December
1995
A
Vegetarian in Russia
By Tatyana Pavlova
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Tatyana Pavlova is the head of the Russian Vegetarian Society and
director of the Center for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. She lives
in Moscow. In this article, excerpted from an interview with Satya this
summer, she talks about her work in Russia.
I decided to become a vegetarian just a few months prior to the time
when I met one of my friends who got acquainted with animal welfare
people, at the end of 1969. She told me a few things which horrified
me, that animals are treated badly, and I decided to go and offer my
help to the Animal Protection Society. This society was the first organization
in Russia and was called the Department for Animal Protection of the
Russian Society for Nature Protection. I didn’t leave it until
it folded a few years ago, and new societies were formed in Moscow
and
Russia. I myself organized CETA, because its purpose was different
from the society for which I worked for about twenty years.
I had been thinking about becoming a vegetarian many times, but people
around me believed that one can’t live without meat. It is strange
that the examples of many millions of people in India and other Eastern
countries who never eat meat somehow didn’t influence me enough.
The vegetarian situation in Russia is interesting. In Russia, it is
people who are willing to become healthy, get rid of diseases, or who
are generally interested in yoga and oriental medical science who are
the majority of those who become vegetarians. There are some people
who are vegetarians because their religion demands it of them —
for example the Hari Krishnas — and there are people who are
just doing it for ethical reasons.
But things are changing. A year ago, we tried to imitate what is done
in the United States on Meat Out Day. We had a show in Central Square
in Moscow and published an article about it in one of the best read
newspapers and invited two TV companies, who showed us on screen. From
that, quite a lot of people called me and maybe one third of them said
that they became vegetarians for ethical reasons. They were young men,
mostly, which was very pleasant to hear, because when it is old women
becoming vegetarians it doesn’t impress people a lot.
While the economic situation in Russia is difficult, those who are
really interested in the ethical side of life are not being swerved
by any
political events or hardships. For them it is something serious. Our
main problem is that in Russia people don’t know very well what
animal rights is and our Center is the first organization to strive
to promote these ideas on TV, by publishing books, issuing leaflets,
and giving talks — whether on TV or radio. Nevertheless, it’s
going to take time.
I have recently prepared a textbook which we have been promised will
be published and introduced into the school system. It is going to
be
used as a textbook in secondary schools for children of the first,
second, and third grade and sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. In the
book, students
are taught about vegetarianism, giving up wearing fur, and the animal
rights movement. They are taught to think of animals as our equals,
of being as important as humans are, and of the fact that Mankind has
a responsibility before all living beings. If this book is used in
schools,
it will be a sort of revolution. Because it discusses things which
biology teachers have never heard about in their lives. Pupils will
take it
for granted of course, but not biology teachers — they will be
shocked.
We have also been trying to provide alternatives to the catching of
stray dogs and cats. Some stray animals are sold to research laboratories
and the rest of them are horribly put to death. We recognize that spaying
and neutering would be the best way out. But in Russia it costs a lot,
and nobody would be able to pay such a lot of money. Instead, we have
been pressing the City veterinary department to give up putting animals
to death and switch to giving animals barbiturates to sterilize them.
Preferably, of course, we would like to make the Moscow administration
not catch animals at all, but to sterilize the female dogs and cats
and keep down numbers by this method. Recently, we carried out an experiment
with stray dogs and to a certain extent with stray cats and presented
the results to the Moscow mayoralty and administration. They accepted
them and will carry on an experiment of their own this autumn.
All in all, I am optimistic about the future in Russia. Just the other
day, I met people from Eastern Siberia who have moved to the country
and are trying to raise money to start an experiment of living without
any sort of civilization. They are giving up everything, all sorts
of
machinery, to raise all sorts of crops and such like things. They want
to return to a simpler life, which, for example, was typical 100 years
ago. That’s not to say that Russians aren’t as silly as
Americans are. They also believe that to produce and to consume a lot
is the dream of one’s life.
My feeling is, however, that people will never protect animals unless
they learn how to consume less. Because the more they consume the more
they have to produce. By doing this they pollute the environment by
both producing more and throwing away things they don’t actually
need. Fundamentally, animal problems are very much the same because
it is just a problem of violence, of suffering, and of protecting someone
who can’t protect him- or herself.
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