Helene Ryles: Living Life As A Grassroots Activist With A Disability

Interviewed by Claudette Vaughan

Helene Ryles is a physically challenged grassroots animal activist. For the Abolitionist she talks about living a vegan lifestyle with her disability, about her companion animals, her thoughts against animal experimentation and about loving her vegan rats.

Abolitionist: Tell us about yourself Helene.

Helene: I am deaf, visually impaired and was born with an under active thyroid and mild Asperger syndrome. My best friend is Jilli my guide dog. I like to read a lot although there are very few vegan friendly books. I also like making things from clay, surfing the net, and walking with Jilli. I also used to do a lot of sport when I was younger such as bungee jumping and trampolining.

I have been vegan for 4 years now. Before I gave up dairy I was a very fussy eater. I think because I was slightly lactose intolerant without really knowing it. I like my food better now.

I was born in New Zealand, spent 2 years in Australia where my uncle Dennis and my brother lives with his Japanese wife. My dad is English and my mother is French. Until I was 11 we used to visit her family in a very rural part of Brittany. I liked it there because people were nice to me. Although communication was limited as I didn’t speak much French and they didn’t speak much English but it never seemed to bother me.

Abolitionist: What does your grassroots activism consist of?

Helene: I write letters, sign petitions, write about animal cruelty on my web site and get books and other information on animal rights transcribed into Braille and large print. I’m hoping to have some transcribed into moon too as I bought a Braille/moon embosser. Unfortunately I’m yet to get it to work.

Animal rights also features in my art work. For example I made a model of a cow having her baby taken away with the words “In order for milk to flow, the cow’s baby must go” I also made a model of a group of rats in a pot with a rat writing graffiti. The rat is writing “Rentokil murdered my family”. I also made a goblet with a group of rats at the bottom holding placards. Saying: “Rat demand rights”, “Don’t test me” and “No to LD50”.

Abolitionist: What animal friends do you share your home with?

Helene: I share my home with Jilli my guide dog. She is a black flat coated retriever and has a really wonderful personality. She is very peaceful. She even lets the rats share her fake bones with her. We communicate really well. I take her for at least 2 hours worth of walks and ball throwing every day which she really enjoys. She also likes to swim.

Her treatment here is a little unorthodox but the guide dog association seemed ok about it when they last checked her performance. My first dog, an Australian sheep dog called Bruce wasn’t at all peaceful. He could be very over protective at times and sometimes snapped at people. I think he was aggressive because he had his tail docked as he wasn’t originally going to be a guide dog. He was bred to be a show dog but they gave him to guide dog association because of a slight deformity.

His trainer was big on what they term “physical correction” which is like smacking only more discreet. She used to tell me that I should be ‘cruel to be kind’ as I never really wanted to hurt Bruce. They claim that if you don’t hit dogs they get spoilt but Jilli isn’t spoilt and I don’t hit her. I think dogs only get spoilt when you are inconsistent in their treatment and they don’t know where they stand.

Bruce was always very highly spirited, prone to taking matters into his own paws. For example if he didn’t like where we were going he used to pretend he didn’t know the route whereas normally he could manage really complicated routes with no problem at all.

Some might consider me having a guide dog unveganly but Jilli doesn’t seem to mind working for me. If she finds a job too stressful she does not cooperate. For example we used go to this area where a lot of anti-dog people live. Bruce used to keep trying to guide me back to the nearest bus stop home and Jilli also has her own way of making it clear that she doesn’t like it there.

I also share my home with 3 chinchillas called Randy, Candy and Severus. I tend to think of my chinchilla’s as furry little refugees. I provide them with a cage the ize of a small room. When I let them out, they only come back when they feel like it. This can take days.

However, I think they would be happier in the Andes where they belong. I find Chinchilla’s one of the more unfortunate ‘pet’ animals. Some people think its ok to breed over 100 chinchillas, all kept in really small cages with wire mesh floors. I see them more as wild animals that have been misplaced because some greedy people who were after their lovely fur to make pelts with.

If I could I would release them but they won’t cope for long in the wild in Britain. I also share my home with 8 at the moment but the numbers tend to fluctuate, as rats do not live long. Bella and Kreacher are my oldest rats at the moment. They are 27 months old.

I had a rat called Darktan who lived to be nearly 3. She was the oldest rat I’ve had so far. Bella has tumors and is quite grumpy with the other rats. She chases Mia and Ella, the 2 ratlets, away when they come too close to the top of the cage which she considers her territory. I think she is the alpha rat at the moment although little Momma stopped her attacking Mia yesterday evening.

Poppy Seeds is the friendliest of all my rats. She is very placid and easy to get on with. She came with 3 other rats called Nancy, Drew and Sky. Sadly Drew and Sky didn’t live for very long. Nobody knows why Drew died as her post mortem didn’t seem to reveal much. Sky died of myco. Poppy Seeds and Sky simply overstayed their welcome in their last home which I think must really have upset Sky as she was very people friendly and also very sensitive. They were also separated from 2 of their former cage mates who were rehomed elsewhere. The shelter tried putting Sky and Poppy with Nancy and Drew but they had to be separated as they didn’t get along. Rat have strong personalities just like humans have strong likes and dislikes. Nancy is very similar to another rat I used to have called Mango Lassi. So much so that I think Nancy is Mango reincarnated. They have the same inability to get on with other rats, they both use their Wodent wheel a lot and I think Darktan recognised Mango/Nancy.

She had hind leg paralysis so I always kept them separate but when Nancy was out Darktan would sometimes crawl over to the bars and they would fight through the bars until either me or the other rats got her out of the way. I rescued Sweet Corn, Little Momma and Coconut Candy in the hope that they would be friends with Nancy. Unfortunately this was not to be. Then Sweet corn went missing. This is very much the down side of free ranging rats. They are more likely to escape. I have lost another rat and 2 chinchillas due to their desire to explore outside.

Fortunately another rat called Honey, who also went missing, came back. My youngest 2 rats are only 7 weeks old. They are also there to keep Nancy company. They are very lively companions but they are rarely in the cage with her.

Abolitionist: Your rescued rats are vegan. How have you kept them vegan
and what do they eat?

Helene: In some ways it’s a lot easier to keep rats on a vegan diet but in other ways it is harder because, while there is a lot written on feeding cats and dogs a vegan diet there is very little on how to feed rats that same way. It seems to be assumed that rats are herbivores but they are omnivores, similar to dogs so like dogs and humans they need a secure source of B12. So care must be taken to include the nutrition they need from a vegan source.

My adult rats eat organic fruit and vegetables, green mush (a supplement which I import from USA), Yofu, Tofu plus a dry mix of organic cereals, Yarrah organic/Ami dog and dried pasta. Kreacher eats mainly Chocolate/Vanilla Soya dessert with green mush and veggie dog mixed with it plus this seed bar called mother hemp which is the only solid thing she will eat.

I also have 2 ratlets who eat Ami cat, soya milk, and various high protein brands of fake meat as well as what the adults eat.

Abolitionist: As an animal activist who is deaf, partially sighted and with mild Asperger syndrome what is your opinion on animal experimentation?

Helene: I think being disabled makes me more strongly against vivisection because as well as the cruelty caused to the animals involved, animal research costs a lot of money and gives people the wrong impression of us as just people who need curing so we can be like everyone else.

There was a really good rehabilitation centre for the blind that RNIB used to fund, which was set up after the 2nd World War. It is by the sea in a most ideal place for newly blinded people to go and learn how to manage without sight. Sadly the place had to shut down because of lack of funds. Yet there is loads of money for animal research.

I feel particularly angry about groups such as “Defeating Deafness” who do tests on animals and promote cochlear implants for small children who have no say in the matter. They give people the impression that deafness is some kind of terrible affliction to be defeated and the deaf just need a cochlear implant and they will be hearing again. This isn’t true. Cochlear implants are just hearing aids for profoundly deaf people. At best they are still hard of hearing but sometimes they are still very deaf and so need sign language or manual communication. I had a friend who had an implant done.

She used to be really laid back before but the implant made her really sound phobic. Last time I met her she was complaining about all the noise she had to deal with all of the time. They can also give you dreadful headaches. They are not popular with the signing deaf community. Nobody talks about that aspect of them though. Or the fact they were tested on chinchillas. Profound deafness isn’t that bad anyway. In fact it has its advantages as I don’t have to deal with noise pollution any more.

I also hate “Cancer Research UK”. My mum died of cancer. She was claimed to have been cured twice. I also know many other victims of cancer who’ve died in recent years yet this organisation, Cancer Research UK, claim that more people are being “cured” annually which makes me feel really angry.

Plus most cancer charities don’t tell people to give up dairy products even though that causes some types of cancer. Cancer Research UK also wrote an rticle saying it is ok to use microwaves and some radiation is ok which isn’t true.

Of course I also feel strongly against vivisection because my animal friends too, particularly my 2 guide dogs, who taught me how much feelings and personality other animals can have. Not so different from humans really except they cause less damage. In fact I had a rat called Mitzy who had a very strong personality and she was also a big influence as we used to communicate telepathically. I know this is probably difficult to believe but I feel I had a telepathic link with Mitzy. The night before Mitzy died I had a sort of ‘dream’ in which I was a rat and was having to endure the LD50 experiment.

Abolitionist: How long have you been an animal activist and why did you become one?

Helene: I’ve been vegan for 4 years but wasn’t particularly active to begin with. I was more into animal welfare rather then animal rights. I learnt about the cruelty involved in factory farming when I went to visit this agricultural college where the pigs were being kept in factory farmed conditions. Before that I used to eat a lot of meat in my diet but I stopped eating factory farmed meat after that encounter. Even after becoming vegan I wasn’t totally against organic/free range food for carnivorous pets and people who refused to give up meat, where the animals had ‘a good life’. I think this is still a difficult issue.

The problem is that people cheat.

I joined “the vegan forum” last year as the online vegetarian store I used to get some of my vegan food from had closed down and I wanted to find another. I knew about the vegan store but it is inaccessible to me as it contains so many graphics. I found them unhelpful and it put me off other vegans at the time. Fortunately it didn’t put me off veganism though. I also began reading other animal rights sites such as Animal Aid and Viva where I learnt a lot about animal cruelty. It’s this influence that moved me from animal welfare to animal rights, plus being able to communicate telepathically with some of my animal friends.

Abolitionist: What is your favourite type of activism?

Helene: I think it is important to inform people about what goes on because many people may not know. I was very naive in the past. Unfortunately there is very little available about animal rights in Braille and some meat eaters also seem keen to promote their diet and there are a lot more of them around. About 12 years ago I became vegan for a few weeks. A friend of mine was vegan but unfortunately she wasn’t a very vocal vegan and my meat eating friend set about persuading me that I needed dairy in my diet. Since I thought that milk came out of a cow as if by magic and cows had a good life I stopped being vegan. I wish the vegan friend I knew had been vocal. I could have been vegan a lot sooner if I’d known what was really happening.

This is the reason I’m putting a library together of material in alternative format although I’m afraid I have had no success at all in publicizing it. For some reason the NLB won’t publish my website in their list
of accessible sites.

Abolitionist: What does being vegan mean to you?

Helene: It means respecting animals and not eating them or eating anything that came from them such as dairy, eggs, honey etc. It also means not using leather, fur, wool, silk or anything that was tested on animals. It also means only getting animals from a rescue centre and not exploiting animals or supporting others that exploit animals as far as it is possible. Some things, such as guide dogs, are harder to give up then others and some are simply not possible without suffering ill health.

For example I need to take drugs for my under active thyroid and also anti epileptic drugs as I also have temporal lobe epilepsy. They aren’t strictly speaking vegan as they were tested on animals at some point. I take them though as I believe they work DESPITE animal testing not because of. In fact Tegretol causes cancer of the liver on rats yet they still passed the drug as suitable for humans which makes you wonder what the whole point of these animal tests were. Also the medicine that I give my rats when they are ill have also been tested on animals but they need it. Medical care for rats leaves a lot to be desired.

Cars aren’t really vegan either yet many vegans still use them. My disability stops me from being able to drive anyway but I wouldn’t have a car for ethical reasons. However I confess I still except lifts in cars from others.

Abolitionist: Where would you like the animal rights movement to go in the future?

Helene: Animal rights should be about educating people about all the cruelty that goes on out there through non violent methods. The problem with using violent means is it tends to attract the wrong sort of person who likes to be violent and is just using animal rights (or any other issue) as an excuse. Unfortunately people like that do exist. It also puts off the right sort of person and people start talking about animal rights people as ‘terrorists’ and that moves the argument away from the cruel conditions the animals are kept in. Of course the press loves it. They probably make up half the stories about animal rights ‘terrorists’.

I think the animal rights movement should stick to animal rights and not get involved in animal welfare issues. I too believe in being realistic but it seems people are using ‘realism’ as an excuse to do things that is not in the animal’s best interest. For example we are told by PETA that it is realistic to expect people to
want to kill rats. They seem to think that instead of telling those people not to, we should make traps that kill the rats and mice more “humanely”.

Also some products on BUAV list of ‘cruelty free’ products, that aren’t tested on animals are still using animal ingredients so they are not really cruelty free.

When you point this out they talk about being realistic. They could at least say which is and isn’t vegan as some people might not know. It seems some groups like PETA even go as far as killing animals such as stray cats and dogs. If a humanitarian group said that street children should be killed, and actually went around doing so, this would be justifiably regarded as a repugnant crime. Yet it seems some people think it’s OK about PETA taking that same line with animals which I don’t understand at all.

Helene’s website is here: http://www.verydangerousbeans.com/index.htm which should tell you more about her.