{"id":12264,"date":"2016-07-28T09:47:22","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T16:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=12264"},"modified":"2016-08-05T12:34:43","modified_gmt":"2016-08-05T19:34:43","slug":"camosun-student-harnesses-passion-for-animal-rights-into-new-club","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2016\/07\/28\/camosun-student-harnesses-passion-for-animal-rights-into-new-club\/","title":{"rendered":"Camosun student harnesses passion for animal rights into new club"},"content":{"rendered":"

Camosun Environmental Technology student Rhonda Hemstreet cares about animals. She cares about animals so much that she co-founded the Camosun Animal Ethics Club to get a dialogue flowing about a more animal-friendly diet and, as a result, an ecologically friendly diet.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of sustainability implications with meat eating and the meat and the dairy trade,\u201d says Hemstreet.<\/p>\n

<\/a>
Camosun student Rhonda Hemstreet has co-founded the Camosun Animal Ethics club (photo provided).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Hemstreet says that the meat and dairy industries contribute greatly to greenhouse gases. For example, she says that a meat eater on a bicycle can have a bigger ecological footprint than a vegan in a car.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of people don\u2019t know that,\u201d she says. \u201cThey want to be green with their choices, but they don\u2019t know how huge it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hemstreet, who has been a vegetarian for four years, says that a lot of people just don\u2019t take responsibility for their choices.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just, \u2018Oh, this is available to me; I\u2019m going to eat it.\u2019 And we don\u2019t really think about the consequences of that,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Hemstreet\u2014who adds that the club will also look at Bill C-246, the Modernizing Animal Protections Act\u2014says that vegetarianism is not just about ethics for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve felt way better both ethically and physically; my health, as well,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was a great choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hemstreet says that things are slow right now for the Animal Ethics Club, but once fall arrives, regular meetings should get underway, as well as more initiatives around campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to really try to get meatless Mondays in the cafeteria and just raise awareness through that on the greenhouse gasses and the sustainability effects of being meat free,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Hemstreet says that it was frustrating that the club got going just as the winter term ended, but she looks forward to things getting busier in the fall and hopes that the club will grow to both Camosun campuses.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would love, once we\u2019re established, to get something going out at Interurban as well,\u201d she says. \u201cThat would be huge, because that\u2019s where the culinary department is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hemstreet says that although sustainability is important in her field of environmental technology, for her, it really comes down to how the animals are treated.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnimals are just totally marginalized, neglected, and abused, and it doesn\u2019t matter if it\u2019s a cow, a cat, a dog, a rabbit; they all can feel, and they are living, breathing, bleeding beings,\u201d says Hemstreet. \u201cThey need to be respected a lot more than they are.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Camosun Environmental Technology student Rhonda Hemstreet cares about animals. She cares about animals so much that she co-founded the Camosun Animal Ethics Club to get a dialogue flowing about a more animal-friendly diet and, as a result, an ecologically friendly diet. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of sustainability implications with meat eating and the meat and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive","category-campus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12264"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12282,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12264\/revisions\/12282"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}