Earth Mother's Love - Across the Species Divide

I stumbled on these videos by the artist Louise du Toit and found her songs worthy of sharing - Especially in recognition of Mother's Day and the nurturing qualities I know my readers embrace. 

I think you'll agree the messages that urge us to work for a better world are appropriate especially for a day that values healing kindness and love for our Earth Mother and all her children.


THE TIME HAS COME: "To do no harm, to help rebuild the lives that have been wrecked"


Earth Waltz 



As fellow earthlings sharing the same planet, may we always strive to obtain, enhance and nurture each of the following virtues:
Altruism
Benevolence
Compassion
Devotion
Empathy
Freedom
Goodwill
Harmony
Indulgence
Joy
Kindness
Love
Magnanimity
Nonviolence
Order
Peace
Quiet
Respect
Salvation
Tolerance
Unity
Veracity
Worth
Xenial
Yot
Zeal



If you enjoyed these I know you'll find more here that you'll like as well.

Happy Mother's Day to all who repair, renew and restore - Unconditionally. 

The Honesty of Being Vegan - Let's Shake on it!

Some of the time it's just amusing for me to look at the language the animal industries use... Words never are quite what most of us would think they should be. "Friendly fire" anyone?

In the case of the dairy folks this comes from the March issue of their online magazine:

You'd think with a lead like this it was an article in Parent's Magazine or New Nursing Mom or something... I mean honestly? Dear dairy folks and consumers: Is any cow's mammary secretions - That she makes for her own calf really "yours"??? 

Must be like the uneasy financial news for hogs. In truth pigs could give an oink about any exploiter's profits. :/

And here's some other things that the pork folks are talking about using a twisted kind of double speak:

They say that the profits are all on "her back":

But closer to the truth is that her little ones are all on their backs ---

Getting their wee tails cut off all while animal "welfare" in the slaughterhouses is being discussed!

And speaking of animal "welfare" in slaughterhouses... Here's what's happening in cheap-speak from the "poultry" folks. {my bold thoughts in brackets}:

"Having been safely {safely? whose safe here?} held in the lairage, the birds will then be moved to the hand-on point. Ensure that the baskets/modules are handled carefully {handle the baskets carefully - but certainly NOT the birds!} and that all operations are completed smoothly. The hand-on point is critical to the bird's welfare {eye roll}. Staff must be trained to shackle birds with minimal force {minimal force? Just enough to end their lives.} and ensure that both the bird's legs are located in the shackles. As part of the shackling process staff should be encourage to momentarily calm each bird by placing a  hand on the bird's back. {LIE! With 10,000 chickens murdered per hour they want the public to think that each individual bird is "calmed"?} Good shackling practice will not only reduce bird stress, but also minimise flapping that can cause haemorrhages in the breast muscle, so adversely affecting the quality."

"The line should be designed with a breast comforter..."

{Odd isn't it? That the kill line should be equipped with a breast comforter?} :/

"The final welfare check should be made at the exit of the stunner." {Really??? We're checking for "welfare" after the electrical bath and pre-neck slitting? LMAO!!!}

The article concludes:
"It's a good investment to take time to look at the slaughter line in detail as the benefits to the bird and your business can be significant."
page 6/7 Poultry Digital

{Yeah right --- A slaughter line that's to the "benefit" of the birds... My tush!}

No surprise but even the "beef" people want to convince their flesh-eating customers of cow "welfare":

From the video of Kansas State University Veterinarian Dan Thomson

Truth is --- Everyone wants in on the idea of "careful", "humane", "welfare" for animals - But honestly - There's only one way to do it: 

You can shake on it and go vegan!

Farmers Aren't Practicing Birth Control - Your Husbandry & Proliferation Is Killing Us!

With a cluck-cluck here and a cluck-cluck there I add  285,000 chickens who perished in a fire in Maryland last Tuesday...

With an oink-oink here and an oink-oink there 800 genetically advanced breeding pigs were flown on a 747 to China.

With a moo-moo here and a moo-moo there Idaho gets busted with illegal drug residue found in cow's milk and dairy cows at slaughter. But not to worry... They've got a few passed bills to help suppress this kind of news.

With a neigh-neigh here and a neigh-neigh there Idaho also manages to keep horses off the "pet protections" list... This keeps the options open for when/if they build their "humane" horse slaughter facility, most likely on an Indian reservation. Nice huh?

Finally, with a bah-bah here and a bah-bah the lambs born this last winter will be fattened just in time to make it to the festive Easter celebrations only weeks away!   And I guess it's true as one of these farmers admits... You can't keep them all!  

Too bad Old MacDonald never considered birth control as an option... 

It really would be such a better place. :( 


If you have the inclination to consider any of these animals as "food", please know that they are sentient beings.  They love their lives just like you and I do.  There are many better options for nourishment -
Please, go vegan.

TOP 10 ANIMAL AG NEW YEAR WISH LIST

My wish to you - animal ag and facilitators... If these were your issues in '09:

May they return to you 100 fold in 2010!

May the chicken, egg and "poultry" industries go bust!

May your "lagoons" overflow and may the pigs continue to loose money...

May the beef industry finally face the EPA... May all the transport trucks have flat tires; And may all recalls resonate world wide!

And may the word about dairy continue to spread...

And to all the fur industries and vivisecters... I hope you awake one morning and find no more cages to clean... Poof! Just like that! :)

And may CIRQUE DU SOLEIL continue to draw more crowds that the circus...

To the hunters of fish and mammals... May the weather never agree with your plans... May your lines tangle, your nets have holes, your weapons misfire and your tree stands collapse!

Seal clubbers, may your market melt away faster than ice in August... And may Sea Shepherd avenge the whales and dolphins...

May puppy mills and cock fights all be raided and closed. May horse breeding shut down as well!

May bull fighters stumble on their capes... And rodeo jocks take the big fall...

Animal users big & small - An (un)Happy New Year to you all!

But to those who extend kindness and respect to Others - And you all know who you are!

A very sincere wish for happiness, health, peace and joy.

2010... The year of the Vegan!

Barbara Walters Vegetarian View - Thanks to Molly the Cow

According to the New York Times a 350-pound heifer escaped her trip to the slaughterhouse via the streets of Queens. She was pursued through the city streets until after about a mile she was captured:

"The heifer went through a wide gate into the front yard of a house. She then went to the back of the house, crossed a weedy patch, climbed over some broken cement pieces and got trapped in the space between the fence of one house and the stone wall of another. Officers eventually lassoed the animal with a rope, witnesses said. The police said a tranquilizer dart was fired at the heifer to subdue her. Adam Khan, 47, a truck driver who lives in a house near where the calf was captured, said the episode “tells you something.” The heifer, he said, “didn’t want to get killed.”

Of course this is true... every being wishes to continue life. Molly is no exception. A poll was conducted at the New York Daily News which shows that 83% of the respondents also took empathy with the calf. Including Barbara Walters who in reaction to the poor cow's plight, announced on The View that she's contemplating a vegetarian diet.

The results of this poll is no surprise... Similar studies consistently show that people are not in favor of promoting an animal's death. Why is it that we then can look away from the billions who are slaughtered every year?

Perhaps Ruth Harrison said it best:

If one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and, once large sums of money are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people.

So too it is that we look upon one animal with compassion but simultaneously ignore the billions of others in a much worse fate.

We can and should be mindful of all... for surely no being wishes to be killed, and there is no need to do so. Go Vegan

Stop the Slaughter - Empty the Cages - Go Vegan

From Stephanie Ernst at Animal Rights Change.Org

"As I'm writing this, and as you are reading this, thousands of animals are dying. In the one minute it takes you to read this paragraph, 19,000 animals will be killed in the United States alone—so that humans can eat them. Thousands more are waiting their turn in line. Some of them are squealing, squawking, or bellowing and straining and fighting for their lives. Others are terrified but too dejected, weak, and injured to fight. But each of them—every single one—is feeling something, something awful. They don't want to die, not now, not like this."

Cross Posted at Vegan Soapbox

AVMA - Vets are NOT Friends to Animals

You'd think that animals would have a friend in a veterinarian... That all animal doctors would be a Dolittle of sorts...

Sadly, it's not the case at all... According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, the first of "Eight integrated principles for developing and evaluating animal welfare policies" is: The responsible use of animals for human purposes, such as companionship, food, fiber, recreation, work, education, exhibition, and research conducted for the benefit of both humans and animals... Do we need to go any further to the importance of "welfare", "science"... food and water, etc.?

It's already stated that the primary duty a vet has is to insure the "use of animals for human purposes"... As tasty sausages, burgers and nuggets, as furs, leather and woolen mittens, as circus amusements, rodeo toys, as greyhound racers, as zoo specimens, as Triple Crown contenders, as carriage pullers, as 4H spectacles, as hunting things, as dog, cat and pony show personalities... Oh yeah, and as guinea pigs -

But wait! Number 7 did intrigue me:

Animals shall be treated with respect and dignity throughout their lives and, when necessary, provided a humane death.

"Respect and dignity"? Not hardly in a zoo, sea-quarium or puppy mill. No dignity for a chimp wearing a wig and skates either.... And then there's the "food animals" that are crammed in cages all their lives, dehorned, castrated, raped, stolen babies... blah, blah, blah... we know all this. But according to the AVMA it's respectful and dignified enough... humm. Then there's that word I hear over and over again, when we all try to justify the use of animals - the word "necessary".

Four dictionaries give me this: necessary: 1) Absolutely essential 2) Unavoidable

Now, either the dictionaries are wrong... or the AVMA is. Indeed maybe our whole culture is under the wrong assumption?

It's not "absolutely essential" to use animals for any of the afore mentioned purposes - is it?

We certainly don't "need" to eat them... nor wear their skin, nor use them for transport, nor watch their bodies for entertainment, nor test them to see if nicotine is addictive or not...

But yet... we ask them to be our friends - and with friends like us - who needs enemies?

Don't be foe... be vegan!

Tidy Thinking - Animals Aren't Food - Go Vegan

April showers bring spring cleaning... at least that's the way I know it. This time of year we open windows... and dust winter's dreariness from our homes. I have a top to bottom method, which makes sense to me: first ceiling fans, cobwebs, sills (everything in between) and finally floors. This process works itself to a point of manageable containment. Eventually I'm left with finishing the job, or hiding things under the rug. Now, if I were to hide the offending matter I would do so from laziness. And in this way, cleaning is much like thinking; it's a deliberate act. The decisions are ours, and making a thorough effort is it's own reward. But there are those who would do otherwise, believing the task too difficult. Both bad housekeepers and atrophied thinking have similar reasons for shortcuts: it's easy. While sweeping debris under a carpet is harmless. The same can't be said of refusing to think things through when it comes to the hurt of living beings. I'm referring to the way in which we cause unnecessary injury and death to animals by eating them. Because of cultural indoctrination, most people never question the practice. Through no fault of theirs, a person who eats animals may not ever have thought about why they do such, or been given reason to change. But once presented with an idea of a better way, they are required to think things through regarding the merits of a vegan diet. Lest they be a slovenly housekeeper regarding their better judgments.

Live Vegetables vs Dead Animals * Vegan Biology 101

Biology 101

Animal - Vegetable - Mineral

In response to: "Yeah, but you kill vegetables."

Rocks and Minerals are not alive - they do not feel pain. Vegetables live and grow - but lack a central nervous system. They do not feel "pain" nor can they suffer... However, animals are made of tissue, organs, blood, nerves, senory receptors and neurons which transmit physical experiences.

But you don't have to be a genius to know all this... it's quite simple: In other words... if I cut the pepper... it will not hurt the pepper... The only reason I may need a bandaid - is if I accidentally injure myself. Are you with me? And even though this pepper has been cut, removing it's very core and "heart" did not cause it to suffer... But the cow heart... came from an animal... And like all animals was capable of being hurt. Removing parts of animals causes them pain and death. Now, to make it clearer for those who still might have difficulty grasping this: Ask a child... or anyone who wishes to avoid causing harm... Who's more likely to go "ouch!" if you remove his body parts? This guy: Or this one? The best of science (and common sense) tells us that veggies don't feel pain. Therefore causing no pain or suffering, we can indulge to our optimal health and pleasure, on a plant based vegan diet.

Cows, Chicken or Cat Meat - Animals Aren't Food

A recent investigation of China's cat-meat consumption has just been released:

"For many Chinese people - especially in the country's south - eating cat is a perfectly normal tradition. We visited a restaurant in the city of Guangzhou that specialises in what the Chinese call 'wild taste'."

"The waitress showed us cages full of live animals - turtles, snakes, pheasants and domesticated cat. A chef tried to sell us a dish called Dragon, Tiger, Phoenix - a stew of snake, pheasant and cat meat. It is also highlighted divisions between China's new middle class - for whom having a pet is a status symbol - against those here who are themselves struggling to survive, and see no need for animal rights.

Cat protection groups have sprung up in cities across China. Frustrated by their government, they stage their own raids - storming into restaurants and markets, attempting to shame people out of eating cat.

Sky News has obtained video footage from one recent raid near Shanghai, where campaigners tried to hold up a truck-load of cats being shipped to market. They released traumatised animals from cramped wooden crates, while a horrified crowd looked on. But when the police arrived, they backed the cat dealer. In China, there is no law at all against animal cruelty. The trader even had a certificate to prove what he was doing was legal." Many of these cats as the article states were once adored pets... stolen and sold at markets and food establishments. It has little to do with "poverty" as these cats are being prepared by "chefs" and served in restaurants. And by all accounts what is the difference? A cow, a pig, a bird - dog or cat... they are all animals - just as are we.

People will call the Chinese "barbaric" in their choice of "food animals"... But all flesh eating is the same... justified by habit, tradition, culture, religion, misinformation (or deliberate ignorance) about "protein". And is perpetuated in the easy money made from the animal/meat traders. Eating cats, dogs, horses, squirrels, kangaroos, deer, turtles, dolphins, tigers, lions, etc... is hardly any different than the "civilized" world where turkeys, lamb chops and ribs are consumed. None of it is "necessary". Man can thrive on a plant based diet. And it is this unwillingness to replace the sausages and burgers that a camaraderie with feline and canine munchers can be found.

No need to cast stones on a plant based diet... all animals are safe. Choose compassion - Go Vegan

COLLEEN PATRICK GOUDREAU COMPASSIONATE VEGAN IN FLORIDA

The compassion so many feel for animals should be remembered when making food choices.

I'm thrilled author and founder of Compassionate Cooks, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau will be hosted by Florida Voices for Animals on Feb. 15th!

More of her thoughtful podcasts and writings can be found here as well as links to a feast of recipes, health tips, Vegan resources and shopping.

If you're already vegan or vegetarian - or interested closer examination of your SAD diet (Standard American Diet)... if you love good food, if you care about animals... You'll discover fun new ways to look at healthy and compassionate alternatives. See ya there!

Walmart Pulls China Rabbit Fur Animal Skin Slippers

Thank you Canada Walmart for pulling the Chinese-made footwear that contained real rabbit fur. Fur should be on the animal to whom it belongs not our feet or our bodies. People who live with rabbit companions in their homes know that they are sensitive, smart animals with individual personalities, just like the dogs and cats so many of us consider a part of the family. They make lifelong bonds with other rabbits and humans, they play with toys, and they can even learn to use litterboxes. But the hundreds of millions of rabbits slaughtered for their fur and their flesh every year aren’t so lucky. Like other animals “farmed” for their fur, rabbits—who are extremely clean by nature—are kept in tiny, filthy cages, surrounded by their own waste. They spend their entire miserable lives standing on the thin cage wires, never having a chance to dig, jump, or play. The methods of slaughter are no more humane—they are killed by having their necks snapped or having their skulls beaten before being strung up by the legs, often "skinned" alive.

Vegan Christmas Holiday Wishes - Peace on Earth

My 54th Christmas... And this one: my first Vegan Christmas - I finally get it... The Peace on Earth part: Merry Christmas - Happy Holidays to everyone!

HOORAY ANIMAL VEGAN ADVOCACY - MEAT CONSUMPTION DECLINE

WASHINGTON - Numbers are in and it looks like consumption of *meat* is at it's lowest in 7 years! And if trends continue, through 2009 - 2010 figures of consumption will decline to levels not seen in about 12 years.

So hooray vegan advocacy and animal persons! We're making progress... They're finally listening that less meat is better - That NO MEAT is Wonderful - That NO MEAT/DAIRY is IDEAL! Now I wonder which of the following reasons tipped who and how?

4 reasons 5 reasons 5 reasons 5 reasons 10 reasons 10 reasons 10 reasons 10 reasons 10 reasons 21 reasons 22 reasons 28 reasons 49 reasons 101 reasons As if you needed another reason