10 posts tagged “animals”

Great moving story about a woman's way to veganism.

Great article. Sometimes the world seems to conspire to make you feel exactly that way.

I just signed this. Would you like to do it too?

"I will continue to be a vegetarian even if the whole world started to eat meat. This is my protest against the conduct of the world."
Isaac Bashevis Singer – Nobel Prize winning author

This article is about what it means for most of us, to live in a world where we're very much alone to feel the way we do about animal exploitation. As far as I'm concerned, it's very accurate. For some it might be hard to go against the rest of the world, but at least for me, it was easy. I didn't have 'the rest of the world' even before I chose my lifestyle.

Read more about it in this article.

Interesting article about a neuroscientist who argues against animal experiments - partly from the perspective of cruelty - but mainly because his research has shown him that it's useless. All those animals are being tortured and killed for nothing.

Meat eaters sometimes claim that plants have feelings, not so they can avoid eating them, but so they can ignore the fact that animals most definitely do have feelings. This article discusses the possibility of plants being sentient.

The writer of this article hypothesizes about a world where animals had rights. It's something I try to imagine frequently, but most of the time I just despair. No one else seems to care. But if that day ever came, I for one, wouldn't be afraid to step back a little. Do we really need the power to destroy the earth just because we can? In fact, isn't that rather counterproductive? After all, we're animals too.

Anyone who doesn't like the idea, consider this: there was a time, not so long ago, when it was considered ridiculous for women and children to have rights. In some parts of the world, only people of European ancestry were considered rational, capable and worthy of ruling the world. In others, Europeans were considered uncivilized.

Today, most people would hesitate to advocate stale old ideas of that kind. Maybe there will come a day when animals get their rights. In my opinion, that won't be a day too soon.

I found this quote in the veganism community on LiveJournal. (I really have to emphasize how friendly and useful this community is. Highly recommended for all veg*ans who know English.)

"Isn't man an amazing animal? He kills wildlife - birds, kangaroos, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice, foxes and dingoes - by the million in order to protect his domestic animals and their feed. Then he kills domestic animals by the billion and eats them. This in turn kills man by the millions, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative - and fatal - health conditions like heart disease, kidney disease, and cancer. So then man tortures and kills millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases. Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals. Meanwhile, some people are dying of sad laughter at the absurdity of man, who kills so easily and so violently, and once a year, sends out cards praying for Peace on Earth."

-David Coats, Old MacDonald's Factory Farm

October doesn't just bring World Vegetarian Day (October 1) but also the World Animal Day (October 4). In fact, that works out really well. If you eat less meat (preferably none at all) fewer animals will die. On the World Animal Day, at least here in Sweden, it's the day for making cinnamon buns. That too, fits in very well. You see, it's perfectly possible to make buns without using any kind of animal products.

Instead of the customary cow's milk, which is the result of exploitation of cows, and which can cause stomach problems, arthritic pain and harm your ability to digest calcium. You might think that it sounds like a contradiction. Calcium in milk should be great for your bones. No? Consider this: why is there so much calcium in milk? Maybe because there has to be, because of the problem with metabolizing calcium. You can get osteoporosis (brittle bones) from drinking milk.

There are many different kinds of replacements for cow's milk, like soy milk (won't work if you're allergic to soy), oat milk (might be a problem if you suffer from gluten intolerance, though if you do, you probably can't eat cinnamon buns at all) or rice milk. I've heard of other cool replacements but where I live they aren't available commercially. However, I have tried almond cream/milk, which is yummy and sesamy seed milk, which wasn't very tasty, I'm afraid, but sesamy seeds are good for all kinds of other things. In some countries hemp milk is also available.