Page 25 - Black Velvet Magazine Issue 107

BV107 pg22-27 Alissa White-Gluz Interview.qxp_BV107 pg25 30/11/2022 20:25 Page 4

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the kind of thing where I feel it’s important for me to bring non-
vegans to these vigils because, as vegans, we know this is hap-
pening, we’re aware of it, we’ve seen it. Nothing phases us
because that’s why we’re vegan, because we know how horrible
it is, and the premise of the vigil is to just give the animals that
have never known love or kindness in their life a moment of
recognition and kindness before they’re ultimately going to be
killed. And there’s nothing we can do to stop that - except just
recognise them, look them in the eye, tell them ‘I’m sorry,’ and
give them a little drink of water because they’re kept in these in-
sanely freezing cold, boiling hot conditions, cramped on top of
one another, limbs breaking off, dehydrated, dying along the way,
kept in their faeces, kept on top of the corpses of their cellmates.
It’s absolutely horrific what they go through. And the vigils are
essentially all we can possibly do to apologise to them, and I
know, ultimately it doesn’t change the outcome, but hopefully,
by exposing this to more people, more people will recognise,
‘Oh, wait a second, hang on, these animals ARE screaming and
terrified and in pain. It’s not a processing plant, it’s a slaughter-
house. They’re killing living beings every single day. So, I think
that these vigils are so, so important, because people don’t have
to see this. They can easily go and buy food and not think about
it, but they should see it because they’re contributing to it.

In ‘In The Eye Of The Storm’ you sing, ‘The chase is on, the traps
are set’ and then later ‘The hounds of hell have picked up my
scent’ and ‘I will run ‘til I die’. That makes us think of fox hunting.
The ‘I will run ‘til I die’ almost makes it sound like it’s coming
from the perspective of a fox. What is the song about?
Alissa: Funnily enough, Michael wrote the lyrics to some of these
songs. He’s very well aware of all these issues too. I’m sure
you’re aware of the hunt saboteurs, the hunt sabs? And, if you
follow them, it’s just absolutely heartbreaking and outrageous.
And they are feet-on-the-ground, grass roots, doing the work that
needs to be done to stop these people from foxhunting, badger
culling. It’s just absolutely horrifying what people will accept as
sport, as normal. Sometimes I see these things and I can’t wrap
my head around how, ‘OK, so a bunch of insecure men get on
horses, which is already abuse, to ride the horse, and then they
use dogs, so they are exploiting the dogs as well, to then go kill
a fox, and not just kill – terrify – chase – this could be a mother
fox trying to get food for her cubs back in the den, chase them
and then tear them apart. It’s just absolutely fucking horrifying
what people do to animals on this planet for absolutely no rea-
son. You wanna have a sport? Go play basketball, go play
hockey, soccer, baseball, football, whatever, go do something
with yourself, leave animals alone. It’s absolutely disgusting.
There’s no reason that anybody should be allowed to do that.
And, quite often, they’re not allowed to do that and they do it any-
way, and the hunt sabs help to expose the people who are doing
this illegally. I really, really respect the hunt sabs because they
are attacked, they have their vehicles destroyed, they’re physi-
cally injured by the hunters, and they still go out there and put
themselves on the line for the animals, so I really have to thank
them.

Black Velvet: In ‘Poisoned Arrow’ you sing, ‘We never meant to
cause pain nor sorrow’. What do you think makes a person cause
pain and sorrow to animals? Do you think it’s down to a person’s
upbringing?
Alissa: I think it is. If we want to look at this from just a general
perspective, children are not raised… if you look at a baby
around a bunny or around a cat, or a dog, if you just look at any
baby when they see an animal, they’re in awe, they’re laughing,
they’re smiling, they think it’s cool, they’re like, ‘Wow, what’s
that?” They’re curious, the same way little kids stare at you, be-
cause they’re taking it all in. This is the first time they’re seeing
another human adult or seeing everything clearly. Their eye-
sight’s developing, they’re able to now take in new colours and
textures and see the beautiful wings of a bird, the nice soft fur
of a cat, and they look at animals and they have love and admi-
ration for animals. Then, somewhere along the way, we are
taught, ‘Actually, we don’t love and admire animals, we exploit
and kill them. And that’s good and that’s normal.’ And I think that
that kind of upbringing is what makes people… it just becomes
normal. It becomes a daily routine, it’s part of their habits, and
they just don’t understand why there’s anything wrong with it.
You know they did it, their parents did it, they don’t see anything

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