reality video footage, or organizing outreach events and campaigns
• Raising awareness of the specific people, groups, labs, farms, and slaughterhouses that hurt animals by organizing or attending protests against those people and places
• Protecting animals through legislative means by working with city council members, state legislators, lawyers, and political advocacy groups to pass legislation such as fur bans and slaughterhouse bans
• Helping animals who have been rescued by running a sanctuary, volunteering at a sanctuary, donating to a sanctuary, providing veterinary care to animals at sanctuaries, or adopting an animal in need

Whatever types of activism appeal the most to you, the most important part is to remember the animals we all fight for, and stay committed to continuing to fight for them.

To find other vegans to do activism with, your best option is usually going to be finding a local animal liberation activist group, or starting your own group with some vegan friends. Some animal liberation groups such as Direct Action Everywhere and Anonymous For The Voiceless are worldwide groups with dozens or hundreds of local chapters throughout the world. To find out if there is a local chapter near you, check out the groups' websites. Other animal liberation groups are local groups that do not have multiple chapters throughout the world.

To find out if there is a local group near you, check VeganActivism.org. If you don't find anything there, or if you want to find other local groups to have more options, use a search engine such as DuckDuckGo to search for animal liberation groups or animal rights groups in your city or state. Some animal liberation groups have their own websites, while others use social media platforms such as Facebook to coordinate activism events. Given that many animal liberation activists take security and privacy very seriously (as all activists should!), social media is not an ideal platform for activist groups to use, so hopefully the trend to use social media to coordinate activism events will not last. However, given the current trend to use Facebook to coordinate activism, a Facebook search is a good way to find out what animal liberation groups or animal rights groups exist in your city or state.

There are also many animal rights student groups based on college campuses, so if you are a college student, that is another option to look into, whether you are looking to join an existing group or to start your own. Many animal rights student groups may also welcome people who are not students to participate in their activism events.

If you cannot find any local animal liberation groups, your best option is likely to start your own! If you start your own group, you will need a way to coordinate events, preferably a website that states event details such as place and time, and if possible, a friend or two to help you get started. To find local vegans who may want to help, your best bet is probably to search for a Facebook group for vegans in your area, because Facebook is currently the most popular website for online vegan communities. You can also check Meetup to see if there are any local vegan groups. While activist groups do not usually use Meetup to coordinate their events, vegan groups often use Meetup to coordinate potlucks and dine-outs, which can be a good opportunity to meet local vegans who may want to get involved in activism.

Conferences are also a great way to network with other activists and find people and groups to get involved with. Some of the most noteworthy conferences are the United States Animal Liberation Conference and the Europe Animal Rights Conference.

If you want to get better at activism and more comfortable talking to people, watch Earthling Ed's videos and read Vegan Outreach's short leafleting guide.

For more information on how you can get involved in actively protecting animals, check out the Resources section of VeganEdge.