SAN RAFAEL, Calif. (April 30, 2023) — In Defense of Animals’ Interfaith Vegan Coalition has announced the winners of its prestigious Homo Ahimsa Award. Wayne Hsiung and Priya Sawhney, co-founders of the animal liberation organization Direct Action Everywhere and The Simple Heart Initiative, will be honored for their nonviolent activism at an award ceremony on Sunday, April 30.

Wayne and Priya received the award for trail blazing the “Right To Rescue” animals who are suffering or injured and in need of veterinary attention. Together, they created a precedent-setting campaign to gain public support for animal rescue, raise awareness about the political and legal repression of animal rescuers, and ultimately establish the legal right to rescue animals from abuse in the agricultural industry, where it is common practice.

Ahimsa is the Sanskrit word for non-harm and nonviolence. Venerated champions of the teaching include Mahatma Gandhi, who took a vow of ahimsa that informed his life and his activism. 

Homo sapiens tend to view the world through a lens of domination which leads to a great deal of suffering. Homo ahimsa refers to the new human species we are becoming as we leave behind H. sapiens’ worldview and live from our true nature as loving partners with all life.

“The Homo Ahimsa Award honors those who live in nonviolent, respectful, and ahimsa partnership with all life,” said Judy Carman, co-founder of the Interfaith Vegan Coalition and author of Peace to All Beings and Homo Ahimsa.

“In today’s world, it is a truly heroic act every time we express nonviolence or ‘ahimsa’ through our actions, thoughts, and words,” said Lisa Levinson, of In Defense of Animals and co-founder of the Interfaith Vegan Coalition. “Our recognition of this dynamic duo as the recipients of the Homo Ahimsa Award is a fitting tribute to their groundbreaking milestones in the cause of animal liberation and the transformation of humanity. Wayne and Priya’s Right to Rescue campaign is proving through jury-based trials that animals are individuals, not property, who deserve veterinary care and personal freedom.”

The Interfaith Vegan Coalition grants the Homo Ahimsa Award to those who embody the Homo ahimsa qualities of nonviolence and compassion for all beings. Homo Ahimsa Award recipients demonstrate how vegan living can co-create a world of peace, partnership, and loving kindness by ending violence and domination to people, animals, and the Earth.

The Homo Ahimsa Award was established by In Defense of Animals’ Interfaith Vegan Coalition in 2021 and is given to honor those who exemplify the qualities of Homo ahimsa in outstanding ways. The award is named after the book, Homo Ahimsa: Who We Really Are and How We’re Going to Save the World, by the Interfaith Vegan Coalition’s co-founder Judy Carman, who coined the term.

Carman added, “We can stop violence to animals, people, and the Earth caused by our species, Homo sapiens, by making a personal commitment to nonviolence. Together we can evolve and become a kinder species: Homo ahimsa.”

In response to receiving the Homo Ahimsa Award, Wayne Hsiung and Priya Sawhney provided the following quotes: 

“I'm honored by the support of so many in giving aid to the animals. It's a testament to the growing strength of the movement for compassion - which all of you are crucial to.”

— Wayne Hsiung, Co-founder of Direct Action Everywhere and The Simple Heart Initiative

“I am so honored to be receiving the Homo Ahimsa Award for animals. The most important thing we can do in our lifetime is to create more peace on this planet for the most sentient amongst us and I’m glad to be able to have the opportunity to help rescue animals from the most horrific places on this planet. I’m grateful for this award.” 

— Priya Sawhney, Co-founder of Direct Action Everywhere and The Simple Heart Initiative

Watch the award ceremony on April 30 at 4 p.m. PT: https://climatehealers.org/convergence

Watch Wayne Hsiung’s acceptance speech.

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Sunday, April 30: Homo Ahimsa Award Ceremony

In Defense of Animals’ Interfaith Vegan Coalition will bestow its third annual Homo Ahimsa Award to Wayne Hsiung and Priya Sawhney (see bios below). Together, they’re furthering the cause of animal liberation and the transformation of humanity. 

Please use this link to join the online Homo Ahimsa Award Ceremony during V-COP 13: Vegan Convergence of the Peoples on April 30, 4 p.m. PT.Discover more on the Facebook event page: https://fb.me/e/6AAXAAnFE

Direct Action Everywhere’s Right to Rescue campaign:

A campaign to gain public support for animal rescue, raise awareness about the political and legal repression of animal rescuers, and ultimately, establish the legal right to rescue animals from abuse.

The Simple Heart Initiative supports the Right to Rescue campaign via storytelling, training/consulting, and impact legislation.

Biographies of Homo Ahimsa Award 2023 Recipients:

Priya Sawhney is a co-founder of Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) and a factory farm investigator facing felony charges for exposing criminal animal cruelty at a California chicken farm. 

Wayne Hsiung is a lawyer, former faculty member at Northwestern School of Law, and co-founder of Direct Action Everywhere and The Simple Heart Initiative. He has led teams that have investigated and rescued animals from animal-abusing enterprises across the nation – challenging unconstitutional “ag-gag” laws in the process – and has organized successful campaigns to ban fur in San Francisco and California. As an attorney, he served as lead counsel in two “right to rescue” trials in which activists were acquitted after being charged for giving aid to sick and dying animals in factory farms, garnering media attention from The New York Times. 

Wayne’s work has been covered by The Washington Post, WIRED, ABC’s Nightline, and on The Ezra Klein Show. He has also published research (with Cass Sunstein) on climate change’s impact on animals in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review. Prior to his work as an animal advocate, Wayne practiced law at two national firms and studied law and economics at the University of Chicago, where he was an Olin Law and Economics Fellow, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship. He is the proud parent of Oliver, who was rescued from the dog meat trade.

Videos:

Wayne Hsiung Homo Ahimsa Award Acceptance Speech

Wayne Hsiung on Right to Rescue

Priya Sawhney on Animals as Individuals, Not Food (time stamp: 28 - 37)

AHIMSA Acrostic 

Ahimsa is the compassionate way to inner peace and world peace through non-killing, non-injuring, non-harming, and nonviolence. 

A: Abstinence from animal products

H: Harmlessness with reverence for life

I: Integrity of thought, word, and deed

M: Mastery over oneself

S: Service to humanity, nature, and creation

A: Advancement of understanding and truth

Acrostic credit: Jay Dinshah, of American Vegan Society, a member of the Interfaith Vegan Coalition

Images: ​​​https://bit.ly/Ahimsa23Pix

Contacts:

In Defense of Animals, Interfaith Vegan Coalition co-founder, Lisa Levinson, lisa@idausa.org, 215-620-2130

Interfaith Vegan Coalition co-founder, Judy Carman, judycarman@ymail.com, 785-760-2446

Direct Action Everywhere and The Simple Heart co-founder, Wayne Hsiung, wayne@thesimpleheart.org, 510-680-0101

Direct Action Everywhere and The Simple Heart co-founder, Priya Sawhney, priyazalia@gmail.com, 925-212-7549

Organizations:

In Defense of Animals is an international animal protection organization with over 250,000 supporters and a 40-year history of fighting for animals, people, and the environment through education and campaigns as well as hands-on rescue facilities in India, South Korea, central California, and rural Mississippi. www.idausa.org

The Interfaith Vegan Coalition (IVC) helps animal activists and spiritual leaders bring vegan values to spiritual, ethical, and religious communities. The IVC provides tools to help all faith and secular wisdom traditions practice the ideals of nonviolence, lovingkindness, and harmlessness toward all animals. www.interfaithvegancoalition.org

Direct Action Everywhere is a global network of activists working to achieve revolutionary social and political change for animals in one generation. www.directactioneverywhere.com

The Simple Heart Initiative transforms the world via rescuing animals, storytelling, training/consulting, and winning court cases that set precedent for the Right to Rescue. www.thesimpleheart.org

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