EXCLUSIVE: Xavier Rudd Speaks Out Against Animal Cruelty

Much-loved Aussie singer-songwriter Xavier Rudd has starred in a new video for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), not just preaching the virtues of a vegetarian lifestyle, but questioning the values of a carnivorous one.

Watch the video here!

In the video, which was filmed at PETA's Los Angeles office earlier this year, Rudd performs his song Follow The Sun from his hugely popular Spirit Bird album of this year and talks about his issues with the treatment of animals farmed for human consumption.

He recalls a trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco where he sees the conditions a beef supplier forces upoin his stock.

“There was this huge field of cows – not really a field, but a massive pen of cows – and they were all stacked in on top of each other,” Rudd recalls. “What they were herded into was all just black, it was like mud, or a combination of mud and faeces and we were just blown away.

“I was like 'wow, people are ingesting that, That's what people are eating.'”

While Rudd admits that he ate a lot of meat while growing up, he says the thought of it doesn't make sense to him on both a physical and philosophical level.

“I ate a lot of it growing up but I don't think I ever needed it. It was a natural progression for me, I didn't even make the conscious choice, I just didn't eat meat. But the idea now of eating a chunk of meat, I just couldn't imagine it.

“My biggest problem with society now is the mass production and no one even considering all those lives that have been factory farmed for human greed, it makes no sense at all.

“I don't need to eat meat,” he says. “I can exist very healthily without it.”

Watch the video here!