‘Growing support’: Toowoomba vegans take message to streets

A group of Toowoomba animal rights protesters claim their social media supporters grow in numbers daily.

COMMUNITY MEATING: Vegans in Toowoomba community group members (from left) Luke and Charlotte Harrison and Mo Orr help a peaceful demonstration on the corner of Chalk Drive and Ruthven St on Saturday to share their meat-free message with the wider Darling Downs community. Picture: Bev Lacey

Following vegan activist Hayley Marie Adams win in Toowoomba District Court earlier this week, animal rights advocates have taken to Toowoomba streets to share their beliefs and views with the rest of the community.

Vegan activists outside the Toowoomba District Court earlier this week. Hayley Adams (front) and her supporters back from left; Brianna Thauer, Lauren McGeachin, Adriana Prior, Serena Barber.

Four members from community group, Vegans in Toowoomba, held a peaceful demonstration on the corner of Chalk Dr and Ruthven St in Toowoomba City on Saturday morning (February 14) in the hopes of sharing their message with the Toowoomba public.

“We do this regularly because we believe this message is an important one,” Vegans in Toowoomba member Mo Orr said.

“This is a non-confrontational way to get our message across and it’s easily seen by a lot of drivers passing by on this busy intersection.”

With large banners protesting against the butchering of animals in slaughterhouses, Ms Orr said their message is pretty simple.

“Don’t ever believe that there’s anything ever humane taking place inside slaughterhouses,” she said.

“We’re referring to all slaughterhouses, they are all the same. We need the violence to animals to stop.”

Ms Orr and her fellow Vegans in Toowoomba members said the Darling Downs community’s response to their roadside demonstrations has changed significantly over the last 14 months with more requests to join their Facebook coming through each day.

Luke Harrison said he wasn’t a big animal lover growing up but the more he researched the production of meat the more he found the whole process ‘needless’ and said the number one reason he and his wife now remain true to plant-based living is for the animal welfare aspect.

“I never had pets as a kid, but I just think what’s happening to them in the slaughterhouses is just unnecessary, we don’t need to do it and it’s just horrible,” he said.

“We are definitely getting a lot more thumbs up, waves and friendly toots and less swearing, middle fingers and aggressive honks than we were just over a year ago when we started doing this.

Toowoomba vegan activist Mo Orr protesting against the meat industry at Highchester Meats, in Beaudesert, on October 12, 2020.

“We’ve got over 1100 members on our Facebook now with people requesting to join daily.”

Despite the Vegans in Toowoomba’s possibly more positive perception on the streets, a recent Toowoomba Chronicle poll revealed 74 per cent of voters were still not willing to consider taking up a vegan lifestyle.

This weekend’s Toowoomba demonstration also comes after Coles have back-pedalled following a meeting with AgForce regarding the controversial meat-free magazine debacle and producer uproar.

The article, which appeared in a recent edition of Coles’ January magazine consisted of a list of healthy eating tips, one of which stated, “eating less meat was good for the environment” and impacted positively on a person’s health.

Coles has since met with AgForce representatives to clarify that the statement did not reflect the company’s attitude to the work being done across the livestock industry to improve sustainability outcomes, or the role that meat can play in a balanced diet, and has amended the online version of the article accordingly.

AgForce CEO Michael Guerin.

Meanwhile AgForce CEO Michael Guerin said the red-meat and agriculture sector has been the target by ill informed, incredibly sophisticated, well-trained, well-resourced, anti-farming lobby groups and social and environment activists for decades and welcomed the new comments from Coles and hoped the supermarket giant’s stance would set an example for others to end the unjust, unsubstantiated bashing of the red-meat industry in this country.

“This misinformation is damaging the health of millions around the world and costing farming families who only want to feed the rest of us their livelihoods,” he said.

“Coles has a fantastic relationship with our nation’s farmers and they obviously want that to continue for the years and decades to come, as does the industry.”

Vegans since 2017, Toowoomba couple Charlotte and Luke Harrison said they went straight from a carnivore diet to completely plant-based living after watching the Netflix doco-style film What the Health.

Vegans in Toowoomba community group members hold a vigil on the corner of Chalk Drive and Ruthven Street. From left; Luke Harrison, Charlotte Harrison and Mo Orr.

“The fact that the World Health Organisation classifies processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogenic to humans, which is in the same classification as asbestos, plutonium and tobacco, so we are as sure that it causes cancer in humans and unprocessed meats are classified in the Group 2A,” he said.

“Once I learnt that I decided I would go vegan for a month to try it and I do a lot of running, marathon and endurance events and I improved dramatically, and I haven’t looked back ever since.”

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) website, in the case of red meat classified as Group 2A, the classification is based on limited evidence from epidemiological studies showing positive associations between eating red meat and developing colorectal cancer as well as strong mechanistic evidence.

Limited evidence means that a positive association has been observed between exposure to the agent and cancer but that other explanations for the observations, technically termed chance, bias, or confounding, could not be ruled out.

Regarding processed meat being classified as Group 1 carcinogenic to humans the WHO website states this category is used when there is sufficient evidence of carcinogenicity in humans.

In the case of processed meat, this classification is based on sufficient evidence from epidemiological studies that eating processed meat causes colorectal cancer.

In other words, there is convincing evidence that the agent causes cancer and the evaluation is usually based on epidemiological studies showing the development of cancer in exposed humans.

Hayley Marie Adams, a Toowoomba vegan anti-animal cruelty activist had a win in Toowoomba District Court, successfully appealing a recorded conviction. The 22-year-old had been ordered to do 50 hours community service and had a conviction recorded after she pleaded guilty in Toowoomba Magistrates Court in September last year to unlawfully entering a piggery at Pittsworth and a Canningvale poultry farm in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Photo: Instagram

Despite this Mr Guerin claimed there is no substantiated proof that saturated fats found in red meat are damaging to a person’s health.

“In fact, there are now dozens and dozens of long-term studies that prove the opposite – that is that saturated fat is necessary as part of a healthy diet.”

And while the verdict is still out on the highly contentious topic of red meat and health, the dedicated members of Vegans in Toowoomba said they are here to stay.

“Say what you want about us, we don’t care about the Facebook hate messages, the honks, the rude fingers, we’re here to spread a message,” Mrs Harrison said.

“It’s about planting little seeds, if one person sees this sign from their car and goes home and thinks about trying a vegan lifestyle than we’ve achieved something today.

“It might be hot and uncomfortable for us out here on the street in the sun but it’s nothing compared to what the animals are going through.”