Jordan Protano-Byrne is an abolitionist vegan and activist. He has adopted twelve chickens and several sheep, and when he isn’t tending to rescued non-humans he spends his time on political and human rights affairs in his home in Lancashire, North West England.
Q: When, how and why did you go vegan?
A: I’ve always been fascinated by animals and nature and as a young child I was obsessed with entomology, though I never really gave a thought to the animals I dined upon for most of my life.
Thankfully, that changed. I went vegan when I was 12 years old, after being vegetarian for a couple of months. At the time I was questioning why some people were vegetarian/vegan and once I learned where my ‘food’ came from and what really goes on inside the farm and abattoir, I realised there was no way I could carry on supporting this so I immediately went vegetarian. But as I looked more into the philosophy of animal rights, I came to the conclusion that being ovo-lacto vegetarian simply wasn’t enough. Cutting out dairy, eggs and other animal produce is a small thing we can do for animals, but it’s essential if we want to be morally consistent and effective at combating speciesism in all its insidious forms.
Q: Was it hard going vegan at such a young age considering you still lived with your family? What was their reaction, and how did you approach them about it?
A: Being vegan when you’re not the one who buys the food certainly presents some challenges. Fortunately for me, my mother is a long-standing vegetarian and so had no issue with buying me vegan foods. The rest of my family is quietly tolerant now, but at first there were some heated moments.
In retrospect, I didn’t handle things too well. My advice now, after dealing with a whole host of responses, would be to respond to any comments, no matter how puerile, obtuse or reactionary, calmly and politely. It is always much better received, and even if they don’t argue with you, they are more likely to be tolerant and respectful of your views. Sometimes, even the presence of a vegan may be enough to challenge the status quo and unnerve people, often they get defensive and this must be broken down before any meaningful exchange can begin. The best way to begin this process is to be understanding, polite but firm and, of course, logical!
Q: Some teenagers can easily go vegan, but have no idea where to start when it comes to activism. Can you tell about the kinds of activism you are involved with or give some advice about how younger people can use their skills to help out?
A: There are myriad forms of activism so there is no excuse for slacktivism!
Many people join groups and help out with stalls or protests, which are both great forms of activism but I’d advise people to be wary of the groups they join. Most ‘animal rights groups’, though often composed of dedicated and well-meaning people, are typically little more than new-welfarist organisations with fiery, “abolitionist” rhetoric. If your local group is like this or there is no local group, then set up your own!
But if protests and outreach stalls are not for you, then try volunteering at your local shelter. They are always understaffed and consequently lots of animals don’t receive the affection, companionship and play that they deserve. If it’s possible, see if you could adopt some animals. Sadly, there are many times more domestic animals than potential homes and whilst adopting a dog or a rabbit won’t solve this, it will literally mean the world to those you can provide a home for.
Personally, these are the avenues I’ve taken. When I first went vegan I got involved with my local ‘animal rights’ group but I ended up leaving not long after due to ideological differences. I look after various rescue animals and I’m currently gathering people together to start an abolitionist group.
I do recognise that neither leafleting nor rescuing is possible for some people, and my advice to those and to everyone else as well, is simple: be creative. Each and every individual in the struggle has their own interests and unique set of skills. Use yours!
Q: What is your experience in high school like as a vegan? How do you deal with your peers who might not understand about animal rights or give you a hard time?
A: Over the years, I’ve experienced a lot of different reactions from people. Many become defensive and almost take it personally, to which I smile inwardly and take note to gently probe in more favourable circumstances, although others are much more reactionary and have tried to give me a hard time over it. They’ve failed, because if I was ever proud of anything, I am proud of being vegan. In fact, I wear a big green vegan badge on my blazer and when I first started high school I had a bright yellow bag with ‘MEAT IS MURDER’ on it in block capitals, leaving nobody confused about my ethics. Pretty much everyone knows I’m vegan and, even now, it still comes into conversation. It’s sometimes difficult but I think in these situations we must try and keep the conversation productive and educate people who are interested about speciesism, the treatment and exploitation of animals and the philosophy of animal rights. Of course, this is how I deal with it when I think it’s possible for the conversation to be productive but when it’s clearly not a productive use of my time, I usually walk off or, if I’m feeling that way inclined, proceed to pick apart the facile arguments been thrown at me for my own pleasure. But I love debate and I’m pretty thick-skinned, so I wouldn’t recommend this for everyone. People react in all kinds of ways when they find out someone is vegan and the appropriate response depends on the situation, but remember that almost all of the time people’s reactions are borne of ignorance. So educate them!
Q: How do your political beliefs reflect your views on animal rights?
A: I’m a communist and I think the philosophy of animal rights fits perfectly with Marxism. Much of the Left is hostile to animal rights– many ignore the concept, and those who don’t tend to critique it as bourgeois lifestylism– but I don’t think this is a logical position to take. Folk have been saying “human freedom, animal rights, one struggle, one fight” for decades now, but only recently have people started to seriously consider how the struggle to emancipate humans is connected to that of other animals.
There are, of course, key differences; under capitalism, people work in factories and are reduced to their mere labour power, whereas animals themselves are reduced to factories for their flesh, their young, their bodily secretions, etc. But the paradigm of domination, that which values sentient beings extrinsically and uses them instrumentally, has its roots in the development of class society and the enslavement of nonhuman animals.
When human beings settled down and began to develop agriculture, they, for the first time in history, could accumulate surplus goods. They could not only farm their own foods, but also store them in large quantities. Previously, people have lived in a system of what Engels called “primitive communism”, without social class governing them, but now the first meaningful stratification of society into classes began. During this time, humans also began to manipulate crops and animals to their own ends. They started to control the animals’ breeding and restrict their movement, they developed ways to castrate male animals and use female animals for milk. Prior to humans, cows produced milk only whilst their calves required it, chickens laid an egg every month or so and sheep had wool coats similar to the short fur on other animals. Domestication created slaves of animals and made them dependent on humans; humans controlled everything about the animals’ lives, from when they were born through to when they would die. As societies waged war on each other for land and resources, the victors of these struggles began to apply their methods of controlling animals on other humans.
I think that the struggle for animal rights should be supported out of principle, in the interests of justice, but it’s also important to recognise these links in our fight against oppression. Many feminist theorists have demonstrated how patriarchal social relations and cultural speciesism oppress both women and nonhumans in many, often interconnected ways. If we oppose prejudice and exploitation, we must oppose it consistently. Species is just another arbitrary category, like race or gender, which isn’t morally relevant for discussions of ethics.
Q: Do you often feel alienated because of your beliefs? If so, how do you deal with it?
A: Sometimes I do. Being a vegan is often an alienating experience, especially when one rejects dominant ideology. Most apolitical/apathetic people don’t bother raising political issues, and neither do I in their company. I mainly try to socialise with fellow communists/vegans. When the week’s getting me down, I just think about the weekend, meetings, demos, etc. And I read a lot. It’s always pleasant to know you’re not the only sane person in the world.
Q: Looking around at the world today it is understandable why one could become easily discouraged. What keeps you motivated?
What keeps my motivated? Looking around the world. Seriously. There’s so much we need to do, there’s really no time to waste. But there are also so many touching examples of resistance, of people fighting back against the system and changing the world, even if it’s just for one person. I’m conscious of avoiding burnout, but equally I’m always active. Being involved in the struggle and rubbing shoulders with those fighting alongside you is probably the most motivating thing for me.
Q: What advice can you give to someone who is not quite vegan but just needs that extra push to get them there?
I think it’s important to realise that any speciesism and all speciesism is responsible for the horrors that animals are forced to endure. Often many people stick to being ovo-lacto vegetarian, or some other non-vegan variant, because they feel veganism is unnecessary. But by consuming cheese, free-range eggs or any other animal product we send out the message that exploitation is acceptable, we condemn billions of animals to suffer needlessly for we legitimise their slavery and their status as property. This ideology, speciesism, justifies all that animals endure and that they could possibly endure on the basis that one group of sentient animals– humans– are superior to all others.
All those that see the danger in this myth and the injustice, the suffering and misery it has propagated must be clear that the only way to combat it and all its insidious manifestations is to act consistently and strike at the roots. Veganism is a prerequisite for this.
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