HighestWelfare.Humane.Assured.GoodPractices.Vegetarian. Regenerative.Flexitarian.Lies...
What is the difference between No Welfare, High Welfare, and Highest Welfare when they all require animals to die? Only human comfort, NONE protect the actual animals. The most humane, ethical, and honest Webster-defined "welfare" is NOT exploiting animals - not using, not wearing, not eating, not killing - animals. The only meaningful position is vegan, everything else is just how humans euphemize animals' required suffering and violent deaths: no human exploits animals because they honestly believe that NOT exploiting animals is UNethical or INhumane.
Animals also go to Heaven says Pope
Wikimedia Commons
Source CathNews New Zealand
Tip the dog, Soda the cat, and Tweety-bird, indeed all animals will also go to heaven.
At least this is one interpretation of remarks made by Pope Francis in his weekly general audience in the Vatican, reports the Guardian.
“The holy scripture teaches us that the fulfilment of this wonderful design also affects everything around us,” said the Holy Father.
Relying heavily on St Paul’s letters to the early Christian communities, Pope Francis reminded everyone that a “new creation” lies ahead.
He added: “It is not an annihilation of the universe and all that surrounds us. Rather it brings everything to its fullness of being, truth and beauty.”
Italian daily Corriere della Sera was in no doubt about his meaning. “It broadens the hope of salvation and eschatological beatitude to animals and the whole of creation,” wrote the paper’s Vatican specialist in an article published on Thursday.
With apparently little room in the Catholic Catechism allowing room for animals in heaven, reaction to the possible interpretations of Pope Francis’ comments remains mixed.
Every year on the feast of St. Anthony the Abbot pets attend mass with their owners and both receive a blessing at Saint Eusebio church in Rome.
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Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
PETA: http://www.petacatalog.com/catalog/Literature-39-1.html
Action for Animals has a very low price : http://store.afa-online.org/home.php?cat=284
Have questions? Click HERE
Source IndiGogo
The way that this would work is by requiring these two agencies that publicly subsidize meals–to maximize reductions in food costs, CO2 emissions, water consumption, health care costs, and number of animals raised and slaughtered (including in concentrated animal feedlot operations that are major users of the bulk of antibiotics the public subsequently ingests).
This would result in a healthier plant-oriented food menu for those the public has assumed responsibility for, and major beneficial impacts to the environment.
The estimated annual savings by moving approximately 186,200 people to a plant based diet could be as much as 3.6 Million farm animals, $33M–$100 Million in public funds, 337,000 Tons of CO2 emissions, 40 Billion gallons of freshwater consumed for animal agriculture, and reduced health care costs associated with diet.
My name is Andrea Hegland and I have witnessed conditions deteriorate globally and here in my native Washington State. My career background is in managing complex projects on Puget Sound, and I am a graduate of the University of Washington.
The first step in this process is to conduct a professional public opinion survey to assess this measure being passed if it goes all the way to a public vote. This survey, and retention of attorney and CPA will cost $33,000.
If this passes, it could serve as a model for countless other public institutions and in the process, educate many people about these issues. It would also give staff within agencies the traction they need to advance this concept from within.
Please help make this tremendous change in our institutional food systems!
What We Need & What You Get
The way that an Initiative to the Washington State Legislature works is that the sponsor registers with the State, then must collect 325,000 signatures to have the proposed legislation sent to the Legislature, which would be in 2016. The Legislature can adopt it as written and then it would become law! Or, the Legislature can reject it or propose an alternative, both actions that would lead to a public vote in November 2016. In any event, there would be a public debate and the measure would be voted on!
Your contribution will help retain a professional public opinion survey company to prepare, conduct and evaluate the survey to determine voter support.
Most people and organizations that I have talked with believe this initiative will appeal to a wide cross section of voters because of the savings in so many areas — financial, health care, animals, greenhouse gases, and water. The survey will clarify voter support and issue framing.
This proposed initiative will be conducted in 3 phases. This survey is the feasibility phase. If success appears feasible there will be a second phase to gather the 325,000 signatures required. If that is accomplished the signatures and the proposed legislation will be submitted to the Legislature in December 2015. If the Legislature does not pass the legislation or proposes an alternative in the 2016 session, then Phase 3 is a media and marketing campaign prior to the public vote in November 2016.
Be part of a movement whose time has come – change our public institution food systems to be human, earth, and animal friendly.
If this fundraising goal is not met, there is an option of having a public opinion survey done but with a smaller survey pool, but that is not ideal. I hope that you will see the value in this proposal as a longer term investment that could have a profound impact.
The Impact
The potential impact is mind boggling. If this concept spread to just each US State Prison and the US Active Military, and they moved to a plant based diet, the annual estimated savings in order of magnitude are 50 Million Farm Animals, $475 Million in reduced food costs, 4.8 Million tons of reduced CO2, and 600 Billion gallons of freshwater conserved.
Your contribution will help make it possible to start this movement in Washington State, and then advance this concept to every public institution in the nation – and beyond.
I have experience working with the Washington State Legislature and that is why I chose the initiative approach. If the Legislature rejects or modifies this proposed law, it goes to a public vote. Otherwise, as I am sure you can appreciate, it would likely languish in a dysfunctional, partisan, and divisive governing body that has been overtaken by wealthy special interest groups and individuals. We don’t have time to play self-interested politics any longer.
Risks & Challenges
Humanity has more to gain than to lose in this proposal. We are overdue for modifying our diet to reclaim some aspects of human health, our environment, and to stop cruelty towards animals.
The primary opposition is likely to come from those that will lose money by such a diet shift – the animal agriculture industry and related industries. The campaign team includes top notch professionals familiar with messaging and anticipating issues and challenges over the course of the campaign. It will be a fight, but with your help, we can increase the chances of success with your support.
Want to help, but not financially?
Never fear! Whether you are able to support us financially or not, you can still be a tremendous help to us by spreading the word on this campaign via Facebook and twitter. Please share a link to this campaign and tell your friends. It really does make all the difference in the world.
Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
Take PETA’s Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide along with you next time you head to the store! The handy guide will help you find humane products at a glance. Order a FREE copy HERE
Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
PETA: http://www.petacatalog.com/catalog/Literature-39-1.html
Action for Animals has a very low price : http://store.afa-online.org/home.php?cat=284
Have questions? Click HERE
Rescued from the bush-meat trade. Appolinaire Mdohoudou and Pikin, Ape Action Africa, Cameroon, 2009
Source One Green Planet
Many of us consider ourselves animal lovers – we love our silly, beautiful household companions and our majestic wild friends we see in the backyard, on TV, or in photographs.
It’s hard not to love these animals as we have gotten to know them in very tender, intimate ways – some share the spot next to us on the couch while others jump off the page or screen and inhabit our imagination, running as free in our minds as they do across the wild savannas, tundra, and forests they call home.
Yet these animals represent only a fraction of those we share our lives with. Many others remain hidden from view — like those confined to crates or cages in fur and factory farming facilities and those who spend their lives caged and tested on for our medicine and personal care products.
Still, others are seen, but their lives do not fully register in our consciousness as their presence resembles something akin to tradition or normality, something we do not question — like the dolphins and orcas that perform leaps and tricks for marine park audiences or the penguin, polar bear, snake, or meerkat that stare back at us through the Plexiglas exhibit of a zoo.
As Canadian photojournalist Jo-Anne McArthur tells us, it is “the bulk of the animals we are closest to every day” who are actually the ones that “remain invisible.”
“They are ghosts,” she says. “They are our ‘spare ribs,’ our ‘leather,’ our toothpaste. The animals who are these products are sentient individuals, not a rib but a pig, not leather, but a cow, not a resource, but a rabbit who was used in testing.”
And it is these animals – and our relationship with them – that McArthur has spent more than 10 years documenting through her ongoing project and now, book of the same name, “We Animals.”
The project is not about creating an us vs. them mentality – these are the victims, we are the perpetrators – whereby shaming us into doing good or “seeing the light.” Rather, the project is one of storytelling, illuminating the lives of animals all around us and how we fit together in these lives.
“My book is about seeing these animals and, hopefully, about people making changes so that we abuse fewer and fewer of them,” McArthur says.
The title of McArthur’s book and ongoing project speaks volumes about the connection she’s trying to make us see and understand – that we are all animals.
She tells OGP that she wanted the title to “point back to the fact that we are all the same, all sentient, all of us deserving of being here on this planet, all of us with our own desires and goals and rights” in an attempt to close the disconnect, or fissure so often present between us.
“If we can see and remember that we’re all animals, perhaps we’ll start to treat our non-human kin with more respect,” she states.
Spanning five sections from “Fashion and Entertainment,” “Food,” and “Research” to “Mercy” and “Notes from the Field,” McArthur’s new book showcases her travels as a photojournalist into the trenches of fur farms and factory farms and to happier places with free animals like Save the Chimps sanctuary in Fort Pierce, Fla., and Farm Sanctuary in Watkins Glen, N.Y. Through her journeys, she shows us how things sadly are for so many animals, and how they could be for all, if we’re open enough to see these possibilities.
While McArthur has met animals all over the world at this point – hundreds of thousands, she writes in her book — one of her defining moments as a photojournalist came at the very beginning of her career, when she was just developing a deeper love of photography.
It was back in 1998 when she visited a roadside zoo with her family and took a photograph of a donkey, an experience she recounts in her book’s stunning introduction.
She observed the donkey’s environment – a barren enclosure wrapped with fencing and held up with wooden beams with a sign to the left that read simply, “Donkey.”
It was at this point that she saw how “nothing was learned” and that “no relationship was furthered or deepened,” that “the entire scenario was an insult to us both.”
“I wondered if anyone was really looking at the relationship, seeing anything at all. Our use of animals is so culturally ingrained, it’s virtually invisible. But not to me. And so began my work, documenting our uses and abuses of animals around the globe,” she says.
McArthur continues this work day in and day out and she tells us that she will “always be working on the ‘We Animals’ project.” It is a project she carries out through her own photography, but also through collaborations with other artists, filmmakers (like Liz Marshall of “Ghosts in Our Machine”), and animal advocacy organizations.
The project also has an educational branch called the We Animals Humane Education Program, where McArthur visits schools and does presentations on the photographs and stories she’s collected over the years featuring not just the “invisible animals of our lives” but also “stories of love and liberation.”
Additionally, there is a new book in the works, she tells us, although it is currently in the research stage.
Ultimately, through her photography work, what she’d like to invite us all to do is to “look beyond” ourselves.
“I would ask people to have the courage to look, to really see, and to not turn away.”
And so, HERE, please meet just a handful of the animals McArthur has encountered during her “We Animals” journey, one which you can see more of in her new book available now on Amazon.
To learn more about McArthur’s work and view additional photographs, please visit her website.
All images: Jo-Anne McArthur / We Animals
Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
Take PETA’s Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide along with you next time you head to the store! The handy guide will help you find humane products at a glance. Order a FREE copy HERE
Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
PETA: http://www.petacatalog.com/catalog/Literature-39-1.html
Action for Animals has a very low price : http://store.afa-online.org/home.php?cat=284
Have questions? Click HERE
Read more…
Fur-Free Friday
Wikimedia Commons
Source PETA
See IDA’s list HERE
See international list HERE
When: Friday, November 28
Where: Everywhere! (Scroll down for a list of all of the events)
What: Spread the cruelty-free love by encouraging everyone you know to #ShopVegan!
UNITED STATES
Arizona
Scottsdale: https://www.facebook.com/events/570748819737939
California
Fresno: https://www.facebook.com/events/1417862651806874…
Los Angeles (3 locations for protests): https://www.facebook.com/events/1576864205868306
Palo Alto: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fur-Free-Friday-Palo-Alto/517447681692151
Riverside: https://www.facebook.com/events/293115527549213
Sacramento: https://www.facebook.com/events/405098962971303
San Diego: https://www.facebook.com/events/1544030532476842
San Francisco: https://www.facebook.com/events/1532689270282293
San Luis Obispo: https://www.facebook.com/events/1512746628983887
Costa Mesa (Saturday): https://www.facebook.com/events/1531845483723315
Colorado
Colorado Springs:
https://www.facebook.com/events/740099719370498/
Delaware
Greenville: https://www.facebook.com/events/1416177005298542/
Florida
Orlando:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1514029025536054/
Kentucky
Lexington:
https://www.facebook.com/events/614301178678788/
Louisville:
https://www.facebook.com/events/725044684217889/
Louisiana
New Orleans:
https://www.facebook.com/events/383968091758069/
Minnesota
Minneapolis: https://www.facebook.com/events/657198687730290/
Missouri
Kansas City:
https://www.facebook.com/events/343906672437335/
St. Louis:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1404160093207753/?source=1
Nevada
Las Vegas: https://www.facebook.com/events/355891414584155
Ohio
Columbus (Fur-Free Saturday):
https://www.facebook.com/events/674490239325221/
Oregon
Portland: https://www.facebook.com/events/1488650711401072
Pennsylvania
Philadelphia:
https://www.facebook.com/events/727815663964924/
Whitehall: https://www.facebook.com/events/1590897904463690/
Texas
Dallas: https://www.facebook.com/events/681520508612709/
Houston: RSVP to houstonanimalrights@yahoo.com
South Carolina
Greenville: RSVP to kirchbergersandra@yahoo.com
Virgina
Richmond:
http://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090948afab23a46-furfree
Norfolk:
https://www.facebook.com/events/303194119870549/?ref_dashboard_filter=upcoming
CANADA
British Columbia
Vancouver:
https://www.facebook.com/events/1498761367063581
Ontario
Toronto: https://www.facebook.com/events/464692353669828
Can’t hold an event but still want to get involved? Spread the word about Fur-Free Friday! E-mail us at ATeam@peta.org, and we’ll be happy to help you out! And please post links and images of your favorite cruelty-free products on this day to show others just how easy it is to #ShopVegan.
Resources
PETA’s brand-new “How to Plan a Demonstration” video! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCUqPSnfzqQ
Beauty Without Bunnies, an online database of cruelty-free beauty and personal-care products and companies
http://www.peta.org/living/beauty-and-personal-care/beauty-without-bunnies.aspx.
Wool investigative video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zHjY9Pc0Nk&list=UUmQRypK6kAcujJAlYZpFW8Q
PETA’s “100% Skinned Off ” “sale” tags
http://www.peta.org/action/home-action-expose-fur-cruelty/
PETA items and other animal-friendly products for sale
http://www.peta.org/shop/default.aspx.
Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
Take PETA’s Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide along with you next time you head to the store! The handy guide will help you find humane products at a glance. Order a FREE copy HERE
Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
PETA: http://www.petacatalog.com/catalog/Literature-39-1.html
Action for Animals has a very low price : http://store.afa-online.org/home.php?cat=284
Have questions? Click HERE
Read more…
Painful truth or comforting lies – it’s up to us.
Wikimedia Commons
Source There’s an Elephant in the Room blog
There is absolutely no morally relevant difference between human beings and those nonhuman beings upon whom we prey. We are all self aware. We form family and social bonds and share relationships with others. The mother and child bond is particularly strong and evident across all species. We communicate; we are capable of experiencing pleasure; we are capable of experiencing suffering; and we are all capable of feeling fear. Every single one of us will seek to avoid pain. We value our lives; they matter to us. In short, we all share the quality of sentience.
Painful truth
There is absolutely no way for humans to obtain the body parts and secretions of others without causing unspeakable suffering, exploiting their reproductive systems, mutilating and confining them, killing their children and taking from them every single thing that we would define as the things that make our own human lives worth living.
Not content with these atrocities, we use the skins (in some cases the tender, fragile skins of their unborn children – yes, really), we use fibres and feathers torn often from their living, pain wracked flesh, we test chemicals upon and within the trembling agony of their anguished bodies, and we perversely choose to call ‘entertainment’ the results of our having broken and bent their innocence and vulnerability to our will. And yet, despite this, there is absolutely no nutritional or other need for humans to consume or to use in any way, the bodies of other sentient beings.
So why do we keep on doing it?
Although this is scientifically proven truth, for most of us, the reason that we have never confronted or examined our behaviour is because it has always been more comfortable to accept without challenge the myths we were taught as babes. These are reinforced by the prevailing customs of a highly speciesist society where independent thought that goes ‘against the current’ is not particularly encouraged. Whilst we are in no doubt whatsoever that the actions and processes detailed above would constitute extreme and violent torture if carried out on ourselves or our children, we somehow find it easy to overlook the harm and unspeakable cruelty when it is being done to victims of a different species, while continuing to tell ourselves what good people we are. We are, nevertheless, the perpetrators of the worst horrors imaginable, unavoidably responsible despite being removed to a sufficient distance where we do not need to listen to their screams and their futile pleas for mercy; to a distance where the gore and dismembered corpses have been neatly sanitised into almost unidentifiable packages on supermarket shelves.
We all say we care
And the ultimate irony is that almost every single one of us claims to care for animals; claims to abhor ‘cruelty’, and is quick to declare our unequivocal condemnation of those whom we consider to harm animals. And the exploitation industries have been extremely quick to spot a commercial opportunity in this, cynically adopting the language and terminology of care and concern. The word ‘compassion’ is bandied about freely, as are the words ‘humane’ and ‘welfare’.
Comforting lies
Our inbuilt resistance to change has been easily soothed by this terminology and so many of us have fallen into the trap of considering that our use of others must surely be acceptable because of the comforting reassurance being poured in our ears from so many quarters. These ‘quarters’ are invariably those that – if we would only take time to consider – have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo where living, breathing, helpless and vulnerable beings exist in a hell of our making and are looked on as commodities, as ‘products’ to generate revenue.
No right way to do the wrong thing
However, as I mentioned earlier, there is absolutely no way for humans to obtain the body parts and secretions of others without causing suffering so sickening that we shy away from even considering it. Yet no matter how long we look, we will never find a way to make this fundamental injustice anything other than what it is; an outrage of epic proportions on a global scale, an annual massacre of trillions (including marine beings) to support nothing other than the self indulgence of a blinkered species.
Once we understand this, the only logical action is for us to follow our moral compass towards veganism, after all, it’s what we already believe in. Veganism is true justice and nonviolence in action. Become vegan and your only regret will be that it took you so long!
Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
Take PETA’s Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide along with you next time you head to the store! The handy guide will help you find humane products at a glance. Order a FREE copy HERE
Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
PETA: http://www.petacatalog.com/catalog/Literature-39-1.html
Action for Animals has a very low price : http://store.afa-online.org/home.php?cat=284
Have questions? Click HERE
The Truth About Thanksgiving: Celebrating Genocide With Genocide
What is the true story of Thanksgiving? Let’s take a look behind the wholesome image, at the actual historical basis of this holiday and our current practices of celebration. Thanksgiving is a holiday built on the genocide of an entire people, celebrated with the genocide of an entire species. Learn what really happens to both the turkeys bred and killed for Thanksgiving and also the people violated and killed in the first Thanksgiving ever. For more information, see the blog post: http://wp.me/p3VBHs-w1
Featured Videos:
Epically Ethical Thanksgiving Dinner: http://bit.ly/11nB3nF
The Humane, Cage-Free, Free-Range Myth: http://bit.ly/1vCburP
The Power Of Choice: http://bit.ly/1F8gLxu
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Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
Take PETA’s Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide along with you next time you head to the store! The handy guide will help you find humane products at a glance. Order a FREE copy HERE
Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
PETA: http://www.petacatalog.com/catalog/Literature-39-1.html
Action for Animals has a very low price : http://store.afa-online.org/home.php?cat=284
Have questions? Click HERE
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
Source Nonhuman Rights Project
Please sign petition HERE
Meet Tommy the chimpanzee. The Nonhuman Rights Project found him locked in a small cage, in a dark barn, at a used-trailer lot in New York. Tommy lives in solitary confinement, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Chimpanzees like Tommy are intelligent, self-aware beings. But the law still considers Tommy to be a piece of property – a “thing.” As such, he has NO LEGAL RIGHTS. While the Supreme Court has ruled that even corporations are entitled to certain legal rights, Tommy has no more rights than a pair of tennis shoes.
Add your name to this urgent petition if you agree with us that chimpanzees like Tommy belong in a sanctuary, not in a cage, not in a laboratory, and not in a circus!
The Nonhuman Rights Project is the only organization working toward actual LEGAL rights for members of species other than our own. Our mission is to change the common law status of at least some nonhuman animals from mere “things,” which lack the capacity to possess any legal right, to “persons,” who possess such fundamental rights as bodily integrity and bodily liberty, and those other legal rights to which evolving standards of morality, scientific discovery, and human experience entitle them. Our first cases were filed in 2013. Your support of this work is deeply appreciated.
Donate HERE
Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
Take PETA’s Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide along with you next time you head to the store! The handy guide will help you find humane products at a glance. Order a FREE copy HERE
Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
PETA: http://www.petacatalog.com/catalog/Literature-39-1.html
Action for Animals has a very low price : http://store.afa-online.org/home.php?cat=284
Have questions? Click HERE
Woman Choosing Fox for Fur Coat Becomes a Hero, Takes Fox Home Instead
Care2
Source Care2
By Susan Bird
Aleks Gaintseva was hoping to surprise his wife, Natalia, with a new fur coat. He wanted to give her something warm and beautiful to wear during those cold Russian winters. He even wanted her to pick out the precise fur that would make up her new coat. What Alexs didn’t count on was his wife’s better nature.
In Russia, where temperatures are extreme, fur coats are common. Many there mostly see the coat, not the animals who died to create it. When Natalia Gaintseva arrived at the fur farm in Barnaul, Russia, she saw something she hadn’t expected.
She saw the living creature whose life would have to be extinguished in order to provide her with a warm coat. In a flash, everything changed. Natalia decided there would be no coat after all. She gazed at the frightened black fox imprisoned in (her) pen and simply couldn’t do it.
“When I saw her cowering at the back of the cage, I felt really sorry for her and couldn’t possibly imagine wearing her,” said Gaintseva, according to the New York Post. “She really was a beautiful little fox looking up at me with her gorgeous big eyes.”
Wait, the story gets better. Gaintseva couldn’t just leave that fox to become someone else’s coat. She made plans to buy her and set her free.
“I’d much rather buy her and release her than have her killed and wear her,” Gaintseva said. “Not now that I had seen her alive.”
The Fox (Who) Went Home to Stay
Although Gaintseva intended to buy and free the black fox, she learned that (she) had been taken from (her) mother at a very early age. The fox had lived (her) whole life at the farm and never learned to survive in the wild. Releasing her into the Russian wilderness would be another kind of death sentence.
Gaintseva decided to do the only thing she could to ensure the fox’s survival — she took (her) home with her.
Now named Kiryusha, the fox lives with the Gaintsevas. See Natalia and Kiryusha together by clicking here. Kiryusha appears to be thriving, living warm, well fed and happy with the woman who was kind enough to see her as a fellow sentient being rather than something pretty to wear.
Fur Farms Mean a Short, Sad Life and a Painful Death
There’s nothing good to say about an animal’s life on a fur farm. They live crammed together in small cages and pens. They live their lives in sheds, never going outside or running free. They live and eat in the same tiny space in which they urinate and defecate.
After that sad life, they die hard deaths. To avoid damaging the fur, workers frequently slaughter the animals in a particularly painful and cruel manner — anal or vaginal electrocution.
China exports about half of the world’s finished fur garments. It’s a country known for killing fur-producing animals by skinning them alive, hanging them or bludgeoning them to death.
Remarkably, even in the U.S. there are few regulations or oversight restricting the practices on fur farms. Only in New York, for example, is it illegal for fur farms to kill animals by electrocution. About a third of the fur sold in the U.S. doesn’t even come from fur farms. That’s not good news, though. Instead, that fur comes from animals who died in excruciating pain over the course of days with a leg caught in steel-jaw traps.
There’s just no humane way to produce a fur coat or fur trim. Those who wear fur are the cause of a tragic life and horrifying death for beautiful, innocent animals. There’s nothing glamorous about fur.
Perhaps if more people saw where their fur, leather and meat actually comes from, more would decide they just can’t be the end customer for such cruelty. One by one, as people make this connection, things will change. For the animals, it can’t happen fast enough.
Click HERE for PETA’s Shopping Guide to Compassionate Clothing
Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
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Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
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Action for Animals has a very low price : http://store.afa-online.org/home.php?cat=284
Have questions? Click HERE
Animals and the Buddha
Source Dharma Voices for Animals
Featuring interviews with world-renowned monastics and lay teachers including Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, Jetsuma (Ven. Master) Tenzin Palmo, Ven. Bhante Gunaratana (Bhante G), Christopher Titmuss, Ven. Geshe Phelgye, teachers from Spirit Rock Meditation Center and many others.
In addition to watching the film on YouTube, it can be downloaded here.
If you are interested in screening the film for your sangha or local community, please see our information sheet. If you have any questions, please contact us at friends@dharmavoicesforanimals.org.
In keeping with Buddhist tradition, Animals and the Buddha is presented at no charge. If you are able to help support Dharma Voices for Animals and the important work we do on behalf of animals, your donation is greatly appreciated. Donations are tax-deductible
DVA Mission
Dharma Voices for Animals (DVA) is an organization of those committed both to practicing the teachings of the Buddha (the Dharma) and to speaking out when animal suffering is supported by the actions of those in Dharma communities and by the policies of Dharma centers. We want to be the voice of the animals who cannot speak our language and are unable to ask, “Why are you paying people to do this to me?” or “Why are you supporting my suffering?” We want to support those who are willing to speak out about the harm we cause other sentient beings when we eat them, use their body parts as clothing and in other ways, or use household and personal hygiene products that are tested on animals. While DVA recognizes the challenges of living in a complex, modern society, we wish to promote the choices that provide the greatest reduction of animal suffering. It is our intention to be inclusive in honoring the different views of those who sincerely intend to minimize the suffering of animals.
Dzogchen Master and DVA member and contributor, Chatral Rinpoche: “If you take meat, it goes against the vows one takes in seeking refuge in the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha. Because when you take meat you have to take a being’s life. So I gave it up.”
Become a DVA Member at no cost and support the efforts to raise awareness of the suffering of animals in the Dharma community.
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Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
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AgGag Victory in Australia
Wikimedia Commons
Source Green is the New Red
By Will Potter
A U.S.-style “ag-gag” proposal to restrict undercover investigations has just been defeated in South Australia.
The Surveillance Devices Bill would have cracked down on undercover investigations—particularly those by animal rights groups—by criminalizing the publication of undercover video.
Activists and journalists would have faced a $15,000 fine or imprisonment of three years. Organizations involved in the investigations would face a maximum penalty of $75,000.
It was strongly opposed by animal protection groups such as Voiceless, and also media organizations and labor unions.
“The concerns with this bill were held by both the media and also civil society advocates for whether it was animal rights or consumer affairs,” Greens MLC Tammy Franks said.
The proposal was similar to U.S.-style “ag-gag” bills promoted by the agriculture industry to stop the negative publicity created by covert undercover video of animal cruelty.
The bill did not explicitly focus on slaughterhouses or factory farms, but Minister Gail Gago noted when it was introduced that animal activists were central to the debate.
Ag-gag has been a growing debate in Australia within the last year. I recently completed a month-long tour about ag-gag laws there, and the media and public response to the bills was overwhelmingly against them.
The defeated of this proposal in South Australia is a major victory. But more ag-gag proposals are being concerned at the state and federal level.
“The (Victorian) Government has been considering workable measures that can be introduced to give legitimate farming business protection against unlawful activism,” a spokeswoman for Agriculture Minister Peter Walsh said.
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Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
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A Vegan Guide to ThanksLiving
Wikimedia Commons
Source Gentle World
As a vegan, it’s hard not to feel heavy-hearted around Thanksgiving time. While the rest of the country looks forward in eager anticipation to a day of feast and celebration, we vegans tend to be seen as a thorn in the side of the collective consciousness. Some of us try and simply avoid thinking about the impending massacre, preferring to ignore it altogether, and some use the date as an opportunity to try and shine a little light on the reality of what Thanksgiving means for those whose bodies are to become centerpieces on the tables of over 45 million American homes.
Despite their reputation, anyone familiar with animal sanctuary operations can confirm that turkeys are intelligent, social beings who nurture and protect their young and thrive in their natural habitat. Even when they are stressed and confined in concentration camps (whether “free-range” or otherwise), they have an amazing will to live, as do all sentient beings.
Following is a collection of some of our favorite Thanksgiving links. Some are from Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary, where turkeys are celebrated as the unique individuals that they are, and some are from our own collection. We hope our readers will use them to make their own Thanksgiving experience more meaningful, and hopefully to share with others the truth about who turkeys could be to us, if we would only open our hearts to them: Friends to be thankful for.
10 Things Everyone Should Know About Free Range Turkeys
Increasingly, as consumers are becoming more aware of the extreme cruelty of animal farming, free-range, organic and ‘natural’ animal products are gaining popularity. What many people don’t realize, however, is that animals raised under these labels frequently suffer through much of the same torment as those in standard factory farming operations.
Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary: Sun Day
Melvin has been strutting up and down the hallway since dawn… After a while, he turns around slowly, laboriously, toilsomely, and drags himself back to the kitchen, heaving, and wheezing and staggering on gouty legs, then embarks again on the arduous, 20 step trek to the front door, parading in full celebration gear, big as a carnival float and as jubilantly bedecked as one… It’s Sunday. At least that’s what our calendars say – Sunday, the cusp of a new week – but, to Melvin, in Melvin’s sense of time, it’s something else, something brighter and luckier.
Peaceful Prairie Sanctuary: What We’re Thankful For
Melvin and I have much to be thankful for. I for one am thankful for Melvin’s presence next to me today, for his life, for this moment of connection we are sharing under the wide open sky. And for the luminous memory of his five brothers: George, Stanley, Alfred, Elmer and Archie… As a group, they were a slow motion parade – an extravagant display of panache, moxie, charisma, flamboyance, and supreme self-confidence. Not a group of mere mortals to know and love, but a magnificent cavalcade of richly feathered tails, quivering wings, shifting color, triumphant song and vibrant dance to experience and be awed by.
And as vegans around the world can attest to, there’s no reason that holiday meals can’t be ‘veganized’ and transformed into a true celebration of peace and gratitude, as we replace the traditional fare with clean, wholesome foods that are animal-free and incredibly delicious.
Vegan Menu for a Gentle Thanksgiving
For a truly delicious vegan Thanksgiving meal, it’s easy to replicate traditional dishes. There’s also great enjoyment to be found in incorporating non-traditional, festive holiday recipes to add some originality to the Thanksgiving table… Many people know that it’s now possible to buy a ready-made vegan substitute to imitate the traditional Thanksgiving turkey. But with a little imagination, there are many other ways to leave the turkey alone, and create a delicious centerpiece using fresh, seasonal ingredients.
Vegan Delights for the Holiday Table
There’s no reason that holiday meals have to resemble the old traditions that center around practices many of us consider quite barbaric. This holiday, why not dress up your table with some festive delights that have nothing to do with the traditional menu? As long as the foods are beautiful and delicious, who’s to say what a holiday table should contain?
Vegans At The Family Holiday
When a vegan is willing to take the time and effort to help their family and loved ones incorporate delicious vegan food into the menu, and non-vegans are open-minded and even enthusiastic about trying something new, everyone can enjoy a magnificent, cruelty-free meal, and ‘veganism’ can actually become a part of the celebration.
Whatever vegan dishes you enjoy on Thanksgiving, or even if you decide to fast in protest, remember that there is still much to be thankful for. As expressed so eloquently in the writing above, we agree with the sentiment of Joanna Lucas when she acknowledges “the growing number of hearts who refuse to ignore this atrocity, refuse to support it, refuse to perpetuate it, and certainly, refuse to give thanks for it.”
Amen.
Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
Take PETA’s Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide along with you next time you head to the store! The handy guide will help you find humane products at a glance. Order a FREE copy HERE
Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
PETA: http://www.petacatalog.com/catalog/Literature-39-1.html
Action for Animals has a very low price : http://store.afa-online.org/home.php?cat=284
Have questions? Click HERE
Read more…
LiveSafe: Mobile App to Report Animal Cruelty
(Animals have voices, we just don’t listen to them.)
Source ALDF
LiveSafe is designed to help animals by letting you report abuse and neglect right from your phone. Your animal abuse crime tips will immediately alert your local law enforcement when animals are in need of help—and justice. Join forces with ALDF in protecting animals and stopping animal abusers! Here’s how it works.
Install LiveSafe and Connect to ALDF
First, install LiveSafe. If you are using an iPhone or other Apple device, install from iTunes:
If you are using an Android device, install via the Google Play store:
After installing, connect the app to the Animal Legal Defense Fund. When you open the app for the first time you will be asked if you want to “connect with and submit tips to” LiveSafe. Choose “Change”
and type “Animal Legal Defense Fund” in the following prompt.
That’s it! LiveSafe is now configured to report crimes against animals. Select a tip type to report a crime, and attach a photo or video along with your detailed observation.
How It Works
When you submit a tip, a GPS embedded text, photo, video, or audio report is sent to your local authorities via the LiveSafe app. If you live in a jurisdiction that is already connected with LiveSafe—many jurisdictions across the nation already are—then the tip goes direct to your local law enforcement. If your local authorities are not yet connected with the app, then the tip goes to a call center staffed with individuals who will quickly locate the appropriate local authorities and forward the tips to the correct contact for your jurisdiction. Because the app was built by the same developers who created an already-established national app for general crime reporting, there is already a well-established infrastructure in place that makes sure tips about animal abuse submitted through LiveSafe will quickly and seamlessly get to your local authorities.
LiveSafe has been downloaded by over 36,000 users, and community shelters are getting on board, too! The app is a unique resource for local humane societies and law enforcement. Groups like the Houston Humane Society, Vermont Humane Federation, Dutchess County SPCA, and Delaware SPCA are encouraging their communities to report animal cruelty using LiveSafe. Check out the Houston Humane Society’s website. If your organization is interested in partnering with us, please contact us at info@aldf.org.
Help the Animal Legal Defense Fund win the case against cruelty. Install LiveSafe today!
Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
Take PETA’s Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide along with you next time you head to the store! The handy guide will help you find humane products at a glance. Order a FREE copy HERE
Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
PETA: http://www.petacatalog.com/catalog/Literature-39-1.html
Action for Animals has a very low price : http://store.afa-online.org/home.php?cat=284
Have questions? Click HERE
Read more…
If you think it’s wrong to hurt animals, you already believe in veganism: Why veganism?
Source The Abolitionist Vegan Society
Do you think it’s wrong to hurt animals unnecessarily? If so, please watch this short video. There is no graphic imagery.
Topics covered:
What is VEGANISM?
What is SENTIENCE?
How many animals do we KILL per year?
Is a VEGETARIAN diet the solution?
Are “HUMANE” or “ORGANIC” animal products the solution?
What DO vegans eat? What do vegans NOT eat?
What DO vegans wear? What do vegans NOT wear?
What else do vegans DO or NOT do?
How can I learn more about veganism?
And more!
Why veganism?
www.WhyVeganism.com
The Abolitionist Vegan Society
www.AbolitionistVeganSociety.org
Register with The Abolitionist Vegan Society (and get FREE leaflets!)
www.abolitionistvegansociety.org/other/forms/register/#.VD76JhaQk1Y
The Abolitionist Vegan Society on Facebook
www.facebook.com/abolitionistvegansociety
Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
Take PETA’s Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide along with you next time you head to the store! The handy guide will help you find humane products at a glance. Order a FREE copy HERE
Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
PETA: http://www.petacatalog.com/catalog/Literature-39-1.html
Action for Animals has a very low price : http://store.afa-online.org/home.php?cat=284
Have questions? Click HERE
Read more…
2.7 BILLION VEGANS BY 2020—IMAGINE HOW THIS COULD EASILY HAPPEN
By Arthur Poletti
This message will be sent to Pope Francis In English, Spanish, and Italian continually, until his 78th birthday celebration on December 17th. Hopefully a large number of vegans will share this message with their vegan friends and other religious leaders they may know.
Vegans, please send your own messages to The Pope at the e-mail addresses and or the postal address below requesting that His Holiness, go against the status quo, and tell the World on his birthday that he recently decided to become a vegan.
WHERE TO SEND MESSAGES
papafrancesco01@gmail.com, famigliacristiana@stpauls.it
WORLDWIDE VEGAN ALERT
2,781,000,000,VEGANS IN THE WORLD BY THE END OF 2019
HOW THIS COULD HAPPEN FOR SURE!!
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” Albert Einstein
IMAGINE THIS THE POPE’S CELEBRATION OF LIFE ON HIS BIRTHDAY DECEMBER 17TH A GENUINE EXPRESSION OF LOVE AND CONCERN FOR THE HEALTH AND WELFARE OF EVERY PERSON AND EVERY ANIMAL ON EARTH?
On Sunday, October 19th, Pope Francis said he wanted a more merciful and less rigid Church, and also said the Church should not be afraid of change and new challenges. The Pope made his comments in a sermon to some 70,000 people in St. Peter’s Square for the ceremonial closing of a two-week assembly, known as a synod. “God is not afraid of new things. That is why he is continuously surprising us, opening our hearts and guiding us in unexpected ways,” the pope said.
Reference: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/19/pope-homosexuality-church-gay_n_6010904.html
On December 17th His Holiness Pope Francis will celebrate his birthday. The following message to Pope Francis includes a very conservative and realistic prediction of what will happen If Pope Francis announces to the World in St. Peter’s Square, on His Birthday, that he recently decided to become a vegan, for his personal health and welfare. Hoping that the precedent that he sets will also help to improve and protect the health and welfare of billions of people, and billions of animals throughout the World, as well as to help improve and maintain the health and welfare of the Earth. The only home that all humans and animals have to live on.
Hopefully, after reading the following message, and messages from vegans throughout the World, His Holiness Pope Francis will decide that he is also not afraid of new things, and announces to the World on his birthday that he is a vegan.
His Holiness, Pope Francis PP
00120 Via del Pellegrino
Citta de Vaticano
Dear Most Holy Father,
Your amazing life changing birthday message on December 17th, announcing to the world that you are a vegan will be remembered, and will forever be celebrated every December 17th. Designated as CELEBRATION OF LIFE DAY promoting the health and welfare of every person and animal in the World so they may all live full and safe lives in peace and harmony with the Earth. Holy Father, as the leader of an estimated 1.2 to 1.3 billion Catholics, and one of the most respected and influential religious leaders in the world, you now have the power to dramatically improve the world like no one has ever done before. For the urgently needed benefits of billions of humans, and billions of animals. Which would also contribute substantially to the improved health and welfare of the Earth. The only home all humans and animals have to live on.
Your Holiness, following is a conservative prediction of how one of the most important announcements ever made in history by a religious leader could easily result in the creation of a minimum of at least 2,781,000,000,VEGANS IN THE WORLD BY THE END OF 2019 reported early in 2020 FOR SURE!!
The following publication reveals that currently about 2% to 3% of the population in the world is vegan: http://www.answers.com/Q/How_many_vegans_are_there_in_the_world
The next publication reveals there are actually an estimated 7.3 billion people in the world: http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
2% to 3% of 7.3 billion people means there are an estimated 146 to 219 million vegans.
There are a number of publications that estimate that there are between 1.2 and 1.3 billion Catholics in the World.
Holy Father, imagine how many Catholics in the World could and would become vegans in the next five years?
The predictions below will begin with using the lower estimate of current vegans in the world which equals 146 million. Beginning on December 17th, continuous worldwide news flashes lasting many weeks
broadcasting the incredible announcement and power of suggestion by The First Vegan Pope will definitely persuade millions of Catholics and millions of people of many religious faiths to become vegans within a relatively short period of time.
The world population clock below reveals that now there are about 7.3 billion people in the world and in 2020 there will be an estimated 7.7 billion people in the world. The predictions below about how many vegans there will be in the world include the estimated addition of 1 million people in the world population each year from 2015 ending in 2019.
The projections also include a 1% increase each year in the number of new vegans. From (5%) of (7,300,000,000 people in 2015) to (9%) of (7,700,000,000) in 2019.
Ref: http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/
Your Holiness, hopefully you and your closest advisers will agree that the predictions below of how many vegans there will be are very conservative, and how wonderful it will be, God willing, when the final totals are much higher each year because Your Holiness is a vegan and many other religious leaders become vegans during the next five years.
Estimated:
Current number of Vegans in the world = 146,000,000
5% of 7,300,000,000 people in 2015 = 365,000 000 New Vegans
6% of 7,400,000 000 people in 2016 = 444,000,000 New Vegans
7% of 7,500,000,000 people in 2017 = 525,000,000 New Vegans
8% Of 7,600,000,000 people in 2018 = 608,000,000 New Vegans In 2018
9% Of 7,700,000,000 people in 2019 = 693,000,000 New Vegans in 2019
Total estimated number of Vegans in the world by or in the year 2020 = 2,781,000,000 In World
The largest number of new vegans will probably be in Latin America, India, Europe, Africa, Asia, And North America.
Holy Father, sooner or later someone will be the first vegan Pope! Millions of vegans throughout the world will be hoping and praying that, by the grace of God, that someone is you!!
Your Holiness, please do not be afraid of change and new challenges. Please do not be afraid of being a vegan!!
Be a powerful voice for the voiceless. Choose and promote kindness and life for all of God’s precious animals, and renounce cruelty and death!
In the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace for all people and animals.
Respectfully,
Yours in Christ
Arthur Poletti
Writer
Author
Vegan
USA
AP
What do you really possess, and what have you gained? What pearls have you brought up from the depths of the sea? On the day of death, bodily senses will vanish. Do you have the spiritual light to accompany your heart? When dust fills these eyes in the grave, will your grave shine bright? Rumi
“All creatures are deserving of a life free from fear and pain” ~ Maura Cummings
the creator built an eden
for all to share.
all beings all lifeforms
everywhere.
and in that most holy
and gentle spirit.
we spread our
message of
compassion…
wish all would
truly
hear
it.
Karen Lyons Kalmenson
Supreme Court of India Intervenes to Save Thousands of Animals from Nepal’s Brutal Gadhimai Festival Sacrifice
Manoj Gautam/Animal Welfare Network Nepal
Source HSI/India
The Supreme Court of India passed an interim order directing the Union of India to prevent the illegal movement of animals across the border from India to Nepal, to be sacrificed at the Gadhimai Festival, scheduled to be held on 28-29 November. Approximately 70 percent of the animals to be sacrificed at the festival will come from India, so the immediate implementation of this order could have a significant impact on the event, even leading to the entire sacrifice being abandoned.
The animal movements are in violation of the Export-Import Policy of India and the Foreign Trade Act (Development and Regulation) Act 1992, which categorically places live cattle and buffalo in the restricted export category, requiring a license to legally export them. This rule is being openly flouted as the majority of animals are transported illegally across the border without an export license. The Court’s order was passed in direct response to an urgent petition submitted by Smt. Gauri Maulekhi, consultant to Humane Society International/India and Trustee of People for Animals.
N.G. Jayasimha, managing director of Humane Society International/India, said: “The Gadhimai Festival’s massacre of innocent animals is an unholy bloodbath that has no place whatsoever in religion. This mass slaughter of animals is not part of Hinduism and has been thoroughly and rightly rejected by the Hindu Council of Britain. The Supreme Court of India’s order offers a vital lifeline to the hundreds of thousands of animals being illegally taken across the border to be killed, and there is every chance that with this action we can prevent the killing going ahead this year. In a modern, civilised society we cannot continue to sanction the death of animals in the name of religion.”
The Festival is held in Nepal every five years and involves the barbaric ritual sacrifice of 500,000 animals including water buffalo, sheep, pigs, rats, pigeons and chickens over a two day period. The animals are killed in front of each other, using blunt knives and swords to cut their throats.
Justice Kehar of the Supreme Court of India observed that the sacrifice of animals at the Gadhimai Festival was “demeaning and cruel” and that such brutal treatment must not be meted out on India’s animals, referring to the fact that 70 percent of the animals sacrificed at the festival come from India.
The Court notice affects the Union of India and the four border States of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal, from where a majority of the animals are transported illegally.
Media Contact:
Navamita Mukherjee: +919985472760, nmukherjee@hsi.org
Order a FREE vegan kit: http://www.peta.org/living/vegetarian-living/free-vegetarian-starter-kit.aspx
Take PETA’s Cruelty-Free Shopping Guide along with you next time you head to the store! The handy guide will help you find humane products at a glance. Order a FREE copy HERE
Want to do more than go vegan? Help others to do so! Click on the below for nominal, or no, fees to vegan literature that you can use to convince others that veganism is the only compassionate route to being an animal friend.
PETA: http://www.petacatalog.com/catalog/Literature-39-1.html
Action for Animals has a very low price : http://store.afa-online.org/home.php?cat=284
Have questions? Click HERE
Read more…
Our Compass 