What happens when a girl from Miami and a guy from Chicago move to a 118-year old house in small-town North Carolina and care for our rescued chickens.
I went to an event today where Relay for Life was a recipient of some of the funds raised. They had signage all throughout the event but as I was walking around I noticed that there seemed to be a huge disconnect going on.
While the small Relay for Life signs were promoting healthier eating, we were surrounded by fried brownies and sausage sandwiches and meat and fried, well, EVERYTHING!
Not quite a consistent message, huh?
And this is something that bothers me a lot... inconsistency. A big issue that I have are animal rescue groups who do fundraisers and events where they are serving other animals. It's a connection I never thought about before I was vegan(not that I ate hot dogs and hamburgers, the main items served).
But now it bothers me a lot. Especially when it's done by groups, groups that I work with, that not only rescue dogs and cats but also rescue cows, goats, chickens and pigs.
I have decided, that as much as want to and do support many of these rescue groups, I will absolutely NOT support them at these events. I also make a point to tell them WHY I'm not supporting them at their events.
All animals are worthy of rescue and protection. And those that are working to end animal cruelty and neglect need to adhere to that. They may choose to not be vegan on a personal level but at events they should absolutely be so.
Part of the purpose of these groups is education. And there are no excuses for not serving vegan food. There are many commercially available delicious options, including non-animal-based hot dogs and hamburgers. Not only will you be exposing people to healthy tasty food, you will not be alienating your strongest supporters... those who have incorporated animal welfare into their entire lives.
This post is going to be a part of my response to these groups from now on. This is a call to action! Live according to what your mission is all about!
I love the MUTTS comic strip and it's creator, Patrick McDonnell. He mixes in fun and humor with important messages about animal welfare and issues.
I appreciate that he uses his talent and influence to tirelessly work on behalf of the animals. He is an inspiration to me.
According to the site:
McDonnell's website, muttscomics.com, promotes his animal and earth friendly philosophy. Consistent with McDonnell's concern for the environment, all of the MUTTS books are printed on recycled paper. He and his wife Karen O'Connell are vegetarian and happily reside with their formerly feral cat MeeMow.
Thank you, Patrick for the work you do. Your strip always makes me think... and smile.
You may have seen one of the latest horrors of animal abuse coming out of factory farms. Factory workers crushing heads with their feet, slamming the birds against wall and general psychotic behavior left unchecked and unmanaged yet supported because people continue to buy and eat the results of this violence.
Well there has been a small victory for the animals.
Several of the abusers have been convicted and one has been jailed.
Late last year, some factory-farm employees got their pink slips from Aviagen Turkeys, Inc. in response to PETA's undercover investigation, which documented that workers were breaking turkeys' necks, stomping on their heads, and shoving feces and feed into turkeys' mouths.
Then, in February, a grand jury handed down 19 indictments, including 11 felony charges, against three former Aviagen workers, marking the first time in U.S. history that factory-farm employees have faced felony cruelty-to-animals charges for abusing birds.
Fast forward: Two of the three ex-employees, Scott Alvin White and Edward Eric Gwinn, recently pleaded guilty to cruelty charges. On June 8, White was sentenced to serve one year in jail—the maximum period permitted by law! Today, Gwinn was sentenced to serve six months' home confinement—the maximum period permitted by law—on each count, concurrently, and is banned from living with, owning, and working with animals for five years. The case against the third ex-employee, Walter Lee Hambrick, is pending.
Can't get enough? In September, a grand jury in neighboring Monroe County, West Virginia, may well issue further felony indictments against White and Hambrick.
These historic victories by no means even the score for the turkeys who were punched and thrown or the many other birds who suffered when they were forced to watch as other turkeys were abused at Aviagen. After watching our undercover video, animal behavior expert Dr. Lesley J. Rogers stated, "It is now known that when social animals, like turkeys, see and hear other members of their species under stress or suffering physical injury, their levels of stress become elevated. Hence, the behavioural stress is widespread in the birds in the vicinity of those that have been injured and/or handled roughly."
Let me tell you. None of the animals on these farms - commercial or otherwise, look like this:
That's my Jake who is the epitome of what you think a turkey looks like and what we "celebrate" at our holidays (by killing them).
No, the animals that are killed for you to eat look like this...
Use your dollars to show your support.
Boycott these companies - Butterball (One worker told an investigator: "If you jump on their stomachs right, they'll pop ... or their insides will come out of their [rectums]," and other Butterball workers frequently bragged about kicking and tormenting birds.), Aviagen, and more - or just consider cutting back on eating animals. It's a change that's good for you and makes a huge change for these defenseless animals.
My heart hurts. I think I got about halfway through this before I started crying. What is hardest is that I knew all of this information with my head but seeing the reality of it makes my heart ache.
I've tried to be patient. I've tried to be open and receptive and not push an agenda... just inform and help be an example, but it is so hard. When someone sits in front of me and orders a meal with meat or eggs or butter, all I see is the death and suffering that went into creating that meal. The death and suffering that happens to animals so very much like the ones that I hold dear.
I see the hens suffering and being abused and killed and it hurts. I would give anything to have my Napoleon back and to keep Meg and Gertie safe and others just treat similar animals with hate and disregard. They treat them worse than garbage and value them so little.
And to know that this happens to billions of animals all over the world is horrifying. To know that it is unnecessary and that the alternatives are so much better for our health and our earth overall but are ignored or even reviled just makes it even harder.
I can't spare myself from looking or talking about this because that would not help create change. I have to keep giving the message and bringing it to those around me. I am willing to share my sadness because I hope it will maybe inspire someone to take a look at the images and maybe make a change, however small themselves.
At the minimum you should watch the images and learn more about the animals that become your food and how they are treated before hand. These are animals that you put into your body, into your mouth. It is important to understand the origins so that you can be informed. People are more informed about the cleansers they use in their house or their shampoo than they are about there food.
If you only watch for that reason, you should watch and learn...
I've spent a lot of my life feeling full of conflict and even rage but I have to say that an unexpected gift of becoming vegan has been a major increase in the amount of joy and peacefulness that I feel inside me.
I just found this video which shows many of the beliefs that vegans and vegetarians espouse. I know there are some that would think the words here are filled with a level of superiority, of a "holier-than-thou" mentality. But I hope you would just see them with an open heart. With an open mind. See them as in invitation to explore an unknown and new path. A path that is filled with people who are on the same journey and who are happy to welcome you along no matter where you are on yours.
The knowledge of the world is only to be acquired in the world, and not in a closet.
2009 is already becoming a year of hope, of optimism, of change.
The end of 2008 has left us poised to see huge changes in the world. Not just because of our new President-to-be and not just because there seemed to be a lot of suckiness but there is just a growing sense of energy that I am seeing and feeling. Everywhere I turn there seems to be someone new ready to usher in the year with positivity.
And what better time is there to try something that will help reduce cruelty, help the environment and save lives... including your own.
Now is the time to make some changes in how you eat.
You don't have to go straight to raw foods only or become 100% vegan overnight. But look at what you like to eat. Look at the flavors of the foods you like. You'd probably be surprised that most of what you like are not animal-based.
I used to love burgers... but what I liked was the bun/lettuce/onion/ketchup/texture. With a black bean or veggie burger I get the same flavor and texture. I can't even tell the difference, except I don't get an upset stomach.
I like going to Chipolte or Moe's too but now I get an Art Vandalay; I still get that spicy warm flavor. I'm equally full. And I didn't want for anything.
And nowadays it's easier than ever to cut back on the meat/dairy/eggs in your diet. There are tons of new convenience foods, produce is available almost year-round and restaurants and other businesses are creating amazing selections so you don't need to worry about if you can eat out with friends or travel in comfort. Most of the time you'll get something even better and jealousy-inducing than everyone else!
So, now you have the tools and the resources, what's stopping you? Is it that you don't like the flavors? Or you don't know how to cook new things? Or you just have questions about how do you start this? And, frankly, we're human and it's hard to break/start a routine.
If you want to learn more about becoming vegetarian/vegan one of the best resources I have found was Colleen Patrick-Goudreau's Compassionate Cooks podcast via iTunes (also available on her site). She provides a ton of information and has a great outlook on being a "joyful vegan" and the "vegan in the room". She's inspired me a lot.
And if you're all about the food like we are, you can't help but be inspired by the recipes and images on VeganYumYum. I mean, holy crap! Her food is AMAZING! She even has an iPhone app with all the recipes including pictures so you can take your phone into the kitchen and cook.
Some of our new favorite food choices include Silk (regular and chocolate, my new snack!), Field Roast's Roasted Apple-Sage sausages and Celebration Roasts, Tofutti'ssour cream and Purely Decadent'sice cream - which I think I like better than any ice cream I've ever had (except maybe the stuff I make myself.)
I have a HUGE list of sites the I refer to all the time so please feel free to drop me an email if you are running into a challenge. One site that I like too is Happy Cow. They are a growing online guide for restaurants and natural health food stores. They are soon to have an iPhone app too. Not that I've had to use it too much. I love to go out to eat and have yet to run into a problem finding a place I can't find a good meal... even at Paula Deen's restaurant!
So here's my gift and hope to you for 2009: Bring some of the enthusiasm and positivity for this year to one of the most important areas of your life - your health and what you eat. No other change you make will have such a huge and immediate impact on such a personal level and on the whole world. Even if you just make a small change like only drinking Silk or you give a totally vegan diet a go for the 30 days, you'll be amazed at how easy it is. And at the end of 30 days you may want to do more.
You don't have to do everything... Just do something!
And if you want to talk or want help finding an answer, I'm happy to be a part of that! I hope you'll let me know what you do and how it goes!
In the winter, the hens don't lay eggs every day. In fact, after their Fall moult which was a few months ago, they have not really laid at all. But just as the winter solstice passed, Meg started laying again. She hasn't been having an egg every day but so far we have 4. Gertie isn't laying again yet, as far as I can tell.
One of the questions we a lot, now that we are vegan/vegetarian, is what do we do with the eggs from our girls.
Well... the simple answer is, we eat them.
Or, mainly the hubby does. I don't eat eggs a lot ever anyways. I mainly used them in my baking. But since I made the switch to a fully vegan diet right around the time they paused in their laying, I've been looking at substitutions for when I'm baking. So it hasn't been a big deal.
There are many reasons why people choose to become vegetarian or vegan. One of my main reasons is to avoid participating and supporting an industry that subjects animals to cruelty and torture. I don't need eggs (or meat or dairy) and I don't want it enough to make the animals pay that kind of a price. I just can't justify it any longer and I can't continue with it now that I'm aware of it.
As I mentioned before, our 3 chickens were rescued. We keep them because we like them and we like taking care of them. We aren't going to eat them and we didn't get them for the eggs. We aren't going to kill them or get rid of them when they stop laying - which could be tomorrow or years from now. The girls are going to lay eggs as a part of their natural cycle. We are not raising them for breeding chicks either. So, because we know where the eggs came from, how the hens are treated and what their future is, we feel comfortable eating the eggs. Outside of know that about any food, I try not to risk it.
Of course, we are lucky in that we are able to do this. If we were living in Florida still, or even another location here, this would be difficult to impossible. If that were the case, I do not forsee us eating eggs at all.
But we don't.
We live here. We have the girls (and Napoleon, of course). We do our best to take care of them and to avoid causing harm.
“People are complicated, irrational creatures when it comes to how they view animals. [...] I’ve come to the conclusion that all people are basically good, and that goodness rebels against cruelty to animals. Therefore, people convince themselves that anything they do is not cruel to animals. I don’t think they even really completely buy their rationales, but they cling to them anyway. Believing something false to clear your conscious is easier than changing your lifestyle to do so.” —Mindy Quittem (source)
Boy, you can say that again.
I’m intrigued by human behavior. In fact, I think I should have studied sociology or marketing in college rather than philosophy. Logic and critical thinking are great. I’m so glad I developed some critical thinking skills. But how good are they when most of the people around me are more motivated by “50% off” or “everyone else does it, you should too” than by logic? How helpful is it to be able to analyze complex ideas like “obscurantism” when the entire notion is obscure to most people?
Mindy Quittem’s comment above illustrates the divide between what we know and what we do. We all know animal cruelty is wrong. We all know killing animals needlessly is wrong. We all know veganism is right. But there’s a gap between what we know and what we do. There is a line between what we believe and how we behave.
“A quarter of Americans say animals deserve the same rights as humans, while almost all of the rest agree that animals should be given some protection from harm and exploitation.” The majority of Americans believe one thing, yet behave in a manner contradictory to what they believe.
There are plenty of valid reasons for this: lack of choices, lack of education, social pressure to conform. Most of us vegans have experienced at least a little delay in our own transition. Personally, I believed veganism was right for over a decade before I made the switch. I was just so comfortable eating milk and eggs. It was so easy not to think about where they came from or who got hurt in the process.
It wasn’t cognitive dissonance. I didn’t lie to myself. I just chose not to think about it. In fact, when asked why I wasn’t vegan I responded:
We all draw our lines somewhere. For me, that line is currently between flesh and other products. For most meat-eaters, their line is between pets and farm animals. Or, their line is between horses and cows, or humans and animals.
I draw my line as a practical matter. For me it’s extremely easy to abstain from animal flesh.[...] But it’s harder to give up eggs and milk.
I won’t argue that I shouldn’t give up milk and eggs. I certainly agree. I just haven’t done it yet. I suppose I’m a little like a smoker who talks about quitting but never does. They *know* what’s right, they just don’t act on it yet.
It’s hypocritical for a doctor, who cares about health, to tell someone else not to smoke and then to light up themselves. It doesn’t mean the doctor is wrong to tell someone to quit smoking. It just means they are addicted.
I believe much of what we do is defined by habit and not by actual conscious choice. [...] most people don’t have a rational reason behind the majority of their daily habits. They often just act without thought.
So how do we change this?I think we change it by making veganism more socially acceptable. We do vegan education and vegan outreach.
But the biggest change has been adopting a vegetarian/vegan lifestyle. We are still figuring out what all that means to us, since it varies from person to person, but as I've said before, it has been great.
And when I talk about this "change" I don't mean just the way that we cook or the foods we choose, but really a whole mentality. We've learned a lot about the health benefits of cutting out animal-based food, the disgusting facts of factory farming and really just made a lot more connections that should have been obvious to us before.
Even though I've worked with and cared for animals all my life, it took the traumatic incident of the attack on Napoleon to really open our eyes and spur us to action. Thank goodness he has had a 100% recovery but how could we care so much for this one and then contribute to the torture and slaughter of thousands of others? Oh, and by the way, since so many people have asked... I didn't pressure the hubby into this change. He actually was the main driving force, for which I will be forever glad and thankful.
So yes, we had trauma and, yes, we have learned some sad things that reinforce our feelings but this holiday should be about joy and Thanksgiving. And this year we, I feel, finally celebrated in a way that supported that. While a few turkey's are "pardoned" (like other innocents who are spared from execution in the nick of time), 72 million for this day alone are not.
We got a few questions, which we were happy to answer, including "But what will you eat on Thanksgiving if you aren't having a turkey?" Well, I never really liked to eat turkey or ham. And I got an upset stomach from all the butter and fat every year, so I wasn't going to miss that. What we were having were all of the other amazing traditional foods with only a few ingredient changes and one substitution.
We had a Celebration Roast from Field Roast for our main. These (and their sausages) are so delicious I wish we had started eating them in general years ago. We also had an Apple Sage Mushroom stuffing, asparagus, a fresh field green salad with pecans, sweet potato biscuits, gravy and the hubby's famous roasted root vegetable mash.
This is one of the best things he makes. You chop up and roast any mix of veggies but we used: butternut squash, turnips, sweet potatoes, onions, garlic, russet potatoes, parsnips, carrots and rutabagas.
Prep the veggies by seeding and peeling as needed.
Then we chop them up into equal size, sprinkle with some olive oil, salt and pepper and any herbs you may want. Then they pop in the oven to roast at 400 for about an hour or 1.5 hours until they are crispy yet tender. You then can food process them or hand mash them. We add some broth and EarthBalance and you are done!
I also made a (vegan) pumpkin pie with a pecan crust which may have been the best pumpkin pie I've ever made. I could not stop eating it.
Unlike previous years, I came away from our dinner with a feeling of actual thanksgiving and a lot of hope. It really confirmed that you could eat amazingly (which we kind of already knew) and traditionally but still in line with our goals. We could have people over for a holiday meal and know that no one would leave missing anything from a taste or emotional level. I think food speaks to us on both planes so knowing that we could still fulfill that meant a lot to me.
Many people may have seen this video of Palin and thought it was pretty bad but I'm not sure it really opened any eyes. The whole "pardon a turkey" thing is sort of a joke.
There are so many people out there who care about animals and the environment. The Prop 2 victory is evidence of that and a great start to what I hope is a wave of change. In this new world, this paradigm shift, I hope that awareness will continue to grow and an openness will find new paths.
I hope our experience will inspire you to think beyond what has been taught to you in the past and to seek new information and try new things. I'd love to help answer any questions or talk through your thoughts.
I'm a very lucky person. I have had the opportunity to have animals in my life for my entire life. I think the only time I have not had an animal friend around me was during my first three years of college. And only then because I felt it would not be fair to them, given my crazy school schedule.
But growing up, my parents had a dog before I was born. A Benji-looking dog that went from being a skittish pound-pup who would cringe and hide from strangers to my fierce protector who guarded me from everyone but my parents. I've had dogs, cats, hamsters, mice and gerbils. I've worked at stables, vet's offices and the Miami MetroZoo.
And now, moving to North Carolina, I've been able to meet some new friends... our three chickens.
I've been around all types of animals. Parrots, snakes, deer, possums, ferrets, snakes, elephants, pot belly pigs, hedgehogs, horses, lizards, etc. You name it. And I have to tell you, our chickens have one of the best personalities of any of them. They're social. They're inquisitive. They're caring. They're funny as all hell.
That is why it pains me so greatly to think of what we do do them just to eat their flesh and eggs. They can't move, they can't extend their wings (think of living your life with your arms bound to your sides), they cut off their beaks without anesthesia, they grind the male chicks up alive right after birth. They have no "use" for them... why keep them?
Colleen from CompassionateCooks.com does a great podcast (found on iTunes too) and she did this episode with a short story reading about a rescued hen. It was sad but sweet and worth listening too. Click here to hear it - it will take a minute or two to load. And if you like it, check it out on iTunes or on her site here. I'm still working my way through them all.
This is my Meg -
She's not a factory farm rescue but she is a rescued chicken. When we first got her and Gertie and Napoleon we thought it would be fun. We do eat their eggs. But we don't keep them for their eggs. And when they stop laying we will not kill them or eat them. We would have done that even before we became vegetarian/vegan. I would no more kill and eat our pups and kitties.
I just don't eat my friends.
And they are my friends. We do have a symbiotic relationship. They are fun to be around. They've educated us. They eat our veggie scraps like melon rinds and extra rice and bread (although they do get veggies and fruit just for them every day) and take care of a lot of bugs.
That's the kind of partnership I feel comfortable with. Not I use you then kill and eat you.
Not only do have we stopped eating meat but we've always actively boycotted fur and fur products.
If you can watch this video and still think it's okay to wear fur, a product that is not commonly worn and is based on mere spoiled vanity, then I don't want to know you.
You can't just bury your head in the sand when it comes to issues like this. You can't NOT watch. If your going to wear fur, you should be OBLIGATED to watch and know the suffering that you cause.
