A Tradition Of Compassion - A Vegan Heritage

There's this tradition:

Heritage Turkey Processing

Or you can make a new ones:

In Thanksgiving For the Birds, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau eloquently debunks the myths around the "traditional" foods surrounding Thanksgiving.

"Most people don't know that our contemporary customs at Thanksgiving, namely the serving of turkeys, were shaped and popularized by a magazine editor, Sarah Josepha Hale, in the mid-1800s. Whatever meaning we attribute to this Thanksgiving holiday is most certainly not lost (in fact, it is enhanced) by creating food-based rituals that affirm rather than take life, that demonstrate compassion and empathy rather than selfishness and gluttony, that celebrate the fact that no one need be sacrificed in order that we should eat."

And in Talking Turkey she speaks truth to power: "If you've never met them, turkeys are magnificent animals, full of spunk and spark and affection. I've introduced many people to the critters at farmed animal sanctuaries, and the animals with whom people have the most transformative experience are the turkeys. Every time. Never fails. Join me as I tell some stories of special turkeys I've had the privilege of meeting and as I explain why I'm still making amends to the animals, whose breasts, legs, and wings used to darken my dinner plate." 

*****

“A farmer gave his son a hatchet and a turkey saying, "Take this bird out behind the barn where no one can see you and kill him.”  Being an obedient son, the boy vanished behind the barn only to return several minutes later with the still very much alive turkey.  “What is the matter?” asked the farmer. “Did you not understand my instructions?”  The son looked his father in the eye and said, “But Father, everywhere I went the turkey could see me!” The son in this story has made the shift in awareness that we feel the people of this world need to understand. Just because a sentient being cannot talk does not mean they don’t have a point of view on whether they live or die.”

Seth Tibbott

President and Founder

Turtle Island Foods and Tofurky

You can read about Seth Tibbott, who has literally saved the lives of millions of birds, here, here, and here.

photo courtesy Leilani Münter for The Ghost In Our Machine

Thanks to all who have made compassion 

part of the vegan heritage. :)

Instructions For Murder. Don't Try This On Your Home Planet

There's a fund drive to produce a movie called Abattoirs Rising that hopes to make the grand finale of meat-animal-victims less stressful by means of mobile slaughter facilities.

You can also build your own portable bird killing apparatus.
Instructions and charts are included that show how to "put the bird in the kill cone first to keep it confined, then pull the head down making the neck taught and then slice the carotid with a sharp knife."

Seems everyone and anyone (brutal - do not go if you know) has a special method on how to effectively put an end to some one's life!

This woman does the job by gently stroking the bird while she prepares to "respectfully harvest" the hen. Before the stabbing, she softly coos "Hey Lady"... "Hey Beautiful"... She breaks the bird's neck. Then twists and snaps it off. She then gets teary eyed and says "It's never easy. I've killed hundreds of chickens this way".  

Or there's this man who tells his two grandsons as he's hanging the bird's legs to a rope tied to a tree, "You have to be nice to them, cause there's no reason to be mean".  (I wonder just how are the kids supposed to know what being "mean" is?)

A quick observation will show that there's a clique' of home-spun blood-lust on youtube. Some try to fancy it up by calling it "humane". While others don't pretend for a moment that it is.

But when these do-it-yourself murderers enlist and encourage the participation of kids, it becomes even more disturbing. Do children have the internal compass or courage to be able to evaluate what they're doing? Isn't it very possible that they are repulsed and unwilling, but fearful to admit it? Could Buddy have been his authentic self, if it was in rebellion to his father's expectations?

What about darlin' Darlene as she's egged on to shoot the pig in the truck? They praised her after the "perfect shot". But what kind of ridicule or punishment would she face if she had declined?

But the world we are privileged predators in, is in such a schizophrenic state. In nearly all circumstances, most of us who follow a pretense of social "rules", would never condone the harm of another being. But make it a "food animal", and let it be some one's kid being instructed to cause the damage, and we haven't the gumption to voice a peep of resistance for either victim. Clearly it's SEP.

Since we all live here though - I'm calling murder when I see it. 

And the carnists are getting away with it because there aren't enough justice seekers to put an end to it! Maybe more people ought to take the meat from out of their ears and get their minds off their stomachs, to see the real problems as they are. It's the social justice issue of our time! And the holocaust starts in our own back yards and extends to our home all over our planet!

I'm telling carnists now that your habits sicken me. The way you cavalierly dispose of other lives for gluttony and/or greed offends me beyond words! What kind of mad people are we anyway in the 21st Century? Stop with the blood-letting already - Please!

The Irony - Finding & Killing Your Favorite Cow

Two articles reached my mailbox almost simultaneously and I'm left scratching my confused head over the contradictions they expose.

There's this account that cow-rancher-turned-author-wanna-be Amanda Radke gives of reading her book Levi's Lost Calf to a group of school children. The book apparently includes all the expected characters and "drama" surrounding a barn... While Levi and his friends search for the missing calf they encounter a bunny, a raccoon and I imagine other wild critters that help further distinguish the role of the "domesticated" missing prize...

I belong to me- by B.Elliott

Of course the story will end happily as the calf is recovered and not quite "finished" yet. But there is the treat of a "kid friendly", "real cowboy cookout" recipe included in the final pages... 

I haven't read the book but I can guarantee ya --- There will be blood.

Oh but there's nothing that isn't age appropriate though... Ms Radke makes it clear that she's not "taking any bullet" to explain where/how baby calves come from... No... There's no talk of sperm straws or genetically selected bull semen in this meat on the hoof story... Just pure love in saving a stray (favorite) calf - (ugh!)

Click. Delete.

Next comes this from Drovers - The Cost of an old cow where ranchers are urged to evaluate the expense that sentiment might entail: 

"Every article about culling cows includes a bullet point that says “old cows,” but rarely are there reasons to get rid of the “trail boss cow," the last cow you bought from dad, or the favorite 4-H heifer listed. There is a favorite cow in every herd that gets kept every year, even if she calves a little later each spring and the calf weans a little lighter in the fall. Reasons to cull these animals could include the death potential of older cows and the increased feed costs required to keep them".   

So we can see where Levi's lost calf eventually winds up... Even after all the teachings of "family values", loyalty, love and "care" - If the bottom line says that even the "favorite" cow doesn't count unless he/she is "profitable"... Well everyone gets snuffed out of the financial story! But as Ms. Radke mentions in several of her posts... This is exactly how her gOd planned it for FFA members and all the spiritually guided cowboys. - (ugh!)

Click. Delete.

Now contrast this shrewd calculating of what an other's life is worth and mosey on over to this fabulous post at VINE Sanctuary where there's a joy-filled celebration talking place inspired by the rescue of 5 "old" cows...

So the next time Levi's missing a calf - Or Drover's addition fails - Let's hope they all wind up as valued as these guys: 
 


You don't need to kill them. You don't need to contribute to the blood spilling coffers. And you shouldn't lie to kids or yourself that you do. Vegan is Love - "saving" a calf to kill later isn't!

Click. Delete.

Are You Lucky Enough To Be Vegan?

I'm not superstitious at all - But here's some things I do know about "luck".

I share my home with "lucky" friends, who would otherwise have had dreaded misfortune. Being born without the advantages of thumbs and god-like ownership over their own lives - Their end probably would have already been done.  

Most were useless in the scheme of human plan.  One and all, they were considered burdens to feed or care for. Unplanned accidents... Waste from industries... Not worth the time or trouble to save... Unprofitable residue...  Nuisances and pests. All born "unlucky" to be "purposeless" in a world where everything must have value to the insatiable... That would be "us" the "lucky" ones: Homo Sapiens; Literally to mean the animals born with "taste" and "wisdom".

And being born creatures with such "smart appetites", aren't we so lucky to have created systems and diversions that allow us to consume without guilt?  The consequence to others escapes us in myths and lies that we author. This is especially true in our ravenous gluttony of the foods made of flesh.  They are invisible, the blood, bone and bodies of the "unlucky" ones that lost their lives for the sake of indulging ours...

We wise ones, deities of our own making, can sell cellophane wrapped stories, fairy tales, legends and doctrines that excuse us from the most horrid of practices.  These are some "lucky" lies that attempt to validate and reinforce our own species-granted privileges.

Now here's the hitch to being able to utilize those "lucky lies"... We must be "lucky" enough to make a habit of not investigating beyond our comfort zone.  "Lucky" enough to preserve the disguises that allow cons and deceptions to exist.  It's the simplest thing... All you have to do is not think or examine (meat or animals) too closely, and the grotesque realities never have to be acknowledged!

I once had that kind of "luck" when I saw a pig's head in a meat case at the Piggly Wiggly 30 years ago...

It infuriated and repulsed me so much that I complained to the manager!  I told him the pig-head was vulgar and disgusting! And that it wasn't decent to put me, or his customers, through the ordeal of seeing such an ugly thing! I felt completely satisfied when he agreed to remove the apple-biting specimen from view.  I felt content... Even as I wheeled my cart with ham, bacon and chops riding within.  I was "lucky" that my awareness was left unshaken and protected.  Blinded by conjecture and habit, I was "lucky" to stay "blessed" in the bliss of dissonance for many decades afterwards.  

But, like most of us here, that kind of "charm" eventually ran out.  For whatever reason, that fragile veil of secret "rites" was revealed for the trick that it was.  Gifted instead to see that behind the eyes of every creature, there is a somebody.  A kin of mine, a kin of ours, that had been born without human "luck".  These are fellow earthlings that only lack our cheat of might and favored lust.  And it's only our unquestioned indoctrinations of the crafty sham, that perpetuates their brutal curse. 

And thus, we make the "luck" of others better through our own actions.  We make decisions that alter their fate for the good. We choose not to harm lesser ones. Innocent ones. Helpless ones. We choose not to create victims.  We choose not to prey on the weak. We choose to challenge the false premises of traditions, "exceptionalism" and domination.  We rejected the status quo and live in ways that make things more fair. More equal. More thoughtful and kind.   At the heart of the matter, we choose not to eat these beings who are so "unlucky" not to be us.

What about you... Are you a "lucky" omnivore?  Or a just vegan?