I am a Vegan animal rights activist. That defines me.
In 2012, I saw a poster on the Toronto subway of a piglet and a puppy that asked “Why Love One but Eat the Other?” What I read and saw below the cute photos – how we treat pigs versus dogs – shocked and horrified me to my core, and I became vegetarian on the spot.
My true awakening did not come until a year later when I met Liz Marshall and she handed me a postcard for her new movie “Ghosts in our Machine.” I read the postcard, went to the website, and said “I am going to see this movie, cry all the way through, and go Vegan.” And that’s what happened.
A few months later I was bearing witness to 4-6 month old pigs going to slaughter. I looked into a young pig’s eyes, saw their fear and confusion, and I saw myself. My life changed that day.
For the next five years (until I moved out of the city) I was very active with Animal Save Movement, Direct Action Everywhere, and Anonymous for the Voiceless, as well as participating in other forms of activism and outreach. I felt I had found my tribe. The animal rights activists I stood with, cried with, and laughed with became my Vegan family.
Many of these activists had small businesses, yet that is not something that often came up in conversation. It occurred to me that we all need products and services and there are ethical Vegans that offer these products and services, but we were not finding each other. What was needed was a Vegan business directory.
My first incarnation of this Vegan Directory was built in 2014, designed for mobile phones, and included businesses in the Greater Toronto Area only. I took that down after a couple of years, intending to relaunch it on a better, more scalable platform, which I did in 2020. Originally this directory was open to all Vegan worldwide, but about a year ago I decided to focus on Canadian-owned businesses only.
In April 2024 I revamped and updated the design of this directory to make it cleaner and faster.
We all want a Vegan world.
The purpose of this directory is to support the Vegan businesses and owners that are helping make that future a reality.
Until Every Animal is Free.
Susan Banks