With a passion for ethical living, Sabrina transitioned from being a vegetarian of over six years to embracing a vegan lifestyle on April 1st, 2015. Fuelled by her commitment to animal welfare, she founded White Muck with a noble purpose: to channel profits towards establishing and sustaining a farm sanctuary. Each piece of clothing from White Muck bears Sabrina’s personal touch, as she meticulously hand screen-prints every item, infusing the brand with her dedication and care.
But Sabrina’s endeavors don’t stop there. She is also the driving force behind This Stop Is Willoughby – Vegan Shoppe, nestled in Downtown Dover, NH. This physical retail haven caters to the compassionate consumer, offering an extensive range of 100% vegan products spanning clothing, food, bath & body essentials, pet supplies, books, candles, eco-friendly items, and much more.
Meatless Movement recently had the opportunity to chat with her.
Sabrina’s commitment to promoting cruelty-free living shines through in every aspect of her ventures, making her a true trailblazer in the vegan community.
Please tell us more about yourself
WE’RE ALL HERE FOR THE SAME REASON: LET’S SAVE SOME ANIMALS
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I am Sabrina Moore, owner of White Muck Vegan Apparel and formerly owned This Stop Is Willoughby Vegan Shoppe. I am originally from Los Angeles but moved to New England 9 years ago and am now settled in Northern New England.
Share with us the reasons behind your decision to embrace a vegan lifestyle
Like any other vegan who goes vegan for the animals, I just decided one day – I had enough.
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one?
I went vegan 9 years ago after being vegetarian for about 6.5 years. One day I started to get curious about why vegans were always going on about animal rights. I was vegetarian so I wasn’t contributing to
animal abuse… right?
I was absolutely one of those people whothought vegans were dramatic and loud for no reason. So I bought a book that talks about veganism from the perspective that in Buddhism there are two sects: vegan and non vegan. And why the vegan path is important and necessary.
I was actually on my flight from California out to New England for the first time to see if I wanted to move here and I started to read the book. I don’t think I even finished the first chapter before I made up my mind to go vegan.
There I was, sitting on a plane full of strangers, bawling my eyes out as they discussed the process for transporting and killing factory farm animals. Keep in mind, I hadn’t even gotten to the part about dairy cows and the dairy industry, and I already didn’t eat meat, but I knew if there was more
abuse out there, I didn’t want to be a participant.
So after reading how they hang pigs by their back legs, run them down an assembly belt, they are often improperly stunned before their throats are slit and so they feel every second of the pain of their murders, I knew I had to make the change.
My childhood dog, Jewel, was the reason I went vegetarian. Picturing her being hung up like that filled me with so many emotions it impossible to quantify how I felt. And I knew I would never let anyone harm her in that way, nor would I want to be responsible for any other animal being treated with such disgusting abuse. Because I was on a week long trip in an area I was unfamiliar with, I couldn’t start my vegan journey then. But the day I got back home to California, I went vegan “cold turkey” on April 1
st, 2015.
I know the vegan life style is a strict commitment but when you do it for them [the animals] and not yourself, the choice is actually very easy
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Everyone is so worried that vegans don’t get enough protein, and I am being very hoenst when I say I didn’t start getting protein until I went vegan. As a vegetarian I just didn’t eat meat and never gave thought to my nutrition otherwise.
So when I first went vegan, I started getting actual protein and was so bloated I looked pregnant after meals. It took a while to find the balance but now as a vegan I am so much healthier than I ever was as an omnivore / vegetarian. So don’t worry, this vegan still hasn’t died of protein deficiency (haha)!
What obstacles do you encounter when seeking vegan food or dining out with friends, and how do you navigate and overcome these challenges?
We’re constantly talking about being vegan because animal abuse is so normalized in our daily lives
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I feel like my answer is going to frustrate a lot of people because I don’t find much issue. I definitely wish it was easier to access vegan restaurants more frequently but that is more of a problem of people
being unwilling to support small businesses over large corporations, so we can’t be too shocked when, unless you live in a major city, there aren’t just clusters of vegan food spot in your town.
However, I drive all over the country for my business. So when I travel, I get to try all kinds of different vegan restaurants. Plus, I love getting out and about so I have no issue driving down to Massachusetts or Rhode Island for lunch. And again, because of my vegan businesses, most of my friends
these days are vegan.
So going out to eat is never a problem. And my non vegan friends and family are always willing to go to a vegan restaurant.
How do you feel about being a vegan?
I know what you’re thinking, “Sabrina you must just be busy printing shirts 24/7 and don’t exist as a human outside of your White Muck duties”
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I feel being vegan is the only way to be. I try to encourage people with a gentle approach because I know being that stereotypical loud, in your face, make change now, vegan isn’t often well received.
However, inside I am constantly enraged that I am supposed to accept that strangers, friends and family pay to have done to animals in the name of “food” what would be literal felonies if done to humans, who yes, humans are also animals but sadly laws reflect that people think humans are above non-human animals.
I now understand why the same vegans I judged all those years ago, are so loud; they feel helpless, they feel frantic, they feel rushed to save lives. I am so unbelievably proud to be vegan.
How would you encourage someone who hasn’t yet embraced a vegan lifestyle to explore meatless options?
Often when I talk about veganism and factory farming/animal abuse to non-vegans, I talk about the topic in a very nonchalant way but while being direct and blunt about the atrocities that come with eating meat
and dairy. It helps to normalize the true facts behind factory farming and allows people to sit in the discomfort of their choices without yelling at them or judging them.
I often find this helps to open people’s minds to being conscious of the foods they eat and hopefully enjoy their non-vegan meals less and less.
While this is not a complete list, here’s a list of some spots I love and would love to see others support :
- Veggie Galaxy, Cambridge MA
- Basil & Bunny, Bristol RI
- Like No Udder, Providence RI
- Celebrated Bakery, Richmond RI
- Lovebirds Donuts, Kittery ME
- Likkle Patty Shop, Windsor CT
- Bitchin Donuts, Albany NY
- Devil’s Lettuce, Glen Allen VA
What are common misunderstandings surrounding vegans?
It wasn’t until I was 24 years old that I began to become exposed to much more information showing me how wrong I was
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Firstly, veganism isn’t a diet. It’s a lifestyle. So, of course, we do not eat animal biproducts, including honey, but we also don’t wear anything that comes from animals, like wool, silk, leather, etc. We don’t use
products containing animal bi-products, we use products that are vegan/cruelty free.
We don’t get standard tattoos, we get vegan tattoo ink because yes, animal abuse can be found in anything, even tattoo ink where you wouldn’t expect it to be.
Secondly, I think a big misconception about veganism is also true depending on where you live. People think being vegan is hard, unobtainable. And it’s not hard, it’s just not as convenient as being non-vegan. But the ethics outweigh the convenience.
If every time you ate a burger, a child died, you’d get pretty cool with not eating burgers anymore. So for vegans, knowing no animal abuse goes into their meals, makes it easy to be vegan.
So yes, it may not be as convenient, you learn how to navigate and it becomes your new norm, something you don’t think about as much. I definitely don’t feel distressed when it comes time to eat. However, it
absolutely needs to be noted that I live somewhere where I have access to vegan restaurants, I have a car and can drive myself to different food stores or even local farm stands to get fresh produce.
This is not the case in those living in environments with lack of proper public transportation, local large food stores that offer a range of fresh foods, and experience food deserts. It is easy when you have access to vegan products that facilitate the lifestyle to say everyone should do it, but I think as a community we need to recognize that it is not obtainable for every person to live a vegan lifestyle and that is not an
issue to put upon the individuals themselves, but rather the cities and states they live in that perpetually keep these communities in want for more accessible options to healthy foods.
I think it’s easy for vegans to come across judgmental, but I think for a lot of us, that stems not from thinking we are holier than thou, but because we know the horrors animals endure and we just want to end it. Yet, there is also something to be said for these communities in food deserts who are being
oppressed.
Where systemic institutions are weaponize things like racism and classism and prioritize putting in fast food and liquor shops over fully stocked food stores. This does a major disservice to the humans in that area and veganism is for the animals. And since, again, humans are animals, veganism is also about human rights.
There is a lot to balance ethically while being a vegan but it is important to not ignore human conditions and apply judgments to people who cannot functionally go vegan. The overwhelming urge to progress the ethics towards all animals can feel all consuming. That task however, is impossible for one person to conquer alone, so we often feel helpless or anxious and wish we could just get others to
understand.
If you’re having a hard time adjusting to vegan cheese: take one month where you don’t eat any kind of cheese, vegan or non-vegan. Then give vegan cheeses a try. This allows your brain and taste buds to kinda forget what cheese is support to be like, and you can experience vegan cheese for how it is, without making constant comparison to cows’ milk cheese. And there are so many types of vegan cheese out there.
Ones made by large companies found at most food stores, some from local maker, some even available from professional vegan cheese shops that ship from online stores! But there are so so so many kinds
of vegan cheese, so just because you weren’t a fan or one or two means you should give up. Go out and try more! But for the love of god, stay away from the big name brand D that is available
everywhere, its not good and people eat this thinking that’s the standard for vegan cheese.
I always suggest shopping local if you can.
The only way I imagine my future to be is living on a farm sanctuary; surrounded by animals rescued from and free from abuse
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I just want to share that my time as a vegan business owner has been
incredible. The amount of support that I have received from other vegan small business owners and customers throughout the years has made me love being vegan even more. But I personally had the
experience of opening and closing a physical business in the span of 2 years, This Stop Is Willoughby Vegan Shoppe. I find this to be true with my businesses and with plenty of other vegan small businesses that I speak to and watch go through the same thing.
People are stoked to support a brand new vegan small business when they open, then kinda forget about them and just assume the survive off or pure will and eagerness to keep their business going or mystical government issued money.
We NEED to support our small businesses. Not just on opening weekend, but whenever we can. I feel so sad to see so many vegan small businesses open and close within these last few years.
And if not a plea for my companies but for all the other small businesses and small business owners that I love and support, please support vegan small businesses. Amazon, target, temu will never
support the vegan community the way our small businesses do.
White Muck is my offering to the vegan community to help promote veganism in defense of the animals and doing it through providing cruelty free clothing
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Find us at @whitemuckvegan on IG and find our online shop at whitemuck.com
I’m so grateful to the vegan community and I hope anyone else out there looking to become vegan does the research and make the switch as it works for them.
We do this for so many reasons but at the real root of it, we do it for the animals. So on behalf of the animals, thank you.
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