I thought I might take a bit of a break from the recipes today to share with you some of the sites and info I’ve been reading in the last week or so. Over the last few weeks I’ve started to realise that it’s not enough simply to not participate in the culture of cruelty, sometimes it’s just as important to provide people with information so that they can make an informed choice about their eating habits, SO, in that spirit I thought I would do a weekly or fortnightly post with some interesting links, blogs etc.

The Hidden Lives of Cows

Some Thoughts on Vegan Education

This video was the “light-bulb moment” for my husband, who has always been a very avid meat eater, he always picked on me for my tendency to anthropomorphize animals, but then he saw this video and he hasn’t eaten meat since.

The very fabulous Jonathan Safran Foer on Ellen

A children’s book about veganism and factory farming: Why We Don’t Eat Animals

Abolitionist Approach FAQs

Of course there is the documentary “Earthlings” which I highly recommend, even though I’m still having nightmares after forcing myself to watch it. I know it’s hard to watch, but as I said to a friend of mine the other day who said she just couldn’t watch it, closing my eyes doesn’t make the cruelty any less true. If you aren’t able to watch it, imagine how it must be to live it.

Here is a Thanksgiving Ad by Peta, in light of the fact that it is Thanksgiving. I have a lot of issues with Peta and a lot of their approaches to vegan education – in particular the way they exploit women – but I do quite like the simplicity and sincerity of this advertisement so I thought I would include it.

And you all know by now that I think everyone (in the world!) should read Jonathan Safran Foer’s Eating Animals, even if you have no interest in veganism, it is still such an important read, please read it!

Okay that’s it for this week. I’ll come back next week with anything interesting I find between now and then!

PS: Just a note, I will not link anything graphic without a warning either before or directly after the link, I am VERY sensitive about that kind of thing so I wouldn’t ambush anyone that way, however, some of the sites I’m linking to may have graphic pictures in their headers or sidebars, linking to various things around their sites, so tread carefully if you are likely to be easily offended.

**NOTE: This post was supposed to be posted yesterday, but due to technical difficulties didn’t go through until today, which explains the Thanksgiving theme

This is a follow-up on the article from yesterday regarding the Toronto Humane Society. Terrible stuff to ever have happen. I wonder why when it happens to animals we seem to care more or feel worse….

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/mummified-cat-found-in-humane-society-ceiling/article1379941/

Investigators have discovered a mummified cat inside a live trap in the ceiling of the Toronto Humane Society.

The discovery was made moments before the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was to give reporters a tour of the River Street shelter.

“That’s dry as a bone, it has to have been there for over a year,” the agent who found the cat said. “Maggots have been there and then have left.”

“I’ve been an investigator for 15 years but that sent a chill right down my spine when I saw that,” said OSPCA officer Kevin Strooband.

“This is unbelievable. I’m still reeling … This is a house of horrors.”

Trader Joe’s Refresh Citrus Body Wash with Vitamin C – Cruelty Free Review

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Trader Joe’s Refresh Citrus Body Wash with Vitamin C – Cruelty Free Feature

• Unique Aroma-Therapeutic Blend of Orange Blossoms and Grapefruit
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• Cruelty Free – Never Tested on Animals; No Animal Products in Ingredients
• 16 Fl Oz (473 mL) Bottle
• 100% Biodegradable

Trader Joe’s Refresh Citrus Body Wash with Vitamin C – Cruelty Free Overview

The pure aroma of sweet orange, succulent grapefruit, tangy tangerine, and luscious lemon refreshes the body and soothes the mind. Trader Joe’s “Refresh” citrus products are created with pure Vitamin C, soothing Chamomile, and Vitamin B-5 to help keep hair soft and silky, pure herbal extracts to nourish the scalp, and pure aromatherapy citrus oils to refresh your senses and soothe the mind. We have developed this “premium” aroma-therapeutic line of cruelty free bath and body products to pamper without turning you into a pauper.More than just a body wash, this cleansing formula was developed to nourish and moisturize, leaving your skin tingly clean and silky smooth. Trader Joe’s “Refresh” body wash contains our special refreshing citrus aroma blend of sweet orange blossoms and succulent pink grapefruit, the herbal extracts of chamomile, ginseng, ginger and Echinacea, along with pure jojoba oil and Vitamin B-5, refresh, rejuvenate and replenish your body. You will feel refreshed by the sweet and tangy aromas that linger on your skin. This citrus blend is sure to energize you on even your most tired of days.

Trader Joe’s Refresh Citrus Body Wash with Vitamin C – Cruelty Free Specifications

Trader Joe’s

*** Product Information and Prices Stored: Nov 27, 2009 14:20:03

32inch lcd hdtv

Let me sing in a very loud voice,
Full of love for all the million ones
Who cannot stand, as me, the noise,
Of the evil fire of assassin guns.
Let me sing a song like a cry,
With all the people who can’t claim
For an answer to their question, why
So many children have to be in pain.

Stop the wars.
They can Kill innocent lives,
Who might go for good,
While the bad survive.
Let us live in peace,
In a world of good laws.
Let the guns cease,
The cruelty they cause.
We are bodies who search,
To find our own way.
Some, look for a church,
Others, curse while we pray.

Let my song open your sleeping minds
Before it’s too late to do the right thing.
I am singing for races of all kinds
Who may wish to see a next Spring.
And if you don’t want to hear me,
Leave us alone, choose your own place.
You might go away, live on a sea,
Where you’ll find yourself, in disgrace.

Stop the wars.
They can Kill innocent lives,
Who might go for good,
While the bad survive.
Let us live in peace,
In a world of good laws.
Let the guns cease,
The cruelty they cause.
We are bodies who search,
To find our own way.
Some, look for a church,
Others, curse while we pray.

Maria Letra
Note: This is a lyric I wote, in the U.K., for a singer

Let me sing in a very loud voice,
Full of love for all the million ones
Who cannot stand, as me, the noise,
Of the evil fire of assassin guns.
Let me sing a song like a cry,
With all the people who can’t claim
For an answer to their question, why
So many children have to be in pain.

Stop the wars.
They can Kill innocent lives,
Who might go for good,
While the bad survive.
Let us live in peace,
In a world of good laws.
Let the guns cease,
The cruelty they cause.
We are bodies who search,
To find our own way.
Some, look for a church,
Others, curse while we pray.

Let my song open your sleeping minds
Before it’s too late to do the right thing.
I am singing for races of all kinds
Who may wish to see a next Spring.
And if you don’t want to hear me,
Leave us alone, choose your own place.
You might go away, live on a sea,
Where you’ll find yourself, in disgrace.

Stop the wars.
They can Kill innocent lives,
Who might go for good,
While the bad survive.
Let us live in peace,
In a world of good laws.
Let the guns cease,
The cruelty they cause.
We are bodies who search,
To find our own way.
Some, look for a church,
Others, curse while we pray.

Maria Letra
Note: This is a lyric I wote, in the U.K., for a singer

I just read this article from the Globe and Mail about the Toronto Humane Society. 4 staff members have been arrested for animal cruelty. If you want to see pictures of the state of the shelter, follow the links here and then adjoining page.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/toronto/toronto-humane-society-officials-arrested-charged-with-cruelty-to-animals/article1378385/

Police have arrested the Toronto Humane Society’s president, chief veterinarian and three other senior staff members and charged them with animal cruelty, six months after a Globe and Mail investigation revealed widespread troubles at the shelter.

At the same time, the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals executed a search warrant at the shelter’s River Street facility late Thursday afternoon.

…

Christopher Avery, a Bay Street criminal lawyer representing the OSPCA, said Mr. Trow’s own dog, Bandit, attacked a police officer during the arrest on Thursday. It was pepper sprayed.

He also outlined the poor conditions of a number of animals.

“[OSPCA] officer [Kevin] Strooband recalled one animal in particular. He came in and lifted a cat and its skin came off in his hands,” Mr. Avery told reporters outside the THS building.

“We are in the process of going cage by cage, animal by animal throughout the facility and comparing those with veterinary records, and we’re doing our utmost to determine whether or not further charges should be laid by the end of the weekend.”

The Toronto Humane Society has a no-kill policy.  As a result, they’ve often been causing more harm than good.

Cruelty charges have finally been made six months after the Globe and Mail’s investigation into cruelty at the shelter came to light.   Police  arrested and charged the THS’s president, chief veterinarian and three other senior staff members.

The pictures are gruesome.   Animals covered in feces.   Cats so sick with disease they have oozing eyes or bleeding ears.  As a friend said, those arrested should be put in small cages with no food, water or toilet facilities for a day or two so they can see how it feels.

Maybe Sarah McLachlan can sing a song for them.

Link:  Toronto Humane Society officials arrested, charged with cruelty to animals – The Globe and Mail.

I am a hardcore non-vegetarian. I simply love meat. It can never be replaced by anything vegetarian, But still I am posting an article which I came across on Peta India’s site. They’ve cited 10 reasons why not to eat meat,so without further ado, here they are :

1. Help the Poor
While there is ample reason for indignation at the 100 million tons of grain used for biofuels, more than seven times as much grain (760 million tons) is fed to farmed animals so that people can eat meat.

2. Stop Cruelty to Animals
On today’s factory farms, animals are crammed by the thousands into filthy windowless sheds, wire cages, gestation crates and other confinement systems. These animals will never raise families, root in the soil, build nests or do anything that is natural and important to them.

3. Save the Environment
A recent United Nations report entitled Livestock’s Long Shadow concludes that eating meat is “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global”. The report finds that eating meat causes almost 40 per cent more greenhouse-gas emissions than all the cars, trucks, ships and planes in the world combined.

4. Avoid Bird Flu
The World Health Organisation says that if the avian flu virus mutates, it could be caught simply by eating undercooked chicken flesh or eggs, eating food prepared on the same cutting board as infected meat or eggs, or even touching eggshells contaminated with the virus.

5. Prolong Your Life
Vegetarians live six to 10 years longer on average than meat-eaters do. Healthy vegetarian diets support a lifetime of good health and provide protection against numerous diseases and the three biggest killers – heart disease, cancer and strokes.

6. Avoid the World’s Number One Killer
The risk of developing heart disease among meat-eaters is 50 per cent higher than it is among vegetarians. Drs Dean Ornish and Caldwell Esselstyn have used a vegan diet to prevent and reverse heart disease. Dr Esselstyn’s book documents their 100 per cent success with unclogging people’s arteries and reversing heart disease.

7. Reduce Your Risk of Cancer
According to the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, “Vegetarians are about 40 percent less likely to get cancer than non-vegetarians, regardless of other risks such as smoking, body size, and socioeconomic status”.

8. Fit Into a Bikini
Vegetarianism is the ultimate weight-loss diet. About 31 per cent of urban Indians are either overweight or obese, but only 2 per cent of vegans are obese. A vegetarian diet is the only diet that has passed peer review and taken weight off and kept it off.

9. Create Global Peace
Leo Tolstoy claimed that “vegetarianism is the taproot of humanitarianism”. His point? If we want to sow the seeds of peace, we need to eat a peaceful diet. Eating meat supports killing animals just to satisfy humans’ acquired taste for flesh.

10. Discover the Joy of Veggies
Vegetarians report that when they adopt a vegetarian diet, their range of foods explodes from a limited selection of centre-of-the-plate meat items to a wide range of grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables that they didn’t even know existed.

Sir Paul McCartney sums it all up, “If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stop eating meat. That’s the single most important thing you could do. It’s staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty”.

No matter what reason you choose, you can start the exciting journey towards a vegetarian lifestyle simply by taking the “Pledge to Be Veg” today!

X Factor crisis as Danyl Johnson storms out of rehearsals and threatens to quit over song choice

Danyl Johnson, seen here on Monday , is unhappy with his song choice

Danyl Johnson dramatically threatened to quit the X Factor because he was unhappy with the song chosen for him by Simon Cowell. The drama teacher had been given the George Michael track Praying For Time to sing on Saturday night. But yesterday he stormed out of rehearsals in a rage, threatening to turn his back on the contest unless Cowell changes the song. He was with vocal coach Yvie Burnett when he erupted in a fury and walked out. A shocked insider told MailOnline: ‘Danyl threw a bit of a wobbly yesterday and stormed out of rehearsals. ‘He’s feeling the pressure, particularly as the weeks go on and the competition intensifies.’ Danyl was rehearsing in Battersea, south west London, when things got heated. He walked out and refused to come back even after production staff chased after him. Last night, Danyl, 27, was at Sony BMG offices in London holding crisis talks with Cowell.

Danyl, seen here with Jamie Archer, left, has now spoken to Simon and agreed on a new song choice The news is unlikely to do him any favours with the public, who he has struggled to win over on account of his cocky behaviour. Judges Dannii Minogue and Cheryl Cole told him he needed to tone down his over-confident behaviour earlier in the contest. Simon and Danyl have since resolved the issue and he is expected to sing Careless Whisper. The insider added: ‘They’ve had a good old chat and now are both happy with the song choice.

Loving Your Children

Taser gun used on 10-year-old girl who ‘refused to take shower’

A police officer used a Taser stun gun to subdue a 10-year-old girl in her own home. The officer had been called to the girl’s home in Ozark, Arkansas, by her mother because she was behaving in an unruly manner and refusing to take a shower. In a report on the incident the officer, Dustin Bradshaw, said the mother gave him permission to use the Taser. When he arrived, the girl was curled up on the floor, screaming, and resisting as her mother tried to get her in the shower before bed “Her mother told me to take her if I needed to,” the officer wrote. The child was “violently kicking and verbally combative” when he tried to take her into custody and she kicked him in the groin. He then delivered “a very brief drive stun to her back,” the report said. The girl’s father, Anthony Medlock, who is divorced from her mother, said the girl showed signs of emotional problems but did not deserve to be “treated like an animal”. He said: “Ten years old and they shot electricity through her body, and I want to know how the heck in God’s green earth can they get away with this. “If you can’t pick the kid up and take her to your car, handcuff her, then I don’t think you need to be an officer. She doesn’t deserve to be treated like a dog. She’s not a tiger.” Local Mayor Vernon McDaniel said the FBI should investigate. He said: “People here feel like that he made a mistake in using a Taser, and maybe he did, but we will not know until we get an impartial investigation.” The local Police Chief Jim Noggle said no disciplinary action was taken against Bradshaw. “We didn’t use the Taser to punish the child, just to bring the child under control so she wouldn’t hurt herself or somebody else,” he said. He said if the officer tried to forcefully put the girl in handcuffs, he could have accidentally broken her arm or leg. Mr Noggle said the girl will face disorderly conduct charges as a juvenile.

And Im Sorry…But The Bitch In The Next Story Should Be Shot

Sadistic mother-of-eight found guilty of abusing her children with belt, meat mallet, hot screwdriver and even a garlic crusher

A sadistic mother-of-eight has been found guilty of subjecting six of her children to a ’sickening’ six-year campaign of abuse and neglect.The 37-year-old beat her children – aged between four and 16 – with objects including a belt, a broken coat hanger and a meat-tenderising mallet, a court heard.She was found guilty of 18 charges of abuse including scratching one of her daughters with a knife and burning another with a hot screwdriver.

Three of the implements that the 37-year-old beat her children with

DS Tim Underhill of Cambridgeshire police’s child abuse investigation unit holds up the weapons used on the children. He said: ‘The house was untidy and cluttered. It smelt and there were no, or very few, toys around.’ Cambridgeshire County Council admitted monitoring the family since 1999 yet charges were only brought on the mother after two children discussed the abuse with a teacher.The mother, a Jamaican national living in Cambridge, was found guilty of 18 charges including nine counts of assaulting a child under 16 in a manner likely to cause unnecessary suffering with injury to the child’s health.She was also found guilty of one count of affray and two counts of witness intimidation.Her reign of terror against her children lasted from January 1 2002 to July 1 2008, the court heard during a five-week trial.

The allegations came to light when two of her daughters told teachers at their school that they were being mistreated.On one occasion, the woman locked up two of her daughter’s school friends in the family home after they witnessed her violence towards her daughter.They saw her hit her daughter with a meat mallet and garlic press and threaten to slit her throat with a knife if she did not move her hands out of the way. Summing up the case, Judge Jonathan Haworth read an extract from video evidence from the girl who suffered the attack.She said: ‘I thought she was going to hit me until I died.’She hit me on the head with the garlic crusher and grabbed me round the throat. I was crying and putting my hands up to stop her.’She said “I am going to slice your throat with the knife”. I could hardly breathe and she cut me with the knife she was holding in her hand.’The mother subjected her children to a catalogue of abuse and smacked them with a belt, leaving buckle marks on their skin.On one occasion the mother heated a screwdriver to mend a toy and then used it to burn her daughter on the thigh and buttock areas, leaving scars.Two of the children aged just 12 and 14 said they did the shopping and cooking for the family and looked after their younger siblings while their mother lay in bed watching TV.The mother even sent her young daughters out late at night to find ice for her drinks. Rather than return empty-handed, the youngsters often hid in a park overnight to avoid being attacked.The woman was heavily pregnant when the allegations were made and has since given birth to her eighth child. All of her children are now in care of the social services.One of her daughters told the court that she had considered suicide.She said: ‘I was bullied at school, beaten and burned by my mum. My life was terrible.’When police arrested the mother, they found the house dirty, with no food in it and no sheets on the children’s beds.Medical reports said doctors found scars and marks on the children which could not have been from accidental injuries.The children’s teachers described them as quiet and withdrawn and noticed that one of her sons was always cold and hungry, eating second and third helpings of school dinners.They were concerned at times that the girls were fending for themselves and appeared frightened of their mother.In her defence, the mother claimed that a former partner used to beat her and hit the children with a belt and that her children and their friends had made up the allegations.She admitted slapping them but not using weapons.She told a parent of one of her children’s friends: ‘Tapping them is different from hitting. I loved my kids, I still do. I did not do these things to them.’

Georgina Gibbs, defending, said that witness reports about the house being messy and smelling of urine did not indicate that the children were being neglected.Cambridge City Council admitted that they had been aware of the situation since 1999, but despite ‘ongoing monitoring’ the children were only recently taken into care.A spokesman said: ‘We acted as soon as these allegations came to light and the children were immediately taken into care.’Social care teams offered extensive support when the family first came to our attention in 1999, and the situation improved significantly when a relative moved into the family home.’There was ongoing monitoring of the family situation by all the relevant agencies.’Peter Bradley, deputy director of national children’s charity Kidscape, described the abuse as ’sickening’.He said: ‘If you’ve got six children, over a six year period, showing signs of serious physical harm, it begs the question as to why there was no intervention earlier.’This seems to be part of an ongoing problem with social services nationally where departments are not joined-up in their thinking process and are not sharing information effectively.’This has been the failing of many social services around the country which needs to be addressed urgently.’In this case the child who reported the abuse was braver than social services themselves who should have been there to protect those children.’Detective Superintendent Tim Underhill of Cambridgeshire police’s child abuse investigation unit described the state of the house when they arrived He said: ‘The mother was arrested and her children taken into care on the same day that the children reported the situation at school.’The house was untidy and cluttered. It smelt and there were no, or very few, toys around.’DCI Karen Rowell, also of the child abuse investigation unit, said the trial had been ‘particularly harrowing’.'I would like to thank all of the children involved who have all been incredibly brave throughout,’ she added. ‘I hope the children will be able to move on with their lives.’

Sentencing will take place on December 7.

Lets End This Blog With A Smile

IRISH MEDICAL DICTIONARY:-

Artery  The study of paintings
Bacteria  Back door to cafeteria
Barium  What doctors do when patients die
Benign  What you be, after you be eight
Caesarean Section  A neighbourhood in Rome
Catscan  Searching for Kitty
Cauterize  Made eye contact with her
Colic  Like a sheep dog
Coma  A punctuation mark
Dilate To live long
Enema Not a friend
Fester  Quicker than someone else
Fibula  A small lie
Impotent  Distinguished, well known
Labour Pain  Getting hurt at work
Medical Staff  A Doctor’s cane
Morbid  A higher offer
Nitrates  Cheaper than day rates
Node  I knew it
Outpatient  A person who has fainted
Pelvis  Second cousin to Elvis
Post Operative  A letter carrier
Recovery Room  Place to do upholstery
Rectum  Nearly killed him
Secretion  Hiding something
Seizure   Roman emperor
Tablet   A small table
Terminal Illness   Getting sick at the airport
Tumour   One plus one more
Urine   Opposite of you’re out