Animal Rights

World Vegan Day and Remembering Where We Started

Published November 02, 2009 @ 07:14AM PT

Yesterday was World Vegan Day, and a lot of people took the opportunity to tell their vegan stories, to tell readers, friends, and family what led them to become vegan. I'm going to do that someday, maybe even soon, but today, I'm going to tell you about who I was and how I grew up instead.

I grew up in central-southern Illinois, in a small town surrounded by farms. My grandparents and parents ran and/or grew up on farms. My maternal grandfather is a hunter; so are some uncles and cousins on both sides of my family. My grandparents used to take me fishing every once in a while when I was a kid, and I loved those outings; at the time, it seemed something peaceful and sweet between grandparents and granddaughter, not something any of us considered a violent activity. And I didn't start thinking about what actually happens at the back of the building that greets you at the edge of town when you come in from the west until the last five or so years. For years, I've known it vaguely as the place where some people go to buy meat; it took much longer for me to register that live animals were coming in the back before packaged pieces of animals were going out the front.

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Are Vegans Responsible for More Deaths in the Fields? No Way

by Stephanie Ernst

categories: Activism and Actions, Farm Animals, Slaughter, Vegan, Wildlife/FreeLiving Animals

Published October 31, 2009 @ 09:08AM PT

The comment threads around here have been home to a lot of arguments over the last year, and a few discussions have a habit of resurfacing from time to time. One of these typically starts with a defender of animal-eating accusing vegans of being responsible for more animals' deaths than animal-eaters because of the animals who die as a result of raising and harvesting crops. The person making the argument assumes that people who eat plant-based diets must be responsible for more deaths in the fields than those who eat animal-based diets full of flesh, dairy, and eggs, failing to acknowledge, of course, the enormous amounts of plant foods that must be raised and fed to the animals people kill to eat -- more than must be raised for direct consumption by vegans. As has been discussed in those comment threads each time, the logic fails. And recently, Animal Visuals gave animal advocates a great new tool to answer this weak but common argument. Continue after the jump to view the powerful graph settling the debate.

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Friday Food: More Autumny Vegan Goodness, with Lots of Variety

by Stephanie Ernst

categories: Food and Recipes, Friday Food

Published October 30, 2009 @ 05:47PM PT

It's one of those weeks when everything in this vegan food roundup sounds good: kale & yam soup, "hollandaze" sauce, maple biscuits and pumpkin biscuits, roasted applesauce, vegan haggis, cheezy asparagus, and so much more. Prepare to drool, folks.

African Kale & Yam Soup from Happy Herbivore (photo at left courtesy Lindsay of Happy Herbivore)

Hollandaze Sauce from Vegan Planet

Easy Cranberry Vinaigrette from Mitten Machen

Fat-Free Pumpkin and Raisin Biscuits from FatFree Vegan Kitchen

Spicy Fava Bean and Eggplant Stew from Holy Cow! Vegan Recipes

Vegan Red Curry Chicken and Vegetables with Coral Red Jasmine Rice from Show Me Vegan

Carrot Cake Smoothie from Raw Epicurean

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The Tiniest Rescues and the Building of Compassion

by Stephanie Ernst

category: Wildlife/FreeLiving Animals

Published October 30, 2009 @ 06:15AM PT

I have a habit of not only rescuing the insects and arachnids I encounter but also, if there's a camera handy, photographing them obsessively (one of many reasons that getting a good camera and learning how to use it is high on my to-do-when-I-have-money list), and this post and the images in it stem from that.

I've been fascinated by these tiniest of animals for years, and transporting them outside or out of harm's way brings me a form of peace, albeit passing, that I don't quite know how to explain. There's something about those quiet moments of gently gathering the little one up, of peering at him and the wondrous details of his delicate body, of carefully moving him to safety, and of watching him go on his way that oh-so-briefly stops the world around me.

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Elephant Abuse Charges and Freed Circus Animals in Need of Homes

by Stephanie Ernst

category: Animals in Entertainment

Published October 29, 2009 @ 02:05PM PT

Two pieces of recent good news in the United States and Bolivia, related to animals abused in entertainment venues, deserve some acknowledgment this month -- especially given that despite the good news, animals in both cases are still in danger and in need of help.

First, in the United States, as In Defense of Animals (IDA) reported late last week, the USDA has finally filed charges against Will Davenport. If you're stopping to ask yourself why that names sounds familiar, it's because he's the elephant handler from whom IDA and other advocates have been trying to rescue abused and sick elephants for year (previous related posts viewable here). According to IDA, "the charges state that 'the gravity of the violations alleged…is great' and that Davenport has 'not shown good faith' in his repeated unwillingness to comply with the AWA and its regulations and standards."

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The Killing of the Misunderstood 3,500: Denver's Pit Bull Ban

by Stephanie Ernst

categories: Companion Animals, Politics and Law

Published October 29, 2009 @ 07:24AM PT

Denver's Westword published some really difficult-to-read material (and heartbreaking-to-see images) in the last month related to the city's pit bull ban. The reports were undoubtedly rough for any animal advocates who saw them, but I imagine that those involved in pit bull rescue and those who ourselves know and love a pit bull whom others have thought "unfixable" may have been hit even harder.

As many readers know, I live with a loving but traumatized rescued pit bull (an American Pit Bull Terrier to be exact), and her recovery from the abuse inflicted on her by humans has been slow. Two weeks ago, she hit a milestone in that recovery (more related to that coming in a post this weekend), but if we lived in Denver or any other city with breed-specific legislation, she never would have gotten that chance; Mabel would have been dead -- killed -- a long time ago. And knowing that perhaps intensifies my own personal anger, frustration, and heartbreak in response to these laws.

First, before we get to the heart of the issues, I'd like to give you the links to Westword's recent detailed coverage. Initially, this story appeared in the paper: "For two decades, pit bulls have been public enemy #1 in Denver. But maybe it's time for a recount." And these posts appeared concurrently and in the hours and days, respectively, to come: "Inside Denver's 'Pit Bull Row'" and "3,497 dead dogs and other numbers from Denver's pit bull ban," the former taking us inside the "row" and showing us the sweet, scared faces of the dogs awaiting death there. Then a couple weeks later came this jarring post, revealing to us the piles of dead dogs (before following this link, please note that the images are difficult to see): "Leaked: photos of pit bulls killed due to Denver ban."

Denver's pit bull ban has been in place for 20 years now, and for just as long, animal advocates have been fighting it. Pit bulls aren't the inherently vicious animals some people -- and laws -- make them out to be, and bans on pit bulls and the mass killing of these dogs defy logic. Consider this, from Westword's in-depth story:

Firearms killed over 30,000 people in the United States in 2006, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On average, dogs kill 23 people per year. Of those, six are killed by pit bulls. As a health hazard, pit bulls rate below bees, lightning and mooses in the number of deaths for which they're responsible.