Joey Carbstrong has told how his drug-fuelled youth and time in jail inspired him to become a ‘celebrity’ militant vegan and tour the world preaching his radical beliefs.
The 31-year-old South Australian, who has thousands of Instagram and YouTube followers, has just completed a tour of the UK and is now in Tel Aviv, Israel, pressuring people to stop buying meat and other animal products.
His life today is a far cry from his youth which he spent with gangsters and drug addicts before he was jailed for six months for hiding a .22 calibre rifle down his trousers and hoarding other weapons including shotguns, knuckledusters and flick knives.
Joey Carbstrong (pictured on a rally in the UK) has told how his drug-fuelled youth and time in jail inspired him to become a ‘celebrity’ militant vegan and tour the world preaching his radical beliefs
Carbstong said of his girlfriend (pictured together): ‘I first met Laura at the vegan campout in July last year and we shared an instant connection. Ever since she has remained my closest friend.’
The 31-year-old South Australian, who has thousands of Instagram and YouTube followers, has just completed a tour of the UK and is now in Tel Aviv, Israel campaigning for people to stop buying meat and other animal products
Reflecting on his turnaround, Carbstrong, whose real name is Joey Armstrong, said on Sunday: ‘Jail was a massive realisation about what I had done. I was looking at my life from a bird’s-eye view. I thought f*** this for a life.’
‘I’ve turned my life around completely,’ he told the Sunday Mail. ‘I wanted to get sober, I wanted to clean my life up and give something back. It wasn’t for me anymore.’
After dropping out of school aged 14, Mr Carbstrong fell in with the wrong crowd, eventually turning to ‘more serious, hardcore, organised crime gangs’ and dealing drugs to support his own habit.
He spent much of his youth using cannabis, methamphetamine and drinking alcohol.
Reflecting on his turnaround, Carbstrong, whose real name is Joey Armstrong, said on Sunday: ‘Jail was a massive realisation about what I had done. I was looking at my life from a bird’s-eye view. I thought f*** this for a life.’
Aged 26, Carbstrong (pictured on a rally in the UK) spent six months in jail for possession of a firearm, which he had hidden down his trousers while on house detention
Discussing his gang-related crime, Carbstrong (pictured with his girlfriend) said: ‘I still had compassion in my heart but it was clouded by the environment that shaped me and people around me.’
In 2011 he was admitted to hospital after suffering, psychosis, depression and anxiety and contemplating self harm. Doctors described him as angry and aggressive.
Aged 26, he spent six months in jail for possession of a firearm, which he had hidden down his trousers while on house detention.
Discussing his gang-related crime, he said: ‘I still had compassion in my heart but it was clouded by the environment that shaped me and people around me.’
While holed up in prison he had ‘an epiphany’ and became determined to turn his back on the criminal world.
He said: ‘It was the longest I’d been sober for the past 12 years of my life. 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.’
Mr Carbstrong turned to the teachings of Dan McDonald, an American advocate for raw food and fasting who formerly had a drug problem.
Following his release from prison he then went ‘full vegan’.
On British TV: The campaigner claimed artificial insemination – during which semen are injected into the female cow’s ‘reproductive tract’ – was equivalent to ‘sexual abuse’. He is seen on This Morning next to Mr and Mrs Crickmore
Joey Carbstrong lectured dairy farmers on British TV during his tour of the UK
The 31-year-old said: ‘I’d always said that it’s hypocritical to say you love animals – save the whales, dolphins, dogs – but then have a piece of an animal that’s suffered and had a bolt gun to the head on your plate. I was a walking hypocrite… I decided to align my actions and my morals.’
Since then he has become a militant vegan campaigner and has been touring the world with his glamorous girlfriend who he met on ‘vegan camp’.
For the last six weeks he has been on tour in the UK and Ireland, attending daytime vigils and protests alongside fellow activists.
He hit the headlines because of his clashes with farmers, likening them to ‘slave owners’.
He also posted YouTube videos showing him confronting farmers and meat industry workers, saying they ‘should be scared’ – but later denied that he advocates violence.