ANIMAL
JUSTICE EMERGENCY
GRASSROOTS BY ACTIVISM AND SYSTEM CHANGE
PAMELA NOVA
The last thing on my mind when I came to Bristol four years ago was starting my own animal activism group. I’d done that in Malaysia where I’d lived before and where I’d become vegan.
Moving lock, stock and barrel, from Penang, with Bob and Liz, my two Indian rescue cats was an ordeal. My sanity barely survived the vaccinations, vet visits, tests, bundles of paperwork, 24 hour flight with poor Bob and Liz in the hold, and their eventual appearance, yowling and damp with wee, in my Bristol home. “Never again” I promised them and myself. I’d relocated back to the UK for several reasons. As a long-term climate change 90
FORÇA VEGAN
activist, I was increasingly uneasy with the outlook for survival in Asia.
the Hin Art Depot, and met politicians to pitch putting up vegan adverts.
In Malaysia I’d decided to prioritise animal activism over climate change and started a vegan outreach group Life Love Vegan with some locals.
Since Penang is an entrepôt, audiences were mixed : middle class Malay Chinese and Indian families rubbed shoulders, while hip young Malaysians joined European economic migrants who called themselves ‘expats’. My increasing unease with the sense of white privilege I felt was another factor in my relocation to the UK.
Chen, a teacher, Rohith an IT whizz from Bangalore, Chen’s mum Selli, Mani a concerned parent, and a monk, organised film screenings, talks, hosted food events in a Buddhist temple, ran workshops at
Keen to find my activism feet in Bristol, I joined some
