On the first of November 2025, we celebrated the world vegan day in Älmhult, at Muff, the best vegan place to be in Sweden.
During that night, two screenings took place. I could only watched one of them, because it “only” has a couple of graphic images. It’s a Danish production, and it’s called “For the lives of others”. It covers how the Danish police is attacking peaceful activists who demonstrate against fur shops, zoos etc. The racism within the police is also obvious.
I strongly recommend it:
This film, on that same night got an award from the first Vegan film festival that took place in my home country, Greece. What a coincidence!
Soon after that great night, we watched an excellent film essay by a great Romanian activist team which advocates for total liberation, named Just wondering :
The transcript of the film can be found here.
Sadly, this movie, was not even accepted by the Vegan film festival in Greece. I wonder why.
We have millions of stray dogs and cats in Greece and many of them live great lives because people give them food and apply protection from parasites on them. Of course, sadly, most dogs and cats are also sterilized by humans, so there is some invasion on their bodies by us, but in the case of Greece it seems like a dead end because it’s a country where very often people poison strays (and not only….In Greece many wild birds die from poison and there is even a unit of dogs trained to locate the poison before it’s too late). Also, many strays die on the road after collisions with cars (and again, this doesn’t happen only to stray dogs and cats, but also to bears, wolves, foxes and other wild animals) so there is always a question mark, what’s better, to have them adopted (and thus, captive in human settlements) or to let them be but also endangered? I think that this film should be screened in the Vegan film festival because this conversation should take place in vegan communities but sadly, the minds of vegan people in Greece is still very narrowed apparently.
After watching the film, I read the book of the director (with Eva Meijer as co author) Straying with street dogs for which I have written a review on good reads which I am sharing here too:
“Street dogs teach us how to be ungovernable”
I just finished reading this book and I am in awe. I enjoyed reading every single page of it but I also enjoyed the photos of the Romanian cats and dogs that one can find in it as well as the artwork and the afterword. It made me think of all the head strong dogs and cats with who I have developed a relationship in my life.
Having grown up in Greece and been an animal “rescuer” myself, I found so much interest in this book because it’s been quite some years since I realized that ownership of non human animals is inherently unethical and wrong but I haven’t found a book or other critical thinkers of my time to ponder on that too.
So, to first watch the film “Straying home” (directed by one of the authors) and then read that exceptional book, has been intellectually nourishing for me and I must say that both gave me the hope that we may be at last able to start having this conversation more openly, within the frame of Critical Animal Studies at least, in an international level.
To read a book which actually is a conversation of two antispeciesist activists is refreshing and unique. Quite philosophical, not easy language for non English native speakers (even though both authors aren’t either!), so it may challenging for some but it is 100% worth the try. While reading it, I thought that this book must be translated in all the languages of the countries where stray animals live.
While reading this book, I remembered how Misoy, my 2nd and most beloved dog who died last year, was digging holes and running away, right after I brought him home, just to later come back with his stray friends, asking me to feed them too (and maybe take them in too?). I remembered how often he escaped fences that I was installing for his own sake in all the places that we lived together. Misoy, indeed taught me how to be ungovernable and showed me what it means to be a free spirit.
While reading this book, I wondered, if I indeed have to go back to Greece and bring with me to Sweden the two stray dogs that we took care together with my partner last year, but had to leave them back, because my dog doesn’t accept other animals around him. Maybe they won’t want to be adopted. Maybe they are just fine as strays in the area where they reside. We must set a multispecies assembly before deciding. We must listen to what they have to say too. And there are ways to listen.
Maybe not all stray dogs and cats need to be rescued and rehomed and this is something that most animal rescuers have never thought about.
This is a book that everyone who does TNR must read and ponder on its content.
I am thankful for this book, because it really challenges the narrative on the “problem” of stray animals and brings in surface the real problem of our species: Human supremacy. It’s time for us to start thinking in a more contextual level, especially if we are considering ourselves antispeciesist activists. It’s time to step away from saviorism and be more in solidarity with the non human animals that we so much love.
And this book is a great starting point for that.
P.S Check also the podcast Last Fireflies (English speaking by Romanian activists) and the episode 37 from the podcast Lenesx Radio, in which the host talks with the Turkish activist Sinan from the Portuguese organization Climaximo about organizing during and against accelerating climate change. they start the conversation by describing some of the principle that our political work is based upon, in particular that the real risk of climate collapse is underrepresented and that the capitalist class will always resist any meaningful structural change. Then they talk about Climaximo, their mode of organizing and plans for the future. Sinan explains to us how they operate under the assumption of a state of climate emergency and their effort to frame climate change as a war waged by the capitalist class against the rest of the world. We finish with some book recommendations and a call to get organized.
Greetings from frozen and white Sweden
Elisabeth Dimitras