When he isn’t tackling issues related to sewage and storm water for the City of San Diego at his downtown office, civil engineer Dave Engel can often be found taking part in heated protests at regional slaughterhouses and puppy mills as a champion for animal rights.
In addition, Engel helps organize celebrations and marches related to both the protection of animals as well as veganism. Some of those gatherings take place annually in Balboa Park and North Park.
We caught up with Engel as he is gearing up for California’s first and only all-vegan campout presented by Kind Heart Coalition. It is one of the organizations he works with that helps educate the public on animal rights and “anti-speciesism,” a term that denounces the idea that one species is superior to another.
Downtown Condo Guys: How long have you been an advocate for animal rights and veganism? And what prompted you?
Engel: I grew up in a very liberal forward-thinking neighborhood called Village Creek in Norwalk, Connecticut. It was from this progressive beach neighborhood on the north shore of the Long Island Sound where a coal power plant caused controversy, and when my interest in the environment began.
I had been a vegetarian until 2010. But when the first of four United Nations bodies backed a study saying that animal agriculture accounted for at least 51 percent of greenhouse gases, I then became a vegan. In an effort to curry favor with animal rights activists, I had watched a few factory-farm and slaughterhouse videos. I was horrified and became an animal rights activist by joining the San Diego chapter of Direct Action Everywhere (DxE). I am now one of their core organizers.
Downtown Condo Guys: What other animal-rights groups do you work with?
Engel: The Kind Heart Coalition, whose co-founder, Rachel Hosler, lives in South Park. We’ve also done stuff with PETA, such as anti-fur campaigns and different protests.
Downtown Condo Guys: Do the protests ever get very confrontational?
Engel: Yes they do. It’s civil disobedience and people get arrested.
Downtown Condo Guys: Have you been arrested?
Engel: I have not as of yet. I am still working as a civil engineer for the City of San Diego, and I have assets that can go out the window if these factory farms and slaughterhouses sue me civilly. I can’t put myself in that position at this time.
Downtown Condo Guys: What exactly defines ‘factory farming?’
Engel: Factory farming is when you have animals so tightly squeezed together that they can not move in any reasonably comfortable way. The cruelty we see to these animals is beyond anything you can imagine. And it has detrimental effects on people in terms of their own emotional trauma and what factory farming does to the environment.
Downtown Condo Guys: Is SeaWorld San Diego one of your protest targets?
Engel: We go after SeaWorld quite a bit, about three or four times a year. It’s our goal to let these sea creatures out of the pools they are confined to—and to let them live their own natural lives. The way we measure our success is by looking at the plummeting attendance. Once people become more aware, they are less likely to patronize the place.
Downtown Condo Guys: What other related events in San Diego do you take part in?
Engel: For a couple years in a row we’ve done an Animal Rights March in May. We’ve had different routes in and around Balboa Park. It attracts about 400 people. And for at least the last three years we’ve celebrated National Animal Rights Day in June, in Balboa Park. We’re always trying to get more people involved through social media and word of mouth. KPBS radio has made announcements for us.
I also take part in vegan food pop-ups, which have been held in North Park.
Downtown Condo Guys: In your opinion, can a person be non-vegan and an advocate for animal rights at the same time?
Engel: I don’t want to preach to anybody on what they should do. Everyone has their own paths and they evolve in different ways. So if non-vegans are helping us with our campaigns, that’s a positive and we encourage that. We need to communicate with all people. If we’re not speaking with certain groups of people, then we can’t influence them. The whole idea here is not to be like some puritan. It is to help animals as much as we can.
Downtown Condo Guys: Anything on the calendar between now and the end of the year?
Engel: Yes. We’ll be having our ‘2024 Kind Hearted Camp Out’ at the 67-acre Harrison Serenity Ranch, about 55 miles north of San Diego on Palomar Mountain, Oct. 10-13. It’s a vegan, family-friendly and dog-friendly camping festival that will feature music, discussions, activism workshops, and more.
Downtown Condo Guys: What would you say are the biggest misconceptions within the general public about veganism and protecting animal rights?
Engel: I think first of all it’s been drilled into people’s heads that they need animal products for strong muscles and bones. You don’t need any animal products to get those. People can get protein and calcium from original sources such as grains, beans and other plants. Also what a lot of people don’t realize is that dairy is acidic. It ends up leaching calcium from our bones because of the acidity.
And the misconception about animal-rights activists is that we are the ones who are not informed. People I have interacted with in the movement over the years have really done their homework. They are serious and know what they are talking about.
Downtown Condo Guys: In a perfect world, what is your ultimate goal when it comes to protecting animals?
Engel: It would be the end of animal slavery and the liberation for all species. No zoos, no SeaWorlds, no factory farming, no livestock, no horse races, and no puppy mills. I think there is a good possibility that we can see this happen in 25 to 30 years perhaps.
