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Emily: Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan
and welcome to another vegan nugget. Today

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I'm honored to be joined by my friend and
mentor Gary Yourofsky who has graciously agreed

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to be here and answers questions that you,
the Bite Size Vegan audience, have sent to

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me. I'm going to be releasing this interview
in a series of videos so be sure to stay tuned

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to the channel. Gary I just wanted to thank
you so much for taking time out of your busy

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schedule to be here and answer some of these
questions.

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Gary: Anything for you Emily. Emily: Thank you.

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Alright so to start
off, one of the questions that I got a lot

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from people, and I think for someone who's
just had their eyes kind of opened and is

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considering going vegan, or has gone vegan,
or perhaps they're a vegan who just watched

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your speech and realized that they want to
do more, and they've come to this point of

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"what can I do, what action can I take?" What
would you say to someone who wants to get

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started with vegan animal activism?

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Gary: It's got to be education based
activism, whatever you're doing. This is not

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my realm, this is not my bailiwick, I'm not
graded in advising people how to be an activist.

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But I do know that you have to teach people.
You have to edify, you have to preach. So

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somehow maybe set up class room lectures like
I'm doing in high schools and colleges and

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elementary schools, middle schools. Set it
up at a church, at a synagogue, in a mosque,

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at the YMCA, leaflet, do something like that.
What I don't recommend any more is probably

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the things that most people like to do, which
is protesting. I just think protesting has

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lost its luster over the years. Civil disobedience,
I don't think you can win in a courtroom.

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But you win in a classroom every single day.
Direct action is always valuable too, if you

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want to liberate animals. That would be an
awesome thing to do. But focus on education

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and make that your goal and things will fall
into place. And don't beat yourself up too

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much when you find somebody that isn't paying
attention and isn't listening. Move on and

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find somebody who does want to listen. They're
out there, people are thirsting for knowledge.

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It is your goal as an activist to find those
people who are thirsting for knowledge, teach

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them, convert them, and keep on doing it.

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Emily: Some people argue that being
vegan alone is not enough. What are your thoughts

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on that? Do you think being vegan and in adopting
a vegan diet, do you think that alone can

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make an impact?

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Gary: I think it's the only thing on
this planet that can actually make a difference.

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But is it enough from the victims point of
view? Of course not. Billions of animals are

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being tortured and killed. But I'm really
tired of people turning on the news and getting

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involved in all the world issues. The Darfur
genocide, women in Afghanistan still don't

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have equal rights, homosexuals in Uganda are
being killed, I understand this is a major

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injustice. But you can't do anything about
it so stop talking about world issues that

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you have no control over, and here's something
you could stand up three times, four times,

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five times a day and say "I'm opposed to discrimination,
I'm opposed to injustice, and that's why I'm

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eating vegan meals." This is something you
can actually do. But from there, yeah sure

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get out there. Get more active, teach people,
talk to people. Again back to the education.

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Emily: Something that I've heard from
a lot of people and that I know I personally

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can struggle with as a vegan activist, is
when you're faced with all of the suffering

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in the world, and all of the people who don't
seem to care. How do you keep going and keep

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your head up and not get lost in just the
overwhelming suffering that's going on?

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Gary: It's tough. I'm forever frustrated,
forever stressed, forever saddened. I was

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telling you before, I died inside a long time
ago. But I'm going through the motions for

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the animals, because whatever I'm going through
and whatever you as an activist are going

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through, is nothing compared to what the animals
are going through. In the slaughterhouse,

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in the vivisection lab, at the circus, at
the zoo, at the rodeo. That stuff is purely

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evil. You have to keep on going for them,
I don't know how else to say it. I don't have

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a magical formula, a magical solution, to
make you not become frustrated, not become

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stressed out, it goes with the territory.
Enlightenment is bitter sweet, and I've told

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this to a lot of people. It is bitter sweet.
It's wonderful to know the truth, to see the

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truth, to live the truth, but it's maddening
to see how selfish and evil our species can

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be. You have to keep on going for the animals,
that's the only thing. Just think about them

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and keep on going for them.

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Emily: Gary I just want to thank you
so much for giving us your time and I've been

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asked on behalf of so many of my viewers to
just thank you for everything that you do.

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So thank you so much.

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Gary: Thank you, keep on. Everybody
pass her stuff around, it's tight stuff, honestly.

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Bitesizevegan.com, share it.

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Emily: Stay tuned to the Bite Size Vegan
channel for more installations of Gary's interview.

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I'll also be posting bonus footage of questions
that don't make it to the channel, into the

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VIV section of Bitesizevegan.com, which you
can access for free by signing up for the

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nugget newsletter. Give the video a thumbs
up if you enjoyed it, and be sure to subscribe

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so that you never miss a nugget. Now go live
vegan and I'll see you soon.