We recently did a short interview with Keegan of xTRUE NATUREx and RESCUED via email. Check it out and let us know what you think.

MOTIVE- I know you’ve always been vegetarian (or at least I think I remember you saying that)…what was the thing that made you aware of a need to be vegan?

KEEGAN- Yeah, I was raised from birth vegetarian by my mom. There were two tenants growing up in my house; Never hurt any body (humyn body, cows body, dogs body, etc), and Always question authority. I don’t think I could have been raised with any better values than those.
When I was 11 years old an older friend gave me a record called “All Out War” and on the back side it read real big “GO VEGAN”. I had never heard music like this or read lyrics so angry about injustice. The band of course was Earth Crisis. I would say directly because of the lyrics of Earth Crisis I looked deeper into animal abuse, both humyn and non-humyn and made the ethical decision to abstain from supporting any industry that profits from suffering. For that reason I became Vegan and Straight Edge.
The issue that really got me to go Vegan was when I learned about how mother dairy cows have their babies taken from them, so that humyns can steal their milk. The thought of tearing a child from their mother is still one of the most horrific things I can imagine.

MOTIVE- Tell me a little bit about xTRUE NATUREx…you promote it exactly the same way most people would promote their hardcore band…has it been difficult to get hardcore kids to be open to “one guy with an acoustic guitar” thing?

KEEGAN- xTrue Naturex is an acoustic hardcore project that I started almost 5 years ago with the intention of raising more awareness around animal/earth/humyn liberation issues.
You know it’s funny, I made it an acoustic project so that I could hopefully reach people outside of hardcore, but I guess I do promote it like a HC band. HC is where I’m from and is still the majority of what I listen to for music. I guess I kind of don’t know how to promote something any other way than the HC model?
In the USA nobody seems to really give a shit about xTrue Naturex. It’s not folk-punk, so those kids aren’t into it, it’s not hardcore except for the lyrics, and it’s way too political to be singer/song writer stuff. I think there is resistance from HC kids here to like the music because it seems most HC kids are so afraid to be seen as “not cool”. I’ve done 3 US tours with really marginal success, but I’ve done 3 full European tours and each tour just gets better and better. The last tour I did over there we played 61 shows in 68 days in over 15 countries!The people who seem to like xTrue Naturex here are people who are actively engaged in the struggle for Animal Right and Liberation or those that aren’t from the HC scene. I don’t know though Lin, you’re from the scene and seem to like xTrue Naturex, what were your first thoughts about one guy and acoustic guitar?
I wanted to reach people outside of the scene, so I’m totally okay if cool HC kids don’t like my music;)
I did a tour last January/February through Mexico for 5 weeks and that was probably the most rewarding tour I’ve done to date because so few of the people coming to the shows were actually aware of veganism in the first place.

MOTIVE- Any new releases and /or tours coming up?

KEEGAN- I don’t have any releases planned, although I’m suppose to do a split on a label in Bulgaria in the next year.
After a failure of a USA tour this fall I decided that I was going to give touring a break for a while but I just got invitations to play the international animal rights gathering in Luxemburg this coming fall and Fluff Fest, one of Europe’s biggest HC festivals! So I’ll be doing another European tour next summer for sure, although probably a shorter one.
MOTVE- Tell me a little bit about RESCUED.

KEEGAN- RESCUED is an organization I started last year. We are a farm animal advocacy group using investigative films to expose the reality of what animals endure on farms. The motivation for me to start this organization was to challenge the “ethical, humane, and sustainable” myths surrounding so much of the animal welfare movement right now. It is infuriating to hear animal advocates promote people eating “free-range” meat, dairy and eggs. I have been on many so called “free-range” farms and they are just as bad as “factory farms”. The end result for every animal on EVERY farm no matter how “nicely” they were raised, is to be killed and their body dismembered.
Running RESCUED has been a huge challenge for me, not only because it is almost impossible to find other dedicated people willing to donate their time as well to this work, but because coming face to face with the horrors of animal farming is incredibly taxing emotionally.

For more information on Xtrue natureX, including tour dates and downloadable music, check out

http://www.myspace.com/xtruenaturexmusic
http://xtruenaturex.bandcamp.com

http://www.facebook.com/xtruenaturex?sk=info

For more information ABOUT rescued, check them out at:

http://www.rescuedanimals.org
http://www.rescuedfarmanimals.blogspot.com

What/Who was the catalyst that lead you to being conscious of vegansm and animal rights?

Around the age of 8, my parents enrolled me into an out of school, summer program at a local farm. I was the only kid to enroll into the program that week. While there I witnessed a mother cow give birth to a male calf. Because I had witnessed it, they honored me by naming him Jordan. I visited the farm periodically both in the program and while out of the program. One visit I immediately noticed he was missing. They refused to tell me what had happened to him. I told my parents, and they could see how upset I was. So they asked farm and were told he was sold to an animal dealer. I learned the males are either crated up for veal or sometimes sold into rodeo ‘entertainment’. That night or a night soon after during a steak dinner, my parents joked that “we could be eating Jordan”. I immediately realized the connection pushed my plate away and refused to eat meat ever again and I have stayed true to that promise. Learning a couple years later about the horrors of the egg and dairy industries as well, and realizing the hypocrisy of being a “vegetarian animal lover” who still consumes bi-products. I chose to become vegan almost overnight and have been since.

As far as Animal Rights goes, I contribute a lot of my involvement to talks with my brother-in-law.

What was your initial reaction when you were first served with the subpoena to appear before a Grand Jury?

Six months prior during the summer of raids on local mink farms, the FBI decided to do some ‘investigating’. They visited my parents’ house asking my dad questions and eventually getting my place of work and current residence at the time from him. That incident is why I advocate that we inform all our non-activist friends and families about their rights when dealing with law enforcement. A day or so after visiting my parents’ house, they came to my work. I told them to leave and they warned me that I would face a subpoena to a federal grand jury if I didn’t cooperate. Six months later they followed through with that promise. So, I would have to say my first reaction was… “Them again”. I do admit I was surprised that they followed through. Usually, intimidation and harassment from law enforcement towards activists never goes further than the initial intimidation. I took a break and called the National Lawyers Guild, who eventually put me in touch with an attorney.

For the sake of anyone who isn’t familiar with GJ’s, can you describe briefly what they are in general terms as well as your personal experience with the one you were called into?

A federal grand jury was originally used to determine whether someone should by charged/indicted with a crime. The grand jury uses subpoenas to gather ‘evidence’ and to call ‘witnesses’ to testify, as was my case. It is made up of 16-23 jurors who are called to serve in the same way a citizen is called for regular jury duty. The difference is these jurors are selected by the prosecution and not screened for bias. Another difference is a grand jury does not determine if a suspect is innocent or guilty, but rather determines if there is enough evidence to prosecute. The whole proceeding is held in secret. There is a court reporter and 3 forepersons who are grand jurors that mediate when the prosecution isn’t. The prosecutor is present and runs the affair, however there is no judge and defense attorneys are not allowed inside the grand jury room. Anything said inside the grand jury room is considered sealed and not available to the public, this includes transcripts. Because of this secrecy  and the ability to subpoena almost anyone or anything with no necessary evidence, it has more recently been used as a tactic by the government to harass and intimidate political movements.

I refused to cooperate with the grand jury as a way of protesting its broad abusive powers. In total I went in front of the grand jury 3 separate times. The first time, I presented a motion pro se (on my own without a lawyer) that the subpoena I was given was deficient and that it wasn’t properly filled out and therefore wasn’t valid. I refused to answer any questions. Simply saying “no comment” to every question asked. I was nervous, I noticed I was staring out the window a lot and drumming on the podium in front of me. I was asked mainly questions about my friends and my family.

I was released and a week later served with another subpoena when 7 FBI agents and the United States Deputy Marshal visited my work and insured that the subpoena was properly filled out. I returned to the grand jury and continued with my “no comment” response as a form of civil disobedience against the grand jury system. A judge was then called to the grand jury room and I was ordered that unless I provided a valid privilege I would be held in contempt if I continued to refuse to cooperate. After this I began to invoke my 5th amendment right against self-incrimination. This grand jury was more personal and focused a lot more on my family from what I remember. I believe it was the prosecutions attempt at getting under my skin. I was dismissed again, but this time I was called to a contempt of court hearing. I was eventually sent to the Salt Lake County Jail under civil contempt of court.

While in jail I was subpoenaed to the last grand jury I attended. At this grand jury, I asked to talk with my lawyer and was refused the right to talk to my lawyer in private. I was in the custody of the United States Marshals and they refused to let me out of their sights, even to have a private talk with my lawyer. The prosecutor decided to dismiss the grand jury and I was sent back to jail and transferred to a Federal Holding Facility for 4 months until the term of the grand jury expired.

What is the current status of your case and what are you having to deal right now in terms of having to fight it?

After being released I was charged with Criminal contempt of court. I am only the 3rd known person in the history of the United States to be charged criminally after already serving time civilly for the same act of recalcitrance. The other 2 cases, which were decades ago, also involved political activists. I eventually took a non-cooperating plea deal and was sentenced to 10 months under the guideline range for “obstruction of justice” (because of the rarity of my charge, it does not have its own guideline range). We are currently appealing the range asking that it be dropped to the range of “failure to appear” which is 0-6 months. We recently went to the appeals court in Denver, Colorado. We felt that there was major hostility from the judges from the beginning and our optimism was quickly squashed. In talking with the lawyers we determined that there was only a small chance I would win the appeal and unfortunately a 96% chance that I would be serving time and to prepare for the worst, which is 10 months in a federal prison. It usually takes 3-6 months to rule on an appeal. We are expecting a ruling sometime during or after February 2012.

What have you been up to since your release?

Under my current court ordered conditions of release. I was required to “acquire and maintain employment (excluding employment in the tattoo industry)”. “Avoid political demonstrations”, and ordered “not to leave the state”. I was also told to “not associate with ELF, ALF, or VSE animal liberation groups or members”. Because of some of those conditions I have mainly been forced to stick to one-on-one and Internet activism and work a minimum wage retail job. I also recently started a joke hardcore band which will hopefully be playing a one time benefit show sometime in January or February 2012.

Please take a moment to help our friends at Stop Animal Exploitation Now spread the word about the abuse and neglect of primates imprisoned at Princeton University. In September, a whistle blower came forward with a series of photos (including the one attached above) taken inside their labs that are, even for seasoned activists, incredibly disturbing and hard to look at.

All of Princeton’s contact info is on the SAEN site, but I’ll attach it here as well.

Shirley M. Tilghman
Office of the President
1 Nasau Hall
Princeton University
Princeton, NJ 08544
(609) 258-6100
smt@Princeton.edu

You can go to their website to get more information. There’s also info for donating to their defense fund.

Today, since it’s Fur Free Friday, I thought it would be appropriate for all of us to take a few minutes and remember that there are those among us who are putting their lives and freedom on the line every day to help end animal exploitation. We all owe them a huge debt of gratitude.

To all our brothers and sisters locked up: Hold your head up. We will carry on the struggle until the day when you can rejoin us.

To all those on the run: Stay safe. Stay free.

Until all are free,

-Motive

In the coming months, there will be a lot of content added here: interviews, vegan prisoner updates, recipes, DVD/CD/book reviews, etc…If it has to do with straight edge, veganism, or animal rights we will probably write about it in some form or another.

In the meantime, take a few minutes to look around and let us know what you think.