Everyone loves baby animals

I just adopted a new kitten from the shelter. His name is Foster, named after one of my favorite authors David Foster Wallace. The moment I picked him up, I felt a strong mother's urge to protect and love the little guy. His big, innocent eyes and helpless tiny body melted my heart. I know most people feel that way about baby animals, but why don't we want to protect all of them? I thought about dairy cows and how those male babies are stolen from their mothers and packed off to veal crates. I thought about the female babies and how they're doomed to a life of giving birth every year until they they're too weak to stand. The babies are just as cute and sweet as our pets, so why does society accept the wholesale cruelty to cows? (And pigs? And chickens? And turkeys? And sheep? ...)What is it in our psyche that allows us to operate so easily with this dichotomy? It must be an out-of-sight, out-of-mind phenomenon. It reminds me of a quote by Sir Paul McCartney:

"If a slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian."

Peace and love

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged

by the way its animals are treated." Gandhi

What's in your wallet?

Genuine Leather!

Genuine Cow Hide!

Lamb Skin!

Mountain Goat Skin!

Special Skin!

Do you know what all these have in common? They are often "leathers" made from dog and cat skins. According to the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS), investigators have found that dog and cat skins are used for the following:

-Apparel

-Bed sheets

-Car upholstery

-Drums and musical instruments

-Handbags and small leather goods

-Golf gloves

-Gardening gloves

-"Medicinal" and orthopedic products

-Sporting goods

-Rawhide chew toys for dogs (made in Thailand)

The Philippines and Thailand, among the countries that slaughter cats and dogs for the leather trade, are commonly known to steal pets from their homes, cram them into trucks with no food or water and kill the animals extremely inhumanely. The sad fact is that no industry that has animals as their products, whether it's meat, milk, eggs or leather, can treat them humanely when the bottom line is a quick profit.

Vegans eschew any animal products and therefore don't wear any sort of leather, suede, wool, etc. But for those of you who have a hard time giving up leather and feel that it's just a byproduct of the meat industry (a topic for another post), give this some thought and do some research on your own.

We all want to be like Lisa

Everyone knows Lisa Simpson is the smartest, most passionate, most evolved kid around and she's a vegetarian. The Simpsons staff wanted to snag Paul McCartney as a guest on the show, so they thought "Lisa the Vegetarian" would be the way to go. He agreed, but only if they kept Lisa a vegetarian for the rest of the series. Go Lisa!

The King of Beasts

"Truly man is the king of beasts, for his brutality exceeds theirs. We live by the death of others: we are burial places! I have from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I will look on the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men." Leonardo da Vinci

Samwise Gamgee : Frodo : : Yes Ve*gan! : Your vegan quest

I came across this quote from a supervegan in Veg News Magazine in response to being asked what her biggest veg challenge was: "'Giving up familiar flavors and foods, especially cheese. I think we sometimes allow ourselves to carry some denial about the true price animals pay for the choices we make. Once I made it a practice to consciously acknowledge the realities of the dairy industry every time I contemplated eating cheese, I quickly lost the taste for it.' Joan Allegretti, vegan since 1997."

I wish I could lose the taste for it! I don't feel my passion is any less enflamed than hers, but why can't I seem to do what she and other supervegans do so effortlessly? Feeling bad about myself and doubting my dedication is precisely the reason I felt the need to write this blog - to be a support group of sorts for vegans who have a hard time. I believe that many wannabes are intimidated by supervegans and never even give it a chance because they are scared to fail.

In my work and volunteer experience for nonprofits, I have always told people that every little bit helps. If you give up meat or dairy or eggs or leather or wool for one week or one year, that makes a difference. Start small and keep working at it. I truly don't believe that I have any less empathy just because I struggle.

Thoreau and the omnivore's future

"I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race, in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals, as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other..." Henry David Thoreau

Since I became a vegetarian and learned more about sustainability issues, especially now in the context of climate change, I have thought a lot about the future of factory farms. If you look at the predictions made by climate scientists, most omnivores won't get much of a chance to eat meat in the future. According to Livestock's Long Shadow report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 18% of the total greenhouse gas emissions come from global meat production.

Richard Schwartz, director of Veg Climate Alliance, had this to say about it:

"It stands to reason that raising 60 billion farmed animals for slaughter worldwide annually under modern intensive factory farm conditions would require far more land, water, energy and other valuable resources and contribute far more to pollution, species extinction, soil erosion and depletion, deforestation and global warming than eating plant-foods directly. Over 40 percent of the grain produced in the world are fed to factory farmed animals, while over a billion of the world's population suffer from chronic hunger and an estimated 20 million of the world's people die of hunger annually.

"There is an abundance of evidence at our web site and in many other sources that the world is rapidly approaching an unprecendented catastrophe from climate change and a major shift to plant-based diets is essential to help shift our imperiled planet to a sustainable path."

Thoreau's prediction about man's destiny may just come true, though by default. It makes me sad that hubris will effect a meat-free future rather than humanity.

Every little bit helps

I came across this quote in my A.Word.A.Day email on 9/14 and thought it was really fitting.

All I ask is this: Do something. Try something. Speaking out, showing up, writing a letter, a check, a strongly worded e-mail. Pick a cause -- there are few unworthy ones. And nudge yourself past the brink of tacit support to action. Once a month, once a year, or just once. -Joss Whedon, writer and film director (b. 1964)

Page-a-Day, the vegan way

A couple of weeks ago, I read a headline about the veterinary-approved method for the disposing of male baby chickens in the egg industry. Someone went undercover and shot video of the practice. Now, I knew that male chicks are killed because they can't lay eggs and don't get plump enough to sell for meat, but I didn’t know the exact means. For those of you who don’t know, they drop the male chicks – alive – into grinders. If you would like to read more about the practice, and did I mention this is veterinary-approved?, click here.

I always bought free-range organic, but that don’t mean a thing to the weaker sex in the chick biz. Two of my favorite stores – Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods – purchase eggs from the very company caught on video. I couldn’t bear to watch it. But after reading the article, I felt high on the rekindled passion I have for living a conscientious lifestyle. So I thought, wouldn’t it be great if there were a Page-a-Day rip-off calendar for vegans that had a daily quote, statistic or message that rekindled our passion every morning? That would keep us feeling inspired and help us remember at difficult times why we choose this path?

Having no means to actually make a nice little calendar, I thought a blog might work just as well. I thought there must be others out there who struggle like I do and perhaps we could all benefit from a daily inspiration. Kind of like caffeine for the vegan mind.

Supervegans are like supermodels

As a three-time loser in my attempt to live a vegan life, I can't help but turn to the many examples of fantastically thriving vegans and compare myself. Like supermodels, these supervegans strut their stuff across the pages of veggie magazines, on the Web and around local healthfood stores, creating an unattainable image of what a real-life vegan looks like. According to them, it's super easy! They don't even seem to be tempted, let alone stray. While they're happy to eat a soy-topped pizza, I dream about oozy melted cheese. While they're lining their closets with cute cruelty-free footwear, I'm picking through the leftover shoe shrapnel for one decent size 11. And while they're marching in solidarity to oppose factory farms, I can't help but apologize sometimes when my food and clothing choices inconvenience people. Supervegans tell us it's fun and easy to be vegan, but I don't find it so.

I feel morally compelled to be vegan all the time, but I struggle. Do you struggle, too?