Pune Speaks "Boldly" for Animals. But Is it the Best Way To Follow?

Activists at Pune offered flowers to the animals that were tortured and murdered and were sold by Dorabjee’s for profit, this Sunday:

Yesterday, a vegan friend from Pune rang me up. She was quite confused about the methodology some activists followed on Sunday to raise awareness for veganism.

As many as 22 Animal Rights activists entered into an elitist shopping mall and staged a "die-in". This event called "Speak Boldly" was a DxE event simultaneously planned across various cities in the world.

All activists silently entered the upscale Dorabjee Mall located in the Camp area of Pune under the disguise of a customer. They all reached the meat section of the store and then suddenly laid down on the floor, took out their posters and acted as dead. One activist was standing nearby and he kept describing about what animals go through for production of meat.

Within moments, store staff reached there and dispersed them all out. While going out, all these activists kept shouting slogan, "It's not food, it's violence".

The whole point of DxE (Direct Action Everywhere) events like these is to dramatize and reveal the culture of violence against animals among the public. The system of beautifully & attractively packaging flesh, secretion and bodies of dead animals normalizes violence in social mindset. Customers are conditioned to believe that it's "humane" to consume animal products.

_{Activists putting up posters in the meat section of Dorabjee Mall, Pune}

So my friend wanted to know whether such acts do a favour or a disservice to the message of veganism and if I advocate or support this particular methodology.

Now, this is a little controversial topic and vegans themselves are divided on this issue. For me, I told her that I don't advocate such practice in India at this moment. According to my thinking, time is not yet ripe for such actions here.

And I don't know of any precedents for effectivity of such campaigns. However DxE movement is in existence for last 6 years. But I don't know about any positive changes that DxE brought about. Mostly, DxE movement has resulted in improved standards in animal welfare for suppliers of likes of Whole Food and Costco. But that's not a deal for abolitionists.

Their Liberation Pledge hasn't achieved any substantial results too. A few years back when DxE's Priya Sawhney propagated it, I was skeptical of it and didn't take the pledge. I've my own logic and experiences to tell me that such pledges don't actually work.

Regarding non-violent direct action, I feel, there should be a critical mass of people for whom meat-eating by others is unacceptable. E.g. when Gandhi initiated civil disobediance or Salt March in 1930, majority of citizens used to believe that British Raj is exploiting them or is unfair to them. So they supported Gandhi's move.

Today, in India, meat-eating is personally unacceptable to all vegans and vegetarians but most of them have no problem if others are consuming animal products. Until there is some change in this stance, such disruptions by DxE inside stores won't bear any fruits, in my opinion.

It can work against alcohol or smoking, as many people are principally against this practice. But it will take some more time for vegan ideology to make inroads.

Secondly, in India, we haven't yet exhausted with all our options. There are better means to execute our campaign. Petitioning the government, lobbying to put political pressures, taking the help of Courts, spreading awareness in friendly manner etc. may work better. Today, India has one of the best animal protection laws in the world. Society and Governments are receptive in general. Constitution, Governments, religious ideologies and people are principally against animal exploitation. So, we need to extend those to implement vegan ideology.

However, I'm skeptical for the success of DxE methodology as of now. What do you think?

In case you want to watch that 5 minute live video of the above disruption at Pune, you can do that on Facebook here:

https://www.facebook.com/DirectActionEverywherePune/videos/375853239660856/?t=2

Thanks!