Meet Mr. Alfredo Noodle, or Alphie for short. Alphie constantly makes me laugh. He dunks his entire head in the water bowl to take a drink and frequently attempts to add me to the stash of toys he hides under the dresser.

Ferrets are happiest when kept with others, so I soon adopted Hershey. Hershey’s favorite hobby is burrowing under blankets, in drawers full of clothes or in the pit of dry beans I made especially for him.

The two quickly accepted one another.

When a friend contacted me for help rescuing a litter of newborn kittens, I took in Daphne when she was only a few weeks old. Daphne learned many behaviors from her brothers and acts more like a ferret than a cat. 

I have since adopted Pretzel as well. Pretzel loves tunnels. Even though he has several perfectly sized tunnels, he will try to squeeze into any cylinder and is known to get stuck. 

When the ferrets are not jumping around and causing chaos, they are sleeping.

I have also recently rescued another kitten whom I have named Chicken. Chicken is my spunkiest animal. She loves to play with her brothers and break into cabinets.

With three ferrets and two cats surrounding me, my household never lacks affection and is certainly never bland!

The photos in this feature were provided by the author.

Veganism is the belief that animals should not be killed, harmed or exploited for human gain, and the decision to reflect that belief in your actions to whatever degree is “possible and practicable.” Veganism differs from vegetarianism or a plant-based diet in that this is not a diet or a set of restrictions, but rather a worldview that applies to all areas of life. I am of the belief that everyone should take this approach and adopt a vegan lifestyle for the betterment of ourselves and society. 

In the seven years I’ve spent advocating for the rights of animals, I have heard many people argue that not everyone can be vegan. Some go as far as to claim that veganism is classist, ableist and exclusionary. I do not believe this to be the case and here is why.

Like many, I believe that it is wrong for someone to kill another human being. Because of this ethical conviction, I live my life accordingly and refrain from killing other people. This does not mean there are no exceptions. If someone were to attack me, forcing me to choose between preserving my life or terminating theirs, I would not hesitate to protect myself. Because I would be acting in self-defense, I would not be considered a murderer by the standards of any reasonable person or in the eyes of the law. This is a concept that is widely recognized and understood.

If you believe it is wrong to exploit animals for their resources, you might decide to practice veganism. When practicing veganism, the principle I described before still applies. It’s not murder to kill tapeworms, bedbugs or lice. It’s self-defense. Likewise, it is not murder for a person lacking money or shelter to eat a meal that someone gave them while panhandling, or to dumpster dive looking for the only food they might eat that day or even purchase something made with animal products if their only readily available source of food is a gas station with no plant-based options. That is merely self-preservation. 

My understanding of veganism is as follows: when you are presented with a given set of choices, you should choose whichever option harms animals the least. In this way, anyone can be vegan. The consequences of unfavorable circumstances do not strip you of what it means to be vegan.

Veganism is not a purity test. It is a moral philosophy that rejects the commodification of animals and acknowledges that it is unreasonable to maximize harm simply because your very existence warrants at least some level of it. When presented with the option to harm animals and the option not to harm animals, I do not harm animals. There is no acceptable reason not to live this way. To reject veganism is to believe that it is your right to determine whether or not sentient beings should live or die, based solely on palate pleasure, profit incentive and culture/tradition. I struggle to imagine a more entitled worldview.

Not all vegans are likable or reasonable people. Some embrace the “vegan” label without understanding the roots of the vegan movement and speak out of ignorance. Some embrace the “vegan” label without understanding issues of race, class and disability, and let their prejudice get in the way of engaging in meaningful activism. Some embrace the “vegan” label but are so politically incoherent and morally illiterate that informed and reasonable people will have no interest in indulging their ideas. These individuals do not represent vegans or veganism as a whole and should not be used as an excuse to perpetuate the suffering of the most vulnerable creatures on the planet. 

I hope that my understanding and explanation of veganism provides clarity, and persuades you to adopt a vegan philosophy and practice harm reduction in your daily life. To do so is a necessary step to be taken in addition to, not in place of, our efforts to dismantle systematic oppression in all of its forms. Animal rights are essential to any movement claiming to promote freedom, justice, equality and liberation. It is crucial that we empathize with both the exploitation of humans and non-human animals alike. We are not free until we are all free. All means all.

The Association for Animal Rights (AFAR) is an on-campus organization dedicated to raising awareness of animal cruelty, educating the William Jewell College community about environmental issues and providing a safe space to talk about animal rights.

The organization was founded by Brielle Buntin, senior English and interactive digital media major. During her junior year of college, Buntin found herself in great distress after attending God, Nature, and Science, a CTI course at Jewell, adopting pet rats and reading about environmental concerns such as climate change and animal cruelty in the agricultural industry. 

All of these influences revealed to Buntin how people tend to categorize life hierarchically, which has negative effects on the environment. For example, one of the leading causes of global warming is animal agriculture, which contributes 14.5 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions. But most people don’t know about this fact, and those that do find the language that people use to refer to animal rights and other environmental concerns to be inadequate.

Buntin believes that to be fully able to understand issues concerning animal rights, people need to adopt a new way of communicating ideas. Buntin calls this “building a critical foundation.” 

When she communicated her distress to a friend, the friend suggested creating a group to ensure that people could have a safe space to build this critical foundation and engage in activism and debate. A few days later, Buntin contacted this friend to bounce ideas off of them. Thus, the concept of AFAR was born. 

Unfortunately, the process of actually creating AFAR as it is known now was quite long and laborious. The paperwork took a year and a half to be approved, and there were lots of tweaks that had to occur during that time. This has to do with the fact that most people, including Jewell administration, tend to be cautious when dealing with environmental activist groups like AFAR. There is a misconception that environmentalist groups are “ecoterrorists” that engage in all sorts of disruptive actions such as burning down biology labs, but that is not the case. Buntin says AFAR promotes productive action in furthering environmental causes, not destructive or offensive actions. Furthermore, AFAR has two advisors, one of whom is Dr. Rose Reynolds, an associate professor of biology and chair. The other is Dr. Jennifer Cotter, an associate professor of English. 

AFAR has been up and running for a year. Much of the initial meetings involved building up a critical foundation. Members read and discussed essays written by philosophers like Descartes addressing the question of “What is an animal?” 

Buntin believes this critical foundation is crucial to understanding the ideology behind the division of animals from humans. This adversarial system wherein humans are prized far above animals can lead to animal cruelty and abuse. This division is made worse when coupled with things like nationalist sentiment because there is a social side to animal abuse. Much of the narrative surrounding animal inferiority also informs systems of race and gender inferiority. 

This kind of discussion can sound intimidating to the Jewell student. Buntin realizes that many of us have very busy lives, so critical reading is not mandatory. Furthermore, Buntin wants to make it clear that AFAR is a safe space. No one is going to judge others, and the members are not going to try and “shove vegetables down” new recruits’ throats. The meetings, which typically last around 30 minutes, have a “very chill environment.” Buntin brings free vegan drinks and food, which she says are not “weird vegan things” as one might suspect. The meetings take place every other Monday on the first floor of the PLC and are open to everybody. 

In the future Buntin wants to have more events that the club participates in and stages. She has been thinking about getting the members to volunteer at an animal shelter and to increase animal interaction on campus. One thing that has been very important to Buntin was the change in Jewell’s pet policy. Buntin believes that AFAR could start a flyer campaign educating incoming freshman about the demanding responsibilities that come with being a college student. She wants to make sure that if they do decide to bring their furry friends on campus, they are aware of the dual responsibilities they must balance. Buntin wants to ensure that both the student and the pet have a good college experience. 

Because Buntin is a senior, leadership is being passed to a new group of environmental activists. Buntin is confident that the new cabinet will do a great job of enthusiastically advocating for environmental awareness and thinks that students should join the fun and informative experience that is AFAR membership.