A few weeks ago, Andreas Sundbø (43) met a person with a similar interest: Vegansime.
They got talking and found out that they both needed a place to live in Oslo. Then they started hatching ideas together.
Eventually, Sundbø published a slightly different housing advertisement.
– Hey, are you looking for a place to live without animal carcasses, he writes in an advertisement on Facebook.
– I had been thinking about the idea for a while, to create a vegan collective. We searched for people online, and we quickly became a group that saw potential in creating a collective of vegan activists, Sundbø tells TV 2.
– Don’t you think this is a bit special?
– No, I think it is special in general not to want the corpses of killed animals in the fridge, on the bench or on the table. What I think is special is drinking breast milk from other species. It is a great advantage to be able to share recipes with each other and cook together, says the vegan.
ACTIVIST: Sundbø is often at Karl Johan to show videos of animals. Photo: Sidney dxe
– Not discriminatory
Sundbø believes a collective is appropriate, because then everyone agrees that animals in industry are not food.
– We want to live in a home where we can avoid being reminded of society’s unnecessary exploitation of animals by being forced to see and smell body parts from abused animals. That’s why we want to create a vegan collective, he says.
– Isn’t it discriminatory against non-vegans?
– No, I don’t think so. It is not unusual for people with the same interests to find together in a collective. It is also not against the discrimination act to ask people not to bring meat, fish, eggs and milk into an apartment, he replies.
TV 2 has shown the advertisement to the Equality and Discrimination Ombudsman (LDO).
They do not want to comment specifically on this advertisement, but point out that you are free to choose who you live with.
– However, it is not allowed to state in a rental advertisement that someone is an unsuitable tenant because of skin colour, sexual orientation, religion, disability or other grounds for discrimination, says Edin Babic, head of communications at LDO.
Activist collective
Sundbø works as a game developer, but in his spare time he is an “activist”.
He can often be found at Karl Johan with slogans for better climate and animal policy.
A short distance to the center makes it even easier to carry out activism.
They will also discuss this activism in the common rooms of the collective and exchange ideas.
– There is activism in the picture. It will also be a great advantage that we can meet often and exchange experiences. It’s a short way down to Karl Johan and it can become a network when we all live together, he says.
A lot of interest
The ad has only been out for a few days, but many have expressed their interest in the slightly alternative collective.
– Since we found this twelve-room flat, we have only had nine days. Since we put it out a few days ago, there have been over 50 people who have been interested, says Sundbø.
