Out With The Old…

Three years ago, I was wielding a spatula, slinging spices, and rocking a carving knife, making some delish meat-centric meals for my family. All this whilst brandishing a dry pinot or three in a tipsy waltz across the kitchen.

My favourite shows were Master Chef, Hell’s Kitchen and Dinner Party Wars. I watched them almost exclusively, over and over, as I drained bottle after bottle of dry white.  I seemed to have a penchant for anything creative all my life, writing, sewing, painting, and eventually that evolved to include cooking.

 All the recipes revolved around meat, which I didn’t actually like much. All my life I have had issues with eating meat: the stringiness, the fat, the cartilage, the gelatinous textures, the smell of bones. So I rarely ate it myself, but I was a “feeder”: I cooked for everyone else. And I mean everyone!

Every kid on the block stopped by for breakfast, lunch or dinner. My kids would call their friends and say “she’s making spaghetti” and BING! someone would magically arrive at my door just in time, and naturally, I made them up a plate. My daughter’s friend would ask his mother what they were having, and then contemplate one second before stating “I’ll see what Carol’s making.”I didn’t mind one bit; I enjoyed it. But I rarely ate it. Turkey at Christmas; a hamburger at a bbq, pepperoni on a pizza, but steak? nope. Chicken on the bone? Nope. Chops? hell no. 

Then I changed a few things in my life. I left an abusive ex; the box of pinot stopped gracing my counter, and I started thinking about my health. ME. My health. My life. Things I wanted. Not anyone else. Just me. What a revelation. 

I didn’t want to eat flesh. I didn’t want to eat animals. I didn’t want any part in an industry that commodifies sentient beings and reduces them to “cuts of meat” in a supermarket. I had spent years doing it in order to please others, to follow the status quo. I did it because doing what I wanted was not an option, and in truth, I didn’t know what I wanted because all my time was spent catering to what others wanted. I had become a non-entity in my own life. I was no better off than the animals bred into the agriculture industry. I followed “the herd” because that’s all I knew and all I was allowed.

And then I deleted the negative and inserted ME into the equation. 

Better late than never, eh?

And as most vegans say: I wish I had done it sooner!

Empathy for animals has to go beyond our pets: cats and dogs. It has to go beyond wild animals hunted or trapped for fur or other products. It has to go beyond animals threatened with extinction. These issues are understood around the world as being legitimate concerns which even non-vegans will support. 

But it also has to include agricultural animals: horses, cows, pigs, goats, sheep. It has to because it’s plain logical. Why protect some animals and not others? What is the difference? Non-vegans will say “well they are bred for food.”These animals which were bred to fill a human concept: that it’s easier to go out into the field and kill a cow for food than hunt it. So agricultural animals were bred out of human LAZINESS and greed. Nature didn’t breed domestic animals, humans did. So they are not natural to this world, but now they are here, why do we think it’s ok to abuse them and not dogs (which we also bred)?

We are disgusted at the Chinese Yulin Dog Meat Festival but celebrate ribfests all summer long. We think it’s horrific that some Asian cultures eat live octopus, but really enjoy slugging back that raw (read ALIVE) oyster. And this year, we were horrified that due to a Chinese delicacy of bat soup, we ended up locked down in our homes hiding from a zoonotic novel coronavirus, but we conveniently ignore H1N1 outbreaks because “mmm bacon”.

Oh believe me, I ignored the facts too. I’m guilty of all of the above and then some. But when I made the change and stopped eating meat, I also started reading and researching, and I opened my mind to thoughts and ideas about which I previously had not heard. I went back to my nature spirit roots and had some serious conversations with my soul. I did a lot of housecleaning in my mind, opened up a few musty windows and gave that space a new coat of paint. 

I like where I am now. I like me. I have goals. I have a purpose. I have drive. I’m connecting with a new tribe and I love how that feels. I’m tapping into my creativity, my spirituality, and my imagination and it’s looking up as never before. And it’s all because I stopped using other sentient beings for my own selfish needs. I recognized we are all animals: some human animals, some non-human animals, but animals just the same. We all deserve to be treated with respect; we all deserve love; we all deserve life.

Won’t you consider this concept too?  

Death of an Activist

I’m writing this at 2 a.m. the day after a fellow activist was killed at a vigil for pigs at Fearman’s Pork slaughterhouse in Burlington, Ontario. I can’t get it out of my mind. This is a vigil I have attended. I have stood on the corners with signs; I have stood at the gate entrance, providing water and succor to the pigs held in captivity in transport trucks. I have bore witness to the cruelty withstood by these baby pigs. I have seen their cuts and bruises from mistreatment; I have watched as they foamed at the mouth out of fear and dehydration; I have witnessed them walking over their dead comrades in the truck, pigs who did not survive the trip. I have seen the result of living beings crammed into a truck for days on end in 40 deg heat or sub zero temperatures, with no food or water, covered in puke and shit. But no body cares about that because “mmm bacon”.

It reminds me of the old photos of the trains running to Auschwitz.

So here I am at 2 a.m., feeling angry, so angry that I’m about to kick some meat-eating butt because apparently, even someone – a human – dying is not enough. There is an uproar now, but when it all dies down, will anything have changed? Oh yes – life will have changed for Regan’s family and friends, but that’s a small price to pay for your Big Mac isn’t it? It doesn’t directly affect you, right? And hey, if we can turn a blind eye to millions of animals brutalized and used as commodities every single day, then the death of one activist is a mere drop in a very big pond.

Let me ask you something: do pictures of the Yulin Dog Meat Festival enraged you, upset you, incense you? Well, what’s the difference between the dog meat festival and the annual ribfest celebrations we hold? It’s a “fest” right? If someone put a plate of luscious ribs in front of you, could you tell if they were dog meat or pork or beef? Bet that’s a big fat fucking NO.

So fuck off with your “the dog meat festival is wrong”, because if that festival is wrong, so is ribfest. They are ribs. Flesh and bone. Does it matter which animal was caged and mistreated and ultimately killed to get it? If it does to you, then you are NOT an animal lover. You are a PET LOVER, and there’s a big fucking difference.

It means you discriminate over which life is valuable and which isn’t – you feel you have the power over life to be able to state unequivocally that someone should be fought for at all costs, but someone else is expendable. And why? Because of their shape? Colour of their fur/skin?…..oh wait…..See what I just did there?

So fuck off.

You can’t be an animal lover and eat meat. You cannot eat meat without perpetuating a vile, gross industry of torturing and killing animals, therefore how can you say you are an animal lover? If defies logic. It simply does.

When shown slaughterhouse images you are disgusted, angered, you know it’s wrong: but you eat that burger on your plate anyway. Knowing. KNOWING. The drivers of the trucks transporting those pigs: they know. The employees clicking away at their keyboards: they know too. But when they take their lunch break and they bite into their bologna sandwiches or leftover chicken wings, they don’t care. It’s disgusting and it’s frustrating for those of us awakened to the reality and fighting to make changes. And when I hear someone died fighting for those changes, and no one is listening and learning, then I fear for our world. Truly.

When you see these images, Yulin Dog Meat Festival or pigs in gestation crates or calves in tiny veal crates, you want social media censored so you don’t have to be affected by the atrocities, but that is the wrong thing. Why aren’t you questioning your revulsion? Why aren’t you trying to find out more about these atrocities you don’t want on your newsfeed? Here’s a thought: rather than burying your head in the sand, or asking social media to bury the images, you should be stopping the actual acts that create the images YOU DON’T WANT TO SEE!

Don’t like seeing images of dogs in cages? Well you can block it but the dogs will still be suffering. Don’t like seeing cows having throats cut and pigs prodded with electric shock batons into a gas chamber? It’s not going to stop just because you don’t see the images anymore. The dogs will still be boiled alive – so will turkeys and chickens for that matter. Just because you don’t see the images on your timeline, doesn’t mean it isn’t still happening. Stop eating meat; don’t kill the messenger.

Don’t censor the truth, change the reality.

#goveganforregan

All I Want…

All I want is a kinder world, peeps.

Is that too much to ask?

I want wars to stop; I want hatred to disseminate into nothingness. I want people to stop hurting each other, hurting their children, hurting animals. I want everyone to have enough to eat, and all the clean water they need. I want everyone to have a roof over their head. I want everyone to have access to all the education they want, and I want them to pass on what they learn in order to help others.

I want the dollar store products to actually be a dollar!

I have chosen a path which is not an easy one. After years of personal oppression in one form or another and then intense domestic abuse, I have chosen to advocate for those who cannot speak for themselves. It took me many years to reach this point of awakening, but in retrospect, it was always in me. I actually always felt this way, but didn’t know where to start, and probably wasn’t ready anyway. You don’t have to like it – but then if you’re reading this blog, you probably agree anyway – you don’t have to though. I can do what I need to, say what I need to, and it shouldn’t affect those who do not agree at all.

But sometimes it does. And that’s really cool.

When I post a meme or an article that gets a dissenting response, I get kind of excited because I know it struck a chord in someone. Typically, it’s in disagreement, but I don’t care – it has caused them to think, to formulate their viewpoint, express it, and open an avenue for discussion. This is a good thing, but more importantly, it is a sign that someone’s conscience has been tripped, and like a domino chain, one thing is going to lead to another – eventually.

We are stubborn creatures. We don’t like change. Change is part of the unknown – outside our primitive cave, away from our tribes, was the unknown, filled with predators, isolation, danger. Today, we still don’t like the unknown, change, things that are different. When faced with change, our security, what we have always known, is challenged. Change is denounced, we defy it, we fight it to protect our security. Eventually though that domino effect kicks in and we learn to adapt.

Suddenly, we all start to agree: yes, slavery is bad; yes, women are equal to men; yes, racial discrimination is wrong. And it took one person to introduce the idea, to put forth their arguments, to spread the information, to set the example. Just one person.

I bet they pissed a lot of people off at first, spouting their new-found idea. I bet they were ignored, laughed at, vilified perhaps, until the idea started to take hold with a few others, and grow with time.

Maybe even violence ensued. ‘Cause that’s how we humans roll.

I feel so strongly about developing a peaceful, kinder world, that I am willing to stand with those game-changers for my cause, despite the unpopularity it may generate among my friends and acquaintances.

Veganism may be a fad to some, a trendy diet to others, a rebellious act to yet others, but to me it’s the best path for a kinder world. Because if we are kind to the “lowliest” animals on the planet, it stands to reason we will be kind to those we consider equal. Eventually, this concept may lead to us thinking of all living beings as equal, which takes things up a further notch to a perfect world.

That’s what I’m striving for, peeps. So if I post something that pisses you off or ignites a spark of dissention among you, then I am doing my job right.

Because all I really want is a kind, peaceful world.

Christmas According to Tyler Dawson, Ottawa Citizen

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday for 2019. It’s over now, so it will be another year before you can go through all that stress and financial outlay again, but rest easy because I have put together a list of do’s and don’ts to simplify Christmas cheer for 2020. I read an article from the Ottawa Citizen by Tyler Dawson who also had some helpful hints, but I’m sorry to say, I thought they were somewhat lacking in options as well as insight. So I’m going to jump on that trainwreck and make a track change which I think resolves the whole question of what not to do at Christmas perfectly.

Dawson’s first critique was the tree. He decried the use of real trees and supported the plastic tree option. I must admit, peeps, this is a sticky wicket indeed. I mean, I have had plastic or some other type of material trees all my life. It’s certainly easier: it’s always at hand to put up at a whim; it costs nothing once you’ve purchased it initially; it often comes with built in lights; it doesn’t drop needles or dry out; it saves a tree life. However, it does not biodegrade. Once it’s cast off by a family for a new, improved fake tree, it will sit in landfill forever and ever. Not good.

Real trees on the other hand, are more work but they do break down when it’s all over and go back whence they came over a short amount of time. Yes, you have to trudge all through the bush to find the perfect one, but you can make that family time peeps, create Christmas memories. And I’m not advocating running around the pristine wilderness cutting random trees either: there are farms designed for this where trees are grown with this purpose in mind. It’s a plant-based commodity rather like soy beans or corn. So the environment is safe and we are not losing valuable trees, keeping our air quality in top notch condition. Ahem.

What do I do? I DO NOTHING! I don’t have a tree. I have a few little Christmas decorations which I pop up and down easily, keep forever, and store easily in my cupboard. I’m done with the plastic tree forever, and I’m not about to sully my platform stiletto boots wandering through Farmer Joe’s Christmas Tree Farm either. Decorate your trees outside peeps. They are already there, already set up, and already pretty. Problem Solved.

Dawson’s next point was Christmas Themed Gifts. He states they will be up for a couple of days then packed away for a whole year, not to be enjoyed by the recipient until the next Christmas season.

He’s right, peeps!

In my experience, you buy Christmas-themed gifts when you don’t know what else to buy the recipient but you have to turn up with something. It’s either chocolates or Christmas-themed items. Peeps, if you are ever in this bind, and believe me, we have all been there, give the gift of chocolate. Everyone likes it, it’s cheap, it’s everywhere – even late at night in corner stores. If they can’t eat it, they will still use it for their guests and will be like “Good thing so-and-so brought me these chocolates, now I have something I can put out for these unexpected guests.” Chocolates for the win, peeps. Problem Solved.

He next mentions Gift Cards. He is not against them, but he does suggest using some discernment in choosing one. I say: Don’t knock the gift cards, peeps! It’s like the chocolate – you might think it’s mundane and lazy but it can always be used and it’s always appreciated. Now do I think a gift card is an appropriate stand alone gift for the love of your life? Not if you ever want to have sex again, BUT as a stocking stuffer, or gift for kids, coworkers, nieces/nephews, grandchildren – HELL YEAH! Back in the day there were no gift cards, there was cash. When someone handed me that white envelope, I knew it contained a card with cash, and a quiver of excitement ran through me because I knew where I was going the next day: TO THE MALL!

So when the perfect gift for that beloved family member is eluding you, go gift card. Problem Solved.

Now here is where Dawson and I differ greatly: Acceptable Christmas Movies. He feels only the original Grinch Who Stole Christmas and National Lampoons Christmas Vacation hold any merit in the Christmas Movie question. I beg to differ.

The two choices by Dawson are absolute must watches for the season, but there’s more. A Christmas Carol (1951 with Alistair Sim). Peeps, it’s Christmas and ghosts all rolled into one. The appearance of Jacob Marley and the Ghost of Christmas Future was enough, as a child, to keep me sleepless for nights on end. If you haven’t watched this version, you haven’t really had Christmas.

the ghost of Christmas Future, A Christmas Carol with Alistair Sim

White Christmas, with Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, the quintessential Christmas movie: lavish dancing and singing, hollywood costumes, humour, and heartfelt solidarity erupting into the purest form of the spirit of Christmas, make this movie a fundamental holiday favourite.

White Christmas

Next, A Christmas Story, a Canadian classic, filmed right here in St. Catharines, Ontario epitomizes the life of a middle class family during the Christmas season. The excitement of anticipation for the much desired gift, the pre-Christmas family machinations which all of us of a certain age have experienced – maybe that’s the problem, Dawson is perhaps of an age where these innocent perspectives of by-gone days is long gone. I’m sorry, Tyler, you missed out – big time.

And let’s not forget A Peanut Christmas, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, Home Alone, Elf, Miracle on 34th Street, It’s a Wonderful Life – even Die Hard! The list goes on. There are literally hundreds of worthwhile Christmas movies to entertain yourself silly through the season. Boredom level – Zero. Problem Solved.

Christmas Music is next on the list of Don’ts according to Dawson. Well, I like it. And I worked at Zellers back in the day when they played the same CD over and over again and I STILL LIKE IT! No issues with the Christmas Music here.

The Food is next, with of course, the vegan issue of not eating the flesh of a tortured sentient being of paramount importance. He mentioned we shouldn’t eat ham because pigs are cute, while emphasizing turkeys are not, and therefore deserve to be eaten. So he obliquely inferred the cuteness level of an animal is the standard by which we should judge who gets eaten and who isn’t – but I bet he loves his bacon, even though he admitted pigs are too cute to eat. He literally makes no sense on this subject so why should we listen to anything else he says?

Esther and Cornelius at Happily Ever Esther Farm & Sanctuary. I think turkeys are cute. Picture: found online, no copyright infringement intended.

Instead he waxed philosophical against potatoes (almost everyone’s favourite food) and yams (what the fuck is a yam anyway?) and sweet potatoes (not my fav but I’ll accept they are highly nutritious and beneficial on the Christmas table). I’ll wager Dawson has never actually COOKED a full-on Christmas dinner for upwards of 15 people on a yearly basis for 35 years so, quite frankly peeps, I suggest not listening to him on the subject of food AT ALL.

However, he seems to be most knowledgeable on the subject of the “Kids Table” which is where he probably was while all the cooking was going on, and also where he got the notion that mashed potatoes sucked.

But Rock on, Tyler!

Some Gross Morning Thoughts…

These days, many conversations often go something like this:

“Oh are you vegan? That’s cool. I don’t eat much meat at all. Maybe like twice a week?”

Why? Why do some people I speak with find it necessary to explain their animal consumption to me once they find out I am vegan? I mean it goes without saying I would like everyone to become vegan and finally have all living beings treated with compassion and respect; failing this at least eat less meat and dairy, but contrary to what you see on my social media, I don’t ram veganism down everyone’s throats…. No, really, I don’t.

Yet for some reason, without prompting, many people I meet seem to feel it necessary to explain to me how LITTLE meat they eat as soon as they learn I’m vegan – and I have to wonder why.

Is it guilt? It could be guilt because they know vegans in general are against the abuse and cruel treatment of animals, and the animal agriculture industry is being exposed, more and more, as proponents of the commodification and abhorrent exploitation of domesticated animals. It could be because they know vegans are also against the fur and leather industries, animal lab experiments, and puppy mills, and these folks know definitively these industries also profit from the cruel useage and eventual death of innocent animals.

So as I sit here drinking my tea with almond milk, I THEN start to wonder if they feel this guilt, then they KNOW, or at least SUSPECT, that the consumption and commodification of living, sentient beings is unquestionably WRONG so the next question is: WHY ARE THEY STILL DOING IT?

Why is it still such a battle for us who advocate for animal rights? I mean, they already actually know or they wouldn’t be justifying themselves to me, and if they know…well….why would they want to be part of it?

If you are eating less meat and dairy, or transitioning to veganism at your own pace: good for you! I’m so happy about that! The best method to being heard is affecting these industries where it hurts: their bank accounts. Every little bit you don’t consume helps get the message across – slowly – but still. And they are not going bankrupt, peeps, don’t worry about that. They will – and are – responding by filling alternate plant-based demands which are getting more and more popular all over.

But if you are, by making this statement, acknowledging there is something wrong with the animal product industry, and yet NOT actually working towards cutting it out even a little bit, then you are a hypocrite. And I don’t actually want to hear how many times a week you don’t eat meat. Because all I hear is the how many times you still do eat the flesh of a once living, breathing, feeling creature.

That’s another thing: it’s flesh – skin, muscle, tendons, blood, bone, capillaries, nerve endings, veins, all things we have, too. That crispy coating your licking your fingers over is SKIN, with hair follicles and bruises and scars. It could be your skin – but it’s not, luckily. It’s some other creature’s skin. You know in Nazi Germany, the skin of the Jews was used to make book covers, furniture covers, and lamp shades…but I digress.

Gross eh?

Anyway, that’s my gross thought for today. Maybe someone out there has an answer for why people explain themselves to me when they learn I’m vegan. I think it’s guilt. Guilt because they know and understand how cruelly animals are being treated for our consumption, and that makes me feel sad because if that is the case, then it’s going to take a lot more than some undercover videos of the inhumane treatment of pigs to stop people from eating bacon. If you already have the knowledge, and you do it anyway, that doesn’t bode well for humankind on this earth.

Why One and Not the Other?

Let me play devil’s advocate for a minute.

What if pigs, cows and chickens were not used for food. What if they were, let’s say, roaming the wilds like elephants, deer, and rhinos. And what if you found out, through some undercover activists, that there were places where these animals were kept and bred for an unnecessary use, like trophies, rather than for food. And what if this enterprise kept these animals in dirty, deplorable conditions; beat them, cut off horns and tails without anaesthetic, forcibly impregnated them to control births, prevented them from seeing the light of day by keeping them in tight metal cages and just generally abused them in order to profit off them. And they are not food. Think elephants, dogs, cats…

Would you be appalled? Would you be angry? Wouldn’t you do everything you could to lobby for the animals’ freedom? Wouldn’t you picket these organizations; produce petitions to be signed; sneak in to take videos to show the world what is actually going on? A warehouse full of dogs kept in metal crates, their puppies laying in their own filth around them. Like puppy mills but for cows, pigs, and chickens.

Wouldn’t you think this is a bad thing? That humans were evil to the core to be able to do that to innocent beings? I mean, they are not being used for food, we have loads of other things to eat – remember this is hypothetical. Try to be honestly neutral here.

You would, I know it. I can see the articles being shared on Facebook, IG and Twitter. I can see your comments. They are the same ones I see under pictures of abused dogs and cats. The same ones I see plastered all over; photos of Trump Jr. and his slaughtered trophies; Michael Vick and his bait and fighting dogs; carcasses of elephants missing tusks. I know you would think it was wrong.

So why is it alright now?

Why is it ok for cows, pigs, and chickens? Because we eat them? So there are certain animals we can abuse and some we can not. Why? Are they lesser in some way? Are they ugly? Is that it? An abomination to our senses? No…Do they damage our property, encroach in our neighbourhoods, steal our children? No…What do they do that gives us the right to maim and kill them when other animals are protected?

Why one and not the other?

That is All.

Endlings

Endlings: TV show or reality? It’s both, actually. And it’s pretty fucking serious.

The term “Endlings” was coined in the scientific journal “Nature” in April 4, 1996. Correspondence between various commentators was published where it was suggested a term be created to describe the last living member of a species. Endling was chosen.

Now let me emphasize an Endling is not the last few hundred of a species’ kind, it is the absolute complete final one – ONE – of a whole species. No further of its kind will be born. The species is caput after the Endling dies.

Think about that for a minute.

I looked it up. Five billion species are already gone. That is calculated at over 99 per cent of all species. Now, I’m no mathematician, and I must admit anything other than the basics completely confounds me, but this seems like a whole lot. So I’m just going to copy and paste what my best friend, Wikipedia, said: “Estimates on the number of Earth’s current species range from 10 million to 14 million,^[5] of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described.^[6] In 2016, scientists reported that 1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one thousandth of one percent described.”

Wiki also said this: ” According to the 2019 Global Assessment Report on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services by IPBES, the biomass of wild mammals has fallen by 82%, natural ecosystems have lost about half their area and a million species are at risk of extinction—all largely as a result of human actions. Twenty-five percent of plant and animal species are threatened with extinction.”

I hope that clarifies it for you, because it doesn’t for me. That being said, what I DO get out of this is the fact that our plants and animals are dying off AND IT’S ALL OUR FAULT!

Now the TV show part: a company called Sinking Ship Entertainment has come out with a series called Endlings, which is geared for families and children 9 to 12 years old, and tells the story of a group of orphans who find out they are not alone in the universe after the extinction of the last elephant on earth. It actually sounds kind of cool, and is probably effective in teaching children about these issues – but don’t get the two confused. Endlings the TV show is fiction.

An Endling outside of TV is a very real, very serious, problem.

The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) says of the upwards of 41k species on their “red” list, more than 16k are endangered. (That is almost 1/2 of them!) This is both plants and animals, peeps. According to EndangeredEarth.com, ” The species endangered include one in four mammals, one in eight birds, one third of all amphibians and 70% of the world’s assessed plants on the 2007 IUCN Red List are in jeopardy of extinction.” And many more are becoming extinct which have never been identified by scientists.

Animals have become extinct over millennia without any help from us. This is nothing new. Climate changes, survival of the fittest, catastrophic environmental events, all these natural incidents have contributed to the loss of many species, some we never knew. But the current extinction crisis is well documented as being man made. The loss of biodiversity is happening way too quickly to be anything else. In fact, it’s happening at a similar rate to our technological progress over the centuries. As we progress, so our world deteriorates. Now that’s math I understand.

I hate to say it, but I feel like our attempts at clean up are too little, too late. Huge changes need to be made to fully reverse the cataclysmic catastrophe we have triggered. David Suzuki has a list of changes we can make in our lives to curb climate change. From obvious things like “greening your commute” and “using less for less waste” and “using energy wisely” to voting in the upcoming election and demanding politicians put climate change first.

But one of the quickest most direct actions is eating less to no meat. Changing our diets to one that is plant-based. The other suggestions are great and all but will only slowly help our planet because we are so used to the ease and convenience of our mod cons. Going plant-based in diet, on the other hand, significantly and more importantly IMMEDIATELY impacts our earth.

I know, you’re thinking holy fuck, will this chick ever get off the vegan soapbox? Well, no. No, I won’t. Because of the animals. HOWEVER, not everyone cares about that aspect of veganism (how? wtf?) but I’m pretty sure EVERYONE cares about our planet.

So you say you’re an animal lover, but you eat animals. By the same token, you love our world, and you want to preserve it, heal it, and keep it healthy, but you eat animals…

See what I did there? Yeah, I probably pissed you off, and you can curse me all you want, but the facts are there. CNN, BBC, The UN, – all mainstream non-partisan organizations – have all released articles and reports reflecting the massive positive changes possible by adopting a plant-based diet – at the very least, going flexitarian and reducing the amount of meat in our diets. Not only would we be saving our health, but we would be saving the health of the planet and all the animals and plants on it and around it. Yes – around it! The air too!

It’s so huge it makes me scared, but it’s so easy to get a good start fixing it my heart aches because people just really, really want their Big Macs and steaks. And I just don’t know why these are so fucking important when cutting them out would do so much for our world and everyone and everything in it.

So I’m gonna keep making a whole whack of noise about this, peeps, because it is THAT important a thing. But it is also THAT easy a fix.

Recycle, reuse, REDUCE.

Is Being Vegan An Impossible Dream?

Being vegan: simple, right? No animal or animal by-products consumed or used, pretty clear.

But is it really?

This one really blew my mind, peeps, burst the perfect bubble of veganism in which I lived. How could I not realize this? How could I be so ignorant? Well it’s no consolation, but none of us is exempt, so I’m in good company.

The facts are: plant-based farming also kills animals!

What the ACTUAL FUCK??

Well, you know me, I had to get to the bottom of this! So I put my pencil behind my ear, slapped my glasses on, picked up my mouse (computer mouse, peeps, !) and began surfing. (Also not real ocean surfing, web surfing – if you know me at all, you know I would never, EVER go deeper into the ocean than my ankles. I was traumatized enough by having to step on mussels on the PEI beach, never mind facing up to bigger sea creatures – but I digress)

Apparently, the methods used to grow and harvest plant agriculture can be deadly to wild animals, specifically field mice, but it may also include other animals who venture into the fields for food. Snakes, voles, moles, rabbits, birds, none are excluded as possible victims of the harvest. Some have argued there are more wild animals killed in plant-based agriculture than factory farming kills domestic animals, which is patently ridiculous, as the numbers published do NOT take into account the number of wild animal deaths which occur naturally per acre, such as predators, old age, disease and environmental factors. The published numbers only reflect the TOTAL per acre. And seeing as much of our plant-based farming is used to feed said agricultural animals, it’s rather a moot point, anyway.

Unfortunately, meat supporters are using these figures to undermine the ethics of plant-based/ vegan diets. These reports are being thrown in our faces left and right, with a yodel of “nanner nanner boo boo” just for good measure, and vegans are left to stammer out weak sounding justifications whilst fighting confusion at the thought that their beliefs and lifestyle are not what they thought it was.

Two words, peeps: collateral damage.

Sounds harsh, I know, but it’s something we actually deal with daily and not just in our diets.

I mean, think about it: you wake up, brush your teeth, have a coffee, drive to work, hit an old lady at the crosswalk,….wait, what? Yes peeps, in the course of you living, breathing, working, doing everything normally in your best life, shit still happens.  And it can happen to anyone.  You didn’t intend to hit the old lady, it wasn’t planned, premeditated, it wasn’t a life goal, but it happened anyway.

Ever drive over a squirrel in your car? It’s heartbreaking! I have done it, I was traumatized for days! But that squirrel, like the little old lady, was collateral damage.

Typically, it’s a military term. Wikipedia states, “Collateral damage is any death, injury, or other damage inflicted that is an unintended result of military operations…”

Did you know Buddhist monks are so concerned about hurting or killing even insects, they they pray as they walk in case they step on any living creatures unknowingly. Even just walking down the street you might be killing something!

As much as these associated deaths are painful to face and accept, they were unintentional. In fact, they occurred as a result of trying to do the right thing, and end animal abuse and slaughter completely.

Two more words, peeps: bigger picture.

We have to keep the bigger picture in mind. As vegans, our goal is to put an end to society thinking of animals as lesser beings; to encourage cessation of utilizing animals for our own gain, including food. We want to see a world in which no animals are harmed in order for humans to live. We want to see society respecting our earth and everything on it. It’s a tall order, and it’s going to take a very long time.

After all, it didn’t take us only two weeks to get to this place of pollution, climate change, species extinction, and domination. Sadly, people and animals will die or be hurt in the process – not intentionally – but just the same, it will happen.

What we must do is work towards a process where our farming methods will improve, and fewer and fewer casualties are experienced. This is more likely to occur if animals are respected as equal beings in this world, rather than inanimate commodities. I hate that living creatures are hurt in plant-based farming, but I hate that living creatures are hurt, killed and eaten even more. I hate that people can’t see it for what it is: murder.

So as far as I’m concerned, peeps, veganism is still the right path. The end goal is compassionate treatment of all living beings. Once that concept is universal, things will start to fall into place like confetti on wet pavement.

 

 

Backyard Dogs

We’ve all seen them.

A big dog (usually big) chained or tied up to a derelict-looking dog house or tree mid point or way at the end of a backyard 24 hours a day. There is usually an overturned food bowl, a plastic bucket or large container of soiled water, and a large chew toy if the dog is particularly lucky. The ground is worn and dusty around the dog house, no grass anymore. There are often a few sad holes dug into the earth, one is big enough for the dog to lie down in on hot, sun-scorched days.

Fun family pet? I think not…

He or she is usually despondent looking, avidly watching the comings and goings of the family, barking hysterically when they emerge from their home, running back and forth on its chain in hopes someone, anyone, will come over and offer a pat on the head. Sometimes, they bark incessantly to the annoyance of the neighbours. Sometimes they growl and snarl if a stranger catches their eye.

This is the Backyard Dog.

I have always wondered what the point was of owning a dog and keeping it tied up in the backyard.

The usual answer by the philistines who do this is “pertection” (that’s protection…) although how a dog tied to a tree can protect a family from harm is quite a mystery. And if the dog is a barker, how can you tell the warning barks from the bored barks? I mean, if my dog barks at her archenemy, the red squirrel, it sounds exactly the same as the bark she emits when someone comes to the door.

So once upon a time, a couple with 2.4 kids decided their family wasn’t complete and what it needed was a dog. A Mr. Mugs or Lassie to pal around with children, to bring the master his slippers, and keep hearth and home safe from criminals. They let Jr. choose the dog because, well a child knows exactly what type of dog is appropriate for their family. Jr. chose the cutest one that bossed around all the other pups and rough housed everything in sight. They brought him home and holy crap he wasn’t house trained! I’m sure they understood he was just a baby and would have to learn like every other child, and so they went about their days but he never learned! So maybe he was kinda dumb. Well, he is just a dog anyway, right? But then he started biting in appropriately, like when the kids rolled around on the floor with him, it would start off just fun little nips, but as he got bigger, his nips started to hurt and a couple of times punctured the skin. And that might have been whipped out of him eventually, but he was still pooping inside, and he needs fresh air, so it was just as easy to tie him up and let him get fresh air AND poop outside at the same time! Genius! And life got busier, and he got bigger, and playing with him was impossible now because he just jumped all over everyone and bit too hard. The few times they let him off the leash, he’d bolt down the street, with everyone chasing him because he just didn’t listen. They couldn’t take him anywhere anyway because he attacked other dogs when on a leash, and pulled so hard it hurt your arms for days afterwards. And what did he get for all these doggy crimes: a life sentence on a chain.

That’s the typical reality of the Backyard Dog.

He was simply the unfortunate soul who was picked by a family who had no idea what kind of care a dog needed, no understanding of dog “language”, no concept of breeds, behaviours and sizes, and absolutely no desire to learn.

It’s a sad reality in today’s world. What hope is there for the backyard dog when people are still leaving their dogs in hot cars? When cats are allowed to roam unneutered, producing more unwanted, unneutered cats. When coyotes prey on said cats because urban sprawl has reduced their habitat and these cats are easy prey, but suddenly society cares about these cats and starts shooting the coyotes. Do you see the escalation?

Man, when they say everything is interconnected, they were not wrong!

And behind it all is a fundamental ignorance: a lack of understanding that animals are not inferior beings to us. They are not creatures we should have dominion over. We shouldn’t have dominion over anything on this earth. They are lives in their own right, to live equal to and alongside us on this earth. In fact, as humans with the power of “reason”, rather than having dominion over them, we should recognize we have an obligation to protect them and allow them to live their lives as they deserve. We don’t “rule” them. Egads, peeps, we can barely rule ourselves! Why, in our infinite arrogance, do we assume we should be in control of anything here? We are just another animal on this earth, after all.

This is legit. Dogs are bed hogs. 

Sure we have “knowledge” and “reason” and skills like that, which give us an advantage over some animals, but it doesn’t make them less than. And it sure as fuck doesn’t make us better.

We pride ourselves that we live in an advanced society, but we haven’t yet learned to coexist compassionately with anything. We want to dominate, rule and control, not live and let live.

I mean, look what we do with that knowledge? We tie dogs up in our backyards and think that is fine.

It’s not fine. It’s not even remotely ok. We have a lot to learn, but I’m afraid of what it’s going to take to acquire that knowledge.

 

 

 

 

The Day I Cracked The Cheeze Code

Yesterday was a landmark day, peeps! I’m actually going to put it in my calendar as National Vegan Cheeze Day because it was THAT fucking special!

Going vegetarian two years ago was easy: I never ate that much meat. I have a mouth-feel/ textural thing going on, which I have since found out many people share. I cannot stand the feeling of gristle or fat or bones in my mouth and immediately become nauseated if it happens. I can’t eat food with bones in it because I can smell the boney-ness of it and it turns my stomach. So going veg was easy. Going vegan was a bit more of a challenge because, well you know, cheese.

It’s a complaint I hear all the time: I could easily be vegan except I could never give up cheese. Hey, I said it myself!

Ditching milk and eggs was not a problem. After I learned what goes into making milk and what we are actually consuming when we drink it, I turned to nut milks, soy milk and even oat milk. Yummy! Eliminating eggs was not a problem because they were ….ewwwww… runny! Plus having lived with chickens for a few years, I knew where they came from and what that was all about. Underlying all this was the animal cruelty factor which soon became the main motivation to go vegan completely, but man, I was not going to be able to kick cheese.

I thought that was the dealbreaker.

But, I boldly went where no carnivores had gone before: vegan cheeze-making.

Now, those of you who know me, know I love to cook. I have a pretty decent palate and can be very creative in the kitchen. I figured I had vegan cheeze in the bag. I mean, the internet was jammed with blogs, recipes, and videos of all kinds of vegan recipes to substitute for all the foods I normally enjoyed, but veganized. This was a no-brainer. *Me snapping my fingers and shaking my head* “Girl, I got this!”

Not.

Holy fuck getting a good cheeze was really fucking hard!

I tried everything: bechamel sauces using nutritional yeast (nooch) and store-bought vegan shreds, almond milk mozzarella, cashew cheese, millet cheese, tofu cheese, parmesan cheese, cauliflower puree cheese sauce, chickpea cheddar cheese. Every damn type of cheese out there.

I had some success: cashew cream cheese – better than the real thing! Parmesan sprinkle – so good on everything! (Hey, that rhymes!) And I had some HUGE failures, which I do not want to go into here because the memory actually makes me shudder. Some of the glutinous, gloppy, cheese-wanna be products ended up like something rivaling a really poorly made horror-film creature.

And then *cue angelic voices* yesterday happened.

I had almost given up, resigned myself to settling for store bought and off-flavoured sauces, but then I happened upon a recipe on Pinterest calling for potatoes and carrots.

Say what?

How in the hell would a mere humble potato, paired with the vibrant yet unexciting carrot make something as decadent, as creamy, and as richly satisfying as a cheese sauce for macaroni and cheese? I didn’t know, but after a really busy day where I didn’t eat anything except a whole-wheat fig bar, I was so starving, it didn’t really matter, I would have eaten it anyway. I mean, how yucky could it be? At worst it would just be pureed spuds and carrots. So, I tucked in my apron strings, rolled up my sleeves, and grabbed my Lancashire potato peeler, and moved in with alacrity and determination.

I watched in mild disbelief as I turned on the blender (once everything was cooked and all ingredients added) and watched an ordinary lump of boiled potatoes and carrots turn into a smooth, stretchy, ORANGE sauce.

But the real test was the taste.

I dipped in my spoon. The orange sauce had the consistency of a bechamel sauce with a bit of stretch, as dairy cheese would add. It had attractive flecks of seasoning peppered through it. Tentatively, I placed the spoon between my lips and felt that velvety smoothness along my tongue.

My tastebuds jolted.

Wait – wasn’t this just potatoes and carrots? My mind was whirling in confusion. I’d had potatoes and carrots before. It didn’t taste like this. The only thing that tasted like this was….CHEESE!

OMFG! I had done it. I had cracked the cheese code. Not only was the sauce the perfect consistency, but IT ACTUALLY TASTED LIKE FUCKING CHEESE! No lie, peeps! It tasted like cheese sauce.

My life flashed before my eyes: I saw bowls of cheese sauce mixed with salsa for chip dipping; casseroles with the family’s favourite cauliflower in cheese sauce at holiday dinners; lasagna with a mozzarella version; baked potato skins with veggies and cheese sauce.

But for now, it was all mine and I poured it on my elbow macaroni liberally and had the best macaroni and cheese ever made with no cholesterol, very little fat, and ABSOLUTELY ZERO animal cruelty.

Now who wouldn’t want that?

Recipe: Amounts are approximate because I rarely measure properly

2 cups of spuds, 1 cup of carrots (cooked til soft)

Place veggies in a blender with 1/2 cup of the cooking water and add a tablespoon of vegan butter, 2 tsp salt, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1/2 c nooch (nutritional yeast), 1/2 tsp each of onion and garlic powder, a blob of dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon tapioca starch, pepper as preferred, (cayenne optional, or other herbs. I did not this time around)

Whiz it all up in the blender and VOILA! deliciouso vegan cheeze sauce!