Joaquin Phoenix: “Change the World from Your Kitchen”

„There is so much pain in the world that we cannot change. But when we ourselves cause animal suffering, we can do something about it.” That is what actor Joaquin Phoenix explains in his brand-new PETA campaign. 

He wants to encourage his fans to take a stand against animal cruelty. Phoenix expresses just how simple that can be in his new campaign: “Change the world from your kitchen. Live vegan.” In the accompanying video, Phoenix sits at his kitchen table and talks about a PETA USA investigation.

The investigation had revealed shocking animal cruelty at a large US egg operation that also supplies Walmart.

“By closing your eyes to the truth, you absolve yourself of all responsibility. But I hope you will join me in flatly rejecting animal cruelty. Discover the many benefits of a vegan life.”

Joaquin Phoenix

The footage from the undercover investigation shows the routine and egregious abuse of so-called laying hens. The animals are kept in utterly cramped conditions: workers yank and twist the hens’ heads to break their necks. The animals have nowhere to stand, sit, or lie down except on the wire floors of their cages. Many are missing feathers, which is often the result of stress-induced self-mutilation or fighting — hardly surprising, given that each bird has less than 0.1 square metres of space. PETA USA points out that every person living vegan saves nearly 200 animals per year.

Defying animal cruelty — living vegan

By exposing the animal suffering at this facility in Ohio, Joaquin Phoenix also appeals to all consumers to reconsider their purchasing behavior. Because what we buy has a significant influence on what happens to millions of sentient beings.

„By closing one's eyes to the truth, one rejects all responsibilityBut I hope you will join me in flatly rejecting animal cruelty. Discover the many benefits of a vegan lifestyle.“

What exactly are these benefits?

There are certainly too many to cover in a single article – but here are some examples:

• The lives of millions of animals can be saved. In Germany alone, around 800 million land animals are killed for human consumption.
• Vegans are less likely to suffer from heart disease, cancer, diabetes, or high blood pressure.
• A vegan diet can reduce a person’s food-related emissions by up to 73 percent.
• Eating vegan is an act of solidarity with slaughterhouse workers. They too are exploited in slaughterhouses, and these facilities are veritable COVID hotspots.

Removing eggs from the menu = saving lives

Chickens are clean and intelligent animals. They have their own language of more than 30 distinct sounds. Among chickens, a complex pecking order exists: not only does every bird know its own rank within this hierarchy, but each animal also recognizes the faces and ranks of more than 100 fellow members of its species. When chickens are forced – including in the German egg industry – to live in dirty wire cages or overcrowded barns, they are unable to engage in any of their natural behaviors. They are deprived of everything that matters to them.

What you can do

Would you like to help chickens? It has never been easier than it is today to remove chicken meat and eggs from our plates. If you enjoy cooking, you can easily replace eggs with vegan alternatives . There are already many egg substitute products from various companies with which you can whip up scrambled eggs, omelettes, quiches, and the like – without so much as ruffling a single chicken’s feathers.