What I learnt at Vegan Campout with my family

I look SO forward to the Vegan Campout weekend all year. Our tickets are already booked for next year, as it’s the one weekend of the year that we get to spend quality time together as a family in an environment that just feels so right. It’s a small glimpse into what the world would look like if we were all able to embrace being true to ourselves and our beliefs without aspirations for wealth and greed, but rather focus on sustainability and working together to offer us all hope for our future.

The overwhelming feeling is one of kindness, especially having our little Ruff with us as a family. It is an environment full of like-minded animal lovers, and when I woke in the morning and left my teenage daughter sleeping in the tent, Ruff came with me for his morning walk. There were queues for the toilets and showers (for me) and when I reached the front of the queue with Ruff, almost everyone in the queue would reach out to keep him for me while I showered. It was the easiest thing in the world to speak to whoever you met as everyone was so warm and caring.

It was the perfect opportunity for me to finally meet some of your dogs that I know by name only and have seen in photos. I absolutely LOVE them all. I felt so lucky to meet gorgeous Dora the Newfypoo full of life, with the softest coat who used to eat a raw food diet, but for the last 3 years, eats like her family and is thriving on it! I had kisses from sweetest rescue Lucy the Border Collie who eats homemade vegan food using our recipes. How her Dad made me laugh, as he calls the Just be Kind Supplement that he adds to her home cooked food on a Sunday (when he batch cooks for her) – ‘Granny’s ashes’ 🙂

There was a lady who brought 2 very handsome enormous Irish Wolfhounds. I don’t think she got very far at the event as everybody wanted to stop and pat them. I was so pleased to hear from her that she too used Just be Kind Supplement to give them the extra Taurine that they needed. I felt overwhelmed by people thanking me for the advice and help I had given them. To be able to meet people face to face and hug them and know what a difference we’re all making was just so heart warming – I didn’t want the weekend to end.

I get to meet Dora the gorgeous vegan Newfypoo at Vegan Campout and Mum Zoe

Licks from sweetest rescue Lucy the Border Collie who is fed a homemade vegan diet

Just be kind vegan vet and vegan dog food

The talks that they had organised this year were really first class, with speakers who truly inspired and radiated an aura of hope around them even though the topics they were speaking about were so difficult.

We went to listen to Patrik Baboumain – I confess that I’m one of his biggest fans after seeing him in James Wilks’ Game Changers. He is a vegan strongman who has broken multiple world strength records, including the official Guinness World Record for the Super Yoke, carrying 555kg on his shoulders for 10m, fuelled by nothing but plants. He coined the phrase –

“Have you ever seen an ox eating meat?” when asked by someone – How could you get as strong as an ox without eating meat?!

His inspiration for weight lifting and strength came from a desire to be able to lift cars when he witnessed a terrible car crash as a child that tragically killed his Mum and sister. All he wanted was to be able to rescue his Mum and as an adult, he made it his life’s work to show his strength through his food choices. His whole drive now is to focus on saving as many animals as he can through educating people with video games. His heart is pure gold.

We then listened to Dr Alice Brough who is another vegan vet who used to be a pig vet. She now speaks out about the horrors that she witnessed and she now makes it her life’s ambition to educate others about these severe welfare issues. She has gone as far as almost losing her registration with the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons.

She has a tiny frame and stood and spoke so calmly in front of thousands of us (although she did admit to me before talking just how terrified she was to speak in the main stage for the first time).

3 vegan vets Dr Alice Brough, Dr Arielle Griffiths and Dr Silus Goldsworthy

She did such a wonderful job, that there were SO many of us who waited afterwards just to hug her and congratulate her. We almost all wanted a little bit of the aura that she radiated, and for her to know that her vulnerability in standing up and speaking for what she knew was right was being rewarded by an army of us ready to help her! I was in awe of her.

When Joey Carbstrong was about to start his talk, my daughter, Ruff and I were already in the front of the main stage area on the grass, still waiting to speak to Dr Alice. As he stepped onto the stage, the crowd went mad, with people rushing to the front just to see him and photograph him. He has a following of millions and is an Australian animal rights activist.

Joey Carbstrong speaking and inspiring at Vegan Campout

He was a drug dealer and convict in Australia and has the perfect character to expose to all of us the horrors of animal agriculture. I did have to close my eyes quite a few times as he showed us images that stay with me and are too horrific to think of, but with his ability to speak up for the voiceless, he is one person who on his own, has brought about SO much positive change.

He was able to film the cruelty inflicted upon animals at a slaughterhouse in Tyne and Wear and it subsequently closed last year with what he was able to expose! He is a mesmerising speaker as he spoke with such passion and conviction and raw honesty.

One comment he made, reduced me to tears with its truth. He spoke about how he had met with the hardest of individuals during his days working with criminal gangs, and how those people deserved to be locked up and punished for what they had done. But, he reminded us that….

“Animals who are used in the agriculture industry have done nothing wrong, and yet they are subjected to the worst atrocities whether in the dairy or meat industry. They’ve done nothing wrong”, he repeated!

How honoured and humbled I felt to have listened to him.

The food that we treated to over the weekend that we were at the Campout, just shows how truly resourceful people are! For 50 years of my life, I have eaten meat and fish and dairy as I have only been vegan for the last 4 years. I do not miss any of the foods that I used to eat and I know that I will NEVER again ever eat any animal product, or feed it to Ruff knowing all that I now know. To be able to buy foods that are comparable to the foods I remember, I just find remarkable!!

We feasted on croissants, pain au chocolats, ‘calamari rings’, ‘chicken’ wings (made of oyster mushrooms), sushi wraps, hotdogs, doner pitas…I could go on an on, but the resourcefulness of all these hard-working companies in supplying us with the most delicious food that tasted even better than the ‘original’ as we had the knowledge that no animals were harmed at all, was SO good:)

I just cannot wait to return with my family next year!

“As a vet, I believe in a kinder, healthier way to feed our pets that does no damage to our environment, harms no animals and uses fresh, healthy plant-based ingredients for a balanced and delicious diet”

Arielle Vegan Vet