About us
Our Values | Live and let live
We adopt an abolitionist vegan stance and view speciesism as the root of discriminatory thinking, which is why we also unequivocally distance ourselves from all other forms of discrimination (such as racism, queerphobia, etc.). Because humans are also animals, any form of (fundamental) rights violation cannot be reconciled with veganism. For this reason, we also clearly distance ourselves from the organization "Anonymous for the Voiceless" and its founders, as well as from Oliver Loos, Raffaela Raab, and others, and advocate for intersectional (animal rights) activism."
Laurin Bode (they/them/any)
I am an aspiring musical actor, filmmaker and animal rights activist. I have been vegan since November 1, 2022, after watching “Dominion” the day before. These images changed my life forever: I had no other choice but to recognize my mistake and act immediately. But it wasn't always like this: I still clearly remember a trip to a dairy farm in sixth grade. I remember the innocent eyes of those cows, the children in their small cages, just forever stolen from their mother. At the time, the others really made me believe that this was totally normal and humane. Of course, we weren't told how this children came into life in the first place. I then took three bottles
of their stolen breast milk with me. This incident, among other things, shows me today the absurd extent to which we are socially manipulated from childhood onwards and how little we question our actions, especially when it comes to our consumption. I feel like we' ve forgotten what it means to kill someone, what it means to take everything from a sentient being. I have been someone who followed the crowd in this area for most of my life too. We are all born into this deeply cruel, speciesist world, with no real connection between the steak on our plate and the animal behind it, murdered for five minutes of sensory pleasure. After being vegan for 3 months, I realized that I couldn't just sit idly by. Luckily for me, I met Pantalaimon in town at the Cube and told them straight away that I wanted to join in. Two weeks later I had my first cube and since then activism has been one of the most important parts of my life. Fighting against speciesism together with other activists gives me a feeling of hope and arrival. As part of the LGBTQIA+ community, it is also very important to me to stand up for human rights. Since then, I have tried to expand further into other justice movements, or at least to be able to show some basic knowledge of them. Intersectionalism is a very important topic for me and I definitely want to create more visibility and awareness for it. As always: Not your body, not your life, not your choice.
Pantalaimon Sander (they/them/any)
My name is Pan, I'm vegan since 2020 & an animal-rights activist since 2022.
For me, too, the way to veganism was paved with eye-opening situations which I didn't act on at first.
One of these happened when someone talked me into fishing once.
In retrospect, I often ask myself how I could take part in such cruelty.
The sight of the still living fish writhing on the hook has burned itself into my memory.
Many non-vegans say (just as I did back then), that they'd be opposed to factory farming (aka exploitation on a massive scale).
In my experience, witnessing the unnecessary suffering of one helpless
individual is far more impactful for connecting with the consequences of one's own actions. Studying philosophy made me realize the importance of consistently acting in accordance with ethical principles (such as justice) & taking responsibility for my own actions. For me, this especially includes questioning my own opinions & actions, as well as deconstructing societal norms.To acknowledge my own agency, to not passively continue being part of a destructive status quo, was the last prompt that made me go vegan. After a few weeks of struggling to "give up" cheese, I just wanted to be able to look into the mirror without a guilty conscience. Turns out that going vegan was one of the best decisions I've ever made. Since August 2023, my activism is focused on Pressure Campaigns. These campaigns apply pressure (often through worldwide protests) to selected targets (e.g. businesses), in order to achieve a specific goal.With our group "their.skin.hamburg", friends of mine & I are active in Hamburg, doing our part to bring down the fur-industry. Right now, another of our targets is Adidas. This company still makes shoes from the skins of Kangaroos; the global campaign against this cruel mass-killing of wild animals is just beginning to grow in Europe. After Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Berlin, I'm busy and willing to get activists in even more cities to join this campaign. As activists, all of us get to see some of the cruelest aspects of this world and of our society.Besides raising my voice to oppose these atrocities, I often process these experiences through music (black metal is my favourite genre). I also like to immerse myself in Pen&Paper roleplaying-games. Dealing with the problems of a fictional character is a good way to take a break from one's own thoughts for a while, and the hobby is a great opportunity to connect with friends.
Roman Jost (he/him/his)
I have lived in Germany since I was four years old, grew up bilingual with russian and have both cultures within me. As a child, I once had two rabbits that I lovingly looked after with my family. I collected dandelions for them and liked the rabbits very much. At some point they were just gone and my parents told me that someone was slaughtering them and that we would eat them for Christmas. I was shocked but didn't question it further because I saw it as a "normal" thing.
Now I think that this absurd and arbitrary way of treating animals like goods urgently needs to be changed,
because they can feel the same way
we do. I became vegan primarily for ethical reasons in May 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, when I could no longer reconcile with my conscience continuing to lie to myself about organic products etc. Very quickly I looked at all possible information and documentaries. I also realized that, firstly, I didn't just want to not participate in the suffering, but I also wanted to actively do something against it. At the same time, I realized that I wanted to build a vegan environment for myself, which I then did and used it as a kind of "safe space ", a place among people where I could just be completely myself and say what I think and was never judged for talking about animal rights issues or ideas about them. I was able to develop a lot among like-minded people and learn a lot and just feel good. Since June 2020 I have been active in street activism and online for animals and have been committed to a better world in which no one should suffer or die.
Since June 2020, I have been active on the streets and online for animals and have been campaigning for a better world in which no one should suffer or die, as I was already a part-time photographer before, I have continued my photographic and later videographic work on animal rights issues too.