Animal Rights/Vegan Activists' Strategies Articles

Wayne Hsiung and Priya Sawhney Receive Prestigious Homo Ahimsa Award for Compassionate Actions

From IDA In Defense of Animals
April 2023

Our recognition of this dynamic duo as the recipients of the Homo Ahimsa Award is a fitting tribute to their groundbreaking milestones in the cause of animal liberation and the transformation of humanity.

In Defense of Animals’ Interfaith Vegan Coalition has announced the winners of its prestigious Homo Ahimsa Award. Wayne Hsiung and Priya Sawhney, co-founders of the animal liberation organization Direct Action Everywhere and The Simple Heart Initiative, will be honored for their nonviolent activism at an award ceremony on Sunday, April 30.

Wayne and Priya received the award for trail blazing the “Right To Rescue” animals who are suffering or injured and in need of veterinary attention. Together, they created a precedent-setting campaign to gain public support for animal rescue, raise awareness about the political and legal repression of animal rescuers, and ultimately establish the legal right to rescue animals from abuse in the agricultural industry, where it is common practice.

Ahimsa is the Sanskrit word for non-harm and nonviolence. Venerated champions of the teaching include Mahatma Gandhi, who took a vow of ahimsa that informed his life and his activism.

Homo sapiens tend to view the world through a lens of domination which leads to a great deal of suffering. Homo ahimsa refers to the new human species we are becoming as we leave behind H. sapiens’ worldview and live from our true nature as loving partners with all life.

“The Homo Ahimsa Award honors those who live in nonviolent, respectful, and ahimsa partnership with all life,” said Judy Carman, co-founder of the Interfaith Vegan Coalition and author of Peace to All Beings and Homo Ahimsa.

“In today’s world, it is a truly heroic act every time we express nonviolence or ‘ahimsa’ through our actions, thoughts, and words,” said Lisa Levinson, of In Defense of Animals and co-founder of the Interfaith Vegan Coalition. “Our recognition of this dynamic duo as the recipients of the Homo Ahimsa Award is a fitting tribute to their groundbreaking milestones in the cause of animal liberation and the transformation of humanity. Wayne and Priya’s Right to Rescue campaign is proving through jury-based trials that animals are individuals, not property, who deserve veterinary care and personal freedom.”

The Interfaith Vegan Coalition grants the Homo Ahimsa Award to those who embody the Homo ahimsaqualities of nonviolence and compassion for all beings. Homo Ahimsa Award recipients demonstrate how vegan living can co-create a world of peace, partnership, and loving kindness by ending violence and domination to people, animals, and the Earth.

The Homo Ahimsa Award was established by In Defense of Animals’ Interfaith Vegan Coalition in 2021 and is given to honor those who exemplify the qualities of Homo ahimsa in outstanding ways. The award is named after the book, Homo Ahimsa: Who We Really Are and How We’re Going to Save the World, by the Interfaith Vegan Coalition’s co-founder Judy Carman, who coined the term.

Carman added, “We can stop violence to animals, people, and the Earth caused by our species, Homo sapiens, by making a personal commitment to nonviolence. Together we can evolve and become a kinder species: Homo ahimsa.”

Homo Ahimsa Award winners, Wayne Hsiung and Priya Sawhney. Photos: Direct Action Everywhere

In response to receiving the Homo Ahimsa Award, Wayne Hsiung and Priya Sawhney provided the following quotes:

“I'm honored by the support of so many in giving aid to the animals. It's a testament to the growing strength of the movement for compassion - which all of you are crucial to.”
~ Wayne Hsiung, Co-founder of Direct Action Everywhere and The Simple Heart Initiative


“I am so honored to be receiving the Homo Ahimsa Award for animals. The most important thing we can do in our lifetime is to create more peace on this planet for the most sentient amongst us and I’m glad to be able to have the opportunity to help rescue animals from the most horrific places on this planet. I’m grateful for this award.”
~ Priya Sawhney, Co-founder of Direct Action Everywhere and The Simple Heart Initiative

---

Return to Animal Rights/Vegan Activist Strategies