There is a 15 year old girl in rural Idaho.
She lives in a small town, surrounded by a bunch of other small towns.
She has a down jacket that her aunt gave her for Xmas, & she has a pair of uggs she begged her mom for.
She has an adorable angora sweater that some of her friends are really jealous of.
She wants to go to seaworld. She has cousins in Alabama that went there during summer break and she saw all the pictures of cool orca and dolphins…oh, and adorable penguins too. When she grows up, she would love to be a dolphin trainer at seaworld. That’s her dream job.
If you asked her what her favorite restaurant is, she’d tell you McDonalds because Mcnuggets are her favorite food. Like, ever! She hopes to get a part time job there after school so she can eat mcnuggets for supper every day! That’s how much she loves them.
A couple times a year, she goes to the big mall a few towns over with her family.
She saw a hat like the one her favorite actress wore in a movie she liked. She wants one so bad!
She gets to eat at places she’s heard about, but aren’t nearby to where she lives. She always wanted Popeyes nuggets. There is no way that they’re better than McDonald’s!
There is a pet store, inside the mall, that she always drags her parents into. They always have the cutest puppies! Every time they go, little puppies! The last time, there were 6 puppies that looked just like the dog from that movie she saw with her friends. They all talked about how when they get older, they will all get a house together, and they would all get a puppy just like the one in the movie! They’d even picked out their dogs names already. She begged her dad for a puppy that time at the mall. He said no, because they were too expensive. She almost cried that day.
But, she found out she was getting her own cellphone! Her parents were upgrading at the cellular kiosk, and they added to their network.
Yay! An iPhone. She would finally have her own Instagram account.
She took about a million selfies in the mall, she took pictures of her nuggets from Popeyes #NotMcDonalds
On the ride home, she uploaded pictures, tagged her friends, & followed a bunch of random instagram accounts.
Oh! She could have a Twitter, too! None of it was the same when you just had a laptop. The kids at school got notifications all the time, and were always looking at their phones. She tried to have a Twitter, but she thought it was boring having to wait to get home to check online. Now she would be live like the other kids.
Her first tweet!
‘Hello Twitter! Long ride back home. LOL’
Back to Instagram!
She followed some cute animal accounts. Bunnies! Oh, she loved bunnies.
Look! A bunny eating a pumpkin! Adorable!
They were home. She ran upstairs to her room and got comfy in her papasan chair.
A bunny sleeping, dreaming that he is running! Sweet & funny!
A bunny wearing a scarf! Too cute!
Angora rabbits! She loved bunnies with long hair that covered their eyes!
A bunny having its skin ripped from its body…..?
She stared at the screen of her iPhone not blinking.
She shook her head, her hand flew to her face covering her mouth. NO!
She quickly tapped the back arrow
Oh my god. Could that have even been real? Why would anyone do that to a bunny?
She clicked back onto another….angora FUR
Another bunny being tortured, it’s skin being ripped from its body. The bunny screamed in agony, writhing
She tossed her phone onto the bed. She stood and went to her closet, opening the door.
She reached in and took her sweater off the hanger. She took the tag between her thumb and finger and read aloud;
‘100% angora’
She rubbed her fingers against the sweater…it was so soft…
She took the sweater out into the living room. Where her mother sat reading.
‘Mom….this is made from rabbits’.
Her mother glanced up, ‘yes, that’s why it cost so much. You better not have spilled anything on it.’
She went back into her room.
She would never wear the angora sweater, ever again.
And, she has never been to London…nor an anti-fur protest.
She has never thought of visiting Canada…so, she has never even thought of goose down.
She has never heard of the Faroe Islands, or taiji, though she heard of seaworld.
But now she has…because of cyber activism.
Now…
She knows what angora is…
She knows about puppy mills & pet stores…
She knows about taiji cove, tillikum, & she no longer wants to go to seaworld…
She knows how Mcnuggets become McNuggets…
She no longer wants to work at McDonald’s, & nuggets aren’t her favorite food anymore…
She now knows vegetarians aren’t ‘crazy’, and she thinks being vegan is something she wants to do….because she loves animals, & doesn’t want them to die for her. She didn’t understand that before.
And, now, she doesn’t care if all of the other girls are wearing uggs…she won’t wear hers anymore because she saw the videos of crying and bleeding sheep. It was so awful that she cried, & couldn’t watch it all. She sent it to all her friends, too.
Now… She knows, & she will never forget.
In a small town, in rural Idaho, she knows.
…cos of cyber activism.
If you’re an online activist, & think you’re not making a difference….you’re mistaken.Keep doing what you’re doing.Keep educating. It’s working.
ANY movement throughout history has taken MANY.
By many, I mean all kinds.
All genders
All races
All ages
All sexes
All forms of advocacy to perpetuate change.
Advocacy by;
Disabled, blind, able bodied
Dancers, politicians, atheists
Short, tall, fat, thin
Brown eyed, hazel eyed, blue eyed
Those that used their bodies, those that used their voice
Those that marched, those that wrote
Picketers, lobbyists, organizers
Artistically challenged that scrawled protest signs
Artists that painted protest murals
People that donated their time, people that donated their money
Those that fought from the beginning, &, those that changed their minds over time, & joined nearer to when change actually happened.
It
Takes
All
Kinds
It’s a collaborative effort.
In the end, when Animal liberation happens, it will happen because WE are many.
Keep writing, calling, protesting, liberating, sabotaging, truth telling, pamphlet distributing, donating, volunteering, posting, tweeting, blogging, educating, demonstrating, speaking…
[Just stop egoing]
Be veganDig Out Your Soul
Dig Out Your Soul 