Hero #150: Gary Yourofsky … (01/04/16)
Born in 1970, Yourofsky is an American animal rights activist. Over 20 years ago, after a behind-the-scenes visit to a circus partially awakened him to the immense suffering that humans were inflicting upon the animal kingdom, Gary wanted to know more — especially about the treatment of the animals whose flesh he ate and whose skin he wore. So he found a slaughterhouse in his hometown and visited it every day for six weeks; a vividly brutal experience that altered his consciousness and changed his life forever. He thereafter began a life of radical activism, and was arrested thirteen times for various pro-animal protest actions (in which no human lives, other than his own, were harmed or endangered) between the years of 1997 & 2001.
Most notably, in March of 1997, Yourofsky, along with four members of the Animal Liberation Front, raided a fur farm in Canada, successfully releasing 1,542 mink who were going to be killed for their fur. He was subsequently arrested, tried, and sentenced to six months in a Canadian maximum-security prison in 1999. After serving 77 days of that sentence, he was released a further changed man, noting at the time that “[he] was no more than an animal in the zoo” while in prison, and that his prison-time reinforced his intense “empathy and understanding of what the animals go through.”
Since his time working as a public speaker for PETA (2002-2005), Gary has given roughly 2500 presentations & lectures on veganism and animal rights to more than 60,000 people. In 2010, Yourofsky’s popularity exponentially accelerated around the world following the release of a YouTube video (entitled “Best Speech You Will Ever Hear” — link below in the first comment box of this post) showing him giving a speech at the Georgia Institute of Technology. That video alone has already been translated into dozens of languages and viewed millions of times.
Accepting no money for his efforts on behalf of the animals, Yourofsky lives modestly and gets by on donations sent to him from admirers and fellow activists.
While many — including myself — are not particularly fond of the somewhat aggressive stance Yourofsky’s advocacy sometimes takes, there is no question that he is a true champion of Justice and a faithful advocate for the rights of the innocent.
“[When I see a meat-eater], I see somebody who has blinders on, who’s not thinking rationally. I see a hidden vegan − I want to reach down inside and say, ‘Hey, I know you want to be compassionate, just like when you were a kid.’ … I don’t want to fight you, I want to embrace you at the end. I want to get that wonderful person out of you.” ~ Gary Yourofsky
“The Golden Rule states: ‘Do unto others as you would have done unto yourself.’ Well, animals qualify as others … Contrary to political and religious dogma, animals do not belong to us. They are not commodities. They are not property. And they are not inanimate, stupid objects, who can’t think and feel.” ~ Gary Yourofsky
“Are you aware, that for the first time ever, you can now directly participate in ending a massacre? Instead of sitting around and paying lip service to all the massacres, and all the problems that are always going on, on this planet … You sit back in the comfort of your living room, and condemn the atrocities of elsewhere. But veganism is a chance to actually walk the compassionate talk .. It is the chance to show others how peaceful you truly are.” ~ Gary Yourofsky
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