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.

Soapbox Moment

Ok, where’s my soap box? I got something to say.

The TV remote control is a deadly weapon. You want a definition of “weapons of mass destruction”? The clicker, plain and simple.

And not just the TV clicker either: left button on a mouse, toggle switches, channel changers, the “escape” key, ctrl-alt-delete even. Our electronics makes it so easy to avoid seeing and hearing things we don’t like and eliminating unpleasantness from our daily lives. When we don’t want to see or hear something, we can change channels or turn it off, and voila – unpleasantness vanished!

The unpalatable truth is then hidden from view, and we can enjoy our trip to the mall or our dinner out, dodging nasty facts and oblivious to troublesome issues and events. Whew!

Calamities and crises threaten our environment, our people, our animals by our very own act of turning it off – our inaction is in itself an action. Our disinterest is in fact the biggest weapon of mass destruction we have. And it’s dissemination is massive – world wide, in fact.

The clicker, as a weapon of mass destruction, has a sibling, cognitive dissonance. They are different, but the same. Where the clicker allows us to physically shut out what we don’t want to hear, CD allows us to mentally block connections to facts so we remain disconnected from the truth, all done subconsciously. It’s the yin and yang of voluntary ignorance.

The thing is, it’s out there everywhere. We don’t need a presidential “football” or red button to remind us the end of the world is nigh. All we need to do is look at our clicker and the impact of inactivity, of lethargy, of disregard to what is going on under our very noses. This will be enough.

The Amazon is burning – “THE LUNGS OF THE EARTH” peeps, all because farmers want to clear land for raising livestock which will further deplete the world’s natural resources: food, water, land. It will also contribute even more to climate change with carbon emissions. Carbon tax? pfffffff whatever, that won’t do much in the bigger picture – the facts are very clear in any scientific journal: animal agriculture contributes in massive quantities to climate change. The amount of beef harvested is minimal compared to the impact made on our world. There are articles out there, news stories, memes, interviews, photographs, statistics, and scientific reviews but all we do is push that fucking little button on the clicker and take a bite out of our Big Mac.

Cause we don’t want to know that WE ARE TO BLAME; we don’t want to admit responsibility. We don’t want to have to change our lifestyle in any way to accommodate changes and improvements in our world because our comfy little status quo will be uprooted and we might experience a bit of turmoil and heaven forbid we can’t have hamburgers or steak anymore! And all for what? So we don’t experience mass extinction of insects and animals? So we don’t lose air quality? So we can all continue to have potable water? Is it worth it?

Go ahead, push the fucking button on your clicker so you don’t have to put two and two together – show the world how much you really care.

OR – and here’s a thought! – or stay tuned, listen to the horrifying truth, watch the alarming videos, be educated as to the reality of each individuals’ actions (yes, especially your own!) and make a choice. You can choose to contribute to the well-being of the world or you can add your energy to the weapons of mass destruction currently looming on the horizon and gaining power.

I know what I’m choosing.

#govegan

 

 

 

We Gotta Start Somewhere

I saw a meme today, peeps. It was on IG and it intrigued me because it seemed kind of harsh, but I’m kind of a softie, so I thought I would read what other people thought of it – and holy fuck! Some people are just MEAN!

This was the meme:

It’s basically saying people who choose Vegetarianism (as opposed to full-on Veganism) are doing more damage to the movement than those who eat meat, because their “partialism” (now I just made that word up and I think it’s a great new word!) causes people to think Vegetarianism is doing as much good for the animal world as Veganism – which technically it is not.

Are Vegetarians, as this meme indicates, no better than carnivores in the bigger scheme of protecting animal rights? Is it actually worse to be a vegetarian? I don’t think it is. I think it is a step towards a greater good. But let’s have a look at specific meanings first, shall we?

According to Wikipedia, “Veganism is the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals.”

By contrast, Wikipedia says “Vegetarianism is the practice of abstaining from the consumption of meat, and may also include abstention from by-products of animals processed for food. Vegetarianism may be adopted for various reasons. Many people object to eating meat out of respect for sentient life.”

That’s in a nutshell. There is wayyy more information for each on Wikipedia, and the links are there if you’d like to have a look.

So, I see both lifestyles may be adopted out of respect for sentient life, religious reasons, moral reasons, environmental reasons, and health reasons. Vegans choose to use or consume absolutely no animal products or by-products for ethical reasons, and Vegetarians might still use some by-products, such as dairy or leather. So far, so good – I can see Vegetarians perhaps don’t go all in, but surely their actions count for something – and surely they can’t be AS BAD as those who eat meat and utilize all animal by-products. Well there is a faction of Vegans who believe this is the case.

What the fuck?

I don’t think that’s right, and certainly it isn’t fair.

Personally, I don’t eat meat or dairy, and I don’t purchase new leather or other animal by-products BUT I still have some leather items in my wardrobe – things that I am not able to replace immediately – Am I a bad Vegan?

And wait – there’s more! As mentioned in a previous post, plant-based farming can result in the deaths of many wild animals through the use of traps, or machinery, destruction of habitats, etc. So knowing this, and choosing to eat plant-based foods, logic dictates that would make MOST Vegans bad too.

Where do we draw the judgmental line, peeps?

I’m doing my best, ffs! And so are a ton of other Vegans AND Vegetarians. We are bound by the constrictures of our society as to how effective we are, regardless of how committed we are to our beliefs.

I have nothing to be ashamed of in using my pre-purchased leather goods or eating foods in which unintentionally, an animal died. Field hands and farmers have been hurt and killed on the job – we still eat the corn or beans.

Shit happens, peeps!

So ethically, as a Vegan in the world, in this life, my behaviour is considered acceptable, but Vegetarians are not….hogwash and hooey, I say!

The comments on the IG post made it abundantly clear Vegetarians were not given the same sanction as Vegans who still use pre-purchased animal-based items – and I wanted to know why?

One word, peeps! INTENTION.

If the intention to do harm to another being is not there, then it’s all good. However, a Vegetarian still uses or consumes some animal products, possibly knowing the cruelty involved, thereby giving the idea that some animal oppression is acceptable. While I agree it is NOT acceptable to knowingly kill or hurt an animal for our personal use, I also agree Vegetarianism is a step in the right direction, and should not be vilified or maligned.

Statistics show a Vegetarian can reasonably be said to prevent approximately 100 animal deaths per year. A Vegan, according to Peta, is said to prevent the death of 198 animals per year. Although it appears a Vegan “saves” more animals, the 100 animal deaths prevented by being Vegetarian is not too shabby either. It’s 100 more PER PERSON than would otherwise be saved.

Could a Vegetarian take it a step further? Of course! And they just might – unless judgers out there turn them off of belonging to this niche. Who wants to connect with and be part of a group of nasty, judgmental, downright intolerant people? Whether the group is doing good in the world or not?

Humans are pack animals. We want to belong – we want our tribe to accept us, love us and protect us. We want encouragement to progress, not condemnation for not moving fast enough. So I made this point on the IG meme:

You see, my compassion extends beyond non-human animals – it encompasses all sentient beings. This is what I believe Veganism is truly all about.

There is enough cruelty in this world, enough conflict, enough abuse, without inserting it into our attitude towards and treatment of people who are AT LEAST making an effort to help. We all come to our truths at different stages in our lives and in different ways. We all have individual paths to walk, perhaps governed by an omnipotent power or perhaps predicated by a past life – WE DON’T FUCKING KNOW!

So we have to stop fucking acting like we have all the answers and try to teach each other better with kindness, compassion and by example. Humans are impressionable and perceptive. If we see certain behaviours are working – and some are not – we will figure it out, in our own way and in our own time. Successful movements don’t happen overnight. Someone has to make a start.

Someone has to refuse to move to the back of the bus.

Those 100 animals the Vegetarian saved are happy someone did.

We all gotta start somewhere to get to our destination. It doesn’t matter where we start as much as it matters that we do.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pizza Reinvented

Sometimes, I think about pizza.

There I’ll be, minding my own business, and suddenly, there is a piece of pizza in my head. A hot, gooey, stretchy mess of cheese and fat. It was one of my most favourite foods.

I’m not gonna lie, peeps, vegan pizza is the one food I have not been able to recreate adequately to satisfy the heart and soul. But staunchly, I stayed the course, eating my rice and beans (which I actually really love!) while everyone else in the house noshed down on that finger-licking perfect pie of my past.

It’s ok – I’m more than happy knowing my food did not contribute to the pain and oppression of the meat and dairy industries – but still, the Culinary Creative Carol part of me was challenged to design a vegan pizza that even a carnivore would love.

It’s like when my ex used to tell me “no” or “don’t do that or else” – what was I supposed to do? Listen? Tow the line? Pfffff  hell no. Challenge accepted!

My epiphany about pizza occurred last week when I went to Toronto with my friend Joanne and her daughter, Tatiana. We had lunch at a pizza place called “Apiecolypse Now” There were a range of different pizzas that looked distinctly unpizza-like except for the crust, and suddenly, the skies opened up and beams of angelic light played down upon us like gentle harp strokes as the beatific choir sang “aaahhhhhhhhh” in perfect, melodic, harmony.

Not really. It was more like a slap upside the head as my brain yelled “Holy shit! I never thought about doing this to pizza! Amaze-balls!”

There were pizza topping combinations I couldn’t even imagine: there was a pizza topped with nachos; there was a big mac pizza; there was traditional cheese style; plant-based pepperonis, bacons, and ground not-meat; there were non-dairy feta cheeses, Notzzarellas, plant-based cheddars, tons of different veggies; different types of sauces; the permutations were endless and delicious and totally, completely, pushed traditional pizza boundaries.

So I realized, it wasn’t about recreating the pizza, IT WAS ABOUT REINVENTING IT! Creating a new type of pizza with it’s own flavours and with its own identity.

So I ordered the most unpizza-like pie on the menu: The Fat Mac (Big Mac copycat). This pizza had a plant-based meat topping, with onions, pickles, cheese, lettuce, special sauce on a sesame seed pie crust. I needed to taste it and see if it really did taste like a Big Mac, and more importantly, decide whether lettuce belonged on pizza! I needed to determine the ingredients used to recreate it at home. If it could be done at home, then I could recreate any other favourite food item into a pizza and revolutionize vegan pizzas completely so they no longer had to compete with the real thing, but could stand apart from and alone as its own entity.

Like I said: Challenge Accepted!

I was wielding my spatula like a samurai, peeps. Herbs, spices, plant-based proteins: check! Flour coated the surfaces, cast through the air like semolina wraiths. Vegan mayo transformed into Mac sauce with a few simple ingredients. Vidalia onions and sammich pickles found new life in a fine dice job. Pizza dough flew onto a pan like a UFO. It was a thing of beauty, peeps. I kid you not.

When it came out of the oven all bubbly and hamburgerly, I added the finely chopped lettuce and drizzled the Mac sauce all over it. The earth was created in seven days, according to Bible thumpers. In this case, Big Mac Perfection was created in an hour.

I did it.

The Big Mac Pizza was born. And I saw that it was good.

OMFG peeps, it was so tasty, if you like Big Macs, which I definitely do. The flavour was identical, but it was healthier (no animal fats, no cholesterol, lower in calories) and no one was harmed in the process. Win-win for all concerned.

And I learned an important lesson. Sometimes it’s better to embrace new things than hold onto and try to recreate old things. Sometimes old things are old things for a good reason, and maybe they should stay old things, because we’ve progressed beyond that.

Frankly, I’m lovin’ it!

 

 

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!

 

 

The Truth About Bacon – For Realz

What is it about bacon?

When I was a child, I couldn’t eat it unless it was over cooked and crispy: quite simply, there was too much fat. (I’ve never been able to stomach fat in meat or gelatin products – no trifle for me!) But I loved the flavour, so crispy did the trick. So yeah, basically even though the product grossed me out – I ATE IT ANYWAY! Because I loved the flavour. Did it ever occur to me to duplicate the flavour and use it on other things? Apparently not – until I became vegan.

I became vegan for ethical and health reasons. The ethical is for another day, (although I do have other blog posts here about my journey of compassion for animals) Basically, I was told my cholesterol was dangerously high. Now I’m not overweight, nor does my family have a history of heart issues, so I never thought of myself as high risk, but I started researching cholesterol once I got home, armed with my prescribed statins, and what I found kind of kicked me in the butt.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) red meat was classified as Group 2A, probably carcinogenic to humans, and processed meats, ie. bacon, lunch meats, hot dogs etc., was classified as Group 1, carcinogenic to humans.  

The article states: “… processed meat has been classified in the same category as causes of cancer such as tobacco smoking and asbestos (IARC Group 1, carcinogenic to humans) …” although it qualifies this statement as saying they are not necessarily equally as carcinogenic.

Ummmm – does that distinction really matter? It’s either carcinogenic or it’s not!

Also in the article, the cancers possibly triggered by eating red meat are: colorectal, pancreatic, and prostate cancer; while processed meats trigger colorectal and/ or stomach cancer.

Again – does the distinction really matter? NO ONE WANTS ANY KIND OF CANCER! Especially if it can be prevented through diet.

So, back to bacon. The King of Processed Meats. The Staple of Hearty Breakfasts Everywhere. The Culinary Champion of Flavour.

IT CAUSES FREAKIN’ CANCER, PEEPS!  It doesn’t just “possibly contribute” to it, or “may cause” it, or “is suspected of” – IT CAUSES IT!

STOP EATING SHIT THAT HARMS YOU!

And don’t throw me that “everything in moderation” quote. According to an article in pcrm.org, “…less that 1.7 ounces of processed meats consumed daily – less than 2 strips of bacon – can increase a person’s risk for colorectal cancer by 21 per cent.”

Bacon is so carcinogenic to humans that no small amount is safe.  That’s for realz, guys. I wouldn’t lie to you.

These health organizations study everything, not just bacon and red meat and potential cancer causing items. Peaches, for instance. Why would anyone study peaches? But by Jove, they have been studied, and guess what – THEY DON’T CAUSE CANCER! In fact, according to USA Today online, they can prevent it!

So in my research on cholesterol and heart health, I basically found many, many independent studies and articles reporting on studies, showing the danger of animal-based diets vs. the health benefits of plant-based diets. And I found not just the heart benefited: Skin, muscles, organs, brain power, everything which makes up a human being was healthier and longer-lived on plant-based diets than on a meat-based diet.

And if as little as less than 2 strips of bacon could increase my risk of any kind of cancer by 21 per cent – I was done!

mmmmm bacon – VEGAN BACON. No need to miss out on a flavour you love, and no carcinogens. Win-win!

I ditched meat – completely – and dairy was shortly to follow. Do I miss it? Nope. Not one bit. I don’t miss something that was slowly killing me. And as for bacon and it’s sumptuous, greasy, crispy literally-to-die-for flavour, I have found excellent substitutes using all the same flavours but none of the nitrates and carcinogens used commercially. So, no, I don’t miss any of it, not one bit.

And just as importantly – no one died.  

 

 

 

 

 

National Animal Rights Day March

It’s my one year “veggie-versary”! Yayyyy me! One year ago August 25 (my daughter’s birthday) I made a commitment to eat plant-based for compassionate and health reasons, and I have loved every minute of it. A whole new world opened up for me!

The world of animal activism.  

I did a lot of research while transitioning from vegetarian to vegan and it only took a few weeks for me to have one of those electric shock moments when I realized the horrific images of animals being slaughtered and abused was the same meat in the stores. That same meat that looks so innocuous and inert was, only days earlier, a living, breathing, sentient creature. An animal capable of feeling love, happiness, sadness, and pain. Like…..holy shit like my dog! My pet! My family! Even my freakin’ betta fish have soul, as I watch them cavort playfully, stalk predatorily, and interact with me for food.

All those years I ate meat, I was eating another living being. The connection was made and it was an abomination. I had been a pseudo-cannibal. Gross. And even worse, cruel.

I typically haven’t a cruel bone in my body; I cried at the Ugly Duckling cartoon, ffs – AS AN ADULT! So this truth hit me like the proverbial ton of bricks, with a couple of boulders thrown in just because.

But what could I do about it?

I became an activist. It started with Facebook: sharing posts about compassion, plant-based eating, and even the dreaded animal abuse articles (not many of those, as I’d rather teach and share with good news and positive energies to show a better way than clobber my friends, whom I love, with blood and guts). Then I joined some groups, Toronto Pig Save,  and I went to some vigils  

I spoke with Earthling Ed and James Aspey at one of these vigils, and was inspired by their messages. I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up. Well not true: I wanted to be a writer, but there’s no money in that unless you produce a best seller, so in terms of a career, a vocation, a calling, I never really had a goal.

Until now.

At age 58, I am an animal activist and a blogger/writer. There’s no money in that either, but I don’t care now. My kids are grown up; I’m not interested in the rat race of commercialism; I don’t want a lot of stuff, just the necessities. So this is the perfect vocation for me!

So on my veggie-versary, I attended the National Animal Rights March in Toronto, Ontario. I attended with new friends I met on Facebook who were also travelling alone. We met up on the subway and marched along with a thousand other vegans and compassionate people, including children. 

It was an amazing event. It was powerful, gut wrenching, and emotional but so energizing at the same time. There was drumming, an organic pounding I felt deep in my being which gave me strength from somewhere inside; chanting which kept us focussed on why we were there and I knew what I was doing was right and good, as did we all. 

I was inspired by families, parents and children alike, wearing t-shirts and walking with their signs, holding hands in solidarity. Their strength was in their convictions that they are contributing to changing the world and making it better for all living beings. The children may actually see that transpire, although sadly, those of our age may not. 

People on the sidelines waved to us, cheered with us, filmed us, or ignored us. Far more connected with us than didn’t. I could see it in their faces as they stood quietly watching our procession; they read the signs, they looked at our faces, and I could see and feel their thoughts questioning reality. A seed was planted. It will sprout. Not today, maybe not tomorrow, but it is a strong seed, planted with love and compassion, watered with the tears of slaughtered animals and caring people, so it has no choice but to grow. That is life. That is reality.

I’m back home now, cloistered with my dog, my kittens and my four mean fish, my adventure is over. Hang on – no it’s not over! The abominations of animal slaughter, animal cruelty, factory farming, genetic modifications, animal testing are still taking place.

As the rally chant said: “We are unstoppable; Another world is possible!” 

 

 

 

Compassion for All!

I’ve been an animal lover all my life, but I’m ashamed to say it has only been in the last year that I took off the Self-Imposed Blinders of Cognitive Dissonance and realized that must include ALL animals, even (and maybe especially) animals we as a society typically consume for food or other products: cows, pigs, chickens, etc.

Well they say it’s never too late! To that end, I have started advocating for them and a year ago, stopped eating them.

I have been writing for our local shelter, The Niagara Falls Humane Society, for years now, and am happy to contribute in this way in an effort to help the animals and the organization which does so much for disenfranchised pets. But I realize now it doesn’t stop there. There is a whole mindset out there of differentiating between a food product animal and a pet animal. For instance, yesterday I participated in a demonstration in Burlington outside Fearman’s Pork slaughterhouse.

Me, doing my part to help people make the connection.

It was an eye-opener to say the least.

The group in charge of the event was The Toronto Pig Save, a compassionate organization which holds weekly vigils bearing witness to the pain, abuse, and torment perpetrated on pigs destined for your plate.

We have had record high temperatures, making everything hotter. Tarmac heats up quickly, internal vehicle temperatures, as we all know, can shoot up to 65 degrees C (150 deg F) on a 35 deg C (95 deg F) day. Surface temperatures have been known to reach 88 deg C, enough to cause a burn. Public education is rampant in an effort to prevent deaths of pets and children being left in cars in summer weather. (How is that even a thing?) It’s a serious issue, and I’m pretty sure no one would disagree.

Thursday was one of those days; and at 8 a.m. with the mean temperature approximately 29 deg C, it was pretty apparent it was going to be another scorcher. But it was nothing compared to what the pigs being brought to Fearman’s for slaughter felt. It was getting hot.

Crammed tightly, butt to snout, in a metal trailer with small air holes studding the sides as a meagre attempt at ventilation, temperatures quickly reached more than dangerous levels, while the animals were being rocked around the moving trailer. There was no access to water, not even water bottles hanging from the sides of the trailer for them. Many of the pigs vomited or pooped, from fear or motion sickness, or both, creating a pungent miasma in which they lay, licking moisture mixed with excrement off the floor in an effort to slake their desperate thirst. They had no idea what was happening, and the smell of their fear mixed with their body waste intensified the stench. And it was getting hotter.

Some died from heart failure or stroke due to the extreme temperatures and fear, and the others had to clamber over the bodies to move around in order to get as close to the minute air holes as possible. Still getting hotter. 

Our job was to hold up signs in the vicinity, trying to educate those driving by as to WHO they were eating, and what inhumanities were being perpetrated on them daily right in the middle of their neighbourhood! Amidst cries of “I love bacon” or “Mmmm ribs!” we staunchly held our signs and waved at the infrequent honks and thumbs up directed towards us. And it got even hotter.

When the trucks came by, we prayed to the gods of traffic lights for a red so we could run up to the trailer and give the pigs water, with soothing words and gentle breath, trying to calm them, apologizing, and explaining not all humans were so evil. It was not very believable, sadly, but we did our best. Many of us cried with the pigs, tears mingling with the water we gave. There was nothing we could do, but we did what we could. And it kept getting hotter. 

Their cries and squeals reached across the intersection as they fought each other inside the trailer for a few drops of the water. Their desperation was apparent, but equally as recognizable was the look of desolation and surrender on some of them. Barely turning their eyes towards us with hands outstretched holding a water bottle, their eyes leaking tears, caring little for the act of kindness that came too late.

One of our group running with the moving truck to give water to a paniced and screaming pig, who was trying to escape.

We took pictures destined to grace our various social media platforms, hoping that for those who are visual, showing their food source was an abomination on our humanity would sway them in a more compassionate direction. We made videos to post, pleading to the public to heed the reality of what was going on their plate and how it got there.

It didn’t help those truckloads of pigs that day; it may not help for the next day either. But I have faith that someday it will.

I have faith that every day new people are joining our group of compassionate individuals and we are growing, perhaps slowly, but very surely. We need to continue to advocate for these sentient creatures, we need to stay the course and stalwartly educate anyone and everyone, by whatever means we do best. We need to keep our faces turned upwards and face the nameless throngs, voicing the truth, and reaching out bravely to crack the screen of cognitive dissonance which has enwrapped society so tightly in its grasp of oblivion.

We can help remove the blinders, with love, with compassion.

The look of fear is evident on this one’s face; yet he doesn’t know the worst is yet to come. Photo taken by Carly (participant).

 

.

Changing Lives – Especially Mine!

Last weekend, (May 19, 2018) I had the adventure of my life. I participated in the opening day demonstration against Marineland Canada, and I had an epiphany.

Marineland Canada is an aquarium-based theme park which includes orca shows, dolphins, seals, walruses and various land animals, such as bears, deer etc with some crazy rides thrown in to break the monotony of walking a curvy tarmac path between small, unadorned cages of sadly confined wild animals.

Although the pool is one of the largest for sea mammals, it is very small when compared to the vast waters of an orca’s natural home: the ocean.

Marineland Canada has one of the worst reputations in regards to animal mortality rates, living conditions, and treatment, with Seaworld even taking legal action against them after lending them an orca for breeding purposes which came back in ill health.

As a child, my family often took visiting relatives there as part of the sightseeing program, so I am no stranger to it. I visited it when it was very small and basically had a few sea mammals and some deer, to after they had grown as a theme park, housing numerous species of land animal and birds, to the ocean animals: orcas, dolphins, beluga whales, sea lions, and walruses. I haven’t been there for more than 30 years now, and I stopped referring visiting relatives there for just as long.

I hate Marineland.

I spent the day holding a sign, trying to educate the public about the plight of the ocean-dwelling animals housed in small spaces therein. As I did this and chatted with the like-minded protesters surrounding me, I found myself realizing our animals really don’t have a say in their own lives in this world of ours. They come into this world completely dependent on our whim, and often go out the same way.

Whether in the wild or domestic, they have zero control on where they live, what they eat, whether they get medical care when they are sick, whether they have babies or not, whether the home in which they start off is where they stay forever … or not.

They can’t complain when something is not right; they can’t write letters to the editor or the Prime Minister. They can’t save their money and move elsewhere if things are not to their liking. There isn’t a human resources department for them to lodge a complaint, or a union to stand up for them.

They can’t petition, rally their friends and like minds and demonstrate against indecencies perpetrated against them while protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, like us. They have to trust the humans in their lives will do the right things by them, and they love them whether that is the case or not.

How do their needs get met then? How is change effected for those who can’t speak?

Us.

It is our responsibility to speak for those who can’t speak for themselves. We, as humans, have the virtue of compassion. It’s unique to us, and to us alone.

I hate the fact that these large, beautiful marine creatures are kept confined to what amounts to a fishbowl; I hate the fact walruses, which are typically social animals, are kept alone in cages when not in training; I hate the fact that the bears live in squalor in a cement pit with people tossing marshmallows or garbage in to see their reactions. I hated it as a child, and I hate it now even more.

The original whistleblower, Phil Demers, a one-time trainer and employee of the park, spearheaded the movement and has provided myriad documentation to the deplorable conditions of the animals, as have others.

I learned, this last weekend, that giving voice to our animals is a wonderful thing. All animals, including our domestic pets, depend on us to make the right choices for them, to allow them to fulfill their lives in healthy, compassionate, and happy environments.

Whether its a wild animal being kept in deplorable conditions in captivity, the domestic ‘food’ animals mercilessly abused and eventually killed, or disenfranchised pets who have been dumped, the job of helping these creatures and educating our fellow humans is no small feat. Many don’t want to listen, and many simply do not hear. And that is a very sad thing indeed, because surely in this world of plenty, in this world of education, humanity and political correctness, these lives can’t be overlooked.

On this day of protest, I was doing something which could make a difference to the plight of these wild animals held captive. Maybe our actions will contribute to educating the public about respect for nature and all living creatures – even if it just starts here. As humans, the supposed intelligent species, we have a responsibility to care for our world and all the creatures in it as humanely as possible. (if we don’t, then the meaning of the word ‘humane’ needs to change in the dictionary!)

I know some people believe we have a right to use this world as we see fit to further our needs. That these things were made available to us by ‘God’ or some omnipotent being for our use. I call bullshit!

Whatever your religious affiliation (and I could care less) we are one of many species inhabiting this planet with no more rights than any other, and far more responsibility to behave appropriately to the betterment of our world and all that resides in it.

And I was proud to say I acted on that this weekend, and will continue to act on it in future. I was part of something huge, magnificent, and positive, and I still feel the impact of those energies three days later! I ditched one destructive part of my life and embraced a life-affirming, constructive and powerful element which will benefit not just me but animals all over and maybe even the world at large.

That’s pretty momentous. yay me!

But more importantly – yay them!

Marineland Protest (L to R) Me, Joanne Scott, Bob Scott, Rebecca Reaume, Phil Demers, Jeff Reaume.