A conversation with the future of Animal Rights.
Nine year old animal activist and vegan Marley Goldman with a photo of the turkey
she adopted at Animal Acres.
Just nearing her 4th birthday Marley Goldman was eating at a restaurant with her father Gregg Goldman when she asked him a simple question.
"Dada, how come the food that you're eating has the same name as the bird?"
Her father responded by explaining to Marley who was waiting enthusiastically for her answer as she loved to learn everything she could about the world around her, that the names were in fact the same because they were both the same thing. That chicken the food in which he was eating was the same as chicken the bird.
This conversation would eventually lead Marley only a few months later and just 4 years old at the time, to explain to her father,
"if you eat the chicken you hurt the chicken."
Marley knew that her father was a kind and gentle man and would never want to hurt anyone.
Marley also knew that it was up to her now to make it clear, not just to her father but to all of the other human animals, as she liked to call them, that eating animals was not the best or the correct thing to do.
That eating a hamburger or chicken was really about taking someone's life away.
Reality T-Shirt designed by 4 year old Marley Goldman
And so begins a young activists goal to educate the humans around her about where their food with a face actually comes from.
If you were to ask Marley today about eating animals she would point out to you in a soft, kind, passionate, non judgmental manner that a lot of what people call food are actually living creatures with feelings who are just like you and I.
We've all asked ourselves the question in one way or another how it is that some people can feel a much deeper empathy than others. There is an adaptive evolutionary reason why people would want to be kind to their own flesh and blood so to speak.
Yet what makes some people care about complete strangers or care about others such as non human animals who are so different? What is the intuition or mechanism that compels some people to become concerned with the plight of those who cannot defend themselves and take it on with a commitment as if their own life depended on it?
Most, but not all of what we believe about the world comes from what we are taught as children. Children's brains are like sponges absorbing up information like liquid and holding onto it until education, experience or one's culture allows for some of that information to be expelled back out. Yet most of what we learn when we are young stays with us forever.
The behavior of babies is now showing scientists that we all have kindness and empathy built in yet extending it to others who are different from us takes much more work and is a very rare quality.
Why and how can some children extend their moral concerns and feelings towards non human animals and some never feel anything? The answer does not lie simply in just how children are raised and what they are taught by their parents, etc. For instance two siblings born and raised in the same house can end up with completely different views of the way the world should be.
As animal activists and advocates for living vegan these are the questions we need to ask ourselves and attempt to find answers. We need to create the possibilities that we may reach those humans who might actually change their ways.
Nine year old Marley Goldman is a person who when you meet her, you will be changed.
Talking with Marley you can begin to feel more hope for the future of animal rights and veganism than just about anything imaginable.
Marley is an incredible example of someone who has tapped into everything that makes the world a better place. Beside being an example of our species moral progress Marley is the perfect explanation from where expanded empathy and kindness come from. Just meet her.
Marley and Me
Philip:
How long have you been an animal rights person?
Marley:
9 years.
Philip:
And you're only 9 now? That's pretty incredible. So please tell us how old you were when you actually thought or felt something about animals.
Marley:
Well, the biggest first time was when I was two and a half and I got my first kitten. I went to an animal adoption place and we adopted her. That was the first interaction I had with an animal that I can remember.
Philip:
How old were you when you became vegan?
Marley:
I had never eaten meat before.
Philip:
When you say you never ate meat do you mean you never ate meat since you were born? Was this because of your parents...I mean did you make this decision on your own? Usually babies eat what their parents feed them.
Marley:
Well, I was being fed whatever they would give me but it was vegan so I just never wanted to eat meat.
Philip:
Oh OK so your parents were already vegan?
Marley:
My mom was.
Philip:
So tell us the first time when you realized you were vegan or what that actually meant to you?
Marley:
The first time I kind of really knew about it was when I was around one and a half but I didn't know it was called vegan I just knew I wasn't eating animals. I can't really remember perfectly when I knew what it meant but probably the same time I was old enough to make my own decisions about what I could eat and that was around 3.
Philip:
So you knew what the word vegan meant when you were 3?
Marley:
Well, my mom described it, what it meant.
Philip:
So did you notice other people eating animals?
Marley:
Well, I didn't know that it was animals they were eating but I would ask "what is that?" and people would tell me what it was.
Philip:
I heard a story from your father that you asked him why it was that he was eating something that had the same name as the animal called chicken?
Marley:
Yes I asked him at a restaurant why is that food called the same thing as the bird? And he said well, it is the bird.
Philip:
What is it about animals that you love so much and have such a connection with that you didn't and still don't want to eat them?
Marley:
Well, they are just like humans. They are living creatures and they deserve to be treated just like us and treated with equal rights like we treat humans. Humans are animals. A lot of people think like there are humans and animals but everyone is an animal basically.
Philip:
So Marley tell us what it's like to be 9 years old and so enlightened, to be so wise about all of this and also if you can tell us what other kids your age think about all of this.
Marley:
Some of them just don't understand it or pay attention to it but a lot of my close friends are trying vegan or going vegan or at least vegetarian. My friend Josh who is one year older than me and is the hard core meat guy but he adopted a turkey from animal acres after I brought him here and is now trying to go vegan. One of my other friends she is kind of a mainstream vegan now. She doesn't eat a lot of healthy stuff but won't eat meat now.
A lot of kids are curious but a lot of kids don't really care that I don't eat animals.
Philip:
When was the first time you came up to Animal Acres?
Marley:
I think I was about four when I first came here. And then I had my 5th birthday party here.
Philip:
Was that your idea when you were 5 to have your birthday party at Animal Acres?
Marley:
Yes, and I designed the card with a little red barn and I had about 20 people.
Philip:
I hear you also design your own protest signs?
Marley:
Well, I just think about the cause and write about how it should be stopped. Mostly animal rights but also an anti war protest too. I went to the dolphin protest against killing dolphins in Taiji. We stood on the side of the road with our signs and just spread our message against killing. I went to Seaworld once years ago and left after 3 minutes. I didn't like it.
Philip:
When you meet people your own age what do you tell them about being vegan?
Marley:
I tell them to ask their parents and then come to Animal Acres. (Laughs)
Philip:
Nice. Do you think Animal Acres can change people who eat animals and get them to think twice about them as just food?
Marley:
Yes, I do. When people see the animals they consider food they see something different. People just think of food as a hamburger but they have never stared a cow in the eyes. Or Turkeys and chickens who you think of as meat, eggs or soup but they are creatures who are alive and have feelings.
People can make there own decisions, yes, but they should at least know what they are eating.
Philip:
So you're a vegan for ethical reasons not just for health or the environment?
Marley:
Well, it is an environment thing and a health thing but it's that animals are raised in a place that is not natural for them and its hurting peoples health and the animals health. Everyone.
Philip:
So tell us about the future. Do you see kids going vegan and what's your feeling about the future and people being vegan? Do you see a vegan future?
Marley:
Yes. When kids are younger and before they get too old they can change before meat is the only thing they know. But the problem is that its the parents who are feeding the kids this way.
I've taken 3 people here to Animal Acres and its changed them.
Philip:
What do you see as your future in being vegan?
Marley:
Well, I hope I can help someone. People and animals.
Philip:
Is there anything else you want to say to people who will be reading this?
Marley:
Yes, I want to say that being vegan is easier than it is eating meat and animals. It's more compassionate and you'll feel better.
Philip:
Why do you think people feel it's so difficult to live vegan?
Marley:
Because it's change from what they are used to. They think that its something so alien to them that its just not done.
Change can come about in many ways.
Marley was so inspired by Karen Dawn's video post about rescuing two turkeys that she wants to do that next year at her house. Marley wants to now adopt two turkeys about a week or so before thanksgiving and invite people over for an afternoon tea with the turkeys. Marley realizes this gives people enough lead time to change their dining plans and decide not to eat turkey!
There is clearly a way despite the myths, lies and false beliefs that people are indoctrinated with by society regarding non human animals, that some humans can find enough compassion, kindness and truth in themselves to transcend it all. Some people are able to call attention to this way by example of who they are. Some people are equipped with enough spirit, love and wisdom that their existence reveals a fragment of proof that we can actually witness a phase of human evolution happening right in front of our eyes.
Marley with a new friend at Animal Acres.
Help Marley change the world into a sanctuary for all animals.
Be a sanctuary,
Go vegan
*A very important thank you to Gail and Gregg Goldman for making the world a better place for everyone.
