Being a Millionaire for the Animals - By Matt Ball (of Vegan Outreach)

In the U.S., given the quantity of non-human animals suffering, the extent to which they are suffering, and the reason they are intentionally made to suffer, I believe that animal liberation is the moral imperative of our time. Our focus should be on ending the suffering as efficiently and quickly as possible.

The easiest thing we can do to end this suffering and change the world for the better is, of course, to make compassionate choices every day. But if our personal vegetarianism is imperative and important – and it certainly is, given the thousands of chickens, turkeys, pigs, lambs, and cattle we will spare from the horrors of modern animal agriculture during our lifetime – then the influence we can have on others is at least as important. Convincing just one person to go vegetarian will double our impact!

In his book Meat Market, Erik Marcus writes: “When I was a teenager, my greatest ambition was to one day be a millionaire. In my twenties, as my primary ambition shifted away from making money and toward protecting animals, I adapted the millionaire concept for purposes of activism. I decided that I still wanted to be a millionaire, but not in terms of earning a million dollars. I wanted to be a millionaire in terms of keeping a million animals out of slaughterhouses.”

In other words, by influencing just 500 people to go vegetarian, one can be a millionaire for the animals – that is, save a million animals from the horrors of factory farms! 500 people may seem unreasonable, but that is less than one person a month over the course of fifty years. If you assume that only 1% of the people who receive a Why Vegan, Try Vegetarian, or Even If You Like Meat booklet change their diet (which is conservative, given the feedback Vegan Outreach receives), you can be a millionaire by distributing just 100 copies each month, or donating enough to print and distribute that many booklets.

For decades, the belief that only large groups and massive campaigns with set goals and visible victories can have an impact on the world has prevented us from realizing that each of us can – and must – be powerful and effective advocates for the animals. Thousands of dedicated activists – including a number of hardworking members of Compassionate Action for Animals – take the animals’ message directly to the public every day, resulting in a steady string of new vegetarians. If CAA and other activists are able to distribute a million booklets in 2006, even a mere 1% effectiveness will lead to 10,000 new vegetarians, saving 20 million birds and mammals from the horrors of factory farms over the next fifty years!

You can be a part of this – get involved today!

Matt Ball works for Vegan Outreach, a group he co-founded.