Open Letter to Wild Abundance

November 11, 2016

Dear Natalie, Meredith, and the Wild Abundance Team,

The Let Live Coalition is a group of animal protection organizations and individuals who are deeply disturbed by your teaching of slaughter classes, especially ones that are framed as “sacred” and “honoring” of animals. 

As you are self-proclaimed ex-vegans, we are focusing on your work in particular because of your assertion that small-scale, DIY slaughter helps animals more than veganism, and because of your claim that some people need animal protein. In reality, nutritional requirements are not variable within species in terms of which nutrients are needed; only the amounts needed vary. Vegan diets are widely endorsed by governmental health and medical boards as healthful (even nutritionally superior) at all stages of life.

As such, your work explicitly undermines our vegan and animal protection advocacy. We thus feel it is our responsibility to respond with accurate information and truly compassionate alternatives. 

We understand that you believe do-it-yourself slaughter is better than factory farming, but comparing against the worst case scenario is not a legitimate means for determining what is ethical or humane. Further, by mainstreaming and putting a seemingly compassionate face on any type of slaughter, you are normalizing meat consumption and reinforcing the very myths and attitudes that perpetuate the atrocities of factory farming.

We are also concerned about your cultivation of emotional bonding before killing animals as a way to supposedly increase sensitivity in people. To the contrary, bonding with animals before slaughtering them desensitizes people to the fact that animals have their own inherent worth. For the animals, being slaughtered by someone they trust is not an honor, but a heartbreaking betrayal of their faith in you as their caretakers. 

We are partnered with many groups and individuals, in particular with OneProtest, in the hopes that you will cancel the upcoming slaughter and butcher class and allow us to adopt the sheep you spare.

We understand the difficult logistics of canceling a class, but we thought that you (and your students) should know that if this class goes forward, we have a multi-pronged outreach and protest campaign already in motion to shed light on the cruel and unnecessary abuse of animals inherent in your work. 

The form of these outreach activities will vary, but we wanted to give you the courtesy of letting you know our motivation. While we are critical of your methods, it is our hope that we can somehow work together to create positive change. We regret the timing is so short, but look forward to hearing from you and how we may help. Our email is save@let-live.org.

For a kinder world,
The Let Live Coalition