Gary over at Animal Writings posted the latest in his series of posts about interspecies relationships, and this one I really marveled at. Go check it out. By the way, hippos are herbivores.
I'm having a back and forth with someone in the comments for an article that I'm not linking here (it's just a student news thing about Peter Singer speaking on campus, but the irritating thing is that this person claims to be an animal rights supporter who eats meat (it appears from arguments offered so far that the individual in question may be conflating animal rights with animal welfare). Talk about cognitive dissonance. It reminded me of this annoying article about actor Hugo Weaving:
Hugo Weaving wears leather shoes, owns a cat and is partial to a fish dinner, but the actor is also a passionate advocate of animal rights.
More cognitive dissonance from him. Maybe he's working on it?:
"Both my children are vegetarians … The more I started thinking about it, the more I thought my son's natural, childish reaction was spot on."
Sorry to hit and run, but I am positively buried in projects, so I'm going to drop out for a day or so to get suitably caught up. See you on the flip side!
I've been blogging about the dolphin slaughter for over a year now, doing what little I can to raise awareness of the drive fisheries in Japan that brutally slaughter thousands of dolphins every year.
But nothing gets the attention of the media like a beautiful young Hollywood starlet, so I am glad that Hayden Panittiere has brought the slaughter to American televisions like no other activism has been able to do before:
You may have seen this AP footage already:
But here's the first I've seen of her breaking down and sobbing, and boy doesn't this ever drive home the heartbreak of this slaughter:
Cynics are bound to comment that Hayden Panittiere is an actor but, as an actor myself, my sense is that what most people don't realize is that acting is a process of stripping away the internal censors that prevent us from sharing our feelings openly, so that they become more available to us in the moment, creating a more sensitive person who is in touch with his or her feelings, which are therefore much closer to the surface. This is incredibly valuable when calling on emotions for important scenes when you're lucky to only get one or two takes on a busy TV schedule, but it can be painful when dealing with situations in real life, as you can clearly see from the second video.
I can only hope that Panittiere's reaction was mirrored by the millions of people that have seen the footage this week.
As long as I'm dishing on celebs, this is a great bit you'll love.
Tobey Maguire spends the first half of last Friday's interview with Jay Leno talking about vegetarianism, not his new movie, The Good German (saw it tonight, it was an intriguing film if you're a cinephile, but the average viewer may not know what to make of it).
He keeps it light, non-threatening (he avoids using the charged word vegan) and fun, telling his vegetarian story, and both him and Leno giving Kevin Eubanks a hard time for calling himself a vegetarian even though he eats fish. Kevin is good-natured about it, though, saying he's "practicing" to be a vegetarian. Overall, a very positive representation of vegetarianism, so major kudos go to a real live hero to the animals, Spider-Man... I mean, Tobey Maguire. :)
Thrillingly, this piece manages to neither glamorize nor condone fur, while expending quite a few column inches on the topic, mainly focusing on efforts of activists against the fur industry, and how recently they've been losing that battle on the financial front (sales of fur globally rose from $9.1bn in 2000 to $11.7bn in 2004, according to the International Fur Trade Federation), despite some companies, like Polo Ralph Lauren dropping fur from their lines altogether. Even the fur highlighted in the photo that runs with the story makes fur look really unattractive. Well, maybe it's just me, but I can't see why anyone would want to wear that ugly, horrific item.
According to the Guardian's Special Report, the blame for this "return" of fur seems to rests on the 80s-style revival of wearing your wealth (bling-bling, anyone?), as well as the deep pockets of the fur industry, whose financial backing means many designers have become obliged to feature fur in their collections. Ah, the joy of selling one's soul...
In highlighting of the dilemma of fur in fashion, the report prominently features lifelong vegetarian Sadie Frost, with whom I am now smitten:
"Designers will keep designing it if the public want it, the public will keep buying it if the fashion icons are wearing it, and the fashion icons wear it because the designers make it. It's hard to know where to start."
*snip*
"As a designer [Frost co-owns the fashion label Frost French], I've become aware of how fur is often pushed on you to get financial breaks along the way. I know that a lot of designers who were having problems financially, which we certainly have, have cleared their debts by using fur, but I would have really failed if I'd done that."
The report also reminds us of Stella McCartney, who "has proven, against all odds, that it is possible to run a fashion label without using any animal byproducts at all." I think she was looking at some sort of cruelty-free silk or wool products, last I read, but I am so totally not up-to-the-minute on fashion that I couldn't be sure. I do know that the last time I walked by her storefront on Beverly Blvd. -- on the way to a disappointing vegan dinner at The Newsroom (skip the Oaxacan Tamales) -- all the clothes I could see through her windows looked awesome. And all were of course made without using fur, much less leather.
In comparison to these integrity-driven choice, fur wearers like Frost's best friend, Kate Moss, and former (briefly) anti-fur models like Cindy Crawford and Naomi Campbell come off looking pretty shallow and cruel.
I think the editors deserve praise for publishing this strongly critical report on fur.
Earnest singer/songwriter/guitarist Bryan Adams shot the photo you see on the left (at least until the paper archives this article). Hopefully that was digital and not film, since film contains animal products.
At any rate, not only does some of Mr. Adams' music rock (hey, they can't all be classics), but his outlook on animals has rocked for a long time now. The article quotes him as saying:
"I'm opposed to fur and any kind of use of animal products. I don't eat them and I don't wear them. I'm not for the killing of any creature, whether it be seals, cows, dogs or any animal. So anytime it comes to any kind of animal cruelty I'm totally against it."
Japan Dolphin Day Protest - L.A. Report
