| Joey Carbstrong | |||||||||||||
| Birth Name: | Joseph Dominic Armstrong | ||||||||||||
| Birth Place: | Adelaide, South Australia | ||||||||||||
| Nationality: | Australian | ||||||||||||
| Occupation: | Animal rights activist | ||||||||||||
| Known For: | Animal rights advocacy | ||||||||||||
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Joseph Dominic Armstrong, known professionally as Joey Carbstrong, is an Australian animal rights activist. A former criminal,[1] he has since become an advocate for animal liberation and veganism through social media and public speaking engagements, as well as debates and various televised interviews.
Carbstrong was born Joseph Dominic Armstrong in Adelaide, South Australia.[1] He has publicly stated that before his fame he was involved in substance abuse and crime. He became a vegan after his release from incarceration.[1] He has a tattoo of the word "Vegan" behind his right ear.[2]
At the age of 14, he had left school and developed a heavy drug addiction.[1] He had various blue-collar jobs before receiving welfare at age 22. By this point he had gained a lengthy criminal record which included three assaults.[1] He spent 18 months under house arrest. He was arrested in September 2011 after police discovered a concealed, loaded shotgun which Armstrong was bringing to a drug deal. Multiple weapons and additional ammunition in his hotel room were also discovered and he spent six months in jail. While in jail, he claimed to have had an epiphany and decided to change his life, saying, "I began seeing my life with new eyes. I'd seen all the other prisoners in there and didn't want to be there, I wanted to leave the gangs."[1] [3] In May 2021, he released a video to celebrate eight years of sobriety.
Carbstrong has been involved in animal rights street activism in Australia, Hong Kong,[4] and the United Kingdom, promoting groups such as Anonymous for the Voiceless and the Save Movement, an organisation that holds vigils outside slaughterhouses and promotes veganism by sharing images and footage from farms and slaughterhouses on social media.[5] [6]
In May 2023, Carbstrong is alleged to have published pictures taken from hidden cameras at a Pilgrim’s Pride abattoir in Ashton-under-Lyne depicting the "utterly inhumane” nature of using carbon dioxide to stun pigs before being killed.[7] Carbstrong captured the undercover footage for his documentary Pignorant.[7]
In January 2018, he began a 'Vegan Prophecy UK tour', which involved protesting against multiple slaughterhouses.
In 2018, Carbstrong appeared on the British TV program This Morning to debate two farmers.[8] During the heated discussion, Carbstrong described artificial insemination of cows as a form of sexual abuse and said the dairy industry "sexually violates" cows.[8] On the Jeremy Vine Show, Carbstrong criticised the host Vine's ham and cheese sandwich.[9] [10] In 2020, he appeared in Veganville on BBC Three.[11] [12]
In April 2024, Carbstrong and six other vegan activists were arrested after they occupied an elevated area at Cranswick Country Foods in Watton.[13] Carbstrong has stated that he wanted to raise awareness about the unethical use of gas chambers to slaughter pigs.[13] [14] [15]