Do you believe children under sixteen should watch slaughterhouse footage to see the truth
or should we explain it to them instead?
Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget.
Within the world of vegan activism and education, there exists ample, ample debate about which
methods, individuals, and tactics are the most effective, and which are ineffective
or even damaging.
One of the most divisive issues is the use of graphic footage imagery.
Arguments in opposition include: it reduces the reach of the message as most people avoid
unpleasant content, it makes people less receptive to hearing about veganism, it’s a cheap
shock tactic when a grounded approach would yield better results, it’s a further form
of exploiting the animals themselves, et cetera.
Arguments in favor include: most people have to see to truly believe, there is power in
exposing the truth, especially when it’s deliberately and systematically hidden, the
animals deserve to have their stories told, consumers deserve to know the truth about
what they are paying others to do and what they are putting in their bodies and feeding
to their children, et cetera.
This already controversial debate is profoundly intensified when one adds in the question
of showing graphic content to children.
This little powder keg of an inquiry was one of the questions I received during my back-to-back
live Q&A sessions on Facebook and YouTube.
If you missed either of the Q&A sessions, the links to those videos are in the description
below.
So I thought I’d share my response from the live stream followed by some additional
thoughts on this subject.
Well, I think, honestly a lot of it depends on the child and the family, and the parent.
I mean different children have different sensibilities and different sensitivities, and also different
levels of maturity, just depending.
So I mean, you're going to know your kid better than anyone else can.
So for some, it might be something that is important to them, or that would be helpful
for them.
For me, as a kid, I would have liked to have seen that.
I always say I came out of the womb like 35.
I've always been very serious child.
I was never like a "woo, kid," y’know.
I didn't have the carefree days of my youth.
Anyways, so I think it really, really depends on the child.
I don't think it's something that should be done by default.
I think there are ways to explain these things to kids without graphic imagery, which is
what I do in my kids videos.
However, I am definitely one who thinks graphic footage is important.
It has incredible value and it has its place.
I still use it very discerningly.
There are a lot of times I could use it and probably the videos would perform even better
because it's a shock tactic type of thing.
But I only do it if I think it's going to serve the content effectively and that it's purposeful.
But it is important because of the fact that we work so hard—humanity—
to hide the reality of what goes on with animals and what happens to them.
So there is incredible value to seeing that.
And to letting those animals have their stories told.
Because they deserve that.
They deserve someone to at least bear witness.
And for me personally, I always think: if they have to live through that and they have
to die by that, the very least I can do is bear witness to it.
So I think it's incredibly important and I do think there is value to showing young people
the truth.
I would never sugar coat for kids, and I say that in my videos for them.
Y'know "I'm gonna tell you the truth.
I'm not going to show you anything scary, but I am going to tell you the truth.
I'm not going to lie to you."
So I think as far as the actual footage, that would probably be up to the parents.
One of the main reasons I started making vegan videos for kids was how much I wish I’d
had access to this information when I was younger.
And while I do not show anything graphic in those videos, I am very passionate about never
talking down to children and adolescents.
Kids are incredibly intelligent and very often underestimated or even dismissed by us adults.
I remember what that feels like, and I vowed as a kid to never forget what it was like
being discounted.
This doesn’t mean my content for children is identical to videos crafted with a more
adult demographic in mind—there is a very vital difference between pandering and delivering
a message suitable to ones intended audience.
This is a concept I covered in depth in my speech, “A Wake Up Call For Vegans” which
you can see linked here in the sidebar and below.
Additionally, I plan on further exploring the graphic footage debate as a whole in another
dedicated video.
But for now I wanted to touch on a couple important points.
As with many controversial topics, there exist far more grey areas than black
and white absolutes.
And while we humans have an affinity for labeling things one way or another, the effectiveness
and appropriateness of graphic imagery depends on an endless array of variables.
This touches on one of the most difficult aspects of what I do with Bite Size Vegan:
attempting to simplify very complex concepts and arguments without reducing them to a one-dimensional
all or nothing message.
For example, in my “A Wake Up Call For Veganism,” speech, I stated well into the talk that:
“If we want the world to confront the truth, we must do the same, no matter how daunting.
Nothing we can experience will ever equal what the animals are experiencing.
They don’t have the convenience of insulation.
And they deserve us to at the very least bear witness.
Yes, we already know—or at least we think we do—but if we, the ones to claim to feel
their pain, if we too refuse to look, how can we expect the rest of the world to do
it?”
I’ve received feedback from a number of viewers who have interpreted this as meaning
that all vegans should subject themselves to traumatizing images and footage constantly.
Of course the very next line was,
“This isn’t about sitting and watching hours of brutal footage.
That too can be circular.
Berating ourselves or lamenting the impossibility of it all is equally unproductive.
But we make a grave error when we fail to ourselves stay connected to the truth.”
I also went into great detail about one of the times in which I chose not to use graphic
footage despite considerable availability.
At the same time, I have utilized graphic footage within a number of videos and speeches.
I’ve also streamed live video to my channel from slaughterhouses in the UK and the United
States.
I do the very best that I can to be as effective as possible with my activism.
But I will never pretend to have all the answers.
The only way to stop the misinformation and disinformation we pass down from generation
to generation is to be open and honest with our children.
This is one of the main themes in my spoken word piece "The Greatest Lie Ever Told"
We teach what we know which is what we were taught:
the biggest lie ever bought and our own greatest trick,
is the sick conviction that we can kill in a way that is kind—
A conscience-gnawing uncertain certainty we solidify and smooth over and
pass down the line, telling our kids it’s okay it’s fine
From our generation to the next.
Repetition
breeds
truth.
So while there are plenty of times when, after much forethought, I’ve chosen not to show
overtly graphic imagery—and I never do in my content for kids—if there is one thing
I’m certain of, it’s that no matter your age, everyone deserves to know the truth.
If you found this video helpful, please give it a thumbs-up and share it with others to
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If you’d like to help support Bite Size Vegan’s educational efforts, please see
the support links below or the link in the sidebar.
And a huge thank-you to my Nugget Army of patrons for making this resource possible.
Now go live vegan, share the truth, and I’ll see you soon.
So we sing our own praises back and forth to each other
Teach our children about kindness, “now pass the turkey to your brother”
Lessons in sharing
carried out over corpses.
Manners in the face of murder are key, gotta teach the kiddies not to question the
grim reality of what’s on the very plate before them, please just ignore them,
these bodies and secretions.
Call it meat and milk and ham and eggs Focus on free-range and cage-free and grass-fed—
because we’re humane.