Grab a brew, herbal tea, glass of wine, Silk Nog, or whatever floats your boat, and dig in. I think this is gonna be a long one:
Kicking off World Vegan Day November 1st, Meat Facts featured an entry on a test at the Bronx Zoo in which elephants demonstrated self-awareness by using a mirror that was placed in their exhibit. In typically (and fairly) exasperated fashion, the post is called "Shocker: Elephants are Self-Aware."
One of my favorite entries into the blogosphere was actually a podcast posted early in the month, the Vegan Freak Radio interview with Gary L. Francione, Professor of Law, Rutgers University. The topics: Welfarism, abolitionism, and veganism. For anyone unfamiliar with Francione's writing, this is a really convenient primer on animal rights, much as described in his book, Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog?, but ranging as well into related topics like Peter Singer, welfarism, and veganism.
On the 4th, Veronica at a gang of bunnies stole my idea highlighted my friend Heather's art, which you ought to know about. Pictured is one of her spirographs.Veronica Ibarra is an artist herself. Check out her portfolio here.
Tammy posted an entry at Generation V the next day that describes a "leafleting jaunt," handing out turkey-free Thanksgiving recipes from Farm Sanctuary, a flyer about Turkeys (some from Farm Sanctuary, some from PETA), and Vegan Outreach's Even If You Like Meat pamphlet. Tammy and her group distributed about 500 pieces of literature, and shared with readers her motivation: "When I reflect on why I wasn't a vegetarian earlier, it's simply because I didn't know. So now I want to share what I learned with others."
Gary's always-thoughtful blog, Animal Writings, has been featuring a number of animal-friendly quotes this month. On the 7th, he quoted a particularly strong excerpt from Marjorie Spiegal's The Dreaded Comparison: Human and Animal Slavery, including this variation on Bentham:
For what does someone's ability to speak French, drive a car, see in the dark, do algebraic equations, or use a tool, have to do with whether or not it is acceptable to enslave, torture, or in some other way inflict cruelty on them? The only relevant requirement which should be necessary to keep us from unnecessarily inflicting pain and suffering on someone is that individual's ability to feel pain and to suffer.The 7th was, of course, Election Day, and Hounded, Cowed, & Badgered reviewed the animal victories at the polls a couple of days later.
Also in legal news, and much more ominous, was full passage a few days later of The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act by a not-so-lame duck Congress, or the 6 people who were privy to the cloak and dagger approach to passing this legislation. The story was well-covered by Will Potter at Green is the New Red, a blog fully aware of the parallels between the Red Scare and today's Green Scare. What we learn about our political system may infuriate you, or it may not surprise you at all. Meat Facts blasts the bill as well. Green is the New Red followed this story up later in the month with a critique of the ACLU for "dropping the ball" by pulling a disappearing act during this attack on our civil liberties.
If you haven't visited the International Fund for Animal Welfare's blog, you must check out this entry. It pulls together various posts from IFAW Emergency Relief worker Jennifer Miller's trip to Indonesia, during which she supported the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation (BOS) and chronicled in pictures and video the devastation to Borneo's endangered orangutans caused by man-made forest fires that "escalated to a disaster level on both Borneo and Sumatra islands." The video of impacted orangutans will touch you at your very core, and that's not hype.Kim Stallwood, The Grumpy Vegan had cause to be astonished by a New York Times editorial (the paper's official position) suggesting that, if breast cancer is indeed related to consumption of red meat, as a study suggests, the cure is simple: eat less meat. Of course, we've known this for years, but how often does the editorial board of the legendary New York Times go on record with a statement like that? The following day, Kim goes on to point out the utter mindlessness of some celebrities. I mean, I've enjoyed the work of Lucy Davis, the receptionist in the original BBC version of The Office now appearing on NBC's Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (also seen in one of my personal favorites, Shaun of the Dead), but I am astounded that this fell out of her mouth: "I love pancakes, burgers, salads and pudding but not fussy food like sushi and duck. I'm not vegetarian but I work for PETA so stuff like foie gras is a no-no." She goes on to make it worse, so take a quick peek at the entry, it's only a short quote. Thanks to Kim for making sure we saw it.
Inching toward Thanksgiving, most animal-friendly blogs had their minds on our turkey friends, and the senseless slaughter associated with the holiday. Invisible Voices bemoaned the notion of tradition as justification for injustice, and called for a new tradition based on compassion.
Lindsay at Vegan Chai linked us to Compassion Over Killing's undercover footage from a Butterball turkey hatchery, imploring anything planning to eat turkey for Thanksgiving "(or, um, ever)" to watch the video. She followed this up the next day with mixed feelings about spending a non-vegan Thanksgiving with her family, something many animal-friendly people will relate to, I'm sure.
It wasn't all turkeys and flesh-munching family around Thanksgiving, though. While Bob and Jenna Torres focus mostly on the Vegan Freak podcast these days, they still keep the blog warm for an occasional post, mostly so Bob can vent, it would seem. This time, representative of the fractionalizing going on throughout the movement lately, he takes on Joan Dunayer, whose critique of Gary Francione (Wikipedia) has Bob up in arms.
Reading up on the debate, I noticed it's not the first time Dunayer has been criticized herself for picking apart the works of previous animal rights authors and outright misrepresenting or misunderstanding Francione, but it's the first time I've seen a post in the animal blogosphere that dives in and takes her to task for doing so, so you ought to read it. If nothing else, it will give you a taste of what is going on at the leading edge of abolitionist animal rights thought.
You can decide for yourself what to think after reading this and related links at Bob's post, and hopefully you'll read the works of these authors. Frankly, I'm thankful that we have so many intelligent people in the animal rights movement who care enough to believe in abolishing animal exploitation and to really get at the core of it. Now I'd like to see even more people reading and discussing these ideas, and then putting them into practice.
No Carnival would be complete without mention of Vegan Porn, a blog that always manages to keep news items brief and to the witty point. Witness this post, reporting on the Dutch national election that ultimately saw two members of the Dutch Party for the Animals win two seats in parliament. Jason writes that their win certainly gives good cause to party, and observes that wooden Dutch shoes are the original hardcore vegan footwear. He follows this up on Thanksgiving Day with a story of "zombie chickens" buried alive. Hard to find a funny angle on that one, but he still manages to put one in the hoop at the buzzer... er, or something.
Without turning this into the Vegan Porn showcase (What? There was a lot of animal news in November!), I wanted to make sure you saw a post where Jason himself didn't even make a comment, letting Peter Singer's utilitarian justification of primate testing speak for itself. He followed it with another post shortly after that featured his more typical approach, suggesting that buying ethanol, which continues to raise corn feed prices for meat "producers," is a good way to stick it to animal farmers in the pocketbook.
Vegan cookbook author Sarah Kramer reminds us that there are some animal rights activists currently serving time, and that you can reach out and support them with letters, postcards, and so on. Visit Jake's site for more on what and how, as well as info to reach the other incarcerated SHAC activists.
Invisible Voices is one of those blogs that's a pleasure to see as well as read, and that is exemplified in this late November post showcasing Poplar Spring Animal Sanctuary. It reads like a photo diary, which shares some sincere animal liberation remarks inspired by seeing these few rescuees in an environment where they are more able to fully express their individuality and pursue their own interests.Finally, today (just squeaking in under the deadline) vegankid takes stock of the current conversation happening mainly inside the vegan bubble and advocates an approach to veganism as peace and social justice movement, not merely a dietary shift, arguing that "we must also critically approach ability, gender, class, race, age, size, sexuality, and other categorizations that have been used to create violent hierarchies." And we must walk the walk, says vegankid, not just talk the talk.
Labels: Carnival of Empty Cages
