For thousands of years, humans have mistreated and killed animals by the billions to eat their flesh.

Where are the demonstrations against this tragedy?

Do all humans agree with it? No. A significant minority of humans refuses to eat animals, because they believe it is not right to do so.

So where are the demonstrations?

Before 2001, there had never been any.

In 2001, in Paris, we invented the first public demonstration of those who refuse to eat animals and want to voice and their protest against the grand massacre.

We called that demonstration a Veggie Pride.

From the Veggie Pride Manifesto:
Our aims:

To declare our pride at refusing to have animals killed for our consumption

To refuse to rob sentient beings of their sole possessions, of their very flesh, of their very lives; to refuse to take part in a concentration camp system which turns their short lives into perpetual torment; to refuse to do all of this for the mere pleasure of the palate, for the satisfaction of a habit, of a tradition: To refuse to do such things should be just plain decency.

However, history does show how difficult it is, when barbarity is the social norm, to simply say No.

We wish to declare our pride at saying No.

Last year in New York, and then again this year in New York, Birmingham and Los Angeles, have been organized public parades calling themselves “Veggie Pride Parades”, and claiming to be inspired by the Paris event. However, these parades call people to demonstrate who are vegetarians for any reason whatsoever, which means that someone who doesn't care at all about the animals, but only about personal health, or about the environment or any other issue unrelated to the suffering and killing of animals for food, is called to participate.

In other words, instead of being about the animals and about our refusal to take part in their oppression, these parades are about the celebration of a particular lifestyle.

We have asked Pamela Rice, organizer of the New York event, and the organizers of the Birmingham event, to change the names of their parades. Our requests have been completely ignored, apart from a phone call from a person close to Pamela Rice who seemed only interested in ascertaining that we do not hold any legal claim to the name “Veggie Pride”.

In effect, we have not copyrighted the name. We believed, and still believe, that open discussion, respect for diversity, and honesty should be more important within the animal movement than courtrooms and lawyers. But these are values that Pamela Rice and the organizers of these Parades don't seem to care about.


The issue is not one of ownership; it is one of freedom of expression. Contrary to what Pamela Rice says, there is very little that is new in the New York event. There have been countless veggie lifestyle celebrations in the past — “parties, potluck, presentations, food tasting displays...” — each of them putting forward a mishmash of all possible arguments for vegetarianism, in which the animals are given the least prominent position, if they are mentioned at all.

The Veggie Pride is a new event, and had its own name. To steal that name and to use it for events that have none of the novel characteristics of the Veggie Pride is in effect to silence the message of the Veggie Pride. It is to make it inaudible. It is to drown out the only voice that was publicly and collectively raised against the massive slaughter of animals for food.

We believe that it is right for those who refuse the mistreatment and slaughter of the billions of animals who die each year in name of carnivory to express publicly their stance. We believe that sixty billion animals being slaughtered each year in the world is reason enough to demonstrate, without adding any other arguments. This is why we ask the organizers of the New York, Birmingham and Los Angeles events to respect the name we have chosen for the Veggie Pride, and to change the names of the events they are organizing so as to avoid any possible confusion.


The Veggie Pride has been organized in Paris every year since 2001. In 2008, a group of Italian activists organized a Veggie Pride in Rome. This year, Veggie Pride demonstrations will be held in Lyon (France), Milan (Italy) and Prague (Czech Republic). The idea is expanding. We call animal activists all over the world to organize Veggie Pride demonstrations, to make it clear that not everyone agrees with the grand massacre.

A Veggie Pride is defined by this international standard:
1. The demonstration must be centered on the refusal to eat animals out of regard for the animals. Other motives to be a vegetarian — the environment, health, the third world... — must be either left out altogether or be given a clearly subordinate status.

2. The Veggie Pride must be a demonstration of individuals, who come to demonstrate as individuals. Associations and other groups may be present, but in a subordinate manner, for instance by participating in activities organized outside of the main demonstration.

3. Those individuals come to express the fact that they do not eat animals out of regard for the animals; and that they deem that right.

4. The participation in the demonstration is open to any person who refrains from eating animals out of regard for the animals (whether or not that person has additional motives to be vegetarian).

5. The demonstration asks society to accept an open debate on the issue of the consumption of meat in relation to the violence that it implies against the animals.

6. The demonstration is non violent, and, if possible, legal.
This definition, together with the Veggie Pride Manifesto, a FAQ and various other information, can be found on the Veggie Pride international website http://www.veggiepride.org/.

David