A Kynd Life

In celebration of the 20th episode of A Kynd Life, I am sharing my story.

I grew up loving animals and at age 15 I went vegetarian after seeing a snippet of chicken slaughterhouse footage. Fourteen years later, I had an amazing opportunity to speak to Damien Mander, Founder of International Anti Poaching Foundation, and I made the life changing decision to go vegan.

I knew it wasn't enough to just be vegan, I had to help animals, so I started volunteering at Victorian Lamb Rescue. I am also an Organiser of Anonymous for the Voiceless Geelong Chapter and more recently have become active in my local Animal Justice Party regional group.

In this episode, I discuss being a strong voice for the animals, how I manage relationships with non vegans, valuing the vegan community and adopting lambs from Victorian Lamb Rescue. 

https://www.instagram.com/akyndlife/
https://www.facebook.com/elisha.atchison

In celebration of the 20th episode of A Kynd Life, I am sharing my story.

I grew up loving animals and at age 15 I went vegetarian after seeing a snippet of chicken slaughterhouse footage. Fourteen years later, I had an amazing opportunity to speak to Damien Mander, Founder of International Anti Poaching Foundation, and I made the life changing decision to go vegan.

I knew it wasn't enough to just be vegan, I had to help animals, so I started volunteering at Victorian Lamb Rescue. I am also an Organiser of Anonymous for the Voiceless Geelong Chapter and more recently have become active in my local Animal Justice Party regional group.

In this episode, I discuss being a strong voice for the animals, how I manage relationships with non vegans, valuing the vegan community and adopting lambs from Victorian Lamb Rescue. 

https://www.instagram.com/akyndlife/
https://www.facebook.com/elisha.atchison

Catherine Kelaher recollects trying to save spiders and adoring bottle feeding lambs as a young girl. Catherine wishes she made the connection to animal exploitation earlier, having been a vegetarian that ditched dairy for a number of years.

In 2008 Catherine finally aligned her actions with how she felt about animals and went vegan. She was active in animal rights organisations and in 2010, Catherine became aware of a local hen farm during an Animal Liberation meeting. After seeing rescue footage in the documentary Peaceable Kingdom, Catherine and her friend contacted the local hen farm and organised to take six hens from the farmer.  This was the start of Catherine's journey into animal rescue, and shortly after their first visit, Catherine had rescued 350 hens from this farm.

Catherine founded NSW Hen Rescue in 2010 and has since saved thousands of hens and farm animals. NSW Hen Rescue recently moved to their new premises, now fondly known as Hen Haven.

Catherine is also the author of two books,  "Amanda The Teen Activist" a fictional tale about  a young girl saving animals for 8-12 year olds, and her most recent book "Saving Animals: A Future Activists Guide" which launches on 4th May 2021.

In this episode, Catherine also speaks about taking part in disruptions and lockdowns, her brushes with law enforcement and implementing self care practices for sustainable activism.

http://instagram.com/nswhenrescue
http://instagram.com/veganhen
http://facebook.com/nswhenrescue
http://henrescue.org 

James McLauchlan watched Cowspiracy after it was mentioned by a friend during university study. When James watched the documentary, he recognised what was happening to animals at the hands of humans, did not sit well with him. He proceeded to educate himself and within a few days, James went vegan.

James recently graduated from Monash with a Bachelor of Psychology (Honours) and plans to commence his Clinical Psychology PhD next year. James volunteers with the Anxiety Hotline and conducts Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) therapy. He is also an organiser for Anonymous for the Voiceless Melbourne Chapter, which keeps him extremely busy running weekly events in Bourke Street Mall.

In this episode, James discusses feeling aligned to his values by being vegan and encourages vegans to become active to develop a network of like minded people for friendship and support.

https://www.instagram.com/jamesrmclauchlan/
https://www.facebook.com/james.rbmclauchlan

Jonathan Sarandis admits that at a younger age, he found veganism difficult to understand and was quite sceptical. After educating himself on how animal products were produced and recognising farm animals weren't dissimilar from his beloved dog, he went vegan overnight.

When Jonathan decided to go vegan, he reassessed much of his life, goals and values to make sure he was living in alignment with his own values and not society's expectations.

It was not long after this, that Jonathan recognised his passion for fashion and animal welfare and decided to move away from his 9-5 job and start Sable. His initial plan was for Sable to be a vegan apparel company, however life had other plans and five years down the track, Sable has been Jonathan, Alex and Matt’s passion project for the last year.

Sable is a vegan cafe in Cremorne (Richmond, Victoria) specialising in bagels, cookies and coffee. Sable has gone from strength to strength, despite opening one week before COVID-19 began.

In this episode Jonathan talks about combining his passions to create a business and career, introducing customers to veganism and plant based food and his hope to inspire others to quit their 9-5 job and pursue their dreams.

https://www.instagram.com/jonathansarandis/
https://www.instagram.com/sable_org/
https://sable.org.au/

Adam Cardilini is a Lecturer of Environmental Science at Deakin University.  Adam's PhD involved studying the evolutionary ecology of a bird species, the non native Common Starling. He began to connect with the birds and struggled to kill the individuals in the name of science. Adam spent time at dairy farms as part of his PhD research and became vegan after witnessing the horrific conditions dairy cows were kept in and the blatant disregard for their welfare. Adam talks about how these images still haunt him to this day.

Adam's research now focuses on compassionate conservation and the use of new technology to educate people and allow them to connect with animals . He is extremely motivated and passionate about creating a kinder world for animals. 

https://www.deakin.edu.au/about-deakin/people/adam-cardilini

Helen Seta went vegan after overhearing a work colleague talking about bobby calves in the dairy industry. Helen knew being vegan wasn't enough, so she quickly became involved in animal rights activism.

Helen is the Oceania Liaison for the Animal Save Movement as well as organiser for Melbourne Chicken Save. Being a graphic designer by trade, Helen recognises the need for the development of effective messaging and brings together creative people to provide free resources for animal organisations in her group Activist Design Hub.

In this episode Helen discusses different ways for vegans to become active for the animals,  the importance of managing your mental health and stresses associated with activism, comradery within the vegan community and volunteering at Kiwi's New Life Bird Rescue.

The Animal Save Movement
http://AnimalSaveMovement.com
https://www.facebook.com/AnimalSaveAustralia
https://www.instagram.com/animalsaveaustralia/
https://www.instagram.com/melbournechickensave/

Activist Design Hub
https://www.facebook.com/TheADHub

Petition to Transition the Queen Victoria Market into a world-leading, innovative, plant based mecca http://chng.it/5yyQSHCvNG

Monique Medved and I walked 62km along the Surf Coast to raise money for a Nepalese man Sancha, his family and community who have been hard hit with no income from tourism as a result of COVID19. 

In this episode, Mon and I reflect on our thoughts and experiences during this massive physical and mental challenge. We chat about saying yes to experiences outside your comfort zone, not having expectations about how the experience was going to go, maintaining a positive mindset when physical barriers present themselves, the ridiculous idea of Mon carrying 30kg in her pack and returning home solo.

You can contribute to Project Unite - https://gofund.me/d211c5eb 

In this episode, I welcome back Deanna Carbone (Kangas), my first guest on A Kynd Life.

Deanna, a passionate animal rights activist, returns to share her wisdom on how vegans can get involved in animal rights activism and simple steps on how to conduct effective activism.

Deanna provides great insight on how to find activism best suited to you, tips for attending your first event, managing confrontation from the public and how to stay motivated to be a strong voice for the animals.

https://www.instagram.com/deannacarbonee/
https://www.facebook.com/deanna.kangas.9

Monique Medved made a commitment to herself to start a YouTube channel and post one video a week for a year, that's 52 videos to plan, script, edit and publish. The aim of the channel was to show up and do the thing she said she was going to do, it wasn't to gain followers or fame, but to follow through on a commitment to herself.

One year on and what an adventure! Mon has been on a journey of self discovery like no other. Mon shares her insights about creating routines that become habits which shape your future, being accountable for your own actions and living your life the way you want. 

Mon recently documented "30 days of discomfort" where she challenged herself and others to do things they usually fear such as sky diving and learning to fly a plane. Feeling the fear and doing the damn thing anyway, builds resilience and confidence in your ability to be comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Mon has been vegan for 7 years and believes leading by example encourages others to adopt a vegan lifestyle.

https://www.instagram.com/moniquemedved/
https://www.instagram.com/finallyfoundcards/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCp7zZOZcANBqKYigPz6c7zw