Posts by Stephanie Ernst
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Inflatable, Creative Pro-Turkey Activism
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Compassionate Giving Does Not Involve Cruelty to Goats
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Why Is the Nature Conservancy Killing Animals?
Friday Food: Pot Pies, Stuffing, Cakes, Scones, and Tarts
Published November 20, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
The first section of this week's Friday Food fest includes several autumny, holiday-ish vegan recipes if you're still looking for ideas for compassionate contributions to gatherings with family and friends next week. There will be more related to the upcoming holiday(s) later, of course, but for now, the weekly roundup:
Celebration Pot Pie with Pumpkin Biscuit Crust from FatFree Vegan Kitchen (photo at left courtesy of Susan at FFVK)
Apple Cake With Caramel-Pecan Glaze from Holy Cow! Vegan Recipes
Grandpa Earl's Stuffing from Rhymes With Vegan
5 Step Pumpkin Platter: Thanksgiving Vegan Protein from Healthy. Happy. Life.
Apple Ginger Scones from BitterSweet
Beheading Chickens Is OK, but Beheading Cats Is "Over the Top"
Published November 18, 2009 @ 06:31AM PT
One dog, one cat, three chickens -- all were found beheaded in Philadelphia late last week. The AP's brief account of the discovery mentioned only the dog and cat in its intro, the chickens coming up only a few sentences later as having been found "along with" the more important victims. But it's not just the media establishing who the important victims were. The director of investigations for the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals noted that animal sacrifices often increase around this time of year because of religious holidays, but he didn't stop there.
Most sacrifices involve goats or chickens, he noted, and here's the kicker, courtesy of the Philadelphia Daily News:
Activists Jailed for Refusing to Testify Before Grand Jury
Published November 17, 2009 @ 04:24PM PT
Two Twin Cities activists have been jailed on contempt charges in Davenport, Iowa, for refusing to cooperate with a federal grand jury investigation into, it is believed, an action taken at a University of Iowa laboratory in 2004. The two were offered limited immunity but still refused to testify about (again, presumably) a break-in that involved vandalism and the rescue of numerous rats and mice. The Minneapolis/St. Paul Star-Tribune and the Quad-City Times have picked up the story.
A "Support Carrie and Scott" blog has been set up where you can read more, including statements from the recently jailed activists themselves. I'll post more on what fellow activists can do to offer support as the situation unfolds.
Seems like a good time to direct activists again to the Center for Constitutional Rights' If An Agent Knocks booklet.
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Photo by Flickr user bloomsberries
Undercover at the Pig Farm: This Is Where "Bacon" Comes From
Published November 17, 2009 @ 07:34AM PT
Yesterday, Mercy for Animals gave Fox News the exclusive on its latest undercover investigation -- at a standard pig farm. And Fox News put it right in its Web site's top story spot, hopefully catching the attention of many people. The video is certainly disturbing, heartbreaking, horrifying; Fox wouldn't even air portions of it. Indeed, knowing what I was going to see (and hear), I couldn't make myself watch it until today, which I felt I had to do before asking readers to watch.
If you haven't seen footage from previous investigations (or, for that matter, even if you have), and you're still eating animals, you owe it to the animals and yourself to watch the video, included at the end of this post. There's no excuse for not educating yourself on what exactly it is you're involved in and paying for.
I won't repeat all that you can read about the investigation at MFA's site for it, but I will comment on one objection to how animal advocates often present these investigations and touch on something the Discerning Brute has just discussed as well in this context: people's (or at the very least, Americans') bizarre obsession with bacon in recent years.
Is Golf More Important to San Francisco Than Endangered Animals?
Published November 16, 2009 @ 01:57PM PT
Um, no. I'm guessing most residents of the San Francisco area would say no.
But the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department apparently didn't get the memo. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, the department is supposed to be figuring out how to restore habitat for the San Francisco garter snake and red-legged frog in Pacifica's Sharp Park, but instead, the department is pushing for the option that least considers the animals: an 18-hole golf course, which will push habitat restoration to "the margins of existing wetlands."
Willful Slow Food Ignorance and the Pain Animals Feel
Published November 16, 2009 @ 06:59AM PT
You know what bothers me? When a person or movement purports to be presenting an argument based in honesty and logic, to be coming from an objective place, concerned with fact and evidence -- but then conveniently pretends that any evidence that doesn't support or reinforce what he selfishly feels and wants even exists.
My respect for the Slow Food organization hit a low this weekend when I read Friday's editorial in the Huffington Post by its president Josh Viertel, in response to Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals. There is much in the essay I find bizarre and self-serving -- including, for example, Viertel's seeming pride in holding back lambs from their mothers and participating in the slaughter and his ludicrous insistence that "everyone's values are different, but the truth is anyone's values will do," as long as people live their values; it seems someone needs to explain to Mr. Viertel what we would be obligated to tolerate and support if this were true. Perhaps he's familiar, for example, with the values of violent racists, sexists, and homophobes and the ways they consistently "apply" their values in their lives? But the following extract was why I felt compelled to respond:
On Oreo, Mabel, and Killing Abused Animals
Published November 14, 2009 @ 09:22AM PT
I somehow didn't know the story of Oreo, the 1-year-old pit bull or pit bull mix who was repeatedly abused before being thrown off the roof of a 6-story building this summer, until today -- when I read about what happened to her yesterday: though she survived the traumatic fall that broke her two front legs and more and was physically recovering, she was killed yesterday by the ASPCA, which insisted that she was too aggressive to be adopted. The ASPCA told reporters that as she began healing from her injuries, she simultaneously began showing aggression -- "growling, lunging and trying to bite people who came too close." To her reactions, I say, big surprise. And to how long the ASPCA gave her to recover, I say, meet Mabel.
