veganscore
Vegan of the week: Mike Kokernak
Photo by Rebecca Bolte, All Rights Reserved (c) 2011, www.rebeccabolte.com
Name: Michael Kokernak
Age: 33
Neighborhood: Capitol Hill!
Vegan Circa: 1996
Why I Find Him Interesting: Mike is totally lovable, selfless, and active. His whole life is directed towards caring for others and his home is packed with critters that he has adopted or is finding homes for. Also he cooks and bakes amazing vegan food and makes others feel welcome.
Why Vegan: "I was a pretty shy kid and being queer certainly didn't help things at the time. My closest friends/protectors were the dogs I grew up with, Gretchen (a spunky deaf dalmatian) and Shayna (an amazingly sweet retriever mix). I remember getting some PETA literature sent to our house (not sure how it got there) and reading a blurb about "would you eat your dog?" I immediately started making a connection and went vegetarian in high school. For college, I went to UMASS Amherst for animal sciences and had to attend all of these classes about animal agriculture. The instructors all argued that pigs, cows and chickens didn't feel pain the way we did. I remember this lab where the students had to castrate fully awake calves. The instructor sliced the calf's testicles while the poor thing had his head clenched in a gate and was bucking and screaming. So many of the students just stood there like zombies, not questioning, not disturbed. I walked out and have been vegan ever since. I would starve before ever contributing to something like that ever again. - Mike
Spends Time:
- Working as an Animal Care Officer at Seattle Animal Shelter which means he gets to work hands on with the animals, providing their daily care, helping to re-home abandoned animals, educating people about better animal care, including spaying/neutering, breed discrimination, chaining, feral cat protection etc.
- Baking and cooking and hosting gatherings where people leave happy, full, and impressed. Like Water for Vegan Chocolate!
- Playing guitar - he has a lot of 3/4 written songs and will someday be brave enough to finish them and play for people.
- Jogging with his dog Benny, a deaf pit bull (who also eats a vegan diet; he loves V Dog and anything that Mike eats)
- Hiking, especially along the Washington Coast because it is so peaceful and quiet, and it is so fun to watch the dogs romp in pure joy along the beach.
- Living with his partner of 14 years, (also named Mike and also vegan! Don't get them confused)
- Spending time with their 4 senior cats (Sunny, April, Sierra and Jasmine) and 2 guinea pigs (Sam and Emma), and sometimes fostering other animals until they find homes, like the adorable bunny in this photo. Jasmin is the pretty kitty in the photo.
- Volunteering with Food Not Bombs as a driver.
- Dreaming of opening an all vegan bakery/cafe/bar in the rural south somewhere. He is going to hide the fact that everything's vegan and just impress with really good, affordable, comfort food sans animal products. Sounds dreamy!
- Thinking about a future vegan queer outreach program. He figures that queer folks should be able to relate to the oppression that is animal abuse and how it's all interrelated to human oppression. At the very least, he'd like to meet more vegan queer people. (If you are interested in this topic, check out Our Hen House's new series, The Gay Animal.
Mike Suggests: Watching "Year of the Dog." (A Mike White Movie).
If you see Mike on the street: talk to him about some cool off-the-beaten-path trip you took where you unexpectedly found some cool vegan food (he wants to go there), and about True Blood.
Get to know Mike better by adopting one of the many homeless and abandoned pets currently at our local shelter.
Vegan of the week: Mike Kokernak
Photo by Rebecca Bolte, All Rights Reserved (c) 2011, www.rebeccabolte.com
Name: Michael Kokernak
Age: 33
Neighborhood: Capitol Hill!
Vegan Circa: 1996
Why I Find Him Interesting: Mike is totally lovable, selfless, and active. His whole life is directed towards caring for others and his home is packed with critters that he has adopted or is finding homes for. Also he cooks and bakes amazing vegan food and makes others feel welcome.
Why Vegan: "I was a pretty shy kid and being queer certainly didn't help things at the time. My closest friends/protectors were the dogs I grew up with, Gretchen (a spunky deaf dalmatian) and Shayna (an amazingly sweet retriever mix). I remember getting some PETA literature sent to our house (not sure how it got there) and reading a blurb about "would you eat your dog?" I immediately started making a connection and went vegetarian in high school. For college, I went to UMASS Amherst for animal sciences and had to attend all of these classes about animal agriculture. The instructors all argued that pigs, cows and chickens didn't feel pain the way we did. I remember this lab where the students had to castrate fully awake calves. The instructor sliced the calf's testicles while the poor thing had his head clenched in a gate and was bucking and screaming. So many of the students just stood there like zombies, not questioning, not disturbed. I walked out and have been vegan ever since. I would starve before ever contributing to something like that ever again. - Mike
Spends Time:
- Working as an Animal Care Officer at Seattle Animal Shelter which means he gets to work hands on with the animals, providing their daily care, helping to re-home abandoned animals, educating people about better animal care, including spaying/neutering, breed discrimination, chaining, feral cat protection etc.
- Baking and cooking and hosting gatherings where people leave happy, full, and impressed. Like Water for Vegan Chocolate!
- Playing guitar - he has a lot of 3/4 written songs and will someday be brave enough to finish them and play for people.
- Jogging with his dog Benny, a deaf pit bull (who also eats a vegan diet; he loves V Dog and anything that Mike eats)
- Hiking, especially along the Washington Coast because it is so peaceful and quiet, and it is so fun to watch the dogs romp in pure joy along the beach.
- Living with his partner of 14 years, (also named Mike and also vegan! Don't get them confused)
- Spending time with their 4 senior cats (Sunny, April, Sierra and Jasmine) and 2 guinea pigs (Sam and Emma), and sometimes fostering other animals until they find homes, like the adorable bunny in this photo. Jasmin is the pretty kitty in the photo.
- Volunteering with Food Not Bombs as a driver.
- Dreaming of opening an all vegan bakery/cafe/bar in the rural south somewhere. He is going to hide the fact that everything's vegan and just impress with really good, affordable, comfort food sans animal products. Sounds dreamy!
- Thinking about a future vegan queer outreach program. He figures that queer folks should be able to relate to the oppression that is animal abuse and how it's all interrelated to human oppression. At the very least, he'd like to meet more vegan queer people. (If you are interested in this topic, check out Our Hen House's new series, The Gay Animal.
Mike Suggests: Watching "Year of the Dog." (A Mike White Movie).
If you see Mike on the street: talk to him about some cool off-the-beaten-path trip you took where you unexpectedly found some cool vegan food (he wants to go there), and about True Blood.
Get to know Mike better by adopting one of the many homeless and abandoned pets currently at our local shelter.