Ed Winters

Ed Winters
Born	1994 London, England
🏳️ Nationality	British
Other names	Earthling Ed
💼 Occupation
📆 Years active	2016 – present
Known for	Animal Rights Advocacy & Viral Speeches
Movement	Animal Rights & Veganism
🌐 Website	www.earthlinged.org

Ed Winters, also known as Edward Gaunt, is a British animal rights activist, filmmaker and lecturer. He has a large social media presence on platforms such as YouTube and Instagram, where he goes by the username Earthling Ed. He rose to prominence with his university lecture "You Will Never Look at Your Life in the Same Way Again" being viewed over 33 million times online. He gave two TEDx talks in early 2019, and has taught classes on the ethics of using animals as commodities at Harvard University.

Animal rights advocacy

Winters started his YouTube channel in 2016, alongside co-founding the animal rights organisation Surge with his partner. He specifically focuses on education as means in which to advocate, with a focus on philosophical and ethical arguments regarding accepting animals into "our circle of moral consideration." His online teachings are based on effective communication and positive community building. As of April 2019, his YouTube channel had more than 160,000 subscribers.

Animal liberation marches

In 2016, through Surge Winters co-founded The Official Animal Rights March, which succeeded in growth from 2,500 participants in London in 2016 to 10,000 in 2017. The events also took place in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Bucharest in what the activists described as "a consolidated global effort to make the vegan voice heard." In 2019, the number of activists rose to tens of thousands, who marched in 42 cities around the world, including Cologne and Berlin in Germany. In Cologne, around 1,000 activists conducted the event, marching 6 kilometers and conducting 'die-ins' and fake blood protests. In London, around 12,000 activists participated in the march, up from 10,000 in 2017 and 2018.

Anti-fur campaigns

Under Winter's co-directorship, Surge conducted anti-fur demonstrations at the London catwalk events attracting more than 250 people in September 2017, a rise from 120 the previous catwalk season and 25 in September 2016. The protest included petitions and a video with Lucy Watson calling on the BFC to ban fur. In 2018, Winters gathered anti-fur campaigners and protested at the Burberry, Mary Katrantzou, and Christopher Kane shows, besides 180 The Strand, the official home of the event. Protests included animal rights activists covering in fake blood, wearing costume, and bearing signs outside of 180 Strand. Winters and fellow activists called upon the British Fashion Council (BFC) to ban all fur from London Fashion Week. The London Fashion Week eventually went fur-free in 2018.

Other activism

Surge brought to light cruelties in United Kingdom's dairy farms after taking footage of them, which according to Winters "shows not only a flagrant violation of the safety of these animals, but points to the wider systemic issues found throughout the whole dairy industry." In 2017 he also produced the documentary Land of Hope and Glory, which contained this footage, to which the RSPCA was forced to respond. Winters was also among those who petitioned Priestlands School in Lymington, Hampshire, to prevent the slaughter of their Tamworth and Gloucester Old Spots pigs. The school presented its students with the piglets to teach them how to "fatten up pigs for slaughter", and Winters launched a campaign after the school dismissed a parent's initial concerns. His campaign reached 37,000 signatures within days of its launch. Winter has given speeches in one-third of U.K. universities and across college campuses in America. Winters has appeared on live television numerous times debating the ethical and environmental arguments for veganism. In September 2018 he opened an entirely non-profit vegan restaurant in London called Unity Diner. Winters was also one of the guests at the 2018 Montreal Vegan Festival.

On 14 February 2018, Winters was attacked by an apparently aggressive farmer when Winters and his team of animal liberation volunteers were laying roses for animals being sent to slaughter in the Thame Livestock Market, Oxfordshire, on Valentine's Day. In November 2018, when Winters was questioned by This Morning presenter Phillip Schofield whether he was a militant vegan, Winters said he "stands up for what [he] believes in" and that "violence is never on the table", adding that "I'm personally offended by people who exploit animals... pigs are in gas chambers screaming." In reply, Schofield shocked the viewers by saying "the more militant you are, the more I’ll back away... if you make me that angry and frighten me that much–I will eat a sausage!"

In March 2019, Winters, along with 200 other activists of the animal rights campaign group Meat the Victims, stormed a pig farm in Laughterton, Lincolnshire and videotaped the happenings. The owner of the farm accused the activists of causing two piglets to die. Winters refused the accusation, pointing that many of the animals were already dead and that the owner is "twisting it to present herself as the victim." He added, "The footage shows there were already dead piglets on the floor and scattered around the farm. When you see the footage it is obvious these animals were suffering. We have nothing against her apart from the system she is a part of." The videos were later posted on social media by the activists.

In 2019, he toured the United States and gave vegan lectures at Cornell, Harvard, Brown, Columbia, Yale, and Rutgers Universities. In his talk at the Cornell University on "The Ethics of Pet Ownership", he argued that the concept of having animals as pets is unnatural because viewing animals as "pets" and ourselves as "owners" instills a sense of propriety and devalues the lives of the pet animal. In his October 2019 speech, Winters tried to convince footballer Jermaine Jenas to adapt veganism, which made the latter explore more about the lifestyle by interacting with nutritionist Rhiannon Lambert, chef Miguel Barclay, and vegan footballer Chris Smalling on a BBC documentary.

Coronavirus controversy

In March 2020, Winters posted an image on his Instagram account stating that "COVID-19 started because we eat animals" and "would not exist if the world was vegan". PolitiFact identified this as misinformation, and a journalist for USA Today concurred, causing the post to be censored as "partly false". The Guardian published an article on 28 March 2020 titled "Is factory farming to blame for coronavirus?" which mentioned the censorship of Winter's post and concluded, "But the claims are also partly true. Though the links they draw are too simplistic, the evidence is now strong that the way meat is produced – and not just in China – contributed to Covid-19."

Personal life

Winters is based in London. He turned vegetarian in May 2014 after coming across a news article about a chicken truck crashing near Manchester. Upon reading that many of the birds had died, he "realised that all animals had the capacity to suffer", something that he had never considered before. He then became vegan after watching the documentary Earthlings.

External links

• Official website
• Speech: "You Will Never Look at Your Life in the Same Way Again"

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