In the punk rock world, veganism  is fairly commonplace (and almost mandatory in some circles), primarily as a political statement and alternative lifestyle. Simply put, veganism is a stricter form of vegetarianism that strives to avoid all animal products (meat, poultry, eggs, fish, dairy, leather, etc).

This practice, however, hasn’t quite spilled over from the punk scene into hockey rink. But you do occasionally find exceptions, such as Canadiens’ winger Georges Laraque. It was just earlier this year that Laraque decided to become vegetarian, but Laraque just recently this month announced he had made the full conversion to veganism, claiming the decision was made primarily for political rather than nutritional reasons.

Laraque stated he wanted to “break the stereotype that all vegans are skinny people with long hair.”

With around 1,170 career penalty minutes and a reputation as an NHL badass, some might be surprised to learn that he has a sensitive side when it comes to animals and animal rights. But that just makes him more of a bad ass.

 So, are there other hockey players with similar punk street cred? Scott Niedermayer, while not vegan, has been involved in animal rights actions through PETA (yes, I know, PETA is often more of an embarassment to animal rights more than anything, but at least it’s something). Not only is Niedermayer a Ducks defensemen, but he’s a defender of ducks, too (see what I did there?)!

In a letter urging the Chicago City Council to uphold it’s expiring ban on foie gras back in 2007, Scotty stated

“As an Anaheim Duck, I hate to see real ducks tortured so that a handful of wealthy chefs can serve their diseased organs. Please uphold this compassionate law.”

Former NHL players Phil Housley and Igor Larionov were also reportedly vegan. There are probably others in the club, but cursory google results don’t turn up much.

By the way, if you want more information on why one might become vegan, and to learn just how sustainable a lifestyle veganism can be, a good place to start is Vegan Outreach’s “Why Vegan?”

This entry was posted on Friday, September 25th, 2009 at 4:59 pm and is filed under Punk Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.