Becci is one of those people that takes action with things that she feels strongly about- everything from animal rights protests to educational colouring books. These are the kinds of things that most of us (sometimes me) think, “I’m glad someone’s doing something,” before brushing it off. Becci takes that action.
You really know how to get involved in “stuff”- you’re quite passionate about animals, fair treatment, and the like. Can you talk a little bit about what moves you to do this stuff, what kind of work you’re involved in?
As some background I’d like to say that I’m on the board of directors with Liberation BC, which is a Vancouver-based, volunteer-run animal rights group. We started up in 2004 (which is before I became involved) and achieved non-profit status last year, in 2008. One of my main jobs with Liberation BC is the website, http://liberationbc.org. Another board member, Glenn Gaetz, designed the site, but I researched and wrote most of the information.
Anyway, most of what we do is outreach to the public–letting them know what’s going on, what the industry isn’t telling them. We do a lot of tabling at various events, and a lot of simply standing outside with a television, showing footage from factory farms, and handing out leaflets. Just last month we organized the Vancouver Walk for Farm Animals for the third year in a row. All the donations that folks pull together go to Farm Sanctuary. This year we had 70-plus participants and raised over $5000. It was very exciting.
It’s a little hard to pinpoint one particular thing that caused me to be drawn to the animal rights movement; there are a lot of injustices in the world today and animal agriculture is certainly one of the most overlooked ones in relation to the amount of damage it does. For example, animal agriculture is the number one cause of global warming and environmental destruction , local or organic or not. That doesn’t mean that everybody needs to go vegan, necessarily, though that would be great, of course–because even a small reduction in the amount of animal products people consume would make a huge difference in reducing environmental damage and animal suffering. Over 50 billion animals are killed every year for food alone (not counting sealife), and the great majority of them are raised in such agony that slaughter is probably one of the better parts of their existence. And like I said, it’s not necessarily an all-or-nothing thing: when you choose a veggie burger over your usual turkey sandwich once or twice a week, or try chickpeas or eggplant or lentils in your curry instead of lamb, or pick up some coconut milk ice cream for dessert, you’ve made a positive change.
I know that I basically just want people to make informed choices about what they eat. I’d rather that they look at industrialized animal agriculture in the face (including organic and free-range stuff, which is better than conventional farming but not nearly as good as we’d like to think, learn why there’s a growing movement against it, and then decide whether or not they, personally, are opposed to what goes on. I think that too many folks are under the impression that animal rights is a movement for overly sentimental people who never got over the death of Bambi, when in reality it’s an important issue that affects all of us. For example, a lot of the grains fed to farm animals could be eaten by the hungry–in some third world countries, people are literally starving next to fields of corn and soy and wheat that are reserved as feed for farm animals in wealthier places. And that’s just the beginning of
it.
One of the cool things about animal rights is also something that you, personally, can have a very direct effect upon. We all donate money to UNICEF or Amnesty International or whatever, or we try to buy fair trade and sweatshop-free–all of which are important–but we can’t always walk into a war-torn region or a poverty-stricken village, even one in our own country, and save people. But you leave meat off your plate, or buy make-up that wasn’t tested on animals–that’s one less being that’s been born, and killed, for you.
But I’ll tell you the truth–the world basically drives me crazy because it’s full of human and animal suffering and there’s only so much each of us can do to stop it. That’s insane to me and I can’t always handle it.
How did you get involved? Did you know a lot of people anyways? Your husband Roger is also a part of this; do you do a lot of collaboration?
I did not know any people initially–I joined up with the university animal rights group at my old school after I went vegan, after a few years of trying to ignore them, haha. There I did some small time tabling stuff, and then when we moved to Vancouver, we met people through the Vancouver Humane Society and the (then very new) Liberation BC. Roger will tell you that I kind of recruited him and now he is one of the best animal activists I know. We don’t really collaborate on specific projects, but he is another board member with LBC.
Can you talk a little bit about your drawing practice?
I’ll tell you the truth, and it sounds pretty lame–I like to draw things that look like things. I tend to like my drawings to look realistic–or at least my version of realistic. I’ve done very little in the way of abstract art. It’s not that I’m opposed to it; I just haven’t gotten around to it yet. I’ve been drawing for as long as I can possibly remember and it’s always been one of my favourite things in the world. It’s probably not a surprise that I spend a lot of time drawing animals. Lots of birds, particularly the ones we see around here, like gulls and pigeons and crows. I am a birder so I also do anatomy sketches. I also like to draw people–specific people or imagined ones–mostly vintage-looking stuff if I can pull it off. I find women far more interesting to draw than men, so I need to practice on that. Right now all my men come out looking very feminine, which works some of the time but not always.
I have acrylic and oil paints and pastels, but I haven’t really had enough practice with them and I’m not nuts about how some of the resulting art has turned out. For years I drew almost exclusively with ballpoint pen, seriously–I did all my work during boring classes at high school and university–but now I have a real set of pencils and I use those most of the time. I like coloured pencils too, and ink pens.
I also do a ton of work with polymer clay–lots of miniature sculptures. I like to make things as small as I can; not sure why. Maybe because clay is pricey…? I’m actually getting ready to start up an etsy store at http://canaduck.etsy.com, where I plan to sell earrings and other jewelery, everything made of clay. Again, because I don’t have a knack for random designs, everything thus far has resembled something specific. I’ve got some birds, some slices of cake, other small things.
You’ve done some illustration work as well. You illustrated a colouring book called “My Animal Friends” which was about all the things animals do and don’t like to do. What was the process of putting this together like? How long did it take you, and what was the project for?
“My Animal Friends” was a project for Liberation BC; there was also a second version of it that focused on animals killed for fur. It was called “My Furry Friends”. We have them available at our outreach events and they are pretty popular with kids. It’s very exciting. They’re really just simple line drawings of ten or so common animals–pigs, cows, chickens, turkeys–sketched with pencil and then drawn over with ink. “My Furry Friends” was drawn in the same manner and it focused on chinchillas, cats and dogs, rabbits, that kind of thing. They were put together by some of the other folks at Liberation BC, including Glenn, who did the text. I just did the pictures.
Download Free Copies of “My Animal Friends” and “My Furry Friends”
You also illustrated a book with CJ Leon, which had some troubles with reproduction. What happened there?
Yes! The book with CJ Leon was one of my more exciting projects. It is a really fantastic short story called “The Ogre and the Fairy” and I drew something like nine or ten pictures for it. It was really a challenge because fantasy creatures are not in my usual repertoire; it worked out well and I was pleased with how the drawings came out. HOWEVER, yes, we had some problems with reproduction that was caused in part by a lack of technology. Initially I tried to scan the drawings at the copy shop down the street so we could transfer them to CJ’s book; they came out looking like crap. Very blurry, weird smudges, etc. And then–seriously–I tried to take photos of the drawings and send those to him. Some of those came out tolerably (but not well) and othes didn’t. We tried to take the pictures again but to no avail–even when they looked good on the screen they didn’t transfer well to paper. If I could do it again I honestly just think I’d try to find a place that could make better scans, haha. Seriously.
Then, I think, when copies were made, the quality just got reduced. I’m seriously not entirely sure of everything that happened and you’d have to ask the mastermind of this for details; CJ is really the one who put everything together.
More by Becci Gindin-Clarke
Check Your Coats: Not all ‘Faux’ Fur is Fake
Foie Gras is A Cruel Dish Better Left Unserved
The Cruel Truth about Organic and Freerange Meat & Dairy Products
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