About The Victoria Vegan
The Victoria Vegan project began as a local printed newsletter in 2006 (find them all here – archive coming soon!), and evolved into a blog and resource website and works to serve the vegan and animal activist population of Victoria and surrounding areas, encouraging veganism, and respectful and peaceful thought and action for all animal communities.
With a deeper focus on the issues, The Victoria Vegan shines a light on a wide range of topics, and offers much more scrutiny than found on many other sites. An equal opportunity critic, this site will apply the same challenges and expectations on all sides, whether for or against veganism or animal rights.
In the past, specific campaigns have included the horse-drawn carriages, UVic rabbits, the east coast seal hunt, speaking up for local wildlife, plus numerous events, from protests and demonstrations, to public events like the Victoria Vegan Fest and the annual Save-A-Turkey Trot. Check out all the blog story posts on these and much more!
About The Editor
The founder and editor of The Victoria Vegan is Dave Shishkoff, who’s been vegan since 1990, and an activist in Victoria since around 1996. Some of his first actions were with IFAW, dressed as a seal, in opposition to the east coast seal slaughter (and is where he started his career as a web designer), and has been involved with local groups doing everything from ‘Better Naked Than Wear Fur’ protests to huge public potlucks, to co-founding EarthSave Victoria and organizing some of the early vegan-oriented festivals.
Dave spent a little time away in late 2000/2001, which included 6 months interning at PETA in Norfolk, VA, where he confirmed his suspicions that PETA was a highly problematic organization, and definitely not a fit for him. Dave spent several more months in Toronto, where he joined ARK II the Animal Rights Kollective, and returning to Victoria to start a local chapter.
In his time back, Dave got into bike racing (starting with velodrome, then onto the road, MTB and cyclocross), organizing racing as well, and ran a local chapter and bike club/team of OrganicAthlete, which promoted a vegan lifestyle as one of its core principals.
Dave continued promoting veganism through sport, and other areas, like helping run the UVic Vegan club, and enable other vegan activism.
In 2006 Dave was hired by Friends of Animals as their Canadian animal rights campaigner, and did his best to leave the ‘politics’ of the organization out of Victoria, but left in 2013, as things became even more chaotic.
In that time this website was started, and some notable events like the Victoria Vegan Festival, which ran 3 years from 2011-2013. It was held in Market Square, featuring a few dozen all-vegan businesses, both local and national, as well as organizations and entertainment.
Dave spent a few years in Vancouver after that, and was hired to run the online operations of Vegan Supply as it started up in 2015, and was there for about 6yrs. During that time, Dave returned to Victoria in 2017, and has since been organizing cycling events (always with vegan-only prizes!), the Save-A-Turkey Trot, several small vegan websites, and continues to work as an independent web designer.
Some of his projects include:
- VeganStart.org – a website to help people transitioning to a vegan diet
- VeganFidelity.com – a blog site challenging common misconceptions about veganism, and covering topics it seems few other vegan sites have taken on
- AboutTheRide.ca – a local cycling resource site, which includes the Victoria Segment Challenge, a fun competition series, with tons of draw prizes – all vegan of course!
Dave also makes time for his rescues, as a ‘dad’ to hamsters and guinea pigs as well.