269: The interview
I saw a video come through my feed a few days after World Farm Animals Day. I don’t generally click on videos, but the words “branded by hot steel” in the title intrigued me. I was immediately mesmerized by what I saw. There was a man with a numbered tag on his ear, similar to the tags I’ve seen on cows. This was followed by three men sitting in a barbed wire cage.
Three men wearing all black entered the frame. When they whipped out a blow torch, I started to get nervous. Were they really going to brand themselves? And why? Why would someone permanently mark themselves and in such a violent and painful manner? I had to click onto the 269 website. After learning a bit about who they are and why they put themselves through this pain, I had to reach out and interview them.
The interview below is part one of a two-part series with a representative of 269. This interview focuses more on 269 – the why and what. The second part will be more controversial, focusing more on philosophy of the animal rights movement.
I was asked by the representative to mention that some of the interview may not be pleasant, but he and his friends in 269 are “only committed to the animals and we believe that we must say the truth about the struggle for animal rights even if it is hard to hear, otherwise we cannot progress in our fight.”
What is the significance of the name of your group, 269?
269 is a group of animal rights activists who started a campaign and has a website and a facebook page. To quote one of the activists who got branded, “The Number 269, which was burned on our skin, was the designated number of a calf we encountered in one of Israel’s factory farms. This anonymous calf will be forever immortalized on our bodies, and hopefully this message of solidarity will somehow bring a new way of looking at non-human animals. No animal should be exploited to satisfy the selfish needs and whimsical desires of humans, and that is why we chose to use the industry’s own method of objectifying living beings as this symbolic means to convey our idea”.
The video of three of your members being branded on World Farm Animals Day is pretty provocative. Why have you chosen branding as a mode of getting the message out?
The main reason we did this kind of demonstration is that the animal rights movement cannot continue in its conventional, soft way. When we examine the animal rights movement’s accomplishments through history, we realize they are too little and too late. We can’t wait any longer because every second means horrific exploitation and murder of many innocent animals. We need to act more, act harder, better and to start making waves in the world. The Holocaust cannot continue while we sit and smile at the people causing it. This horrible situation requires a more creative and faster solution than delivering another pamphlet to a pedestrian, liking another Facebook page, or joining another animal rights parade.
This demonstration is an example of trying to make a wave, worldwide. But it’s far from enough.
This demonstration is also an example for a global action, not local one. The Animal Holocaust is enormous, and in every country and every culture. We must start to think and act globally, and not locally – otherwise, nothing will ever change. We have to be as efficient as possible. We must do everything we can for the animals.
How was the crowd’s reaction to the branding and what it represents? Did they make the connection? Were they receptive or were they repulsed and angered?
The truth is that we decided to do the demo in a non-crowded place, because the branding procedure is pretty sensitive, and many things could have gone wrong and the whole demo would be ruined, especially since we have no experience in branding. So there wasn’t that much of a crowd there. From what I did notice, the people who walked by stopped, and were pretty shocked.
The branding video has close to 150,000 views in one week. Did you expect the video to get so much attention?
Actually, we did. We believed it could make a worldwide shock-wave, and we think that this video will rise up much more in the next few months. Our aim is for at least ten million viewers this year, that’s the potential we believe it has and we hope to fulfill it. We believe it’ll get much more media coverage than it has got until today – 10 days after the event. We also hope to get some money from our online shop that we opened in order to finance advertisements of this campaign, so that the videos and the follow-up events will be known all around the world. We are aiming to reach as many people as possible, and fast.
What kind of responses have you received from the video? Have you received feedback from people saying that they plan on going vegan?
Well, first I have to say that there were too many responses on Youtube so we didn’t go through every one. But in general the comments were divided in two: “Great demo, I support you” or “You are fanatics. I love steak.”
We need to understand that the potential of someone to become vegan and an animal rights supporter is not up to the actions we do. In every type of action you will encounter opposition, even for a quiet demo, or to delivering pamphlets in the street. The point is that people who don’t care for the animals (most of the human population) will be against you almost no matter what you’ll do, and you won’t succeed in turning them to vegans, and people who have the potential to become vegan will also be convinced no matter what you do (let’s leave aside violent actions). This is my ground point of view, and why I chose to participate in this action, because I don’t think that it can turn away people who have potential, and with these kinds of actions you can get worldwide exposure with minimum time and money.
The animal rights movement always blames everything else beside the real guilty party. We blame our message, we blame culture, we even blame education, just because we don’t want to face the truth – that people just don’t care. We always complain that people should open their eyes and face the truth about the holocaust of animals, well it’s time for the animal rights movement to do the same. You don’t antagonize people by your actions; people don’t care for our ideology in the first place, so it is important to stay united as a movement behind hardcore actions, and to keep a strong ethic ideology for animal rights, with no compromises.
What is the mission of 269 Life? What do you hope to accomplish with your organization?
One of the purposes of this campaign is to “speak” to animal rights activists. This shocking demo has a message for the animal rights activists who consider themselves as non-speciesist, committed activists. True activists are not just looking to feel good about themselves, but are really determined to look for animal liberation solutions. We speak to activists who joined the movement neither for social reasons nor dietary ones – but for justice. We want to reach activists who won’t stop thinking of revolutionary ideas to promote animal liberation as soon as possible. About 95 to 99 percent of the population just doesn’t care and will never become vegan willingly. So yes, we still have to work to reach the few who have potential, but let’s not delude ourselves – something has to change.
The animal rights struggle is at rock bottom. There is not enough money, not enough committed non-speciesist vegan activists, and worse of all, the most vicious enemy, people, 7 billion of them, who have many interests in keeping animals enslaved, and who are inherently so selfish, that even the awareness campaigns we have done for many, many years haven’t affected them.
The first step towards solving a problem is acknowledging it. Maybe we don’t have the perfect and easy solution right now, but we know for sure what will not liberate animals – and that is to continue using the same methods. Increasing awareness will not solve the problem. It’ll just recruit some more people who weren’t aware until now, but that’s only a negligible part of the human population. Let’s not forget – almost all humans are aware of The Animal Holocaust but they just don’t care. So please, for the sake of the animals, let’s stop pretending because it only hurts them.
We hope that this branding action, besides spreading the word for animal rights globally, will encourage each and every one of you to start and be more active for them, and in non-conventional ways. If things stay the way they are, the animal holocaust is here to stay.
The second purpose of this campaign is to spread the word for animal rights so that more people will hear about this issue, especially in places where they haven’t heard about it before. That is why we aimed for global distribution, and in the Youtube statistics we did get views in almost every country in the world. Now we just need to continue to maximize the number of viewers in every place.
If these purposes are accomplished, we believe we’ll get more vegans who became vegans for ethical reasons, and which we believe have more probability to stay vegan all their lives, and become active for animal rights.
Also, we believe that we’ll get an increase in the amount of vegans that will take part in more hardcore and global actions, and that will try to look for non-conventional activities for animal liberation than doing another soft demo/stand/lecture etc.
Where do you see 269 going in the future?
I hope that it’ll spread globally. Right now activists around the world are gathering and doing follow-up events, like this one. I hope that it’ll open the eyes of the potential meat-eaters to become vegans, as well as the eyes of the vegan activists to become more active and especially more effective. Campaigns such as 269, which is not conventional in its actions and deals only with the moral aspect of animal rights – is the path animal rights activists should go in, if they continue in the propaganda direction. I hope we’ll see much more actions like this one, and especially more activists who start to choose other ways than propaganda to try and end The Animal Holocaust.
Comments
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Willh
January 20, 2013
What I find significant is that the corresponding letters in the alphabet to 269, spells out : ” What a vain bunch of twats” Spooky huh?
Lisa Dawn
February 5, 2015
You are right people are selfish. We plead for them to stop. And they just keep doing what they are doing. Sense becoming vegan I am completely selfish and uncaring people. It is almost to much to bare some days. I believe people have to either be forced by our goverments which isn’t gunna happen or they need to learn compassion. I became vegan because I didn’t want any animals suffering for me to be able to eat them. when you really think about it it is like eating the black slaves.
Lorna'mann
January 20, 2013
I agree with everything in this article, we need more active and powerful messages to get through to ignorant selfish people, Ithe word horrific doesn’t even come close to describing the suffering we inflict on beautiful animals.
dave smailes
January 24, 2013
How do i sign up ? ! Was v impressed by Aran’s interview on radio WM an i wish to join this “awakening”
Bernard B.Elliott
February 10, 2013
May I state I got on to your site by accident. The cruelty is
shocking. I do not eat meat but sometimes I eat a tuna sandwich and take cod liver oil capsules. Why do Ido this? So that I am strong enough to fight animal cruelty. M aybe yous should consider broadening your base by bringing vegetarians into your
ranks for strategic reasons.I hope I am not sounding like
a hypocrite. Animal cruelty does my head in.
jim
March 1, 2014
Yes, in fact, you are sounding like a hypocrite, and you are not a vegetarian. Fish are animals, not plants.
Clarissa Dalloway
August 11, 2014
I recently stopped eating meat also, Bernard, and yes, i have still had tuna fish too , as well as salmon….so don’t feel alone …it’s hard to stop everything at once, especially since i dont like fruit and i’m not that keen on a lot of veggies..but i’m getting by…
Sergi
February 16, 2018
It’s 5 years after you posted that ignorant comment. I hope you got out of the tuna and the fish oil, all ‘produced’ and extracted thanks to exploitation and murder. Vegetarians won’t ever be included anywhere except in the pantheon of the deluded ego-centred, never fully committed to follow an ethical way of living because their taste buds take preference over the lives of others.
electra
April 6, 2013
I’m with you. The post 2012 world we are now creating by our intentions and visions must be based on a genuine awareness of of the interrelatedness of life. People must AWAKE. Do not undeestimate the power of a critical mass of focused thought vibrations creating a warp in the web of ignorance that exists now.Meanwhile- yes I’ll be branded if it helps.
Heather
July 29, 2013
I’ve been a vegetarian for 26 years, vegan for a while now…I’ve turned many people into vegetarians and a couple into vegans. I did it through example and education. Shock tactics and branding, come on, people turn away. I’ve known activists like this and 5 years later they are eating steaks. Movements like this are so self serving full of people just looking for attention. I live animal rights every day by opening my home to animals, using my business to fundraise for local animal charities and being a healty vegan example. When I first got into it years go I was at the ready with shocking brochures, and such. I swear I never influenced a single soul by acting crazy hardcore. Live your message well and you will influence change.
Lotustar
July 28, 2014
I agree with Heather’s comment. But I also struggle with wanting to be super shocking and militant about my vegan (20 years) ways. I just want to shake people and say, “please stop hurting animals?!!”. Part of me feels like I’m failing animals by not speaking up. And part of me feels like It’s better to lead by example and NOT be that vegetarian that has to tell everyone about it. Like the ex-smoker or the super religious person can sometimes do. Sigh, there has to be a way to open people up to the tragedies that befall animals every second of every day. I guess if I could teach one thing to people in this world, it would be compassion.
Dr Simon Bignell
August 30, 2016
I applaud these animal lib heros and respect their actions on the whole. I think the most effective way to get society to stop butchering and processing other species is through market forces. The non-human animals are killed but it is humans that are farmed. We are farmed by the commercial dynamics of profit and go willingly into our homes each night to consume our feed and products that create the demand for more stuff and keep the wheels turning on the consumer machine. Society isn’t shaped by ethical arguements but by commercial forces. You cannot win the animal lib/vegan struggle on an ethical position. Companies must find profit in alternative markets to meat. Only then will people be fed on mass something other than dead bodies and secretions. Society is sculpted by market forces that are vastly more powerful than the average person’s capacity to 1) filter misinformation and understand the ethics of animal rights, 2) self-motivate out of the food industry-sponsered addictions most people don’t know they have. IMHO