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Gary Loewenthal
Falls Church, VA
vegan, musician, computer programmer, writer
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Gary signed the petition | -
Gary commented on the article |The animal rights blogosphere is filled with magnifcent writers, but Stephanie, your blog here is the one that most enlightens me, fills my head with knowledge and my heart with hope, inspires and educates me. It's the one blog I'd insist on having if I was stuck on a desert island, with limited WiFi.
Not only is your writing impeccable, not only is your research thorough, not only is your message passionate - you do it every day! The consistent quality is amazing. That's why I'm convinced you're actually a team of 12 people. Just kidding!
Your leaving will be change.org's loss. But I know I'm one of many people who will eagerly follow you, support you, and interact with you in your new venture. Consider me a fan for lfe! The animals, like us, have a true friend in you.
See you soon in your new milieu... :)
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Gary commented on the article |I wasn't surprised with Leno's callous and cruel remarks about the Vick dogs - after all, one time on his show he ate fried rabbit ears as a "prank" to rile his vegetarian bandleader Kevin Eubanks.
I guess I had higher expectations for Letterman. (Cat behaviorist Warren Eckstein mentions Letterman as one of his past clients.) The very least - very least - he could have done was equivocated his remarks, shown a little sensitivity to the dogs, and respectfully listened to what Ms. Sedgewick was saying in defense of pit bulls.
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Gary commented on the article |Getting enjoyment from killing an animal is troubling, frightening, and sick - a sign of sociopathy. Regardless of what is done with the victims afterward.
I disagree with the assertion that "the only way" to protect wildlife is to hunt it. This is one of many self-serving notions offered up by hunters to perpetuate their bloodsport. It was once claimed that the only way to control feral cats was to kill them. Now, through the advocacy efforts of Alley Cat Allies and many other animal advocacy groups, municipalities and corporations are increaasingly recognizing that non-lethal trap-neuter-return methods work equally as well - and they foster a peaceful partnership with the animals rather than a killer-victim relationship.
Hunters are quick to dismiss sterilization strategies for managing deer populations. Perhaps it's not as much fun to them as stalking and killing deer. But despite fish and wildlfe boards that are dominated by hunters (which is wrong in itself), and a relatively small amount of funding for contraception programs, we are beginning to realize that contraception and other non-lethal methods will probably be the best way to manage urban deer populations, and maybe some day more migratory deer populations, assuming we never allow predator populations to recover. A single-dose, multi-year contraception drug was just approved by the EPA, and this will probably spur more trial deer contraception programs. The technology will only improve; the rate of improvement is greatly dependent on the amount of funding available and the willingness of government agencies to try pilot programs.
Leaving habitat alone, via wilderness areas, and not building human settlements in animals' most prized habitats is also quite effective at promoting sustainable biodiversity. In fact, some species have been hunted nearly to extinction, but in areas protected from hunting they thrive.
Hunters in this part of the world don't only hunt deer. They also hunt turkeys, rabbits, foxes, and many other species, none of which need to be managed by hunters to achieve sustainable populations. Ted Nugent - whom I don't usually agree with - was right: Hunters hunt because they like to hunt. That's the frightening bottom line.
Another very powerful way to increase biodiversity, sustainablility, and wildlife populations is to go vegan. If we all hunted, we'd wipe out wildlife in no time at all. But most hunters (in the West) also buy milk, bacon, turkey sandwiches - all sorts of animal products. In order to support the huge demand for meat, dairy, and eggs from our ever-growing population, huge swaths of grain are grown to feed farm animals. (Free-range would destroy even more habitat and displace even more native flora and fauna. But free-range is not likely to ever support current consumption rates. And of course most "free-range" products are anything but.) If we all switched to a vegan diet, we'd still need farms but they would take up considerably less area, and vast acres of habitat could be restored. We'd also stop the cruelty inherent in animal agriculture.
Note: "Overpopulation" of animals usually means that we've altered nature so much - through wiping out predators, destroying habitat, introducing non-native species, and so forth - that there ends up being more of a species than we'd like. The species isn't necessarily starving to death - one of nature's ways of controlling true overpopulation, which is always temporary; we just can't or won't coexist with the animals. IOW, "overpopulation" is a very malleable term.
International economics are complicated, to be sure. A thorough solution involves changing our own consumptive habits (e.g., that steak or hamburger may have come from an animal grazing in what was once a rainforest). It's also important to develop desirable employment choices and revenue opportunities as alternatives to trafficking in wildlife. In-country organizations throughout the world (such as the Africa Network for Animal Welfare) are promoting the idea of compassion and true respect for animals' interests. That should be one of the roots of any wildlife policy. As that idea takes hold, hunting will become increasingly abhorrent, and a wealth of more peaceful solutions will flourish.
IOW, the wildlife management approaches we impelment are largely the result of how much desire we have to co-exst peacefully with animals.
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Gary commented on the article |Would Mr. Vierte kick his companion dog or cat in the stomach because he's uncertain whether they feel pain?
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Gary commented on the article |
Not only is it obvious from observation, common sense, and science that animals feel pain; it is just as obvious that they don't want to be killed.
Mr. Vierte's psuedo-philosophical justifications for inflicting pain and death on animals are nothing more than excuses for his selfish and cruel habits.
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Gary commented on the article |Interesting that someone who covers hockey, with its daily fights, calls someone who abstains from avoidable harm to animals as "militant."
I think many people apply derisive labels to vegans as a superficial, perhaps unconscious, defense mechanism: Belittle or devalue those who are doing what you know deep down you ought to and can be doing. If you pretend that vegans or veganism is bad, then in a contrived, superficial, self-serving way, you've excused yourself for not being vegan and justified your omnivorism. This may be a reaction to "vegan envy" or guilt.
We can do our best to let people know that veganism isn't militant, extreme, or difficult; it's a wonderful, peaceful, compassionate way to live, and most anyone in the "developed" world who's in charge of their own food decisions can do it. Veganism helps us live according to widely held basic moral principles. As someone already pointed out, shooting animals dead because you like the taste of their flesh or because you enjoy the stalking and killing is militant; factory farms are extreme.
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Gary commented on the article |Amen. Columbus Day could/should be transformed into a day of mourning for past and present injustices and pledging to be more peaceful and respectful; i.e., evolving beyond the violent, callous, exploitative Columbus mentality.
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Gary signed the petition | -
Gary commented on the article |It is amazing and frightening how we project our own bloodlust onto nonhumans but don't recognize it in ourselves.
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