Only this time it was green and not red!

Image by Eric Michael Pearson

I attended my local vegetarian society meeting two days ago.  All are welcome but most members are ethical vegan.  John Pierre was the guest speaker for the evening.  He is a nutrition and fitness consultant, activist and trainer to celebrities including Ellen DeGeneres.  The theme of his presentation came from his new book The Pillars of Health.

John Pierre does not discriminate when it comes to women’s rights and extends those to females of all species.  He spoke briefly about the rape racks used to impregnate the cows by either a bull or a human hand inserted into the rectum, all against the cow’s will.  Thus the term rape rack is appropriately used.

John Pierre spoke about the dairy industry and its tremendous harm to cows who produce milk for human consumption.  A few of the things he mentioned, in no more detail than this, were how the udders of cows become so painfully distended from being forced to overproduce so much milk that they actually drag on the ground.  The ground is covered in fecal material.  Sometimes a cow will step on her own udder because they are so grossly distended.  Painful infections are common.  In the United States 80% of all antibiotics are given to livestock equaling 30 million pounds per year. This is not healthy for cows or humans.

At this point there was a small ruckus in the back of the room.  I saw a woman collecting her child and leaving.  I assumed she did not want him to hear about the poor dairy cows.  Totally understandable!  It’s upsetting.

My guess is that out of a one hour speech, there were less than five minutes devoted to animals used for food and the resulting cruelty.

Anyhow . . .

We went on to discuss pressure cookers and blenders.  People began to ask questions such as should you cook a sweet potato before using it in a smoothie?

The woman who had left earlier came back in and at the top of her voice with what in my opinion was a somewhat angry tone, not screaming, but super loud began to accuse John Pierre of having a flippant attitude.  Each question she asked left only a small pause with enough time for John Pierre to say one or two words at most, but never a full or even a half sentence response before she interrupted him with another statement or question.  I will try to recall correctly but she said things like:

What’s wrong with eating the sacred meat?

I’m a scientist and I am researching the brains of children and you will be hearing about me with regard to this.

I am going to have babies until the day I die.

How are you going to address world hunger with this way of eating?

Inner city apartments should have chickens.  Those chickens will have the most wonderful lives until they are eaten.

I did not come here to disrupt your meeting.  I am not being disruptive!

I came here for a free meal.  I did not come here to listen to you talk about cow’s vaginas (to my knowledge he never said cow vagina) in front of my son.  I don’t want you to make him feel bad about drinking milk.  He drinks milk!

She said some other things too but I can’t remember everything.  The thing is, her child seemed a little scared but of course I’m going to think it’s because she was making a scene.  Who really knows?

I likened the whole thing to ‘throwing green paint’ on us.  Kind of like the vegans that throw red paint on unsuspecting people wearing animal furs.

She grabbed her child and continued speaking loud enough all the way out the door so that no one else could have a chance to answer her or say anything all.

So what came after?

In the case of red paint what sometimes follows is:

Those self-righteous vegans!

Those annoying animal activists!

Who do they think they are!

The plural form – vegans, the plural form – activists, and the use of ‘they’ and not ‘he’ or she’ are of note.  The actions of one or even a few should never be used to define an entire group.  Just as the actions of this one woman are not to be used to define all people who eat animals.

Certainly she did not throw green paint.  Throwing paint is a whole lot worse!  Throwing paint is opposite to veganism.  Veganism asks the world to give your kindness indiscriminately, to cause the least amount of suffering possible.  Throwing paint is not kind.  But it is the action of only one, or a few, and does not define everyone who practices veganism.

After the woman left John Pierre had this to say, in my own words:

People may become upset when they hear truth.  This is why it is so easy to get upset about the meat or dairy industry.  None of us wants for these horrible things to be true.  These kinds of truths bring about many negative emotions.  This is why we never see anyone having an outburst over broccoli for example.  No one wants to accept what the cows go through.  No one wants to have to feel bad about drinking milk.  No one wants to know that after they reach through the rectum of one cow to force impregnate her, they do not change the glove for the next cow.  But we do not know what this woman has gone through.  We do not know her, her life, or her experiences.  We cannot feel angry about her interruption of our meeting here.  We cannot allow negative emotions to guide us.  We must maintain our compassion, always, and for everyone.

And that, my friends, is what it’s all about.   That is true veganism.  I hope the woman comes back.  She will be welcome with open arms.

#ActiveKindness + 100% Nondiscrimination = Peace on Earth

Filed under: Journal

Fundraiser for Dog Town Shelter

Come out and enjoy the fun rain or shine!  Music, raffles and dinner:  Mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, rolls, salad and barbequed dog legs.

Is that legal?  Yes, in China this is a delicacy. An import company has donated all of the meat for our fundraiser.

But a dog is not meat.  Yes it is.

But wait, you are trying to help dogs but you are going to help them by eating them?  Yes, the dogs we are serving are already dead so it would be a waste otherwise.  Plus those dogs are not regular dogs.  They are meat dogs.

Isn’t that not right to do to dogs? It’s legal so it’s right.

That’s disgusting.  No it isn’t, actually it tastes really good.  They are sending us mostly golden retriever and those actually have the best flavor because if you don’t let them exercise or move their meat gets really tender and falls right off the bone.

They don’t let them exercise? No, they aren’t regular dogs.  They are meat dogs so they don’t need to exercise.

What is a meat dog? A meat dog is a dog that is kept in a cage for four or five months.  They are over fed and then sent to slaughter.  They are not like dogs here.

Why not?  What is the difference?  Because there they are meat.

So just because they are in China they are meat?  Yes

How is a dog there any different to a dog here?  Actually there isn’t any difference between the dogs there and here.  The difference is between the way people think.  That makes it ok.

I hope you will come out to the fundraiser to support the dogs and enjoy a delicious meal!

People who eat animals often say that they do not understand at all why someone who doesn’t gets upset when animals are being served or eaten.  But if this fundraiser upsets you then you understand perfectly.  The only difference is in the way we think. But the way we think comes from two places:  the culture or the heart.

Choose.

Peace on earth begins and ends with you.  And how you think.  You are important to this world.  I believe in you.

~Peace

If you’re not vegan then you are not aware that there are differences between vegans and their beliefs and actions. You probably just know all of the stereotypes:

Angry

Red paint

Smug

Holier than thou

Extreme

Coo-coo

But once you’re on the inside looking out you will find that those stereotypes are just that and most likely none of them fit you or most of the other vegans or practitioners of veganism that you know.

The abolitionist vegan movement condemns Farm Sanctuary. And yet I, my fiance, my mother and my son went there non-vegan and walked out vegan on the same day that we went there.  My fiance and I visited several months before my son and mother.

There is one group of vegans whose efforts are 99% concentrated on tearing down other vegans or vegan organizations or animal rights folks and groups.  If you should happen upon this type of vegan take a step back and think about it before joining their posse. If you’re not even interested in veganism yet but come across these people please realize that they do not represent veganism.  They only represent their particular group: the abolitionist vegans.

I am not telling you not to join their group. I am just telling you to think about it first.

What is the Beginner’s Mind?

Think back to a time when you were doing something for the first time. Here is an example:

Remember the day, that moment, when first you realized you would be vegan?  Your heightened state of awareness combined with the desire for a better world?  And that feeling that you would do anything to create that world, but at that point not knowing exactly what to do to accomplish that goal.  Your mind was open, completely.

As time wears on the new vegan’s mind begins to close.  The more enlightened you think you are, the more closed the mind becomes.  What is possible becomes replaced with what is probable.  Hope may be replaced with disappointment.  Bitterness or anger or judgement or frustration or any other number of negative states replace the original hopeful ‘eyes and mind wide open’ state.  As you become more ‘vegan’ or more ‘expert’ on the subject of veganism your eyes and your mind are beginning to close again.

You are losing your Beginner’s Mind.

When we lose this, our practice of veganism becomes less pure.

When your mind becomes demanding, when you long for something, you will end up violating your own precepts. ~ Suzuki

When our mind is compassionate it is boundless. ~ Suzuki

We must never say “I know what veganism is.  I have attained enlightenment.” for when we do this, we close the mind to further enlightenment and learning about what veganism is and in this we close ourselves off to others. The secret is to always be a beginner.  In this way we hold onto that original enlightenment to compassion.  We do not allow our negative feelings that we indeed will have to confront about the world, our friends and even our family to replace our compassion for all and our wish for peace.  By keeping a Beginner’s Mind we do not close ourselves off to possibilities.  We do not lose hope.  We are not disappointed because all things are still possible.  And we are able to treat every person in the way in which we originally treated them, not just the first time or in the first moments before they say something that upsets us, but each time we talk to and engage them, and for each moment we maintain our hope and thus our compassion for this person.

We never let go of that original  hope that they too will ‘see’.  This causes our treatment of others to be in the pure vegan way, always: with compassion. Only our Beginner’s Mind contains our purest compassion for all who live.  And it is only our Beginner’s Mind that may connect with others for it has not yet separated itself from others.  No walls have been built yet.  We are our purest vegan form, our most enlightened selves, when we hold onto that very first moment of enlightenment, the one in which it just happened one moment ago.  When we are new.  When we are just beginning.  When we are filled with humility about the way we have lived until that very moment. When we are still connected to our friends and family and to all people in the exact same way for we have not yet been disappointed by them.

The Beginner’s Mind understands how/why/what caused us to live the way we did and at the same time understands that we can no longer live that way. The Beginner’s Mind knows how to bestow compassion upon a non-vegan, including the self.  We did not punish ourselves.  Instead we became vegan, a thing that anyone may become. And in that moment we had the knowledge of ‘If I can do it, anyone can”. And that knowledge is truth. But when we lose our Beginner’s Mind we lose sight of this truth.

Enlightenment is not some good feeling or some particular state of mind.  It is satisfaction with each moment. If you are not satisfied with each moment as a vegan when you engage with others then the problem is you, not the other person.  We are only in control of ourselves.  And the vegan self is the most compassionate self.  If you engage others in a less than compassionate way, you are not engaging them with the vegan self.  You are engaging them with your ego.  The ego must be set aside, gotten rid of, in order to be the purest vegan self. When we get rid of our egos we can access our compassion completely.  And only then will we be satisfied with every moment no matter who the other person is that we are engaging. Because we will have engaged them with a pure vegan self.  In essence we will have done the right thing not for ourselves, but for the other person, for veganism, which is for the animals which at this point it is for ourselves.  It is only in self-less-ness or without ego that we can be our most vegan self. It doesn’t matter how ‘vegan’ we are or for how long.  This does not make us an authority for every person is vegan inside and we must speak to them with this knowledge, with that humble and hopeful Beginner’s Mind treating each moment as the first in order to maintain our most compassionate self, in order to be vegan we let go of “I’m vegan, you’re not”. The truth is that inside of everyone of us is the vegan self.

There are many vegan experts out there that many people look ‘up’ to. But is there really such a thing?

A return to the Beginner’s Mind every moment of every day is to return to veganism every moment of our lives and to keep the mind open, to be pure in your vegan thought and way of life and your advocacy.

It will work for you in many other areas of your life as well – a return to the first day you met your husband or wife, a return to your first day of college, the day your child was born, the first day you did anything when all things were possible, when you were hopeful and determined to do your best.

Just my thoughts.

~Peace

The awakened person sees what is wrong with the world.

The enlightened person sees what is wrong with themselves.

The awakened person wants others to change and as a result is plagued by feelings of frustration and anger.

The enlightened person knows they can only change one person, themselves.  They are filled with hope.  They know if they can change, so can all others.

The awakened person sees what they are doing right and what others are doing wrong.

The enlightened person sees what they are doing wrong and what others are doing right.

The awakened person believes they have arrived.

The enlightened person knows that they will never fully arrive and therefore must never stop continuing along the path.

The awakened person believes they are better than others who are not awakened.

The enlightened person knows they are not better than anyone else.

The awakened person doesn’t understand.

The enlightened person tries to understand.

The awakened person still clings to old values: trying to obtain peace through anger or name calling or shunning, discriminating against others, withholding kindness.

The enlightened person knows anything less than peace never yields peace, that discrimination against anyone or anything is the root of every problem in the world and therefore the enlightened one withholds kindness from no one or no being.

The awakened person sees themselves as apart from the problem.

The enlightened person sees themselves as part of the problem and works daily to make this not so.

The awakened person is critical, gathers knowledge to use against others, separates themselves from others.

The enlightened person is complimentary, gathers knowledge to help themselves understand better, sees their kinship with all others.

Awakened persons are unable to change the world because they cannot change themselves.  They are aware beings but they are filled with negativity so much so that they might be cruel or unkind to those who are not yet awakened and this adds to the problems they wish to solve versus solving them.

Enlightened persons are able to change the world because they are able to change the only person in the world they can change: themselves.  They are aware beings who do not express cruelty or unkindness towards anyone or anything.  They realize that this is the problem.

Awakened persons want the world to change.

Enlightened persons are the change.

There is nothing more difficult in this life than to be kind to every living being*. There is also nothing more important for this is what we all want for ourselves and our loved ones: kindness.  Kindness begins and ends with ourselves. When we grasp this completely our feet will once again be moving along the path.

~Peace

Some quotes to ponder while on the path:

*Self defense is a different topic and happens when our lives are in danger but 99.9% of the time we are not in a position of self defense. Since we are not in danger right now we can choose kindness even if we do not like someone we can still choose to be kind.  Try being kind to someone that doesn’t deserve it and watch the magic, both within yourself and the world immediately around you.

I thought you might enjoy this read by another author.

-Peace

Pursuing Happiness When It’s Already Within You.

via Pursuing Happiness When It’s Already Within You.

That’s right, I said it!  He who must not be named; the one and only Gary Francione.  I had the opportunity to meet him in person last night.  I am glad I have not written his name before.  Such is the human way in that we form opinions and pass judgement on people, often whole groups of people but in this case just the one, without ever having met them/without learning about them in a way that is not bias.  So now that I have met him, I feel ready to write about him.

Photo Credit: Alex Chernavsky

Gary Francione is a no-nonsense straight-forward man.  He speaks loudly at a pace that was so fast I had to use shorthand to capture the essence of his speech.  To be honest he reminded me a little of my favorite comedian George Carlin.  Francione is direct, honest, funny, charismatic and talks about veganism with no-holds barred.  There is no candy coating anything with him – not even one little teeny tiny sugar crystal to dilute his message.  So while he is anything but sweet, he is funny, quick witted, engaging, entertaining, but his most unique talent lies in his ability to speak truth in the rawest most Carlin-istic of ways.  He was also able to do something no abolitionist vegan has ever been able to do: cause me to finally understand what the problem is with single issue campaigns (SICs).

Gary Francione is nothing like the abolitionist vegans I have met.  I am not sure what the disconnect is.  I am not the only one who has had negative experiences, one after the other, with his subscribers.

Learning about psychology of the human being helps a vegan to understand what they are dealing with in people who are not yet vegan.  Every abolitionist vegan I have ever engaged repeats the same words, almost verbatim, making them very easy to spot.  The speech Gary followers use is esoteric and elitist (remember, I am commenting here about Gary’s followers and NOT Gary Francione). Believe it or not, not everyone knows what the word extant means, or even what the phrase ‘moral baseline’ means.  What people do know is when they hear those words they feel put off. Speaking to people requires speaking to them in a way in which they can understand.  I believe this is a problem. Engaging future vegans in the way his followers often do may further the stereotype that vegans are pompous.  This will only serve to repel future vegans.  This is the opposite of what is needed to achieve the goal: to end animal exploitation people must stop exploiting animals.  How do we stop people from doing it?  We cannot.  But we can send the message, and this is Gary’s key, that says unequivocally veganism is the way, veganism is the only way.

I agree.  But may I add something to this?  Because after an hour and a half speech the following was the only thing I found missing from the speech and to be honest, I agreed with everything Francione had to say.  But here is the only thing I would add:

A message is a discrete unit of communication intended by the source for consumption by some recipient or group of recipients. 

I intend for you to get my message.  In fact, it is a matter of life and death that you receive this message.  If I know that you do not own a computer but I send it by email anyway, have I made good on my delivery?

The message is important, in fact the message Francione sends is the most important message in the history of the history of human beings.

But I would argue that equally important is the delivery of such message.  If you deliver the message in such a way so as to cause the recipient not to understand it (esoterism), so as to repel the recipient (rudeness etc), so as to cause the recipient to stand more firmly in their beliefs about eating and using animals (cognitive dissonance leads to conformational bias) then are you a messenger? You have the most important message ever to be received. Each recipient has a slightly different way in which they can receive that message.  It does not matter how you yourself received it.  It does not matter if it totally pisses you off that you might have to change your delivery based on individual reception differences.  The only thing that matters is that you actually make good on the delivery of the message. Otherwise you are not a messenger.  In fact, much worse, you may have just damaged the very movement you seek to further.

If you can send an email to those with a computer, write a letter to someone without a computer, knock on someone’s door who does not have a phone, send a text message to those with a phone but never answers the damn thing, etc.  If you can tailor your physical delivery of your message every single day on the most mundane of matters then you have proven that you are able to change your delivery mode depending on the person and therefore it is your responsibility to do so, it is of the highest importance that you do so, on the things that matter the most.

Do you have to water down the message?  No you do not.  Can you deliver it in a way that is unique to each person so they may best receive it?  Yes you can.  In fact, you have to. Otherwise you’re no messenger.  You are not solving the problem.  You have become part of it by being the stereotype that is so repulsive to the general population about veganism.  It doesn’t matter if it shouldn’t be that way.  It doesn’t matter if people should not judge veganism like that. The truth is they do.  And until vegans learn to let go of their vegos and accept the psychological state of being human for what it is and learn how to work with that, how to play the game, only then will they rise above to meet the needs of the vegan movement.

Gary Francione doesn’t need to do any of that.  He has earned his position and style of rhetoric.   Does the world need Francione Clones?  No because his style cannot be emulated with the same effect.  It is his own style  and should not be duplicated because unless you were born with his personality you will not be able to pull it off without seeming like a jerk every time.

As for SICs I have a few things to say.  The first is I now understand Gary Francione’s position.  However I still stand by what I have said before:  all vegans are abolitionist.  No vegan wants anything less than 100% freedom from use for all animals.  Therefore all vegans are abolitionist.  I also do not know any vegans that spend time advocating SICs.  Every vegan I know advocates veganism.  Again, all vegans are already abolitionist.

The only other thing I want to say is that while I completely understand now how SICs confuse people, I believe it creates further devastating confusion when vegans attack SICs.  Truth is important.  And the truth is, whether we like it or not, that when a vegan attacks a SIC it makes vegans look schizophrenic.  While those that understand the problems with SICs, those that do not will form a very negative view of vegans and veganism as a result.  The truth is this drives people away from veganism.

So what to do about SICs?  There must be a better way to approach the problem because as of right now, the way it is being approached is actually harming the vegan movement by repelling people from it and, just as SICs harm animals, so does creating yet another negative stereotype for veganism.

My current analysis is that the cost to veganism and therefore to animals by publicly opposing Farm Sanctuary far outweighs the benefit at this point.  I am proof.  I went there a non or future vegan.  I am now vegan.  My fiance, my mother and my son all will tell you the same story.  Four more vegans in the world, all from Farm Sanctuary.  So whatever issues they have, they are not currently obvious enough for someone who is not so deeply ensconced in veganism to pose a barrier to someone becoming 100% vegan immediately upon contact with their organization, at this point.

The cost to opposing SICs such as cage free eggs to veganism is negligible compared to the benefit to the animals for educating the world on these particular kinds of SICs.  The world is ready to receive this education.  That is the key.

Speech Highlights:

• Lewis Gompertz essentially the founder of veganism and in particular tying this historical background to SICs today
• Gary Francione’s history with PETA
• You cannot tell anyone want to do, for example, be vegan.  You can tell people it is wrong not to be vegan.
• Animal welfare reform has never had anything to do with the animals.  It was always for economic gain.
• The concept of a leader is a bad idea.  I swear he said this – it is in my notes.
• Gary Francione loves Michael Vick.  Why?  Because everyone can relate to what he did, that it was wrong, and that his reason is not justifiable.  What Vick did was not worse than what happens to farmed animals.  Therefore if the only justification to do it to farm animals is taste, since we know for a fact it is not necessary for human health, then why be upset with Michael Vick?  Either all reasons are justifiable, or none are when it comes to unnecessarily harming others. “If you think you have a good reason for causing unnecessary harm then your moral rule is now meaningless” that rule being we should not cause unnecessary harm.  This is a speech Gary presents to college kids during which he asks who is upset about what Vick did, then asks who is vegan.  Then asks why be upset if you are not vegan?  Killing or hiring someone else to kill for you is the same thing.  There may be a psychological difference but there is no moral one.  I think this is very powerful because it is relevant and relatable and this creates the ripe environment to grow the necessary perspective.  In this way Gary Francione is able to make veganism versus the exploitation of animals relatable.  This is good message delivery.
• Animals have the right not to be property.  Property means that it is up to the owner to decide your value.  Simply because an owner values their dog does not mean the dog has the right to be valued.  This is the problem.  So when speaking about animal rights, this is the right Francione speaks of.
• When someone tells him they are vegetarian he responds with “I am sorry to hear that” Honestly that is hilarious and speaks to his character.  Coming from him, it works well I am sure.
• If intelligence is a criterion for rights then a lot of people are in trouble.  (again, so reminded me of Carlin!)
• If what comes out of your mouth is the language of non-violence but what goes in is a product of violence then you are confused
• If violence worked as a way to solve problems then we would all be living in Eden by now
• On the subject of animal rights advocates wanting to harm or kill those who harm animals:  Gary had a conversation with a woman who felt a vivisector  should be killed because it would save so many animals per year.  He asked her if her mother were vegan.  She said no but she doesn’t eat beef. She does however eat chicken.  Gary asked if we should kill her too since her consumption of chicken kills far more animals than a vivesector kills in one year.
• Gary’s journey to veganism

Each of the above could be an entire blog post on its own.  Gary Francione packs a lot into one speech so it would be an impossibly long blog post to write it all out here.  If possible I will try to get the YouTube link to the speech and post that at a later time.

His speech was really good and I am so glad I went.  I was surprised that he did say that he would be tolerant of someone taking a couple of weeks to transition to veganism.  My surprise comes from conversations with his followers who have the attitude that if you are not going to do it right now, exactly in the way they think you should do it, then you are a terrible person.  I have been called names by his followers and ironically I was vegan at the time although still a fledgling.  In fact I was so vegan already that I was sitting on lawn chairs in my living room and had been doing so for months, too poor to get new furniture, too vegan to keep what I had if you know what I mean.  Yet I was a terrible person because I dared to say I had been to Farm Sanctuary and what I learned there caused me to become vegan that day, and I have been ever since.

That is why it would harm the movement to speak out against at least certain organizations because it makes vegans seem crazy.  Cage free eggs?  Grass fed cows?  Sure, those are easy to help people to understand why these things are not good enough.  But Farm Sanctuary?  No one knows, no one except for Gary and a select few, that this organization may have some issues.  From the outside and to the public it is a vegan farm with animals who have been rescued from the holocaust and what they promote is veganism. As a non or I like to say future vegan, that was my perception of Farm Sanctuary.  So while some SICs are obviously flawed, others are not so obvious.  Those should be handled with care as per the vegan in the public eye or else the only result of such will be harm to the vegan movement and this is the opposite of the desired effect.

For now I leave you with one last thought:  oysters

This has been an intense subject of debate among fellow vegans.  Gary Francione uses sentience as his guide for what we should or should not eat/wear/etc.  When asked what animals he does not consider sentient I will decline to write ‘who’ he said at first although it was hilarious and I agreed but I also don’t want to create any problems!  I guess you will just have to watch the video for that one.  He was then asked if oysters were sentient.  He said “I don’t know” and therefore he does not eat them.  He does not walk on grass.  He does what he can, when he can, to avoid harm.

I bought his book and we exchanged a few words.  I mentioned kindness as a piece to promote veganism.  It was so nice to be able to talk to Gary Francione in the flesh.

I received Gary’s message.  I guess I needed to go right to the source. I am glad I did.

-Peace

I was just reading an article here about the argument for slavery in the United States.  The following selections came from such article:

1. The defenders of slavery included economics, history, religion, legality, social good, and even humanitarianism, to further their arguments.

2. Defenders of slavery argued that slavery had existed throughout history and was the natural state of mankind.

3. Defenders of slavery noted that in the Bible, Abraham had slaves. . . . Jesus never spoke out against it.

4. Defenders of slavery argued that if all the slaves were freed, there would be widespread unemployment and chaos.

5. Defenders of slavery turned to the courts, who had ruled, with the Dred Scott Decision, that all blacks — not just slaves — had no legal standing as persons in our courts — they were property . . .

6. Some slaveholders believed that African Americans were biologically inferior to their masters. During the 1800s, this argument was taken quite seriously, even in scientific circles.

We all know today that none of these reasons are justifiable.  That in fact, this is crazy talk especially the last reason.  All of us today would be adamantly opposed to slavery. And yet back then, this was the norm, this was acceptable, this was mainstream, this was the culture. If you were against slavery you were seen as a deviant and your life could be in danger.  How could this be possible?  How could so many people be convinced to participate in something that was so terribly terribly wrong?

Compare the following justifications to the justifications for slavery above:

1.  The defenders of farming and eating animals include economics, history, religion, legality, social good, and even humanitarianism, to further their arguments.

2. The defenders of farming and eating animals argue that these things have always existed throughout history and is the natural state of mankind.

3. Defenders of farming and eating animals note that it is in the Bible.

4.  Defenders of farming and eating animals argue that if the animals were freed there would be widespread chaos from freeing them and loss of jobs in that industry.

5.  Defenders of farming and eating animals turn to courts, who have ruled that animals are property.  Animals are a commodity.  Sick animals may be considered trash and placed into the trash while still alive, legally.  Or they may be fed directly into a grinder while still alive if they need to be disposed of.

6.  Defenders of farming and eating animals believe that animals are inferior.

When we wonder why, how slavery could have existed on the level that it did and how people could accept it, believe it was ok, look the other way, believe that black people were not human . . . this is how.  The ability to buy into horrific practices of any culture exists in all of us, every one of us.  All of us are susceptible to it.

Culture creates belief systems that are based on economics and power and not on truth.  This creates discrimination and when enough people are indoctrinated to accept something, the psychology of being human flips a switch inside of which we are unaware.

We allow the culture to dictate to us right from wrong and to fracture who we really are inside leaving only some allowable bits intact and destroying the rest.  The culture creates a cognitive dissonance which causes us to form a conformational bias.  What this means is that instead of acting on our beliefs, what we know to be true, we instead change our beliefs and reject truth so that we do not have to change our actions.  This is what the culture wants you to do.

“I once read about a monster called the Extractor, that lived off people’s souls. Only, the thing was, the Extractor ate a person’s soul in their sleep over a 16 year period. Like it would nibble off a crumb every night, until there wasn’t anything left. So a person had no way to realize what was going on. They just had this vague sense that something was slowly disappearing.” – A quote from the movie Special

An example of dissonance (a belief that is not in harmony with your actions which creates psychological discomfort) turning to conformational bias (creating a false truth to relieve the discomfort) is someone who attends a fundraiser for a local animal shelter and purchases a hot dog for sale there believing that the purchase is going to a good cause.  The hot dog is made from animals who come from the most profoundly horrific and abusive of circumstances.

To eat a hot dog, while simultaneously supporting your belief that animal abuse is wrong and, worse, believing that you are helping animals by eating that hot dog requires you to discriminate against animals, to devalue animals as living beings and to turn them into a property, a commodity, a product and as one person told me ‘a material good’.

The animals in the hot dog are the same as the dogs and cats you want to help but culture has taught you they are not.  This is no different from when culture taught folks back in the day that a black person was not a person but a commodity, a thing to be owned.

There is no greater human psychological disconnect than the belief that you are doing something good while simultaneously participating in the very evil that you believe you are doing good for.

I would like to believe that if I were alive during the time of slavery in the United States that I would have been an abolitionist.

The truth is, I am alive during a time of slavery in the United States.

And the truth is I am an abolitionist of modern day slavery.

It is time to take a stand against slavery, not just some forms of slavery, but all forms of slavery.

It is time to stop tolerating discrimination, not just some forms, but all forms.

It is time to stop using the same excuses and making the same justifications for harming other living beings.  If you would not do to a dog what we do to pigs then this is the fracture that the culture has created in you if you still eat pigs or other animal products. Just as every human is a human, every animal is an animal.  Most important:  every life is a life. The way you think about a pig is not the way a pig is.  It is the way the culture wants you to think.  The culture selects which animals you will think of as meat and which ones you will not.  The culture selected which humans you thought of as slaves and which you did not.

Meat is a euphemism.  It is a culturally created word designed to hide the truth.  It is necessary to help you to discriminate against the animals you eat.  Have you ever bought ‘meat’ where the package said “Dead Cow flesh” or “Dead Pig flesh”?  Have you ever had a pet pass away and thought to yourself “meat”.

The thoughts you have about animals are not your own.  They have been placed there by something else.

The culture has selected how you will respond to the idea of not eating animals.

The culture will have you believe eating vegan is more expensive when it is actually less expensive.

The culture will have you believe you won’t get enough protein.  I took the nutrition studies courses at Rochester Institute of Technology for dieticians and the textbooks clearly state protein comes from plants, not animals.  It is only in animals because they ate plants or ate another animal that ate plants.  That animal protein is in no way superior to plant protein and that the idea that we need so much protein is a myth and detrimental to human health.  (Mcardle, Katch, Katch)

The culture will have you believe some lives matter less than others.  That some lives are a product.  Black = slave commodity Pig, Cow, Chicken = food commodity

The culture will have you believe that eating only foods that do not contain animal products is not healthy.  I have been vegan for years.  My hair did not fall out, my nails are not brittle, I am not skinny or weak, and in fact I am healthy in every single way.  I am 46 years old.  I have not been to the doctor except for a physical and a blood test each year to prove I am 100% healthy.  I take no medications and no supplements.

There is no difference in the way people thought then about slavery to how you think now about animals used for food. If you think it was wrong for them to believe the way they did then you must look at how you believe now.  Understand why they believed what they did.  Because to understand that is to understand yourself and how you may be doing the exact same thing.  Only then can you rise above culture and act in accordance with who you are inside: a harmony of the true self and your actions.

For how long are we going to recycle the same 6 excuses for participating in a culture of discrimination and cruelty?

Dairy, cheese, milk and butter are the result of extreme suffering.

I recently attended a talk featuring Gary Francione.  This really hit home with me:

If you are upset about what Michael Vick did to those dogs (if you do not know, scroll down below) but you are not vegan then why are you upset about what Michael Vick did?  Because what he did represents a tiny fraction of what happened to the animal on your plate.

What reasons justify cruelty?  Are there any good enough?

If not then it is time to throw away the reasons, stop letting the culture define right from wrong, find the strength to be yourself, the person that stands up for what is right.

The abolitionists did it then and we must continue to do it now.  Slavery still exists.  It still exists in human populations as well.  I focus on animals not because I value them more than humans.  All life has the same value to the being whose life it is. The reason why I write about animals:

• You are already aware of human beings as slaves but my guess is you have never thought of an animal as being enslaved and instead you use the word ‘farmed’.  If you look up the definition of slavery which is a state of being owned or chattel, submission to a dominating force, and drudgery you will see that a ‘farmed’ animal represents all of these things.  Ironically the word cattle is derived from the word chattel which means a possession or property other than real estate .  If you are chattel, you are a slave.   The word farmed is a euphemism when it comes to animals.  It implies nice things such as planting, growing and harvesting.  In the case of animals this translates to forcible insemination (rape), confinement, and slaughter.

• The main reason I write about animals is because I assume you, reader, do not participate in the enslavement of human beings and in most cases it is already illegal and already accepted that this is not right.  However if you eat animals and their products then you do participate in their enslavement.  It is not illegal and you believe it is right as a result. This is the one form of slavery that you have the power to overcome your own participation in.  I write about animals to re-empower you.  To give you perspective and insight into the choices that you have and to how you have been influenced in ways of which you may be unaware.

Remember, if you think your thoughts are your own there is every possibility that they are not.  Successful indoctrination means that the person is not aware of it.

The images the media feeds us about animals are false.  You will learn the truth about their suffering if you research it for yourself if you have the strength to remove the cultural blinders.  Years of indoctrination make this difficult but I believe you are strong enough. The animals need someone to tell the world please, end our suffering.

That person is you.

Choose the type of person you will be. The culture will choose, has chosen already, for you to be the person in the bottom panel. But you are the person in the top panel. Be that person.

-Peace

What Michael Vick Did:

“Several of those dogs were shot; at least two were were hosed down, then electrocuted. Three dogs were hanged, according to a report by the USDA inspector general, “by placing a nylon cord over a 2 x 4 that was nailed to two trees;” three more dogs were drowned “by putting the dogs’ heads in a 5 gallon bucket of water.”

Vick, with his partner, Quanis Phillips, killed yet another dog “by slamming it to the ground several times before it died, breaking the dog’s back or neck.” When another of his dogs was disqualified after jumping out of the ring during a fight, Vick had his associate, Purnell Peace, shoot that dog in the head with a .22 caliber pistol.

When federal officers raided Vick’s property in 2007, they rescued 53 pit bulls. They also found nine pit bull carcasses, took samples of two skeletal remains, collected spent shell casings, syringes, and “pieces of plywood flooring and dry wall covered with dark stains believed to be canine blood.” (Tests later confirmed, yes, the stains were dog blood.)

Other evidence seized from the property included a “rape stand” — a device to which a female dog was strapped, her head fully restrained, so she could be raped by other dogs”

I was once asked if I had the choice to save a human or an animal which would I choose?

This question is an example of a bifurcation fallacy which presents a false dilemma.  What this means is that the question assumes there are only two answers.  Furthermore the question is designed such that no matter which answer is chosen, the answerer will be wrong.

In this case to save the human would be taken to mean that I do not consider animals lives are worth as much as human lives and therefore I am not really vegan because I chose for an animal to die.

Or if I choose to save the animal it would be taken to mean that I value the lives of animals more than humans thus affirming the stereotype that vegans do not value human life thus, vegans are mentally flawed.

As you can see, this type of question presents a false dilemma because the real answer to this question is “I would try to save them both”.  This answer is always rejected by the person who asks such a question.  But the truth is, to save them both is always the correct answer to the above question even for the person who asks the question.  They are unaware of this until the question is put into proper context and then they too will say that the answer is both when asked the same question.

The following comes from the movie Sophie’s Choice:

SS officer: [looks at Sophie's children] Did He not say… “Suffer the children, come unto me?”

[Sophie remains silent]

SS officer: You may keep one of your children.

Sophie: I beg your pardon?

SS officer: You may keep one of your children. The other must go away.

Sophie: You mean, I have to choose?

SS officer: You are a Polack, not a Yid. That gives you a privilege, a choice.

Sophie: I can’t choose. I can’t choose!

SS officer: Be quiet.

Sophie: I can’t choose!

SS officer: Make a choice. Or I’ll send both of them over there. Make a choice.

Sophie: Don’t make me choose! I can’t!

SS officer: Shut up! Enough! I’ll send them both over there! I told you to shut up! Make a choice!

Sophie: I can’t choose! Please! I can’t choose!

SS officer: [to an officer] Take BOTH children away!

[Sophie clings on to her son while the Nazis take her screaming and crying daughter away from her]

Sophie: Take my little girl! Take my baby!

If you have not seen the movie Sophie’s Choice it is about the holocaust and a woman who was forced to choose which one of her children would be taken away by the SS officers.  Essentially she had to chose which child would die. If she did not choose then they would take both children away.

The question of ‘which would you choose’ pretends to give a person a choice.

But now that we have the question in context we can see that it actually leaves the person with no choice. This is because the ‘choice’ is not one of the choices presented.

It forces the person to choose something that they would never have chosen otherwise.  Therefore the choice gives no insight whatsoever into whether or not the person questioned cares more about one life versus another.

It is only the person who immediately makes a choice with no hesitation for whom this type of question has any reflection at all on their level of caring for one life over another.

If you had to choose one of your own children, as Sophie was forced to, would your choice mean that you valued your son more than your daughter?  Your daughter more than your son?  Your  younger child more than your older child?  Your baby more than your toddler?  Your teenager more than your infant? Your intelligent child more than your athletic child?  Your healthy child more than your handicapped child?

No.

Your choice would not in any way reflect that you valued one child over another.  Why?  Because this was not your choice.  Your choice was to save both but you were denied your choice.

If the situation were real as it was in the movie for Sophie, the person who cares less about one life versus another is not the person who is forced to choose.  It is the person who forces someone to choose one life over another that does not care about life at all.

You would save both.  And so would I. In this, we are all the same.

~Peace

It was a pleasure to be in the presence of John Morlino and to hear him speak last night.  The take away message: it takes more than reason to get someone to understand a system of cruelty.

“Without a spark of emotion it is almost impossible to ignite someone to change.” J. Morlino

Vegan advocacy provides enormous challenge.  Someone who is vegan is in touch with their own emotions about the suffering of others.  When confronted with indifference or statements which seem to condone suffering a tremendous pain is experienced by someone who is an advocate for those who suffer.  Sometimes the instinct is to become angry, frustrated, to argue, or even to experience hate.  But these things are a part of the problems in the world and some of the very things veganism seeks to overcome.

The Philosophy of Vegan Values by Stan and Roda Sapon states that veganism understands peace is not a product of contention or conflict and acknowledges the value of all life.  To treat humans with contempt is  contradictory of vegan principles.

The intention of this statement is inline with nondiscrimination.  Veganism is part of a philosophy of nondiscrimination.  Therefore to treat anyone with contempt is not part of the vegan philosophy.  This is where vegan advocacy and those that seem to condone cruelty collide.  What to do?  How to overcome our own painful emotions in order to leave the best impression upon someone who appears indifferent to cruelty? This requires overcoming the ego or what someone might call the ‘vego’.  (Click here to read about overcoming the ego/vego)

Some words of advice from John Morlino:

Facts often fall flat and this is because they may be ignored, disputed, or dismissed.  What cannot be dismissed is your own story about what brought you to veganism.  When you tell your story you tell it from the heart, from a place of emotion. There is more chance that this story will resonate with the listener because you have made it personal to you, you have made it about you, and not about the person you are speaking to.  In this way you will not place that person on the defensive as none of us wish to be in that position.

Many of us have that one unshakeable image or moment that stands out as part of what caused us to make the ‘connection’ to veganism.  Morlino told his story of a monkey who was in a test lab.  When he saw the look of helplessness in the monkey’s eyes he put himself in the place of the monkey and realized with clarity the monkey’s situation for what it really was.

People will dispute facts, they will be indifferent, but what they cannot do is say that you, the story teller, did not have this transformational experience.  They are left with the indisputable evidence that a man can be compassionate with regard to all those who suffer. The possibility of being compassionate with regard to suffering is now evident and cannot be disputed.

The other advice given by Morlino for vegan advocacy is that each of us has only so much time on earth.  Make the best of the time that you have left.  Take opportunities to share the values that you hold so dear.  For example, if you are at a standard dining establishment and order a vegan meal let the staff know why you have ordered that item.  Declaration leads to understanding otherwise ‘your choice to order that item may be unclear or worse, invisible’ (Morlino).

Compassion has two parts:  Sympathy and Action

Without action, our sympathy benefits no one.

Morlino left us with two quotes, and a tear in his eye, from the book The Little Prince :

“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” Antione de Saint-Exupery

Teachings of the Buddha:

See Yourself In Others

All beings tremble before violence

All fear death
All love life

See Yourself In Others

Then whom can you hurt?
What harm can you do?

My image. I carry it in my heart always.

Peace~

If you would like to learn more about John Morlino please click here.

My kindness and nondiscrimination does not stop at animals.  I do focus on animals when it comes to my advocacy and these are the reasons why:

1.  You already know about the cruelties that human beings suffer such as rape, murder, and slavery.

2.  Most people do not know what animals endure behind the scenes on farms, family farms, zoos, circuses, carriage rides, races, or in research labs.

3. To harm a human being is illegal so the laws are already in place to help protect them, to limit the amount of harm that can come to a human being.

4. To harm an animal is legal unless the animal is a pet.

*There are laws on the books right now that will prosecute anyone attempting to gather evidence of non-pet animal abuse.

*You will be prosecuted if you prevent someone from harming an animal that is not a pet. Imagine going to jail for stopping a rape, murder or abuse.  Imagine going to jail for collecting evidence of a rape, murder or abuse.

5. Everyone already accepts that to harm a human is wrong.

6. Most people do not believe that it is wrong to harm an animal, when pressed they will side with harm as being acceptable.

7. Human beings are able to convey their issues to other human beings

8.  Animals are not able to convey their issues to anyone other than the farmer, zoo keeper, circus performer, scientist, etc.  Since those human beings only value the money they will receive by use of the animal over the needs and the very life of the animal, the animal will not be heard.  Someone else must speak for them.

9.. Most people are not abusing humans or participating in rape, murder, or slavery of human beings, not any that I know.

10.  Most people do eat animals, drink their baby’s milk, and eat their ovum.

There are millions of advocates for every human cause but for every one thousand who advocate for particular human issues which affect millions of human lives, there is only one to advocate for the animal’s issues which affect billions to trillions of animal lives.

To advocate for animals is to advocate for humans since enlightenment to cruelty towards animals always includes enlightenment to all cruelty and does not discriminate between people and animals or different kinds of people and different kinds of animals.

While there are advocates for animals most only advocate for certain animals such as dogs and cats or dolphins and whales.  These same advocates are eating the other 56 billion animals for whom I advocate.  Even if they only drink milk and eat eggs, those milk and egg animals are among the 56 billion.  Any animal used for its products is slaughtered once they are spent.  The milk and egg animals often suffer the most egregious abuses of all.  Even the backyard chicken used for eggs and the family dairy cow will suffer abuses.  There is no way to use an animal without abuse.  Click here to read why.

What I advocate for is nondiscrimination and kindness.  I advocate this for all humans and all animals but I focus on animals since there is a lack of advocacy for most animals, the animals themselves are unable to tell you the truth of their situation, the media produces propaganda to hide the truth about the animals we use from us, and since the abuse of animals who are not pets is legal.

Anytime we believe that discrimination is acceptable as long as what we discriminate against is different from ourselves or the things we love (dogs and cats) then discrimination (farm animals, lab animals) will always find its way into human populations (Jews, homosexuals, African Americans, immigrants) as well.  And we know this is true for discrimination against groups of people exist today as it always has.  But it doesn’t need to exist.  The only way to end human suffering is to end all suffering.  Any suffering that is acceptable anywhere leads the way to suffering everywhere.  The change the world needs begins and ends with you.  Read more about that here.

Human Statistics / Animal statistics:

16,238 human beings were murdered in the United States in 2010.

56,000,000,000 (56 billion) animals are murdered in one year.  This does not include lab animals, fish, or male chicks who are ground up alive 150,000 per day at one farm alone.

20 and 30 million human slaves exist today

56,000,000,000 (56 billion) animals are enslaved each year. I use the term slavery because to be born into a life where you are not allowed to live your natural life, not allowed to be with your children, are forced into pregnancy, and are not allowed to die a natural death where your life is measured only by your dollar value, that is the definition of slavery.  Every slave will die.

250,000 reported cases of rape and sexual abuse of a human being per year in the United States.

9,000,000 dairy cows are raped each year in the United States. 50,000,000 pigs are castrated each year without anesthesia. These are only a sampling of the forced impregnation and genital assaults that happen to animals every year.

5 to 10 million human beings are imprisoned around the world right now who have committed a crime or are accused of a crime.

Billions to trillions of animals are imprisoned around the world each year and they have committed NO crime and have never harmed a human.  The prisons are CAFO’s, Sea World, Marine Land, research labs, zoos, fur farms, down farms, cashmere farms, farms, family farms, pastures, zoos, circuses, races, carriage companies and animal shelters. A prison is a place in which you are held by someone else and you do not have freedom to leave.  You are at the mercy of the person holding you there, even if you are provided an outdoor area, you are not permitted to leave that area.  Even if you are provided food and shelter and palliative care, the only reason for such provision is profit for the provider.  A prison goes by many names designed so that you will not see it as a prison unless you are the one inside.

610,000 homeless human beings on the streets of the United States any given evening.

6,000,000 to 8,000,000 dogs and cats homeless in shelters per year in the United States. Of these half will be put to death.

Out of the above list we are taught only to care about the humans and the dogs and cats. I advocate for animals because I know that regardless of what we have been taught, that inside each of us is the kindness that does not agree with suffering for any living creature.  The culture pushes the most wonderful parts of ourselves down and on top places discrimination: cats and dogs but not cows and pigs.  That is the cultural belief but it is not yours.

My advocacy of animals is the advocacy of you: that wonderful kind person who would not be ok with abuse of any kind. I advocate you being ‘you’ and not who the culture wants you to be.  Deep inside is that wonder and awe of all life and that gentle person who knows that strength is in doing no harm.  The culture does not want you to be that person, you, because quite frankly it just isn’t profitable.

The culture has provided for you every reason not to be kind to all people and all animals. You are probably thinking about the justifications for animals to be used by humans right now: these are taught to you by the culture.  These reasons did not come from you and any that do are from a long ago pre-evolved time when humans may have depended on animals prior to agriculture and technology.

We have evolved past any need to eat animals or to use animals.   If we do not stop then the images below will never go away for as long as there is injustice anywhere, there is a threat to justice everywhere.  To stop the images below we must each individually do what we must to make them go away.  Inside of you is this desire.  Let only the best parts of you guide your actions and take back who you are from the culture.  Peace ~

“I once read about a monster called the Extracator, that lived off people’s souls. Only, the thing was, the Extracator ate a person’s soul in their sleep over a 16 year period. Like it would nibble off a crumb every night, until there wasn’t anything left. So a person had no way to realize what was going on. They just had this vague sense that something was slowly disappearing.”

So pervasive is culture in human action toward animals that here we see an officer about to murder this baby despite a family begging the officer to let them care for and tend to the baby. http://www.policestateusa.com/2013/cop-refused-let-family-save-injured-fawn-instead-threatened-arrest-shot-deer-impounded-vehicle/

Peace~

Imagine how you feel about your dog.  Imagine how this feeling extends to all dogs; ones you see in the shelters that you know will not be rescued or tethered to chains outside in the cold.  The dogs you read about in fights.  Get in touch with this feeling.  You may feel helpless, hopeless at times.  You want to rescue them all.  The love and caring and understanding of these creatures is real and tangible.  When our pets die, when our beloved dogs pass away, we mourn deeply.  Even when dogs that we have never met pass away we feel sad. We never think ‘meat’ when a dog dies.  And we never see its flesh as a ‘waste’ if we do not eat it. This is because a dog is not a meat.  But then again, no living being is.

We know today that a Black man is a human, not a slave.  But there was a time when a Black man was not classified as a human being.  The atrocities that occurred as a result are simply beyond comprehension.

Even after slavery was abolished, the atrocities continued.

Anytime we classify someone as something other than the living being that they are atrocities of the worst possible kind will follow.

All men are human beings.  Today we recognize this truth but there was a time when it was acceptable not to.

Today we see a dog as an animal.  But chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs and lambs we think of as food.  Certain baby animals and sick animals are classified as trash, meaning you can bag them up while still alive and throw them away.

We see dogs differently than we do animals farmed for food.  We assign them different rights.  And we feel differently about them despite the truth which is a cow, chicken, turkey, pig, lamb is an animal the same as a dog is an animal.  The same as a Black man and a White man are both human beings.

Today we can imagine what it must have been like to be a slave. The fact that we now accept the truth that all men are human beings helps us to understand how horrible it must have been, because we can see ourselves having to endure something so horrible.  We could not see it or understand it when we believed that a Black man was not the same as ourselves. It made what was happening to them acceptable.

And this is the same reason we do not see the eating of animals seen as food as a horrible thing today.  This is why we do not understand what they go through.  Because we do not see them the same as we see a dog.

The truth is they are not different to a dog.

Imagine if I invited you over for holiday dinner.  Imagine the centerpiece of the table will be a delicious dog with stuffing coming out of it’s abdominal cavity.  I will take the blood and fat that runs off from cooking it and add flour and pour the dog’s blood and fat over its muscle tissue.  I will call this gravy.  It will be tender and delicious.  How do you feel about my invitation to dinner?

When there is no discrimination in the heart, when there is no culture to speak for morality or humanity, the above is no different to the below.  I have spared you the photos of what happens to both the turkey and the dog before they are sold at market.  Both suffer equally. Both are atrocities.

When I feel sickened by a traditional holiday meal the truth is I do not feel any differently than you do about it.  You feel the same, especially if you Google ‘dog china’ you will know exactly how I feel. Those images will not be any worse than what happens to a turkey or any other animal used for food, even in the best of circumstances, a living being reduced to a food will suffer atrocities. My serving a dog is not different to someone serving a turkey.

I ask you to understand how I feel, why I stay away.  Because you would too if I were serving fluffy for dinner.  Even if you did not eat fluffy at my dinner, you would be hard pressed to sit there and watch others dig into the flesh and chew all without a care, laughing and having a great time. It would be disturbing; nauseating. As the ‘meat’ was passed around you would not see ‘meat’.  You would only see Fluffy.  And you would feel the great heartache and despair, the extreme and profound loneliness of being the only there who does.

We are the same.  We feel the same.  It is only the culture that divides us.  But together we can create a new culture.  You my friend are important to this world.  And to all of the Fluffys.

Peace~

If you would like to learn more about slavery and how this parallels with animals used for food, please click here.  If you would like to learn more about turkeys, please click here.

Just as every human is special and unique, every dog is special and unique, so every living being is special and unique.  All are worthy of their own natural life, freedom from harm, and a natural death.

Please read more about turkeys below.

More Than a Meal: The Turkey in History, Myth, Ritual, and Reality
By Karen Davis, PhD

Turkeys are loving and devoted mothers. “According to wildlife biologist William Healy, the social life of turkeys begins well before hatching, when they are inside the egg, and is well developed by the time the young birds leaves the nest. Vocal communications between the turkey hen and her embryonic chicks “is critical to the survival of the chicks,” whose long association with their mother, for nearly half a year after they hatch, “seems essential,” he writes. By contrast, the process of “hatching eggs in incubators and raising poults in mechanical brooders interrupts the social experiences” that form the foundation for a normal and happy life in turkeys.

“During the first few weeks of life, young turkeys sleep on the ground under their mother’s wings. After a month or so, they leave the ground and fly at night to a large low branch, where they “place themselves under the deeply curved wings of their kind and careful parent, dividing themselves for that purpose into two nearly equal parties.” Thus did Audubon visualize the bond between the mother turkey and her young brood. So far removed are most of us from this scene that the picture on the cover of this magazine and my book, of a turkey hen roosting on a tree limb surrounded by her poults, not infrequently raises the question, “What kind of a bird is that?””

Young turkeys need their mothers. Unlike baby songbirds and raptors, whose parents are absent for long periods gathering food to take back to their young in the nest, it is unnatural for young groundnesting birds such as turkeys and chickens to be separated from their parent. The mother turkey is the center of the young birds’ universe. During the first month when the young require brooding – being sheltered under the mother bird’s wings at night and periodically gathered beneath her wings for warmth and comfort during the day – the youngsters, called “poults,” will panic if separated from their mother. The terrified baby turkey gives out a “lost call” to which the mother bird responds by running towards her little one, crouching and gathering him comfortingly under her wing.

People have become so used to seeing pictures of turkeys of uniform age and sex crowded miserably in a shed awaiting their death that it’s a shock to learn about the lively poults and their mothers chasing grasshoppers in a meadow, sunning themselves and dustbathing together, leaving, in the words of naturalist Joe Hutto in his book Illumination in the Flatwoods: A Season with the Wild Turkey, “tiny, bowl-shaped impressions the size of small turkey bodies.”

A delightful picture of the wandering hen and her brood appears in A.W. Schorger’s book The Wild Turkey:

“They hurry along as if on a march to some particular point, sometimes tripping along in single file, one behind the other, and at other times scattered through the woods for fifty yards or more. When on these scattered marches it is pleasant to note some straggling youngster as he wanders out of sight of the main flock in an attempt to catch a fickle-winged butterfly, or delays by the wayside scratching amid the remains of a decayed log in search of a rich morsel in the shape of a grubworm. When he discovers that he is alone, he raises himself up, looks with his keen eyes in every direction for the flock, and, failing to discover them, gives the well-known coarse cluck. Then he raises his head high in the air, and listens intently for his mother’s call. As soon as it is discovered that one is missing, the whole flock stops, and the young turkeys raise their heads and await the signal from their mother. When she hears the note of the lost youngster, she gives a few anxious “yelps,” which he answers, and then, opening his wings, he gives them a joyous flap or two and with a few sharp, quick “yelps,” he goes on a run to join his companions.”

My heart goes out to all animals used as food and to all mothers and babies who are denied this special relationship that is their birthright.  One day let us look upon all animals as what they are – an animal and not a food. Just as we now look upon all human beings as what they are – a human and not a slave or anything less than human.

Peace~

What is discrimination?  The Merriam Webster Dictionary provides us with three meanings:

1 : the practice of unfairly treating a person or group of people differently from other people or groups of people

2 : the ability to recognize the difference between things that are of good quality and those that are not

3 : the ability to understand that one thing is different from another thing

There are two problems with the word discrimination that should be sorted out. Problem number 1:

If we trace any atrocity from the most minor to the most egregious back to its origins, we will find discrimination at its roots if not the very seed.  Sometimes the seed is misunderstanding or false information, but from there discrimination may be born.  A world without discrimination would be a world without atrocities, or at least far fewer.

 

A common response to the above statement is that we need discrimination.

The answer is usually something like because without discrimination we would not be able to make choices.

 

This is true but only for definitions number 2 and 3.  The word discrimination is similar to a homonym in that the first definition, unfair treatment, is not 100% equivalent to the second and third definitions.  It ironically appears, however,  that discrimination is needed to discriminate between the definitions of the word discrimination!

 

The discrimination focused on here is of the first definition.  Even though the word is spelled the same and pronounced the same, it is significantly different.  To get rid of unfair treatment and to advocate for such does not also imply to advocate for the inability to understand the differences between two things such as how an apple is different from an orange nor does it imply advocating for the inability to tell the difference between a good decision and a bad one.  In fact the 100% opposite is true when we advocate for nondiscrimination, when we advocate for fairness!

 

To advocate for fair treatment is to call upon good decision making.  It is also to call upon seeing the sameness in all others, despite our differences.  It does not ask someone to be incapable of seeing the differences.  It simply asks someone to also be capable of seeing the sameness.

 

Problem number 2

Discrimination is subtle, often hidden from us by our own cultural beliefs and upbringing.  For example, the very definition of discrimination contains discrimination of the first definition within the first definition.  Can you spot it?

 

: the practice of unfairly treating a person or group of people differently from other people or groups of people

Key word:  ‘people’.  When we do not include animals in this definition two things happen.  The first is, quite obviously, animals are discriminated against.  Some are pets.  Some are food. Some are lab experiments.  If we do not include animals in the definition then the atrocities committed to animals by humans are easier to dismiss.

Likewise think about this:  when we feel people deserve no rights we refer to them as ‘animals’.  And since an animal is not part of the definition of discrimination, people may conveniently lump anyone they see as less deserving into the definition of an animal and out of the definition of discrimination to justify the discrimination of those people.  If animals cannot be discriminated against then this would be the convenient thing to do so that the mind may be at peace with itself.  But this is not the way to peace and we know this because as soon as someone refers to us as an animal and assigns less rights to us as a result, we see clearly that this is wrong.

 

The discrimination spoken about in this blog is the word as represented by the first definition:  the practice of unfairly treating any living being or group of living beings differently from other living beings or groups of living beings.

 

~Peace

 . . . . and 99 reasons to practice veganism!

Plant Based Reason #1

Because all nutrients, including calcium, iron and protein, come from plants and their produce, not animals :-) Scroll down for more information about this.

Look for me down below to learn where nutrition comes from!

 Vegan Reason #1

Because you believe in equal rights and it wouldn’t be equal if you only believed that some deserve equal rights but not all.

(Click here for reason #2)

But how can every being have equal rights?

A quick check of whether or not something is actually a right is this:  If your ‘right’ takes away the right of another, then is it really your right?  Why not?  Because you yourself would not want someone else to have a ‘right’ that took away your right.  For example the right to have you as a slave, the right to have sex with you without consent, the right to take your children or your property.  Even if it were legal to do these things to you, you would know that these so-called rights are actually wrongs even if the person doing these things to you did not agree, even if the law did not agree.

Rights include:

• The right to conceive children naturally
• The right to nurse your children and to be with them until they are naturally ready to be on their own
• The right to freedom – this means that you are not kept in any place where you cannot willfully leave
• The right to a life without unnecessary pain or harm or cruelty
• The right to your own body parts, organs, fluids and systems
• The right to die naturally, however nature intends for your death to be

All human beings would probably agree that these rights are the minimum rights they would want for themselves and for their children/their families.  To better guarantee we will have these rights we must also  extend these to all who live, not just to some.  To stand for equal rights we must understand that the rights we need for ourselves are rights all who live deserve.  Until we realize this do we not stand for unequal rights?  Discrimination?

Rights do not mean that a dog has a right to drive a car anymore than a human has the right to sprout wings and fly.  It does mean that a pig has a right to be a pig in the same way a dog has the right to be a dog.  If we don’t line up dogs and send them on crowded transports to the slaughter house, then we should not do this to any living being.  All living beings feel pain and mental and emotional trauma.  If we ourselves would not want to be put on a transport to slaughter then we should not do this to any others.  A transport to slaughter should remind us of something else that we have vowed never to repeat.  But are we living up to that? Even if they are not transported, how does slaughter fit in with ‘equal rights’?

This is the one thing in which there is no way around when it comes to animals as food.  No matter how they lived, no matter how anyone’s life has been, if it ends in slaughter can we justify that simply because we perceived they had a ‘good’ life before?  Is slaughter an acceptable end for yourself?  For your dog?  The so-called ‘good life’ on every single farm actually denies the animal every single one of the above listed basic fundamental rights.  The animals are forced to conceive against their will often via industry rape racks, they are not allowed to nurse their own children or to be with them, they are not free for no animal leaves the farm except to go to slaughter, slaughter is unnecessary pain, harm and cruelty, and slaughter is not a natural death.

Every animal, from the milk giver to the egg layer, ends their life in slaughter no matter where they came from, no matter how they lived.

Where does ALL nutrition originate from?

It doesn’t come from me. So please don’t eat me or my friends.

All but two vitamins come from plants and their produce and you can read more about these two vitamins below: they don’t come from animals.  If there were no plants there would be no animals and no human beings.  Plants synthesize vitamins from the sun through the process of photosynthesis.  So really, all nutrition originates from the sun.  Plants are really at the top of the survival chain second to the sun. Without plants all life would cease.

A lot of people voice concerns about eating plants.  Click here and here to learn more. Humans don’t eat plants of course!  We eat the produce of plants, the part that carries the seed and actually helps the plants to propagate aka have kids and continue on.  We are in a symbiotic relationship with plants – mutually beneficial! We help them to survive by aiding in their propagation and they help us to survive by providing us energy, nutrients, from the sun.  Some people are concerned that we are eating the animal’s food but animals don’t eat the same plants we do.  We eat the produce of plants. They eat some produce but also lots of grasses and leaves and flowers and bark and pretty much all of the things we humans leave behind.

Only two nutrients do not come from plants and their produce:  Vitamin D which comes from the sun, not milk.  It’s only in milk because it has been added in as a supplement.  Why not just take the supplement yourself – it’s the same thing.  And also Vitamin B-12 which comes from soil and water.  It’s only in an animal because the animal drank water and ate plants straight from the soil just as humans used to do before very recent modern times.  Today 99.99% of food animals are denied access to natural waterways and pasture’s soil so they are given a vitamin supplement to keep them alive.  Why not just take the B-12 supplement yourself?

The text books, such as  Sports Nutrition by McArdle, Katch and Katch, for those seeking to become a Registered Dietician at a United States regionally accredited four year university clearly state that animals obtain vitamins from the plants, seeds, grains, and fruits they eat or from eating other animals that have eaten these. Plants synthesize amino acids (protein).  In contrast animals, including humans and the animals that humans consume, do not possess broad capability for protein synthesis; they ingest their protein from plants or from animals that consumed plants.

Nutrition comes from plants and produce, soil, water, and the sun.

Peace my friends <3

Imagine if I invited you over for holiday dinner.  Imagine the centerpiece of the table will be a delicious dog with stuffing coming out of its abdominal cavity.  I will take the blood and fat that runs off from cooking it and add flour and pour the dog’s blood and fat over its muscle tissue.  I will call this gravy as I slice the dog open.  It will be tender and delicious.  And you will smell the flesh of the dog cooking when you enter my home. How do you feel about my invitation to dinner?

Would you consider yourself rude or a picky eater for declining my invitation?  Would you consider yourself way too sensitive for coming but refusing to eat my dog?  Would you be comfortable?

What would your opinion be of me if you tried to explain to me why you will not eat a dog for Easter or for any other meal and I say “it’s my personal choice”.  I say I don’t want to know how the dog lived or died, I would rather stay ignorant.  Or I laughed and joked about the dog and did not care that it had suffered its whole life to become our 10 minute meal.  Maybe I even made barking noises as I rolled my eyes at you.  Would you sit at the table with me?  Would you still be my friend?

Imagine how you feel about your own dog.  Imagine how this feeling extends to all dogs and not just your own; ones you see in the shelters that you know will not be rescued or tethered to chains outside in the cold.  The dogs you read about forced to be in fights or to race until they are spent and then thrown away or experimented on.  You may feel helpless, hopeless at times.  You want to rescue them all.  The pain you feel because of the love or caring and/or understanding of these creatures is real and tangible even though those dogs are not your own.  And you’re in good company because most people feel the same way.  But what if they didn’t?  What if no one cared and you were the only one who did?  How much more hopeless would that make you feel?  This is what it is like to be vegan at every meal, at every holiday.  And I don’t need to tell you how it feels.  Because you already know the feeling.

You wouldn’t expect anyone to celebrate Easter with a slaughtered dog as the centerpiece of the holiday table. In fact you don’t want that to happen at anyone’s table.  That is what veganism is so you know exactly what it feels like to be vegan.  If you don’t want to sit at that table or be made to see that animal while you’re trying to eat or celebrate a holiday with family and friends, then you can’t expect anyone else to sit at a table with an animal they care about as the centerpiece either.  As far as veganism is concerned we feel the exact same way about the animals we care about.  The only difference between you and someone who is vegan is that once we stop allowing culture to dictate to us which animals deserve to be slaughtered and sliced on the table we realize that none do.  Just as we realized years ago that no man deserved to be a slave.  This realization is already inside of us because we do partially realize it now or else everyone would have dog or cat on the table this Easter as well as any other animal and not think a thing about it.

When our pets die,  we never think ‘meat’.  We never see its flesh as a ‘waste’ if we do not eat it. This is because we know that a dog is not a meat.  We see a dog for what he or she is:  a dog.  Not a commodity or a product or a material.  This feeling is no different to what it feels like to be vegan.  We already understand the pain and trauma that animals such as a dog have been forced to endure and just how terrible it makes us feel.

We know today that a Black man is a human, not a slave or a commodity.  But there was a time when a Black man was not classified as a human being.  The atrocities that occurred as a result are simply beyond comprehension.

Today we see a dog as an animal.  But chickens, turkeys, cows, pigs and lambs we see as a commodity.  Certain baby animals and sick animals are classified as trash, meaning you can bag them up while still alive and throw them away.  And yet these are all animals, the same as a dog.  The same as a black man was not a slave, but a man forced to live as a slave.

Today we can imagine what it must have been like to be a slave because we understand now that all humans are human.  We can see ourselves having to endure something so horrible since we are human too.  We know it is unacceptable, a horror beyond horror.   But there was a time when we could not see the horror because we believed that a Black man was not the same as other humans. It made what was happening to them acceptable.

This is the same reason we do not see the eating of animals used for food as a horrible thing today. Because we do not see them the same as we see a dog.  And yet there is no difference.  An animal is an animal.  What is unacceptable for one human, such as slavery, is unacceptable for all humans.  What is unacceptable for one animal, such as a dog being bred for the soul purpose of ending its life in a slaughter house and being sliced open on our Easter table, is unacceptable for all.

This Easter I ask you to consider life, not some life, but all life.  At minimum to get in touch with the person who cares about the bad things that happens to others; that is already within you.  We are the same.  We feel the same.  It is only the culture that divides us.  But together we can create a new culture.  What the culture takes from us piece by piece from the time we are children until we reach adulthood we can take back from it, peace by peace.

“I once read about a monster called the Extracator, that lived off people’s souls. Only, the thing was, the Extracator ate a person’s soul in their sleep over a 16 year period. Like it would nibble off a crumb every night, until there wasn’t anything left. So a person had no way to realize what was going on. They just had this vague sense that something was slowly disappearing.” (Special 2006)

Peace my friends.  You are important to me.

Cruelty is defined as indifference to or pleasure from causing pain and/or suffering to others.

People will say it is not possible to live a cruelty free life.  But what is cruelty?  Let’s look at some situations to help clarify what cruelty is and what it is not:

A.  My new puppy doesn’t behave the way I want him to so I take my foot and kick him hard.

B.  My new puppy ran past me just as I was kicking off my shoe and I kicked him by mistake.

A.  A man I do not like is crossing the street so I aim for him and run him over with my car.

B.  I hit a patch of black ice and am unable to stop or steer my car away from hitting a pedestrian.

Both puppies and people have received the exact same injury.  Is cruelty the root cause of all four of these scenarios? Are there differences between A and B?

The difference is choice. Cruelty is a choice.  Accidents are not a choice and something no one can avoid.  Cruelty is something that everyone can avoid.

In situation A one person chooses to knowingly harm another. In situation B the person does not choose to harm another and, in fact, would have avoided it completely if they had been given the choice.

When we live cruelty free it means that when we have a choice, we choose not to cause harm, pain, or suffering for others.

No one would say I am a cruel mother if I turn around with a plate in my hand and it accidentally hits my daughter in the face.  Should I take the plate and choose to smack her in the face with it then yes, that is cruel.  But if I accidentally hit her and I would never have done so if given the choice – that is not cruel.  That is an unfortunate accident.  An accident does not equal cruelty.  An accident is when there is no choice.  Cruelty is when there is a choice, a choice where you know someone had to or will suffer, especially a suffering or consequence that you would never accept for yourself, but you choose it anyway . . . that is cruelty.

So with respect to the definition of cruelty, it is possible to live a cruelty free life.  The same goes for a vegan life.  Someone who has a spider crawl into their mouth while they sleep is still vegan.  The person did not choose for that to happen. It is an unfortunate accident for that spider.

~Peace

I used to believe that hunting was normal, natural, etc. etc.

But then one day I realized I was having those thoughts the same as someone who might hunt would.  I had never thought about hunting from the point of view of the hunted.

Suddenly I was in a wooded area with my child.  All around us are creatures who are the same color as the trees and grass so it is difficult to see them.  Sometimes they are high in the air, other times low to the ground and crouching.  Every waking moment of my life is spent worrying about these creatures.  For some reason, I have no idea why, they will make a very loud noise and by the time we hear it, it is already too late.  One of us is murdered or made lame or dying.

We have never harmed these creatures ourselves.  We are peaceful.  We never attack or plan to be cruel back to them.  Despite having committed no crimes and no retaliation they keep coming, crouching and hiding, high and low, and murdering us.

There is no law to protect us.  No place to hide.  My every waking moment is spent in fear of the creature who makes the loud frightening noise and murders us.  There is no rest for me as a mother with my child.

Although we are peaceful, we ourselves can never truly feel at peace for we must live every day in fear.  For us, every day a war is upon is, a war of which we know not why it is against us, of which we never retaliate, of which there seems to be no end and no explanation.

Ethics and morals all have to do with choice.  A lion has no choice.  It isn’t a moral or ethical decision for the lion.

A human with a belly full of breakfast, a fridge full of food at home and a grocery store on every corner has a choice.

Kill the innocent.  Do not kill the innocent.

~Peace

Anyone who sees this movie or reads these books will probably (hopefully) be appalled by any society that could get to the point where watching children kill each other for adult entertainment is acceptable.  Not only acceptable but part of the cultural norm to the point of tradition looked upon with as much anticipation as we would Thanksgiving or Christmas.

How does any society get to this point?  It isn’t anything new.  You will find similar ‘shows’ in history such as the bloody battles that took place in the Roman Colosseum.   This was all very normal for people to watch one man kill another for entertainment and pleasure.  It was accepted because it was fun to watch and those Romans were bored.  They needed something to do on a Friday night dammit!

Which leads my mind to the very obvious connection of food, pleasure and cultural norms.

No one needs to watch children killing each other for entertainment or to watch one man kill another just because they find it pleasurable.  There are other better forms of entertainment and pleasure.

And so it is with food.  No animal needs to live a life confined from birth to death by humans filled with terror and abuse and have it end in slaughter merely because we find pleasure in eating them.  There is pleasure to be had in other foods. There are other ways to entertain our friends for a dinner party.

There is not much difference between the Hunger Games, the Roman Colosseum and driving through McDonald’s or serving up a meatloaf or chicken breast or bacon at home.  Well, there is just one.  Animals cannot tell you with words how much they are suffering right now.  But I can tell you this – they know.  They feel.  They weep.  They suffer.  They scream and they cry and they moan.  They die a slow horrible death from the moment they are born.  Why?  For our pleasure. . . .

But not for mine.

If you don’t believe me just go on youTube and search animal cruelty.  This is the real deal.  This is where most of our ‘meat’ (I like to call them animals) comes from.  And even when they don’t come from these hells on earth they still suffer.  Torn from their mothers at birth, denied their own mother’s milk, sent to their deaths decades before they would die naturally and even on organic farms these animals when sent to their deaths are piled on death trains in sweltering conditions stuffed in such that they arrive half dead already, bones broken, dehydrated.  They are pulled out as if they are already carcasses and thrown and tossed around like . . meat.  But I am here to tell you that they are no more ‘meat’ than you or I are.  No more than your dog or cat.  They are as intelligent as your dog.  And as loving.  Is this any way for any living thinking breathing feeling loving creature to be treated?

I really do hope anyone would know the answer to that question.

Some would call this bacon. I call it pigs, who if you ever get to know one are so loving and playful and as intelligent as a dog, who are being abused. They have no room and this is the least of their suffering. What do you call these animals?

These are dairy cows. Some call this milk. I call this the worst kind of stealing. Stealing the milk of one species for ourselves and denying every single baby cow its own milk. Did you know that? Well we can’t let the baby cows have it because we want it! I call this a crime. And the abuses suffered by dairy cows are horrific. Look it up. What do you call this?

Happy eating!

What’s good to eat?

Kid friendly snacks:

Pretzel Time soft pretzels (frozen section)
Vegan potstickers (frozen organic section )
PB and J
chips and hummus or salsa
Frozen banana or grapes
Tofuttu cuties ice cream sandwiches (organic section)
Cliff bars (organic section)
Cherry kitchen cake or cookie mix (organic section)
Oetkers chocolate frosting (organic section)
Bagels toasted with dairy free margarine
Shaved ice or icees
Cereal with dairy free milk
Oreos are vegan
Dairy free dark chocolate
Dried fruits and nuts
Dairy free crackers and jam
French fries

Etc

Not all of those snacks are healthy but they are a small sampling of how many kid friendly easy to have on hand snacks there are.

Happy eating!