Hanoi Stories Part I: Celebrating Animal Advocacy, Confronting Animal Suffering

Just begin again.  

After a bit of a hiatus, I’m back to posting again. Since my last post, I traveled from Austria to Switzerland and, at the end of September, to Thailand. 

Earlier this month, I arrived in Hanoi to attend the Asia Farm Animal Day Conference—my first time at such an event. It was a gathering of professionals dedicated to improving animal welfare and reducing suffering across Asia, and I was swept up in the energy. I felt inspired, motivated, and, most importantly, part of a community. 

One of the highlights was connecting with advocates from China. I think this was the first time I could speak with people face-to-face about animal issues and veganism in Mandarin and learn about the various advocacy efforts happening in the motherland. 

I also met people working on policy changes at a global level. For example, Animal Policy International is focused on closing welfare gaps between countries like the UK and New Zealand, which have implemented higher welfare standards, and the countries they import animal products from, where standards are lower. The impact of this work is both exciting and crucial!

After the conference, I joined a small group of conference attendees to visit several animal farms—chicken, fish, pig, and cow—in villages near Hanoi. Though I had been to farms that kept a few animals, this was my first time visiting intensive animal farming units.

While I can’t share footage yet (it’s being saved for campaign purposes), I can tell you that the conditions were absolutely horrific. The chickens were crammed into small cages with no space to move. Imagine five chickens living in a space equivalent to two or three A4-sized papers! The cages were rusty and filthy, with thick cobwebs hanging from the ceiling and grime coating every surface.

The cows we saw, lived imported from Belgium and Australia, were tied up in a rudimentary shed, standing on unsanitary wet floors with makeshift sheltering. Restrained by ropes through their nostrils and around their necks, they couldn’t even turn to their sides.

What was the most sickening for me was the smell in all these farms—a mixture of rotten food, animal waste, unwashed animals, and mold. Thick, pungent, and musty, the stench clung to our clothes, shoes, and followed us all the way back to the city. If such stench could somehow be packaged alongside the animal products themselves, I doubt anyone would buy them, unless they have a particular appetite for filth and decay. 

At the end of my visit, I wrote the following note on my phone: 

Eating animal products is the least sexy thing. 

And I think you’d agree if you experienced these farms too.