A n i m a l
W r i t e s © sm
The official ANIMAL RIGHTS ONLINE newsletter
Established
1997
Editor ~ JJswans@aol.com
Issue # 06/29/03
Publisher ~ Susan
Roghair - EnglandGal@aol.com
Journalists ~ Greg Lawson - ParkStRanger@aol.com
~ Michelle Rivera
- MichelleRivera1@aol.com
~ Dr. Steve
Best - sbest1@elp.rr.com
THE ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE ARE:
1 ~ Why I Am Vegan by Jeffrey M. Freedman
2 ~ Harry Potter and The Abandoned Owls by KMBwolf@aol.com
3 ~ New Course Will Examine Status of Animals in Society
4 ~ Farm Sanctuary Country Hoe Down
5 ~ Website of Note
6 ~ Our Little Furry Friends by Dalene TenEyck
7 ~ Memorable Quote
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~1~
Why I Am Vegan
By Jeffrey M. Freedman
Being
vegan is about more than what I do or do not eat. For me, it is a prayer, a
petition asking why animals and people suffer greatly in a Universe created by
a benevolent and loving G-d. This question led me to a lifestyle that is
focused primarily on abstaining from the consumption or use of anything that
comes from or contains animals or animal products.
Veganism is a corollary of ahimsa, the universal principle of
compassionate, nonviolent living, the a priori maxim of Judeo-Christian ethics
and Eastern spiritual philosophies. Mohandas Gandhi said "The greatness of
a nation and its moral progress can be measured by the way its animals are
treated."
Veganism, for me, is not so much about dietary abstinence as it is about
spiritual sustenance; spiritual sustenance that fills the dark and empty spaces
I feel lost in when I witness animal and human suffering, or anything that is
an affront to what is Holy or good in the world. It is a lifestyle imperative
that flows from my love of animals and reverence for life.
It wasn't until I got to university, on my own for the first time, that I
realized there was a disconnect between what I felt in my heart (love for
animals) and what I was putting in my body (corpses of animals), and that my
spiritual life would have to mediate between and reconcile the two. It did. I
stopped eating meat and chicken and—after I realized fish are not plants with
gills—seafood went too. Becoming vegetarian made me feel I was doing something
to lessen the suffering of animals (or that at least I wasn't contributing to
it). I was making a statement about what my conscience could not live with and
what my body could live without, but it also felt like an inadequate-human
response to a spiritual dilemma.
Why G-d's creation suffers, and how and when this suffering will cease is a
question that has always tormented me—a mystery only G-d has the answer to. But
I couldn't even bring myself to ask this question knowing that what I ate, what
I wore, what I did, contributed to suffering in this world. For me, to be able
to fully explore the question of suffering, I had to give up the products and
by-products that can't be produced without causing suffering to
animals—including meat, eggs, milk, fur, leather, wool, down, and cosmetics or
chemical products tested on animals. (I include circuses, zoos, and all other
institutions that confine or exploit animals in this list). To the extent they
don't cause suffering, in any way, I consider consuming, wearing or watching
them acceptable.
This ethical standard I try to live by is predicated on Albert Schweitzer's
"Reverence for Life," my desire to decrease, or at least not
contribute to, the suffering of any sentient being; and the interrelatedness
and common origin of all life on Earth. If she, he, or it suffers, I suffer.
What constitutes suffering, as far as I understand it and the way most Buddhist's
define it, is that everything/everyone wants to live and nothing/no one wants
to feel pain. Anything that causes pain or death causes suffering. But
eradicating all animal products from my diet, my clothes, and every aspect of
my life is also, ironically, a statement about my powerlessness in the face of
the world's suffering. I have had to admit that what I don't eat isn't going to
have a major impact on the violence and the suffering of the innocents in the
world; that it would take more than my abstinence from eating animals to bring
about a state of ahimsa to the world. Veganism, for me, is asking G-d to do
what I am incapable of doing myself.
I read something in the news recently about the ongoing abduction and breaking
of baby elephants in Thailand. They are taken from their mothers, tied by their
feet so they can't move, beaten with sharp instruments on their head till they
bleed, and kept awake by loud noise, sometimes for days. This torture goes on
until they either go mad or become docile enough to perform in circuses and
tourist attractions.
Two blocks from where I live and work an injured pigeon has been cowering under
a store ledge trying to avoid the prowling cats, blinding snow, wind, and other
urban predators. Hundreds of people have passed by and ignored him the way they
ignored the mangled pigeon I found during one of last summer's most unbearably
hot and humid days. He was attacked by a cat, couldn't fly, hobbled on one leg,
looked unbearably sad and worn out. When I take these animals to the local
wildlife rehabilitation center I am as much pained by the broken-hearted
indifference of the other people who saw their suffering and did nothing as I
am by the suffering itself.
For anyone sensitive to the suffering of animals and people who cannot defend
or fend for themselves, these are the things that rend the heart and are a call
to action and prayer. They are a call to action because to do nothing is to
court helplessness and depression and defeat. They are a call to prayer because
in an imperfect world, suffering, which is a symptom of separation from the
Divine or the whole of creation, must exist. Prayer then becomes the last
refuge of those who suffer greatly as a result of bearing witness to great
suffering.
I realize this is somewhat of a spiritual-evolutionary leap; that I am, to a
certain extent, intervening in the process of natural selection and survival of
the fittest in my desire to pre-empt or lessen the severity of suffering in the
'animal kingdom.' People are always reminding me that, in nature, the big fish
eat the little fish, we all prey on and consume some thing or someone, that
it's a dog-eat-dog world. I know all that. I know it. But a fundamental
principle of evolution is that those who adapt to the environment most efficiently
increase their odds of survival. The predatory, polluting, war-mongering
behavior of humanity has pushed us—and unfortunately most other life
forms—perilously close to extinction. So is it too much of a stretch to posit
that reverence for life, eating as low down on the food chain as possible and a
desire to preserve that which sustains life (e.g. lakes, rivers, streams,
forests, the ozone), may be a last-ditch attempt by the evolutionary,
self-preserving wiring in us, if not the entire life-force of the planet, to
move us further from the precipice of extinction?
We have polluted, consumed, caged, corrupted, deracinated, tortured, and
tormented just about every form of creation on Earth. I think ahimsa and
veganism are both a symbolic and a very real way to reverse this trend.
Disregarding the sanctity of life and the planet with impunity has given us a
world that is rife with violence, war, pestilence, starvation and poison in our
air, water, and food. Being vegan is a way of becoming conscious of our actions
and their consequences. It is a way of giving thought to the pain, suffering,
and terror that occurs as a result of turning a living, breathing, feeling
animal into the meat we put inside ourselves or in front of our children; a way
of considering the global consequences of deracinating another forest,
poisoning another river, depleting more of the ozone, feeding cattle on arable
land that could be used to eradicate world hunger.
Like a fast at Yom Kippur or Christian Lent, I am trying to make myself ready
to petition G-d to rid the world of suffering and violence that I can't
personally eradicate or change in any lasting or globally significant way. I am
asking Him to do something about the baby elephants and the wounded pigeons and
the broken hearts of the world.
Jeffrey M. Freedman is a longtime writer and journalist (www.jeffreymichaelfreedman.com),
animal rights advocate, and frequent contributor for the International
Vegetarian Union in the United Kingdom and several other publications. jeffmf@earthlink.net
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~2~
Harry Potter and The Abandoned
Owls
By KMBwolf@aol.com
No, this isn't the latest book from J.K. Rowling.
It's the sad reality of what happens when animals in movies or books and
children collide.
With the release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on June 21, 2003,
the fifth book in the series, and "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban," the third movie, tentatively scheduled for summer of 2004,
wildlife rehabilitators and animal rights activists are concerned. Again.
Hedwig, Harry's snowy owl, soars upon the screen, delivering the young wizard's
daily post. She's adorable, obedient, and delivers mail. So is it a surprise
hundreds of thousands of children are begging their parents for their own pet
owl?
The Independent Midlands Birds of Prey Rescue Centre in Norton, Stourbridge,
England wasn't surprised. Not even when they found themselves with over twenty
abandoned and surrendered barn owls. (1)
"There are so many barn owls being bred in captivity," says Chris
Jones, who runs the centre. "People have been breeding them to sell on the
black market since the Harry Potter films came out. But it is getting out of
hand now."(2)
Owls might be cute birds, but what the movies don't show is that they require a
lot of special care. Their diets consist of small rodents and chicks, they need
excessive exercise, and need to live in either the wild or in an aviary (during
rehabilitation or if they are unable to be returned to the wild).
"The snowy owl is featured in this particular movie. We understand that
Harry Potter keeps it in a parrot cage, which is against everything we
know," said Jenny Thurston, a trustee at the World Owl Trust at Muncaster
Castle near the village of Ravenglass, England. "That is horrendous. It
will foul up people's imagination." (3)
And what many do not realize, is that owls can live 30-50 years. Can you see
your ten year old child taking care of an owl at 60?
While the books and movie are fictitious, many parents still succumb to the
pleading, tearful requests of their children. Luckily, owl guardianship is
illegal in the United States, thanks to the fact that owls are protected under
international treaties and federal laws, such as the Migratory Bird Treaty Act
and the Wild Bird Conservation Act.
But there are many animals in movies that spark a child's craving that are
readily available in the US.
Like Dalmatians.
In 1996, Disney released "101 Dalmatians," and "102
Dalmatians" in 2000. With the two movies came the inevitable demand for spotted
pups. And, much to animal shelters' fears, the inevitable surplus of
surrendered and abandoned dogs.
Dalmatians became the most abandoned breed at US shelters in 1997. (4) Families
that fell in love with the on-screen antics of the star puppies soon learned
that taking care of a real dog is harder than it looks, and that the breed came
with it's own unlikable quirks-deafness, high shedding, and high energy, to
name a few.
Shelters were the hardest hit. Rescue organizations found themselves dealing
with a 300% increase of Dalmatians. (5) Even though many of the Dalmatians in
shelters were adopted out, thousands were euthanized. Not a scene found in the
movie.
Owls and Dalmatians aren't the only animals affected by entertainment
popularity. Parents bought Red-eared Terrapins for their children who wanted
their own "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles." Pugs were sought after the
release of "Men in Black" movies. And who can forget the amount of
bought-then-abandoned orange tiger kittens and pug puppies after "Milo and
Otis?"
So what can parents do to help stop animal suffering when their children watch
movies and read books?
* Explain to your child that the movie/book is fantasy-Owls do not deliver the
post, and dogs cannot talk
* Explain why the animal would not make a good companion-Owls can crush a
child's wrist and need a lot of space. Puppies do not stay puppies forever.
* Do not buy an animal purely because of a child's interest in a movie/book
character-While children are the ones who ask, it's the parents who buy.
Remember, a companion animal is a member of the family, and all members of the
family must agree on the animal (including the parents).
* Use this chance to educate-If your child really wants his/her own Hedwig or
Pongo, take books out from the library about the animals. Surf the web with
your child to find sites about the animals.
* Buy plush, not live-Official plush Hedwigs and Dalmatian puppies are readily
available in toy stores and online. You can even find unofficial look-alikes in
stores. You can even take it one step further by leaving personalized letters
with the Hedwig plushes for your child to find after school, or hide the
Dalmatian puppy plush and leaving clues so your child can "rescue"
him/her. Children will love these new games because it ties in with the movies,
and brings you and your child closer.
* Decorate with the animals-Stickers, postcards, pictures, etc!
* Educate about rescue-If you have a Harry Potter fan, teach him about owl
wildlife rehabilitation. Child like the spotted pups? Teach her about Dalmatian
rescue organizations If possible, take the children to the rescue centres,
rehab centres, and shelters to see the animals in real life. Don't, however,
take them to pet stores, zoos, or circuses to see them.
* Sponsor an animal-There are many rescue programs that allow you to
"adopt" an animal without ever having to worry about messes, feeding,
and care. All you need to do is give a sponsorship pledge to an organization
You'll receive pictures, information, and updates about your
"adopted" animal.
Useful Information
Owls
* Soaring Hawk Raptor
Rehabilitation--http://www.soarinhawk.org/sp-snowo.html
* Raptor Education Group, Inc-- http://www.raptoreducationgroup.org/index.cfm
* Snowy Owl Hub-- http://www.projectlinks.org/snowy/
* Defenders of Wildlife's Save Owls Site-- http://www.saveowls.org/
Dalmatians
* Dalmatian Rescue Resources--
http://bcf.usc.edu/~thaase/DOT/
* Dalmatian Rescue List-- http://dalmatianresq.tripod.com/
* Dalmatian Info-- http://www.dalspot.com/newown.html
* Recycled Canines--
http://www.dalrescueofhouston.homestead.com/welcome.html
Endnotes
(1) Plea on homes for 'Harry Potter' owls--http://www.expressandstar.
com/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi?archive=9&num=33333
(2) ibid.
(3) Harry Potter Owl Scenes Alarm Animal Advocates--http://news.nation
algeographic.com/news/2001/11/1116_harrypotterowl.html
(4) Animal lovers scramble to save abandoned Dalmatians--http://www.
news-star.com/stories/091197/dalmatians.html
(5) With movie craze over, woman helps Dalmatians find homes-
http://www.cnn.com/US/9705/06/dal/
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~3~
New Course Will Examine
Status of Animals in Society
Students
at the Community College of Baltimore County (CCBC) Maryland will examine the
moral and legal status of animals in contemporary society in the first of a new
series of classes that will begin in September.
“Animals and Society” will explore the sociological, historical, economic,
philosophical and public policy issues that ultimately determine society's
treatment of animals. Instructors Brenda Fick of CCBC and Kim Stallwood
of the Institute for Animals and Society will focus on the use of animals in
factory farming, medical research, hunting and trapping, and the entertainment
industry.
The class is one of four in a series designed for animal rescue workers,
grassroots activists, and others who want to learn more about animal issues.
Other classes will compare racism, sexism and speciesism, as well as focus on
advanced leadership in the animal advocacy movement.
“The IAS’s mission is to advance animal advocacy issues within public policy
through research, education and foster cooperation with other social movements,”
says Stallwood, executive director of the Baltimore-based organization. “Our
partnership with CCBC exemplifies the successful fulfillment of that mission.”
Upon completion of the four-class series, students will receive 12 credit hours
and a certificate. Students may take one or more of the classes as they choose.
Plans are under way to make the classes available on line through
distance-learning technology.
For more information, contact Kim W. Stallwood at the Institute for Animals and
Society at (410) 675-4566.
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~4~
Farm Sanctuary COUNTRY HOE DOWN
Camp & Conference - Watkins Glen, NY
August 2 & 3
It's
much more than a conference-it's a Hoe Down! Join Farm Sanctuary co-founders
Gene and Lorri Bauston and an array of animal rights speakers, including Bruce
Friedrich, PETA's director of Vegan Outreach; Miyun Park, president of
Compassion Over Killing; and David Wolfson, Author of Beyond the Law .
Whether you're a novice or an experienced hand at speaking out for farm
animals, the New York Country Hoe Down is a unique weekend of education and
entertainment with the latest news on farm animal issues and campaign
strategies. Tour the beautiful 175-acre shelter, enjoy a hayride and cuddle
with friendly farm critters. In the evening, let your hair down and boogie the
night away at our Saturday night Barn Dance where we party 'til the cows come
home!
The Hoe Down conference fee is $75 per person for the full conference and
includes Saturday and Sunday lunches, Saturday dinner and Saturday night barn
dance with complimentary snacks and beverages. Please note: Seating is limited
and this conference does sell out every year. Early reservations are
recommended.
For information on the Hoe Down and to register online, visit http://www.farmsanctuary.org/visit/Newyork_hoedown.htm.
or call 607-583-2225 ext. 221.
Kate Capecelatro-Beals
Communications Coordinator
Farm Sanctuary
P.O. Box 150, Watkins Glen, NY 14850
Ph: 607.583.2225 x235
Fax: 607.583.2041
Email: kbeals@farmsanctuary.org
Visit our Website: www.farmsanctuary.org
Sign-up for Farm Sanctuary email news list at http://www.farmsanctuary.org/signup.htm
ABOUT FARM SANCTUARY: Farm Sanctuary is the nation's largest farm animal rescue
and protection organization. With over 100,000 active members, Farm Sanctuary
works to end farm animal suffering and promote the humane treatment of animals
used for food production through legislative and legal actions, investigative
campaigns, humane education and public awareness projects, and direct rescue
and shelter efforts.
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~5~
Website of Note
Today
[June 27th] the website of Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc. (RPA) -- the
nonprofit organization I recently founded -- went online. I hope you will
visit the site at your next opportunity. Here is the URL:
www.RPAforAll.org
RPA shows leaders how to establish responsible policies for animals that are
also responsible policies for human beings and ecosystems. An example is
our first campaign, described in detail at the site: 10,000 Years Is Enough,
aimed at ending the teaching of animal agriculture at universities.
Since the billions of dollars in corporate welfare to the animal industries
from university animal-agriculture programs support cruel practices in the
industries and the industries are extremely harmful to human beings and
ecosystems, we decided 10,000 Years Is Enough would make an ideal first RPA
campaign. And we are developing others.
At www.RPAforAll.org, you can read brief descriptions of the work RPA has
already done on the 10,000 Years Is Enough campaign; see the news coverage the
campaign has already received, including significant animal-industry reporting
and letters we have published; read the RPA factsheets already circulating; get
an idea of future RPA efforts; and more.
I have always wanted life to be wonderful for all human and nonhuman animals,
and I believe it can come close when humans make sound choices. It is in
that spirit that I founded RPA and invite you to visit our website.
Best wishes,
David Cantor
Executive Director
Responsible Policies for Animals, Inc.
P.O. Box 891
Glenside, PA 19038
215-886-RPA1
RPA4all@aol.com
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~6~
Our Little Furry Friends
By Dalene TenEyck - poet4animals@ij.net
They are the strong,
as they will fight our enemies
until their death if necessary
for the love of you.
They are our teachers,
as they show us how to love
with all their hearts, unconditionally
even when we do not deserve it
and others turn away.
They are the true,
as there is NO greater loyalty in the world
greater then theirs to you.
They are as children,
as they cannot drive themselves to the Doctors
when sick or tell you
when they need warmth and food.
They are gifts from God,
the trusting ones who trust us completely
to love and care for them
in times of need as they care for us
everyday in every way.
Our truest spirit
our truest self shines through our love
and kindness to all creatures great and small.
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~7~
Memorable Quote
"The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual
superiority to other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his
moral inferiority to any creature that cannot."
~~ Mark Twain, What is Man?
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Susan Roghair - EnglandGal@aol.com
Animal Rights Online
P O Box 7053
Tampa, Fl 33673-7053
http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/1395/
-=Animal Rights Online=-
«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»§«¤»¥«¤»
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