Makes 8 to 10 servings
Veganism-Environmental Guide and Nutrition in Species Ministry. VEGAN = LOVE FOR PEOPLE, ANIMALS, PLANET.
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MISSION STATEMENT
"V-EGANISM educates people and helps people and animals regarding the political and social justice cause, Veganism, which is a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude--as far as is possible and practical--all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing, cosmetics, household products, entertainment, service or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals, and the environment."
Healthy Body, Mind & Spirit Maneki Neko Cat
Love & Peace Maneki Neko Cat
Animals Killed Counter
Animals Slaughtered:
0 marine animals
0 chickens
0 ducks
0 pigs
0 rabbits
0 turkeys
0 geese
0 sheep
0 goats
0 cows and calves
0 rodents
0 pigeons and other birds
0 buffaloes
0 dogs
0 cats
0 horses
0 donkeys and mules
0 camels and other camelids
Saturday, June 29, 2013
Canada Day/Fourth of July Vegan Recipes
Makes 8 to 10 servings
The Girl Who Loved Animals
In the fall of 2011, production went into this full length documentary film, The Girl Who Loved Animals: Kitty Jones and the Fight For Animal Rights which follows Kitty for almost a year as she advocates for animals at her high school, hands out leaflets at farmer's markets, volunteers at a cat neutering clinic, and spends time with all the different animals at the Precious Life Animal Sanctuary where abused and neglected animals have been given a safe haven to live out their lives. Additional footage for the film was also supplied by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and The Humane Society of the United States."
Check the film out if it comes to a theatre near you.
Here is the trailer:
The Girl Who Loved Animals
Thursday, June 27, 2013
Ex-Vegans: Directory of ex-vegans, vegan sellouts
UPDATED (July 8, 2013) Ex-Vegans Directory is no longer there. This is what is now shown as of this writing: Ex-Vegans
There is now a directory online of Ex-Vegans, where you can register to "out" anyone you know as a fact that they are no longer vegan. The site gives further rules on outing people, be they famous people or not.
I responded to the directory and this article: "Vegan Sellout List" Publicizes, Shames, and Threatens Former Vegans - Yahoo! News at my Facebook, but I have cut and pasted my same response here as today's blogpost:
I'm ambivalent about the directory.
I do love seeing a directory of what famous person is not vegan anymore, because I like knowing the celebrities that embraces my passion and those that no longer do anymore--no different from any other group/community. We all like to know who our "kindred spirits" are and if they aren't anymore, I want to know as a reference that they are no longer vegans, ESPECIALLY if I ever want to mention famous vegans in my blog, I want to get my facts straight as many other vegans would want when they post articles/blogs.
I see many people getting upset, erroneously calling vegans a "cult" as said in the article (which, by definition, a cult is not evil, but society makes the word evil; plus, a cult is a religion worshiping some leader or god. Vegans don't worship anyone.)
Also, it's interesting how people say why are people interested in knowing who are vegan and who are not, but again it goes with being no different from any other group in wanting to know your fellow activists. People get defensive when someone asks if a person is gay, by snapping at them saying, "Why? Does it matter?" But even MANY gays themselves ask and want to know who is gay, so to possibly be role models, kindred spirits, etc., no different from the vegan community or from any other community.
So, again, I think the site is great to let people know the famous people who are no longer vegan, but letting us know about non-famous people who are ex-vegans...hmmm, I don't know...I don't think it's really contributing in any positive way. If not being vegan was illegal, then I say--YAY! Go for it! Out them! To put them in jail, but that's not the law, so what's the point in outing people, and no one knows them except their friends, acquaintances and families? And there is a brutal suicide link on the Ex-Vegans site to go to if a person doesn't ever want to be vegan again which, in my opinion, is wrong and evil to post.
It'll be interesting to hear what the rest of the vegan community thinks about it; I'm sure I'll be hearing/reading a lot!
I don't believe people should have the choice of not being vegan because of the horrific harm it does to an innocent being. Veganism is not about sticking our noses into someone else's business (people don't feel that way about child abuse--that's everyone's business, people would say); vegansim is about stopping abominable cruelty of *sentient beings*, but unfortunately the law (as of now) doesn't see it that way.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Appearances in Activism
This blogpost is for anyone who does public activism, but since this is an animal rights blog, I will talk specifically about animal activists.
When being an activist in public, especially while out on the streets, it's important to have a certain look. Having knowledge about the cause is great of course, but your public activism may fail if you lack the proper appearance.
For example, which group do you think people in general will be more drawn to, will stop on the sidewalk and pay more attention to what they're saying?:
The people in T-shirt and old jeans.
The people (if female) in a casual but nice looking dress and (if male) in a nice shirt and wearing casual pants but not jeans.
How one dresses is important because it makes what you're talking about look more important and you are more likely to be less intimidated if you dress nicer. Also, regardless of whether it's cool or not, having multiple piercings and tattoos on your body is very intimidating to some people--especially older people. As animal activists, want to come across as being extremely approachable, so you need to look as less threatening as possible. It would be best to take out the multiple piercings and hide the tattoos with your clothing. Appear as if you were going on a job interview because, afterall, animal activism IS work.
Activists don't have to wear a suit and tie or wear stunning evening dresses--dressing causally nice is best--but if you were to dress like that and compete for people's attention on the street, you would probably get more people coming toward you than activists wearing T-shirts and faded old blue jeans, even though both groups are speaking on the same cause in the same way.
The exception would be if your group needs to wear costumes and do theatrical scenes to make a point.
Also, to attract more people and to be taken more seriously, try to find older people, like over 30, to participate in your street activism. People in general tend to pooh-pooh groups that are made up of teens-20s as stereotypically just a bunch of "rebellious kids" to ignore. With a healthy mixture of ages, people will more likely stop and pay attention if some of the activists are in their 40-50s or older.
So, next time your group goes out on the street to speak out for the animals, make sure you not only have the knowledge to speak on the cause but the appearance as well to make people stop and listen to what you have to say.
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Litha/Vegan Summer Solstice Recipes
Wednesday, June 12, 2013
Veganism is not a Diet and not a Social Club
(If the above is difficult to read due to its print, here's what it says below):
"The word “vegan” was invented in 1944, by Elsie Shrigley and Donald Watson, who founded the UK Vegan Society. The British Vegan Society defines veganism this way:
The word “veganism” denotes a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude — as far as is possible and practical — all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose; and by extension, promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals and the environment. In dietary terms it denotes the practice of dispensing with all products derived wholly or partly from animals.
If you wish it to mean something different, invent your own word."
My major concern regarding animal rights are people--even animal rights people--thinking that all one has to do to be vegan is not eat any animal products. A non-vegan even had the audacity to tell me that veganism has been re-defined for some time and it's definition is it's a diet only. People who take it further to include not using animals in any way is an "animal rights vegan", he says.
He is wrong!
Veganism is not a Diet
A vegan is someone who does not eat, wear or use any animal/animal parts in any way, shape or form. It never was a diet per se and has not been re-defined as a diet. Only the person who coined the term vegan (the British Vegan Society) really has the right to alter the definition.
In November, Donald organised a London meeting of six like-minded 'non-dairy vegetarians' at which it was decided to form a new society and adopt a new name to describe themselves - vegan derived from VEGetariAN.
It was a Sunday, with sunshine, and a blue sky, an auspicious day for the birth of an idealistic new movement.
Being vegan means being involved in a very serious cause, like all other very serious causes. Ideally, vegans should not be involved in any officially organized vegan group. The closest thing to being a "group" should be vegans having their own personal circle of vegan friends where they all trust each other, stick up for each other and are loyal to each other. And within that circle go out and educate people about veganism as well as vote on important animal rights issues.
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Year of the Dog
WARNING: My short synopsis (in green) of the film, Year of the Dog, may contain spoilers!
Peggy and her dog beagle, Pencil, are inseparable companions. They sleep together, eat together, do everything together. Life is uncomplicated and safe, and Peggy is happily entrenched in a satisfying relationship with her beloved pet.
But Peggy’s world comes crashing down when Pencil meets a mysterious death. Peggy now desperately seeks to fill the gaping void of love that was found with Pencil. She fills that gap by working to get animals adopted, then later she becomes a vegan and animal rights activist.
Year of the Dog (2007) is not as good as Bold Native (I've updated my review on Bold Native today), but it is a sweet animal rights film that definitely makes people aware of the suffering of animals in the world and what you can do actively about it. This film is rated PG-13 (contains some graphic photos of animal suffering), which makes it a better age appropriate animal rights film for kids to see than Bold Native--which is rated R.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Jain Society of Chicago Celebrates Mahavir Jayanti
The Jain Society of Metropolitan Chicago’s (JSMC) temple will be celebrating Mahavir Jayanti this month. Mahavir Janma Kalyanak (Jayanti) is celebrated across the world as birth anniversary of Bhagwan Mahavir, the 24th Tirthankar (enlightened one) of Jain philosophy.
He was born in 599 BC and this year marks the 2,614 years since the birth of the apostle of peace. His message of ahimsha (non-violence), aparigraha (non-possessiveness) and anekantvad (non-absolutism) are universal in nature and has been the guiding force for generations of Jains and many cultures in the Indus Valley Civilization. He was the son of King Siddhartha and Queen Trishala. On the night of conception his mother, Trishala, had a dream depicting 14 different auspicious things. The astrologers interpreted the auspicious dreams and predicted that the child would be either an emperor or a Tirthankar.
This year JSMC is celebrating its 20th anniversary and it being the first major event of the year, the chairman of JSMC, Arvind Shah, and Board of Trustees, presented the state of the JSMC. They also presented important information on the current and future initiatives undertaken by the managing team and shared the financial health of the society.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Animal Abolition v/s Animal Welfare--Who's Right? Neither!
Animal abolitionists (the many I have spoken to) are anti-animal law. They do not believe in the legal system at all for animals. For example, they would not rejoice if hunting was abolished on this planet. They believe save all animals now or allow them to all suffer. They DO have an all or nothing mentality, regardless of what they may say, when it comes to saving animals in the legal way. They believe the ONLY solution to saving animals is by education and education alone. Nothing else matters whatsoever.
Animal welfarists definitely believes in animal law. But so much to the point of being just as irrational as not believing in animal law at all. For instance, they rejoice in hearing it become law when over-crowded chicks are allowed an inch more space in factory farming. They believe in working moreso on causing less animal suffering than totally ending animal suffering.
Both views are ignorant, misinformed and just plain assinine.
I talked with one animal abolitionist and asked if there was a petition to sign into law where ALL animals in the world would be legally protected from any kind of suffering, using, etc. and could have their freedom except flies and you signing it would make that law, would you sign it. The person said no. (In fairness, I answered my own question by saying I definitely would sign and then work my hardest to prevent suffering to flies. I believe all animals should be free unless basically their sole purpose in life is to cause misery, pain, desease, and maybe even death to another being, like for instance fleas. Flies have been known to be quite postive-productive in the world!)
There are other ways to help animals. Education is just one way. Animal laws are just as important in the animal rights movment to save all animals as education. But by spending so much time making law, for example, one inch more space for chicks is ridiculous. The way to effectively work in animal law is to totally end something--like hunting (which Costa Rica did recently--Bravo!), or even shutting down cruel places of businesses. That's ending cruelty.
Animal Abolitionists care nothing about the individual animal. Actually, I'm not sure if they really even care about animals at all, going by their mentality. They seem to be on this hellbent "all or nothing" way that they loose sight on saving any and all animal suffering. I don't know who started this animal abolitionist crap but those that bought into it--if the animal abolitionists I've talked to are correct in their definition as stated above--are deluded.
At least animal welfarists believe in animal activism multi-tasking. They believe we should educate, petition and vote. This is excellent. We need to do all we can for animals, and not just educate.
I don't believe in animal abolition or animal welfare. But I do believe in animal rights. And the way that animals get rights is by doing sensible, intelligent actions.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
Mason Bee Homes and Gold Certification
Click on photo for larger image.