HOST: Welcome, loving viewers, to today’s Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants, featuring Australian animal advocate Jaylene Musgrave, founder of the animal rights group Vegan Warriors.

For her tireless efforts to save the lives of voiceless animals, including factory farmed pigs, battery caged hens, kangaroos and wallabies, koalas, circus animals, whales and Australia’s wild dogs or Dingoes, Ms. Musgrave was nominated for the Pride of Australia Medal 2010, a national honor, which recognizes “people who give themselves without fear or favor” and “people deserving of our thanks and recognition.”

She is also founder of “Eden handmade chocolates,” a company selling vegan chocolates online. Ms. Musgrave funds her extensive animal advocacy work with the profits from this enterprise.

During her childhood, the compassionate Jaylene Musgrave befriended many farm animals.

Jaylene (f): We had some chickens which I absolutely adored. And I would sit in the chook pen with them, just play with them and pet them and talk to them, and I used to cuddle them and carry them around and put them in my little pram with my doll. And I just adored them. And one day, I came home from school and all my friends had being killed. My dad had killed them because he said they weren’t laying (eggs) so it wasn’t worth feeding them.

And I also had a duck called Donald funnily enough; and Donald was also like my best mate, and I just adored Donald. And he used to try to follow me to school all the time. And then one day, Donald disappeared and someone had, I think, anyway, taken him because it was just before Christmas. And it was too traumatic for me because I put a necklace on him when I had him.

And I spent so much time with him and the chickens, and to lose them was like I lost a part of myself, and I couldn’t get over it even though my family kept saying, “It’s alright, they are only animals”. To me; they’re my friends. And that’s when I realized what was on my plate are my friends. And I don’t eat my friends. And that’s when I became vegetarian.

As an adult Ms. Musgrave championed many animal causes and eventually founded Vegan Warriors in 2008.

Jaylene (f): I spent quite a number of years living over in Europe in the UK, and I was involved in a few different animal-rights activities over there. I came back to Australia with a renewed sense of vigor and energy and wanting to publicize animal cruelty in our own country, particularly factory farming. So I decided that I would form Vegan Warriors and take it from there and just see how much support I was given by the media, because the media is such a huge influence in getting our message across.

Foie gras or male duck or geese liver is regarded by some as a delicacy. However, few people realize that to produce this so-called “luxury item,” the birds are barbarically force-fed unnaturally large quantities of food many times each day, causing their livers to swell several times their normal size, which leads to hepatic steatosis or “fatty liver.”

Jaylene (f): I realized that a number of restaurants in Brisbane were actually serving foie gras. And as people know, foie gras is an incredibly cruel dish, as are any meat dishes. But I decided that would be the start of my Vegan Warrior journey. And I compiled a list of restaurants and cafes throughout Brisbane that were serving this dish and decided to contact them personally. I went straight to the top, and the Stamford Hotel chain is a huge hotel chain throughout the world. So I contacted the head of operations in Sydney, and I detailed to him the cruelty involved in the making of foie gras. And he was actually quite shocked and disturbed.

He had no idea, and he immediately recalled it from every restaurant and/or cafe throughout the Stamford chain in Australia. I also did the same with a number of other restaurants and cafes. And I actually asked one of the bands in Australia, Frenzal Rhomb, they're vegan, and I asked them if they'd speak out against foie gras in Australia as well, which they did. So I got quite a bit of media on that as well because of their support.

HOST: One of Vegan Warriors’ recent initiatives is Vegan Trial Food Day for the Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital’s volunteers and staff.

SMTV (f): Can you tell us why you started that and what the campaign is about?

Jaylene (f): It’s the largest wildlife hospital in the world of its kind. When you spend time there, you walk away a different person. There’re probably about 90 koalas there at any given time that are being cared for, as well as other wildlife that’s being brought in to be cared for. And through that, I met the manager of the Wildlife Warriors fundraising arm, Murray Monroe, and he is an amazing man.

And I suggested to him, knowing that the staff there just love animals so much, that we put on a day where they could experience the amazing array of the beautiful vegan food that’s out there now. Because Murray was saying that he would like to be vegan but, as most people think, he said, “Oh, it’s too hard.”

So, knowing that it isn’t now and I just thought, “Here’s an opportunity to let these people know that there’s another way of living, and that they can live a life where they can actually look into the eyes of these precious creatures that they’re looking after and know that their heart is open and full to treading lightly on this Earth and not partaking in animal cruelty, whatsoever.”

Jaylene Musgrave (f): And we had our first day with Loving Hut and their beautiful food. And there were 50 staff and volunteers that came along for the lunch and they were totally speechless. They couldn’t believe that this amazing food was vegan. They had no idea. We handed out a lot of information on veganism and animal rights, and also on Loving Hut. And I also gave a talk about veganism and animal rights, because a lot of the people there, they’re vegetarian, but they don’t know the cruelty that’s involved in the dairy and egg industries. So that was just a fantastic day.

HOST: Besides gaining support from people in Australia, Vegan Warriors has also received backing from celebrities abroad.

Jaylene Musgrave (f): I’ve been very fortunate once again that a beautiful lady, Heather Mills, who is a world-renowned vegan and animal rights activist in her own right, and she actually owns VBites café franchises. I liaised with her a number of years ago about the possibility of having her support for my work. And she was just so gracious and wonderful and she said, “Of course.” She gave me a statement on the state of the Fraser Island Dingoes, which once again was picked up overseas as well. So the power of celebrity cannot be underestimated.

Jaylene Musgrave (f): I am fortunate in that I’ve had quite a long career working in the industry with some of Australia’s leading performers. And because they knew me personally, they knew it was my passion. I asked that they possibly lend their support and their celebrity to my campaigns and some of those bands have been so giving in their time and their merchandise and giving of their name to some of my campaigns. John Butler Trio is a very successful Australian band which is well known overseas as well. They came on board without question. Hilltop Hoods, Vanessa Amorosi, Silverchair, so many bands that just wanted to help spread the word about veganism and animal rights.

HOST: Pure-bred Dingoes are an endangered species in Australia and Vegan Warriors publicizes their struggle for survival and advocates for their protection. Jaylene Musgrave has adopted a Dingo-Husky mix called Eden, whom she rescued from a local shelter.

Jaylene Musgrave (f): Dingoes are incredibly intelligent social creatures. And obviously they live in the pack and Eden’s part of their our pack, we’re part of hers. And I think that she’s really helped educate a lot of people with the way that they are. And children in particular seem to pick up more so than their parents that she’s a Dingo. And they’re not scared of her.

Dingoes are the most beautiful animals and as I said they’re so intelligent. And she just is 10 steps ahead of me most the time with the way that she thinks. And I think I’ve learnt so much from her. And I’m just so grateful that she chose me to be in her life.

HOST: Finally, we asked Ms. Musgrave about Vegan Warriors’ future projects.

Jaylene Musgrave (f): Something that I’m also very passionate and committed to is stopping the amount of land clearing. I have to start in my own region. Where I live I remember coming up here as a child and there would be kangaroos literally on most streets, which were dirt roads. Those dirt roads are now bitumen, that bush is now housing developments. Our wildlife has nowhere to go, our wildlife is paying the ultimate price for human want and human greed.

So what I’ve done is I’ve contacted once again Darren Cordeux from Kisschasy a band in Australia, who is a very passionate vegan animal rights campaigner, and Darren has lent his support to my campaign on land clearing. So, I’ve requested that our council put in place a program, which Ballarat city council has in place now, which means that developers must adhere to their guidelines with keeping the wildlife safe in those particular areas that they’re looking to develop.

I’ve had quite a bit of media on this, and it’s actually becoming more and more bigger each time I send out an update on it. We had a journalist come up from Sydney, Australia’s leading youth radio station Triple J, and he and his crew came up here to see what harm has been done to our wildlife through over-development, and that story will be going nationally very soon.

HOST: Kind, caring Jaylene Musgrave, we sincerely thank you for your endless work for the rights of animals in your country and your determined efforts to stop animal cruelty as well as for your promotion of the nourishing vegan diet. May your loving assistance and commitment continue to bear fruit.

For more details on Jaylene Musgrave, please visit: www.Edenhandmadechocolate.com.au

Thank you for your company today on Animal World: Our Co-Inhabitants. May the thread of love grow through our contributions toward a peaceful world and the vegan lifestyle.