***

Growing up on Long Island, I heard tales of the spooky experiments that took place on Plum Island, a livestock disease research facility off the coast. While on my family’s boat, we would pass the island, looking for the smoke that often floated up from the large buildings and the rumored animal-monsters that they created in their labs.

"Primacy" by J.E. Fishman

Perhaps this link between Long Island and animal testing was part of the inspiration for J. E. Fishman’s thriller, Primacy, which takes place, in part, in Pentalon, a fictional animal testing facility in Farmingdale, New York, not far from where I grew up on Long Island. Behind Pentalon’s walls, animals of all kinds are subjected to genetic and disease testing that causes pain, distress and, for some, death. But what if one of these animals could speak to the scientists who were subjecting them to those tests? Would those researchers reexamine the purpose of their actions? Would the whole system of animal testing break down? These are the questions that Fishman tackles.

Primacy follows the story of Liane Vinson, an animal researcher at Pentalon who is fully aware of the rules of detachment that employees must follow in order to keep themselves numb from the cruel harm they inflict on animals. However, for Liane, when it comes to a pair of twin bonobos, whom she has named and grown attached to, somehow those rules don’t matter. When one of them, Bea, who, like her twin brother, was born with unique vocal chords, suddenly begins to speak, uttering Liane’s name — Liane’s world is, naturally, turned upside down. Bea’s brother is soon subjected to a brutal laryngectomy to study his vocal chords, and it is then that Liane knows that she must save Bea from Pentalon’s clutches. Thus begins a journey that will forever change her life and her beliefs about animal sentience.

In her desperation, Liane turns to her ex-boyfriend, Corey Harrow, a member of FAULT (“Folks Against Unnecessary Lab Testing”), which is known for protesting outside of Pentalon’s gates, and torching animal testing labs. It soon becomes clear that Corey and Liane have very different goals for Bea. Liane wants to release Bea back into the wilds of Africa, while Corey wants to cultivate Bea’s language skills so that she might become a mascot for the movement, appearing on television to plead the case against the exploitation of animals. Liane sees this plan as further exploitation of Bea, and argues that what Bea would want more than anything is the chance to once again just be a bonobo, and live among her own kind in the jungle. Corey counters that no one can know what Bea truly wants, and that with his plan, she will be well cared for while still being of great use to the movement toward total animal liberation. She will be an ambassador for her kind.

In the mean time, while Liane is on the run from the Pentalon forces, and while she’s also trying to get Bea away from the animal rights activists, we are introduced to Dikembe Kasa, who lives in Congo. Grief stricken by the loss of his wife to a hemorrhagic fever, caused by her ingestion of bush meat, Dikembe sets out, with his son, to right a wrong that he committed. He believes that his decision to sell twin bonobos that he caught in the wild – thereby making him a participant in the cruel animal trade – gave him bad karma, ultimately causing the fever that killed his wife. Dikembe sets off to explore his own connection to Bea, the talking bonobo.

One of the great things about Primacy is that these characters, and their stories, create the opportunity for the author to bring up many important questions for anyone who has ever cared about an animal. For the most part, he doesn’t shy away from these issues. An example of this is Corey, who makes cogent arguments against animal testing, specifically regarding its cruelty, monetary motivations, and ineffectiveness. Dikembe’s rejection of poaching in Africa, and the portrayal of the exotic animal dealers, also send a strong conservationist message. And, most of all, Bea is portrayed as a sentient creature with a full range of emotions. Icing on the cake is that each section of the book begins with a quote relating to animal rights.

Unfortunately, however, while the animal rights activists who make up the membership of FAULT are not portrayed as the enemy, or as complete crazies, they nonetheless come across as misguided. Their stance for total liberation of animals at any cost – rather than focusing on what is best for an individual animal – is, in my experience, totally uncharacteristic of animal rights activists, who truly value each individual (as well as total liberation). This flawed portrayal is, perhaps, not surprising, since Fishman, disappointingly, is careful to assert in the epilogue that he is not an animal rights activist, while asking readers to do their own research on the subject of animal testing.

Perhaps telling of Fishman’s ambivalent, even contradictory, attitudes toward our proper relationship with animals is the fact that the book does not adequately go there when it comes to food, and the torture of animals on factory farms. At one point in the story, Liane is eating hamburgers, and notes the irony of it, while Corey is a proud vegan. But, unlike the issues regarding animal research, these issues are never fully developed, nor in any way resolved. They are simply glossed over, leaving a wasted opportunity for interesting discussion among the book’s protagonists.

Still, it’s a breath of fresh air to get a chance to read compelling fiction that addresses harm to animals in a serious and largely thoughtful way. While not every character in the book ended up a vegan activist – an outcome that would have seemed ideal, even obvious, to any animal rights activist reading it – Primacy is nonetheless not only a page-turner, complete with enough violence and adventure to compel any thriller fan, but it exposes the truth about the cruel experiments that are performed on millions of animals in laboratories. It discusses the very real situation of how they are fed toxins to see how long it takes them to die, how they have their bodies cut into in order to study their organs, and how their brains are painfully attached to wires so we can study their brain waves. As an animal activist, the best part of this book, to me, is the fact that readers who would never think to pick up a book obviously focused on animal rights will be exposed to these horrors in the context of this very entertaining read.

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Helping Vegan Parents Navigate the Not-So-Vegan Landscape

By Robyn Moore

I recently read an article that asked the question, “As a vegan, should you raise your child vegan?” To me, that question is absurd on many levels. As parents, we are responsible for making decisions for our kids based on our own sets of values and beliefs. Typically, we do not allow kids to make their own decisions when it comes to things that are dangerous to them physically or developmentally, or that we find morally abhorrent. So if we believe that eating animals and animal products is morally wrong (or unhealthy, or detrimental to the environment), then why would we let our kids engage in that behavior?

Charlotte

As a vegan parent, I encounter messages, and experience situations every day, that contradict what I’m trying to teach my daughter, Charlotte. Some of these (“milk is necessary for strong bones,” “you need meat for protein,” etc.) come directly from the industries whose livelihoods depend on our buying into them. Yet many others come from less obvious places: story time, gym class, music class, books, cartoons, the playground, the toys we buy. Our world revolves around the idea that animals are here for our personal use — this includes food, clothing, products, and entertainment — so being a vegan parent can sometimes feel like an uphill battle.

One example of this is story time at the library. The books that are chosen often center around “blissful” farm and zoo animals — only reinforcing society’s misperceptions about animals in confinement. Many of the books that Charlotte grabs from the shelves show animals in some sort of exploitive situation, such as a circus, or they include pictures of kids eating hot dogs or drinking milk. In music class, kids sing songs such as “Fried Ham,” “Baa Baa Black Sheep,” and “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” In gym and other group settings, toddlers tend to share (or grab) one another’s snacks, so I have to be keep a watchful eye on Charlotte to make sure she doesn’t take somebody else’s goldfish or string cheese. And then, of course, there are the playground and play date conversations with other parents. Food always comes up, and, much to my dismay, I hear about what other kids are eating. More often than not, it’s chicken nuggets, or macaroni and cheese, always accompanied by a big glass of milk.

But if examples like these are what I’m up against, I can handle it. I will trade these minor inconveniences any day for the satisfaction of knowing that my husband and I are raising our child based on principles of integrity and compassion.

Robyn and her family at the NYC Walk for Farm Animals

Still, I’m acutely aware that Charlotte is only a year and a half old. She’s still at the age where I can, for all intents and purposes, control what she eats and drinks, who she plays with, what books she reads. Charlotte is our only child, and, being in the (quickly growing!) vegan minority, we’re also learning as we go. Just as we adults evolve and change, so will Charlotte. That means that, 10 years from now when little Charlotte is in middle school, my challenges as a vegan parent raising a vegan child will radically shift. There will be a whole new set of joys and happiness that we’ll share, and, with that, a whole new set of questions. No doubt things will get more difficult as she becomes an autonomous person. Of course, my hope is that, as Charlotte grows, her values – respecting animals, and not exploiting them – will be so instilled in her, that even as she grows to be a teenager and an adult, she will carry her moral compass and live her life according to these ethics.

Every age has its own set of issues and growing pains, and as a mother of a vegan child, that is something I am looking forward to handling. But if we, as parents – and aunts, uncles, grandparents, and neighbors – trust that we are doing the right thing, then my hope is that everything else will fall into place. It is up to us as parents to be activists not only for the animals, but also for our own kids.

With that in mind, here are few tips to help vegan parents navigate the not-so vegan landscape.

1. Read books and watch movies that affirm and reinforce vegan values. VegBooks lists over 500 titles.
2. Visit an animal sanctuary. Exposing vegan kids to rescued farm animals is so important — it helps them make the connection between their cruelty-free lifestyle and the animals they are saving.
3. Get together with local veg families so that your kids will have the opportunity to meet other like-minded kids, and you’ll get to meet other like-minded parents. If you live in the NYC area, join my meet-up group: NYC Vegetarian and Vegan Families. If a meet-up group like that doesn’t exist in your area, think about starting one.
4. Show your kids the power of activism! If they feel strongly about a specific animal or issue, encourage them to join a protest, write a letter to a newspaper, have a vegan bake sale, hand out literature, or create an art project. This will empower them and teach them to be a voice for the voiceless.
5. Search for websites and blogs about raising veg kids. Many of them, including my own, RaisingVegKids.com, offer resources, articles, and support for vegan families.
6. Make holidays special. Instead of focusing on what kids can’t do or eat, make vegan versions of traditional dishes, and even crafts. For example, make a vegan gingerbread house or egg-free potato latkes, and color papier-mâché Easter eggs.
7. Cook and bake delicious vegan recipes with your kids. Order the book, Vegan Lunchbox.
8. When dining out at a non-vegan restaurant, look to the side dishes (instead of the meat- and dairy-heavy kid’s menu), where you’ll find healthy and yummy choices such as veggies, beans, rice, etc.
9. Adopt a rescued farm animal (virtually). Farm Sanctuary will send you a picture of an animal of your choice with some fun details about him or her. Your kids can frame it and keep it in their room, and even visit their adopted animal at the sanctuary. They can even bring the picture to school and tell their classmates all about it, effectively spreading the message. Of course, if you have the space, adopt a real rescued farm animal whom kids can help care for and love.
10. Be an active parent when it comes to birthday parties and school events. Find out what is being served, and if it’s not vegan, make or buy a similar vegan version so that your child will not feel left out. Make enough for the other kids, too, so that they can see first-hand how delicious compassion can taste.
11. Show your kids that being vegan is fun! Make vegan pancakes on the weekend, or have a vegan pizza party on a school night. Make things like DIY vegan ice cream sundaes, or, on movie night, popcorn with vegan butter.

Embracing veganism is the most effective step a family can take to fight animal cruelty. It’s about teaching your kids to vote with their dollars by boycotting industries that exploit and harm animals. It’s about choosing a side — the animals’ side. Encourage your kids to be proud, confident, and courageous in their family’s decision to respect and value the lives of all others, including animals. Read books about brave people throughout history who were once viewed as being different and in the minority – such as those who worked for the abolition of slavery, for women’s suffrage, for civil rights – but were later viewed as heroes, who, despite challenges, spoke up for what was right.

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said:

Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” Vanity asks the question, “Is it popular?” But conscience asks the question, “Is it right?” And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular; but one must take it because it is right.

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Robyn Moore

Robyn Moore is a mom to Charlotte, whom she and her husband, Martin, are raising vegan. Robyn has her master’s degree in education. She is the creator of RaisingVegKids.com, the organizer of NYC Vegetarian and Vegan Families Meetup, and is a book reviewer for VegBooks. Robyn is an avid traveler who has taught English in Nepal, volunteered helping animals in Africa, and lived abroad in Switzerland.

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A Look Inside Unlikely Friendships

Review by Samantha Rosenberg 

Fair warning – get out the tissues. Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom pretty much redefines the word “heartwarming.” Bringing together forty-seven stories about interspecies friendships from all over the world, this beautiful book – appropriate for all ages – is illustrated with amazing photographs that truly capture these hard-to-believe animal unions, often between animals who are normally identified as predator and prey.

"Unlikely Friendships" by Jennifer Holland

As set forth in her introduction, the starting point, and impetus, for this remarkable compilation by Jennifer S. Holland – a science and nature journalist and senior writer for National Geographic magazine – was the conflict in the scientific community between those who reject, and those who embrace, the idea that non-human animals have the capacity to experience emotions similar to humans. Of course, the former view has the benefit of convenience, in that it makes all the torture and confinement performed in the name of science (and appetite) easier to justify. If scientists are able to convince themselves that animals cannot feel emotional pain, the moral dilemma simply disappears. The other school of thought, which hopefully represents a growing majority, holds that emotions are inherent in all sentient beings to some degree, even if they are expressed in different ways. As summarized by evolutionary biologist Marc Bekoff, this position holds that “evolutionary continuity — a concept that came from Charles Darwin — stresses that there are differences in degree rather than in kind between humans and other animals. That applies to emotions. We share many bodily systems, including the limbic system, where emotions are rooted. So if we have joy or sorrow, they have it, too. It isn’t the same joy or the same sorrow. But the differences are shades of gray, not black versus white.”

Unlikely Friendships takes that abstract premise and makes it real. Mindless instinct cannot possibly account for these extraordinary relationships: A dog and a koi meet regularly at a pond to bump noses and connect on a level that makes you question the complexity of a fish’s mind; a cow tied up in a field is visited nightly for months by a wild leopard who seems to want nothing more than a snuggle and a tongue-bath; a momma dog accepts a baby squirrel into her litter; a hamster served to a snake as dinner becomes his friend instead; a lioness protectively watches over her adopted baby Oryx; and too many other remarkable stories to mention, each guaranteed to melt your heart and challenge your preconceptions about animals. Furthermore, while the photographs are stunning, the book is far more than just cute pictures. Each story, although brief, sheds light on the often tragic circumstances that brought the animals together, and into the lives of humans, who were able to witness, and document, the ways the animals related to one another. Despite their sad beginnings, these animals ultimately triumphed, finding solace, joy, and friendship.

A few of my favorite stories include “The African Elephant and the Sheep,” which is about a baby elephant named Themba, whose mother fell off a cliff when Themba was just six months old. To the surprise of the staff at the reserve, none of the other female elephants stepped up to adopt Themba. Recognizing that it was a critical time in Themba’s development of social bonds, one of the workers brought a sheep from a nearby farm, Albert, and put him into Themba’s enclosure. Why a sheep? Not only are they intelligent, but sheep have been shown to form close emotional connections with other animals. It wasn’t an instant fix – the two didn’t hit it off at first. But after a while they became inseparable, sleeping together and even eating the same food. Finally, this lonely little elephant had a friend.

Then there’s “The Bobtailed Dog and the Bobtailed Cat,” which documents a moving friendship that was born in New Orleans right after Hurricane Katrina, when hundreds of thousands of animals were left to fend for themselves. The bobtailed dog of the title had been left tied up to face the storm, but had managed to break away, dragging with her the remains of her chain. Somehow, she hooked up with a bobtailed cat, and they wandered the city together for weeks. When anyone tried to approach, the dog, later named “Bobbi,” growled protectively. Nevertheless, eventually the two were rescued and taken to a shelter. There, Bobbi let out piercing barks whenever anyone tried to separate her from “Bob Cat.” Realizing that the two needed one another, rescuers caged them together. Only later did they discover that Bob Cat was totally blind! Bobbi had been using barks and bumps with her hind leg to guide Bob Cat around.

Because of the unusual pairings of species, the stories in Unlikely Friendships depict relationships that may be surprising. But anyone who has ever had an animal companion in their life, or has even just observed animals – be it through volunteering at a shelter, visiting a sanctuary, or spending time with a loved one’s pets – will agree that there is no question that they have individual personalities. Indeed, animals of all kinds experience the feel-good emotions that are depicted in this book, and – like us – they also feel sadness, depression, anxiety and grief. They also form relationships in astounding ways that we neither orchestrate nor control.

I have certainly seen that in my own home. My 11-year-old daughter and I have two cats, both feral rescues, who are alone together all day, five days a week. Yet, even after three years of living together, they can barely tolerate each other’s company. Despite the “sibling rivalry” they have, one of the cats has bonded with my daughter in a way that is almost otherworldly. Utterly protective, she perches on my daughter’s back while my daughter sleeps, follows her everywhere, shows her constant affection with unending little kitty kisses, and, whenever she thinks my daughter is hurt, immediately comes running. Who could ask for more in a companion? This kind of deep human-animal connection is relatable to so many of us. It is, after all, an unlikely friendship – but it’s also the best sort.

The fundamental lesson in Unlikely Friendships is, perhaps, that animals interact with other animals – human and non-human – on levels that are not very different from our own. Much like human relationships, motivations for animal unions may be rooted in their need for protection, comfort or companionship. But regardless of the reasons that brought them together, many of the bonds between these animals are the product of a true emotional connection that can only be classified as genuine friendship. These stories are great reminders of how alike animals and humans are. At the end of the day, we are all seeking pleasure in some form. If we’re lucky, we manage to find it in each other.

***

Samantha Rosenberg

Samantha Rosenberg is an attorney  living in Cambridge, MA, with her 11-year-old daughter and two cats. 

With that in mind, we felt that the appropriate way to start 2012 is with a review of Super Immunity: The Essential Nutrition Guide for Boosting Your Body’s Defenses to Live Longer, Stronger, and Disease Free, by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D. Sharing her wisdom once again with us is guest reviewer, Carrie Forrest. This is Carrie’s second book review for Our Hen House. When she is not studying for her graduate degree in public health nutrition, and finishing the coursework to become a registered dietitian, Carrie loves to visit farmers’ markets around California’s central coast, and post healthy, plant-based recipes on her popular blog, Carrie on Vegan (which is one of our absolute favorite go-to places for healthy vegan recipes). 

In addition to taking care of ourselves, gifting books that focus on plant-based foods can be just the ticket to get our Aunt Ida to try on vegan for size. Even though the gift-giving season is officially over, the season of sharing scrumptious, nutritious vegan food is year-round. Super Immunity is yet another resource for us in terms of making headway with the health argument for veganism. Hook ‘em with health, and while they are enjoying the benefits that come from eating this way, slip them a copy of, say, Eating Animals, and you have your very own activist in the making.

And don’t miss your very own opportunity to win a copy of Super Immunity. Read on for details (and for a healthy cake recipe that you absolutely must try). 

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Eating Your Way to Super Immunity

Review by Carrie Forrest

For a multitude of reasons, I was one of those kids who was often sick. Starting every year in late fall, I found myself battling cold after cold, missing school and going to the doctor  – only to be prescribed another round of antibiotics. Up until my early 30′s, a plane ride inevitably meant the onset of a virus upon reaching my destination.

Finally, a few years ago, I started making the connections between diet and health. The turning point in taking charge of my health destiny was discovering the Eat to Live program (and the book by the same title by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D). As many of you may already know, Dr. Fuhrman — who has been featured on Our Hen House’s podcast — is a family-practice physician who advocates a diet based on the scientific evidence that shows eating a diet rich in micronutrients from whole, plant-based foods is optimal for human health.

In late 2011, Dr. Fuhrman released a new book, Super Immunity: The Essential Nutrition Guide for Boosting Your Body’s Defenses to Live Longer, Stronger, and Disease Free, which offers more evidence showing how we can transform our immune system from weak or damaged (thanks to the Standard American Diet), to one that is of a “superhero” quality, and can ward off dangerous bacteria, viruses, and — in some cases — even cancer.

In fact, the bulk of Dr. Fuhrman’s advice in this book is about fighting cancer and building the strongest defenses possible against that risk. In Super Immunity, he cites research that “the lifetime probability of being diagnosed with an invasive cancer is 44 percent for men and 37 percent for women. However, because of the earlier median age of diagnosis for breast cancer compared with other major cancers, women have a slightly higher probability of developing cancer before the age of sixty. Currently, one in four deaths in the United States is due to cancer.”

While these statistics are scary, Dr. Fuhrman counters them with recommendations that can significantly reduce the risk of cancer development, along with reducing the risk for many of the other diet-related diseases that commonly kill Americans. In short, his immune-building advice centers around consuming a diet that is plant-based, consisting of primarily vegetables (especially green ones), fruits, beans, nuts, seeds and whole grains.

My favorite section of this book is the one entitled “Super Foods for Super Immunity” because it describes the research and mechanisms that give certain foods properties to fight both cancer and infections. The most immune-enhancing foods are cruciferous vegetables, mushrooms, onions, garlic, pomegranates, berries and seeds. The point is to consume generous amounts of these foods because “phytochemicals are the fuel that run our body’s anticancer defenses.”

In the chapter regarding how to fight colds and flu, Dr. Fuhrman reviews the evidence regarding some common remedies, some of which he shows have not been proven to be effective. One example — the traditional “chicken soup” remedy has no scientific basis and, in fact, could slow the recovery process because the body has to work harder to digest animal protein. Other unproven strategies include taking vitamin C, using a humidifier, irrigating the nose, and taking echinacea. Dr. Fuhrman’s advice for when you are ill is to avoid unnecessary medications and supplements and to simply rest, reduce food intake, and let your body heal naturally.

Dr. Fuhrman’s comments on the flu vaccine are thought-provoking, too. As a future health professional, I’ve always advocated on behalf of vaccines. His point is that “the flu is not a dangerous disease in healthy individuals,” and that the evidence that the vaccine actually reduces the number of people hospitalized or missing work is shaky. Also, besides the fact that there are known risks to any vaccination — including the flu shot — the vaccine usually covers less than 10 percent of the viruses circulating. Other controversial topics he tackles include folic acid intake for pregnant women, the health benefits (or lack thereof) of coffee, pesticides in our food supply, and the safety of soy products.

In the chapter “Healthy Carbs, Fats and Proteins,” Dr. Fuhrman explains how a nutrient-rich diet contributes overall to a superior immune system. He addresses common nutritional myths that a very low-fat diet is healthiest (it’s not!), and that sea salt is not as dangerous as regular salt (it is!). As a vegan and future registered dietitian, I was fascinated by the research he presented on protein, including how animal protein increases insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) in the body, which has associations with increased rates of cancer.

Overall, Super Immunity offers a wealth of information for anyone wanting to reduce his or her risk against disease. Dr. Fuhrman distills the complex, scientific research into clear suggestions for the healthiest way to proceed. He concludes the book with a section devoted to recipes, using many of the superfoods he describes.

One of my favorite all-time recipes by Dr. Fuhrman is the one for a “Healthy Chocolate Cake,” which you’ll find below. While it is intended to be consumed on special occasions, it is indeed made from health-promoting ingredients and, in fact, is absolutely delicious. I have found Dr. Fuhrman’s recipes in general to be outstanding. If you are new to this way of cooking and eating, it takes a little while to adjust to the lack of salt and oil. However, I encourage you to read his books, check out his website, and discover for yourself how what you eat can drastically change your health for the better.

And keep scrolling for your chance to win your own copy of Super Immunity: The Essential Nutrition Guide for Boosting Your Body’s Defenses to Live Longer, Stronger, and Disease Free, by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, M.D.

***

Healthy Chocolate Cake (re-printed with permission from the publisher)

Serves: 12

For the Cake:

1 ¾ cups whole-wheat pastry flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoons baking soda

3 ½ cups pitted dates, divided

1 cup pineapple chunks in own juice, drained

1 banana

1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 cup shredded raw beets

¾ cup shredded raw carrots

½ cup shredded raw zucchini

3 tablespoons natural, nonalkalized cocoa powder

½ cup currants

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 ½ cups water

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

For the Chocolate Nut Icing:

1 cup raw macadamia nuts and/or raw cashews

1 cup vanilla soy, hemp or almond milk

2/3 cup pitted dates

1/3 cup brazil nuts or hazelnuts

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Unbaked cake...

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, baking powder and baking soda in a small bowl. Set aside. In blender or food processor, puree 3 cups of the dates, pineapple, banana and applesauce. Slice remaining ½ cup dates into ¼-inch pieces. In large bowl, mix sliced dates, beets, carrots, zucchini, cocoa powder, currants, walnuts, water, vanilla and flour mixture. Add the blended mixture and mix well. Spread in a 9 x 13-inch nonstick baking pan.

Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. For the icing, use a high-powered blender and combine all icing ingredients until smooth and creamy. Spread on cooled cake.

Final cake with icing. YUM!

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The publisher has kindly agreed to send a copy to one lucky reader! To enter to win a copy, simply make a comment on this post telling us why, as an animal advocate, it is important to you to stay healthy — and what techniques you use to do so. This can also include healthy resolutions or hopes you have for the New Year. A random winner will be chosen after Monday, January 9, 2012, at midnight, EST — which is when the contest ends.

***

We arrived in Mumbai at the peak of Indian summer, stumbling from the damp, air-conditioned halls of the airport, with fake flowers and a musty smell. Stepping out the doors I was hit with a wall of heat: steamy and thick, suddenly I was walking in slow motion. Before us was a mass of people, hundreds — thousands? — of them, on the other side of a barricade, mostly men holding pieces of paper with names on them. Everyone was huddled close, as if different heads on one squirming body, and somewhere one of these men was holding up my name. Eventually, my partner Ashley and I were following a silent and polite man past all these people — so many people! — and into the parking garage, hearing the melodic rhythms of unknown languages and inhaling the wafting sweetness of tropical blossoms.

We had boarded our plane in New York City, so we’ve seen our share of a lot of people, but still, nothing could have prepared us for the crowds in Mumbai — mostly barefoot men walking arm-in-arm, with long pants and button-up shirts in the sweltering heat. It wasn’t until I was behind glass in a modern, air-conditioned SUV that I looked past all the people and saw the first dog. Walking purposefully, all on her own, she weaved through the crowds, between cars and into the trees. She didn’t look skinny, or sick or dangerous or lost as we often think about “stray” dogs in America. Back home, we assume every animal must have had another ideal life from which to “stray.” Here, she had as much purpose as all the other animals – humans – around her. The people at the airport didn’t notice her any more than they did the man who was literally rubbing against them, and she didn’t seem cautious or uneasy in the crowd. She seemed… at home.

My partner Ashley and I have wanted to go to India as long as I can remember. It is presented as the ultimate challenge: a culture so fundamentally different from ours that it can shake our deeply-held beliefs and open our horizons. It was a hippie pilgrim mecca, full of incense and bright saris and peaceful people doing yoga. In my observations, India resists such labels. It is a massive subcontinent, an always-changing creature: far from homogeneous and constantly full of surprises. But when I imagined India, first and foremost, I could smell the spices. India, and the South in particular, is home to one of the world’s most complex and varied vegetarian cuisines. And so many millions thrive on this peaceful diet! For people like me and Ashley, who always follow our stomachs, a journey to India proved very alluring. But what I didn’t piece together before the trip was that these attitudes toward food inform the way of life. Of course I already knew that choosing a vegan diet trickles into every aspect of being; indeed it comes to be a defining characteristic not only about how we eat, but about who we are. But I have always been part of a small minority up against a majority that doesn’t seem to get it. In South India, the choice to live a vegetarian lifestyle permeates neighborhoods, communities, and the culture at large.

On our first jet-lagged morning in Goa, a beachfront paradise that has been a destination for European travelers for centuries, we tiptoed out of our hut and down onto the sand. We didn’t know what time it was, but it was clear that everyone else was asleep — the human variety, that is. Gangs of dogs were galloping across the sand, still cool from the damp night, taking advantage of this window before the sweltering midday sun begins its slow, baking heat. The dogs, who had been sleeping covertly under lounge chairs or tucked away in shaded alleys and forests when we arrived the day before, were in such a good mood this morning! Small pods of dogs were scattered across the shore, running in circles, nipping at each other, circling across the wide flat beach, romping through the wet sand and splashing into the warm ocean before colliding with another pod of dogs, trading a few members, and repeating the process.

Ashley and I stepped onto the beach, dazed by the swaying coconut palms and the humid air, hot and getting hotter, scented with the salty sea, and the beginning hint of a few wood-burning fires as the families lit their kettles for breakfast and tea.

Seconds later, we were in the middle of a cluster of dogs. It was like a crowded dog run with no fences – and no owners! We were cautious. We love dogs, but we were still unsure about everything in India. We had woken up on the other side of the world yesterday, and we had no idea what time it was, or what we were going to do today. We had heard that these “street dogs” were everywhere in India. We imagined it to be sad, to see these creatures without a home, hungry and sick and lonely. But these “beach dogs” seemed to reject these labels. They certainly weren’t lonely; they were playing with friends, more friends than my dog has, all around us. As for hungry and sick, they were not suffering from a lack of energy — they were bounding up and down the beach. The night before, at a beach-shack restaurant, Ashley literally fell asleep waiting for her curry, and I had the fuzzy memory of a gentle tan-colored dog resting under my chair in the sand, lapping up a plate of rice and dal.

It didn’t take long for a few dogs to latch on to us, following us down the beach, smiling up at us between pants. After pretending to keep our distance for a few minutes, we sat in the sand, opened our arms, and gave the dogs what they wanted. They couldn’t get enough: they were right up against us, soaking up our love like a sponge. Luckily for us, this was exactly what we wanted too. And so out the window went the first of many unspoken rules we had set for ourselves based on the fears of what we imagined this place to be. The reality of this moment for us was far from scary: summertime dawn on a tropical beach, at the beginning of a 2-month journey, with smiling dogs rubbing against us for our love. There were icicles hanging from our doorway as we got into the taxi in New York yesterday, or was it 2 days ago? And this was the perfect time for us to be reminded of dog’s great gift: to be completely immersed in the present with no regard to the past or the future. This salty, playful morning on this beach in South India was infinite to these creatures, and we were right there with them, laughing with the ocean at our knees.

We soon noticed that dogs were not the only animals who are part of the daily life of people in South India. In the smaller cities and towns, “livestock,” the animals that we picture on a farm (or, more accurately, in a factory) in America, roam freely in the streets. Wandering in the dirt backroads in coastal Karnataka, we would see clusters of chickens, pecking their way around the trees, foraging in the dirt and leaves. Families of white goats munching on something (always munching!) don’t mind us rubbing past them on the narrow sidewalk. And most imposing of all, giant cows and bulls seem to own the streets, weaving through traffic with confidence. Looking closer at the cows, many have beads wrapped around their heads like jewelry. Some have bright colors painted on their brow. They are majestic, embodying the balance between sheer physical power and a gentle peaceful nature. There is, of course, the disturbing question of what will happen to these glorious, free animals. Will they meet a horrible fate, just as their American cousins do? These thoughts are in such sharp contrast to the beauty of their current-day freedom.

The effect these animals had on me and Ashley was profound. In America, we might drive by farm animals behind a fence on the side of a freeway, and we have had the chance to see a few up-close and personal at farms and sanctuaries, but domesticated farm animals are decidedly not a part of our everyday life. We have often heard the refrain that these animals were created by humans, bred to suit our purposes. Because people created them, some argue, the only suitable life for them is in manmade confinement, where they will be fed and given water and shelter. Not knowing any better, I always believed this argument. Of course, I’ve always thought that if the animals need us to survive, we owe them a peaceful and healthy existence that does not end in their slaughter or eating their bodies, but I accepted the basic idea that they are dependent on humans to care for them nonetheless.

After experiencing the array of animals in the streets in India, I’m not so sure anymore of exactly what our relationship with these animals should look like. These street dogs and cats and cows and chickens and goats seem to be surviving just fine on their own. Some of them even seem to be thriving! Each creature has mapped out a path to survival that suits their needs. Certain individuals not only meet their needs, but their tastes as well. We saw a small family of cows strategically positioned behind the sugar cane juice cart, munching on the fibrous discards of the day, smiling sweetly. Many times, we saw dogs digging for sand crabs and feasting until nap time. The cats’ territory is on the rooftops, where they sunbathe, nap and watch the people below. From what we saw, goats really will eat just about anything: banana peels, scented flowers that have fallen out of women’s hair, weathered Bollywood posters peeling off the stone walls. Obviously, anywhere we encountered these animals, they were among people. I certainly don’t mean to argue that domesticated animals should be set free in the forest. But the consumer culture that in America neatly bags up its waste and sends it to holes in the earth looks very different in India, where there seems to be a much more symbiotic relationship between humans, and their waste, and the animals who dwell among them.

Each city and town and village processes its own waste, which often means it floats in trenches, litters the streets, piles up in mounds behind hotels which are burned at the dawn of each day. From this perspective, the unfussy processing the animals provide has its place in the circle of life. In American cities and towns and villages, this important work is done by rats, mice, cockroaches – vermin we want to pretend are underground and try to exterminate. In India, this process is done not shamefully and secretly, but in the streets, next to homes and banks and post offices, and not by small wild animals combing through our microtrash, but by majestic beasts in the middle of the road, licking the banana leaves clean after lunch. At first, the presence of animals everywhere made my heart flutter. I was kind of worried about them, even though they looked fine.

Would they get hit by a car? Get sick? Starve? But soon I realized that these animals are really just as fit to live this life as humans are. People are getting hit by cars, getting sick, starving. But most of them are surviving, and I see a lot of smiles, hears lots of music, plenty of laughter. And when we can swerve or brake to avoid hitting someone, we’ll do it. If we have enough food to share, we’ll put a plate on the sidewalk. We’re all in this together, and it’s not by accident that Indians invented the idea of karma. To isolate animals behind fences teaches us that they are different, that somehow they belong in confinement. To see them integrated in everyday life, eking out an existence like the rest of life on earth, unites us as creatures sharing the same planet.

As captivated as we were by the existence of these animals, we knew that some had slipped through the cracks. Individual animals are sometimes abandoned, abused, sick, dying in the streets. Knowing that unseen suffering was happening around us, we wanted to volunteer at a rescue. We don’t know anything about medicine or treatment, we just love animals and wanted to help in any way we can.

When we arrived at Animal Rescue Kerala, down in the far southwest of India near Kovalam, we were high on our tropical vacation. We had been here nearly 6 weeks, we were tan, relaxed, salty from our swim that morning. After a rickshaw to a train to a bus and another rickshaw, we realized the shelter was not easy to find. Our driver muttered to himself as our 3 wheels took us up a very steep dirt hill with large rocks and tangles of roots. Finally, after weaving down village roads bend after bend, we arrived at the gates of the shelter. Immediately, we were stormed by a group of dogs, mostly big and sloppy, tails wagging.

A howling contest soon commenced, with every dog in the place trying to bark louder than the other. Our hearts were beating fast, trying to stay calm and to focus on the dogs right in front of us. I looked at my backpack, haphazardly dropped after entering the gates, and a Labrador is lifting his leg and peeing all over it. We asked for instructions, and we were given them: a tan dog who got into a fight has been confined in the kennels – she’s really sweet, just sit with her for a bit. There’s an old female Pomeranian, give her some love. Every assignment at the shelter is like this: there are over 80 dogs here, and a spattering of other animals big and small. Some have integrated into packs and made friends, others haven’t. It’s a dog city, with buildings and parks and families and communities. They have their own versions of war and peace, alliances and friendships. And all of it is in the space of one human’s home, with a large yard. So we went to the tan dog, with scabs on her face, pick a few ticks off her neck, and she soon rolls over, ready for a tummy rub. The quiet, white Pomeranian has dangling teats; she was dumped here after she got too old to breed. Her eyes are cloudy and I’m not even sure if she can see me, but she leans into my hand when I pet her.

A huge clunky retriever jumps up on me and her paws have just stepped in poop, yellow from the turmeric rice and fish the dogs have eaten. I have dog-poo-pawprints all over me, but looking around me, I feel lucky. I am lucky to be here, to meet these animals, to have Ashley by my side, and — a thought that did not escape me during my trip — unlike so many Indians, I am lucky and privileged to be safe and healthy and able to travel. And these dogs are lucky too, because they don’t care about where they were yesterday, or the pain they felt in the past. The primary mission of Animal Rescue Kerala is spaying and neutering street dogs to try to control the population. Many of the animals are captured, sterilized and released back to the streets. Some people in Kerala don’t want female dogs, even puppies, and will dump them, because they view the possibility of them being impregnated as a liability. Sterilization of dogs is not a regular practice in India, but places like Animal Rescue Kerala are trying to be part of the solution.

Some of what I saw at the shelter will be permanently etched into my memory. Up in the puppy house on the top level, there were soft sleeping newborn puppies. The floor was guarded by a grumpy old black dog whose two back legs dragged on the ground behind her. Make no mistake, she is the top dog up here, and will instantly put a dog with 4 working legs in their place. Sleeping in the rafters is a cat whose face is covered by a giant scab. We never asked about the story, but would just smile at her where her eyes should have been. And there will be no forgetting little Viku, a tan puppy with an irrepressible energy of joy. Anywhere we sat, she would jump on our laps, lick our faces, rub up against us with every ounce of her being. All that she wanted was to love us, over and over again. And in that infinite softness of a puppy’s tummy, the warm tongue on our cheeks, our hearts would break. How I could dive into this puppy’s soul!

We had heard a few times in India that all life on earth is one: we have simply created the illusion that we all live our separate existences. I agreed, but I didn’t quite believe it. But here, with Ashley sitting beside me on the stone floor, Viku between us, my hand on her belly, Ashley’s on her face, I believe. I had to travel across the world to understand how differently people could live, and how differently animals could live too, but what we all need to survive is the same love. Here is an e-mail I wrote after one of those sticky, tiring and blissfully intense days at the shelter:

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Book Review: Healthy Eating, Healthy World by J. Morris Hicks

Review by Carrie Forrest

Unless you were lucky enough to be raised in a vegan household, your decision to stop eating animals probably came from many different influences. I know that I have a shelf full of books that I gathered along my road, and because of my career change to the field of nutrition several years ago, many of them focus on the health benefits of a plant-based diet. From Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s groundbreaking Eat to Live to Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s The China Study, there are nuggets of information in all of them that intrigue, inspire and challenge my thinking.

Sometimes, however, I wish that there were a book that compiled all of the “information nuggets” in one place. Good thing that J. Morris Hicks’ new book, Healthy Eating, Healthy World: Unleashing the Power of Plant-Based Nutrition (BenBella Books, 2011), came along. This book ably summarizes the information from the foremost experts in the field of plant-based living, and, in doing so, makes the case that what we eat is the most important choice we can make for the future of our health, for the animals, and for our planet.

The book is organized into three sections: health reasons for following a plant-based diet, how what we eat affects animals and the environment, and ideas for how to take action. The first is undoubtedly my favorite. Hicks starts out by listing some startling statistics, including that “there are more than 1.5 billion overweight adults in the world; at least 500 million of them are obese.” Considering that obesity is associated with so many other health conditions like heart disease, osteoporosis, diabetes and even cancer, it’s about time we thought carefully about changing our eating habits.

After discussing how we got to be such a sick population, Hicks profiles some of the experts, including the aforementioned Drs. Campbell (who also wrote the book’s foreward) and Fuhrman, as well as Drs. Neal Barnard, Caldwell Esselstyn and Dean Ornish. He then weaves the incredible results from their research into an undeniable argument that a whole foods, plant-based diet is the ideal approach for human health. This summary is the highlight of this book for me and earns it a spot on my list of resources for people interested in taking charge of their health.

Following this important distillation of the research supporting a plant-based diet, Hicks goes on to explain the specific impact that our diet can have on our health, including preventing or reversing disease, and then concludes this section by answering the question “Why Not Plant-Based?” with information refuting the common arguments against veganism, including the myth that plant-based diets are deficient in protein or calcium. New vegans, as well as seasoned vegans looking for a few more sound bites, will surely appreciate Hicks’ clear and concise way of disseminating information and dissecting facts.

The second section,“What You Eat Affects Far More Than Just Your Health” is the most thorough comparison I have found of the impacts of the Standard American Diet (SAD) to that of a plant-based diet. Hicks uses vivid descriptions to make his point. For instance, after noting that farmed animals in the U.S. produce 130 times as much waste as humans, he calculates that it works out to 9,000 pounds — or the equivalent of nine pickup trucks overflowing with animal waste — per human per year. Gross!

In terms of water, I never knew that it takes twenty times more water per calorie to produce meat than to grow plant-based foods. And, if you love wildlife like I do, consider the United Nations’ statement that “The livestock sector may well be the leading player in the reduction of biodiversity, since it is a major driver of deforestation, land degradation, pollution, climate change, overfishing, sedimentation of coastal areas, and facilitation of invasions by alien species.”

The following chapters in this section address in similar fashion how the issues of worldwide hunger and animal suffering can be resolved by the elimination of animal foods. The chapter entitled “Hell on Earth” describes the fate of chickens, cows, pigs and fish in the modern day factory farm. Hicks presents the issue of animal suffering in the same evidence-based method that he uses throughout the book, with just enough detail to make his point. He ends this chapter with a frank discussion on the moral issues involved in eating animals, reminding us that we can end this type of animal suffering with our food choices, and quoting Leonardo da Vinci who said over 500 years ago that “The time will come when men such as I will look on the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men.”

Whether you are just learning about the many reasons to consume a plant-based diet, or you are already well-versed (and well-fed) in that area, you probably know what it’s like to be overwhelmed with information, and wondering what to do next. The last section of Healthy Eating, Healthy World is devoted to offering some solutions. Hicks understands how difficult it can be to change our way of eating and reviews some of the common pitfalls. He presents a “4-Leaf Program” which is a loose way of measuring the switch to a plant-based diet. This section is the only part of the book that fell short for me because I felt it wasn’t specific enough. Some recipes or suggested eating plans would have rounded out the book, providing readers with even more specific tools for adopting a healthy vegan diet. Perhaps there is a market for a sequel. Healthy Eating, Healthy World Cookbook, maybe?

All in all, Healthy Eating, Healthy World does an outstanding job of addressing the question of why we should eat a plant-based diet. The tone is casual yet very informative. As a future health professional, I will recommend this book not only as a primer for those just beginning their journey to health, but also for people who need a reminder of the importance of our food choices. For those of us who have been been vegan for some time, it also might also act as the perfect stocking stuffer for the veg-curious in our lives. Its non-threatening tone is exactly what the doctor ordered.

Healthy Eating, Healthy World concludes with a great quote from Mahatma Gandhi that is truly one to live by: “You may never know what results come of your action, but if you do nothing, there will be no result.”

The publisher of Healthy Eating, Healthy World has kindly agreed to send a copy to one lucky reader! To enter to win a copy, simply make a comment on this post telling us your favorite way to advocate the health benefits of veganism to the veg-curious in your lives. That might be your favorite book or film on the subject, or perhaps you have a go-to talking point that you find particularly compelling. A random winner will be chosen after Thursday, November 24, at midnight, EST — which is when the contest ends.

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Carrie Forrest

Carrie Forrest is a graduate student in public health nutrition, the author of the blog Carrie on Vegan, and an Our Hen House fan. Through her writings, step-by-step photo guides and recipes, Carrie inspires readers of her blog to prepare whole-food, simple recipes that are low in added fats, sugars and salt, yet are 100% delicious.

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Book Review: Stories Rabbits Tell by Susan E. Davis and Margo DeMello

Review by Laura Yasinitsky

As a child, I had a rabbit whom I loved to death. Cotton Tail taught me a lot about being a pet parent, possibly even instilling in me the core value I carry to this day – my deep love and respect for animals. Now, as an adult, as I learn more about animal behavior, I realize that there were so many things I did wrong when it came to caring for my beloved bunny. I can only imagine what would have been different if I had had access to the knowledge provided in Stories Rabbits Tell by Susan E. Davis and Margo DeMello (Lantern Books, 2003).

"Stories Rabbits Tell" by Susan E. Davis and Margo DeMello

Widely renowned as the definitive work on this charming creature, this valuable resource is not only dense with information, but it’s truly fascinating, evoking the energy and curiosity of a jumping bunny. This monumental piece of nonfiction contains a wealth of information about what still remains one of my favorite animals. Bottom line – Stories Rabbits Tell is a must read for any animal lover.

In part one, “Pests, Pets, and Profits,” Davis and DeMello cover the biological and historical development of the domestic rabbit, and share delightful tales from “owners” of house rabbits. Although a bit dry, the history section is incredibly resource-intensive and ferociously thorough. It is particularly interesting to understand how human interference played such an intricate part in their sociological development. On the other hand, the stories of house rabbits and their interactions with their humans, including funny anecdotes and affecting tales of rescue, bring a lighter note.

This is a nice segue to part two of Stories Rabbits Tell, entitled “Witches, Whores, and Tricksters,” which deftly explores rabbits as symbols and icons, examining the meanings bestowed upon them in different human cultures. Tales of rabbits abound in human history, from widely known ancient fables such as “The Tortoise and the Hare” to modern day characters like Bugs Bunny. Other noteworthy rabbit icons that the book explores include Peter Rabbit, Roger Rabbit, and even the Playboy Bunny. As a society, it turns out that we are much more hare-obsessed than we may have realized. The exploration of the frequent association of rabbits with women, and the substitution of children by rabbits in storybooks, is especially thought provoking.

I found part three, “Hopping Dollars,” to be the most painful section of the book. Focusing on rabbits as revenue, this part includes descriptions of our use of rabbits as fur, meat, and vivisection subjects. The levels and depth of exploitation of these animals touches every human endeavor, from their use as military training subjects, to cosmetics testing victims, to greyhound racing bait, to magician props.

Perhaps not surprising, it seems that humankind just doesn’t know where to stop when it comes to our apathy toward the needs of our furry friends. Stories Rabbits Tell made that point loud and clear. Though not included in the book, rabbits were even recently used as stage props by the Royal Shakespeare Company, which made the incredibly wrong-headed decision to skin fresh-killed rabbits onstage during a production of As You Like It, a decision that was nixed when the production reached New York.

Although sometimes difficult to bear, Stories Rabbits Tell is, nevertheless, always incredibly informative – and almost excruciatingly detailed. It truly burrows deeply into the spellbinding world of rabbits and their place in a human-ruled world. Indeed, it’s long past time a light was shown on this incredibly intriguing earthling. Although rabbits have somehow landed in the blind spot of humanity, they are, in fact, everywhere – on our laps, our plates, our TVs, and in our closets. I finished this book fascinated, informed, and, most excitingly, keen to adopt a homeless rabbit. I have a feeling that Cotton Tail would approve.

For anyone doing any type of research on rabbit history or welfare, Stories Rabbits Tell is an invaluable and necessary resource. For any animal lover, it is a wonderful tool to help educate and expand your understanding of these adorable, and surprisingly deep, critters.

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Laura Yasinitsky

Laura Yasinitsky is a writer, waitress, and animal lover based in New York City. She appeared on Comedy Central’s Open-Mic Fight and writes for US Weekly’s ”Fashion Police.” You can read her daily musings on Twitter @LaraYaz and get her opinions on everything else at http://larayaz.blogspot.com. She is a proud vegan and cat mommy. 

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Book Review: Most Good, Least Harm

Review by Lisa Rimmert

Millions of people throughout the world have no access to clean water. Forests are being cleared at staggering rates. Billions of animals are killed for food every year. In the face of these seemingly insurmountable problems, what can one person do?

"Most Good, Least Harm" by Zoe Weil

In Most Good, Least Harm: A Simple Principle for a Better World and a Meaningful Life (Atria Books, 2009), author and humane educator, Zoe Weil (who can be heard on Our Hen House’s 30th podcast episode), offers a simple principle called MOGO, or “most good,” in an attempt to answer this question. Fully aware that the world and its inhabitants face many dire problems that are both overwhelming and complex, Weil nevertheless sets forth a guiding principle for each person to use in searching for solutions that are anything but complicated. MOGO means that when people make decisions based on what will do the most good and least harm — to other people, to animals, and to the environment — we make positive impacts on the world around us, and, as an added bonus, on our own spirits. In just over 200 easy-to-digest pages, Weil explains this simple principle, citing compelling examples and insightful ideas for MOGO activities that can change the world for the environment, animals, and, I suspect, for everyone who reads it.

The first section of the book, “Looking Inward,” provides an in-depth look at what it means to live a MOGO life. Respecting the differing priorities and lifestyles of her readers, Weil offers a broad definition of MOGO and seven key actions that one can take to find it. Then, she encourages readers to decide for ourselves which issues we find most important, and what specific changes we wish to make.

The first key, “Live Your Epitaph,” was the one I personally found most valuable. Weil suggests that we imagine our ideal epitaph — what we want said and remembered about us when we’re gone, and, fundamentally, what we wish to leave behind. This exercise is incredibly valuable because it can help guide each of us, in a very individual way, to the best version of MOGO-living geared to our unique personalities and talents.

The book’s second section, “Choosing Outward,” gives readers some general information they need to get started, including four areas for considering change, and 10 principles for MOGO life. Perhaps most notably, that includes the need to “eat for life,” calling for readers to “as much as possible, choose plant-based foods. . . .” Certainly, when it comes to doing the most good and least harm, that one should be a no-brainer. Too often it’s not, though, and it’s refreshing that Weil includes that message.

Zoe Weil

It is in the third and final part that Weil gets down to the nitty-gritty, offering very hands-on tools and resources to help us begin our own MOGO journey. Here, we find a questionnaire to assist us in our brainstorming MOGO ideas, an action plan where we can record specific goals, as well as facts, statistics, and recommended resources relevant to living a MOGO life.These resources are broken into categories based on the social justice, environmental, or other ethical issues.

There are, of course, many suggested websites and books for further investigation into animal rights, including The HSUS and PETA, GoVeg.com, and the book, Animal Liberation, by Peter Singer. This section also includes well-known resources dealing with other issues relevant to living more consciously, including Freecycle.org, HumaneEducation.org, and Meetup. These tools are incredibly valuable for the MOGO beginner who is just starting to figure out how and why her or his individual choices make such a profound impact, and what she or he can do to change the the shape of things.

The majority of the websites and books listed are ones many of us  may not have heard of yet, but are definitely worthy of our attention. Some of my favorites include Newdream.org, which belongs to the Center for a New American Dream, and focuses on helping people to change the world by reducing and shifting their consumption; and Yes! Magazine, which contains uplifting stories that center around solutions to the world’s environmental and social justice issues. Whether you’re a MOGO beginner or an already-committed activist, you’ll find a variety of very useful resources in Weil’s extensive list.

While presenting an abundance of sometimes disturbing information, the book manages to inspire without setting unreasonable goals or pressuring novice advocates. Moreover, while written for the average person, Most Good, Least Harm is equally valuable for the more seasoned advocate. While vegans and animal rights activists may already be aware of many problems and injustices, there are always issues about which we are relatively naïve. For example, when it comes to buying humane and ethical products, I admit that my knowledge has been somewhat limited. I know, of course, about brands like Seventh Generation and Dr. Bronner’s, but when it comes to items like toothbrushes, an example from the book’s chapter on products, I wasn’t sure which product created the least harm. Most Good, Least Harm provided resources for me — and will do the same for you — to make better and more informed decisions. In this case, Weil offers the website Responsibleshopper.org, which enables people to enter the name or brand of a product and find out if the company that produces it is good, bad, or somewhere in between.

While many of us are already doing our part to create positive change, Most Good, Least Harm might help us see that, in our quest to change the world, there’s always a new way in that might be worthy of exploring.

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If you’re in NYC, don’t miss an all-day MOGO workshop that Zoe herself will be leading on October 29. The very next day, join Zoe and the Institute for Humane Education for Envisioning the Future Crystal Ball NYC.

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Animals talk with us. A purr, a tail wag, and a lick on the nose speak as clearly as any words. We take our communication with animals so much for granted that we don’t always realize when it is happening. But we can’t take the resulting intimacy and affection for granted, especially when a beloved companion animal dies.

Unsaid (Center Street/Hachette Book Group, 2011), a new novel by attorney and animal advocate Neil Abramson, plumbs the depths of relationships between human and non-human animals, and does so much more: it challenges the legal treatment of non-human animals as human property; explores the ethical questions raised by vivisection and by euthanizing companion animals; illustrates the similarities between humans and other animals; and draws tears over and over. Have tissues handy.

Unsaid by Neil Abramson

Helena, a veterinarian who has just died, narrates Unsaid, chronicling the reactions to her death of her grieving husband and her houseful of rescued animals. Her husband David, a corporate lawyer not particularly close with Helena’s menagerie, works through his grief by building relationships with her animals and carrying on her work protecting chimpanzees from torturous vivisection.

If the love that Abramson’s human and non-human characters have for each other is the heart of this novel, its mind is an exploration and critique of the consequences of animals’ status as property under the law. For the most part the law does not consider their wellbeing and does not allow lawsuits intended to protect them from suffering. Like a chair or a car, the relevant legal question regarding non-human animals is which human owns them, not how that human treats them.

The real-life results of that body of law is the profound suffering of an unthinkable number of animals. Unsaid focuses on animals used in research, many of whom live their entire lives locked in small cages, suffer repeated invasive and unnecessary surgeries, are deliberately sickened with diseases including HIV and cancer, and get no treatment for pain. The book also touches on the cruelty some people inflict on their companion animals and the prolonged terror, pain, and deaths of animals hit by drivers who blithely continue on their way.

Though upsetting, this book is also refreshing. Rarely does a novel acknowledge our bonds with and savage treatment of the billions of nonhuman animals under our control, let alone make that subject its unifying theme. Unsaid is not without faults: the dialogue is sometimes stilted, and some lengthy expositions of animals’ plight read more like political advocacy than like a novel. But these weaknesses are easily outweighed by the number of people who will learn about the need for legal rights for animals precisely because the information is presented in the popular format of a novel and not the niche medium of a screed. Abramson’s novel is both a good read and an eye-opener.

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Film Analysis: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

By Loredana Loy

“Somewhere in the universe, there must be something better than man.”

– Taylor (Charlton Heston) in the original Planet of the Apes (1968)

An animal liberation revolution is happening on the silver screen. Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011, directed by Rupert Wyatt) provides the ultimate liberation fantasy as it traces the genesis of a new era on our planet, while telling the story of a special kind of leader — Caesar – a chimp born in an animal testing facility to a genetically enhanced mother.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

While perhaps the misanthropic message is not quite as powerful as the one in the original installment of the “Apes” franchise, the movie pulls no punches about the heartlessness of the species that currently, if perhaps not permanently, is in charge of Planet Earth. Not only are the human animals not the central characters here, but they come off poorly, to say the least, when contrasted with the chimpanzees. Will (James Franco), the scientist whose discoveries about intelligence enhancement as a possible solution to Alzheimer’s are the instigation for the experiment leading to Caesar’s birth, is a caricature of what the real hero of the movie, Caesar, represents in terms of loyalty, love, and trust. Will only reluctantly saves Caesar in the first place, and does not hesitate to test on a new group of chimps even after he has formed a bond with Caesar. He also refers to another victim of testing labs, Koba, as “it,” even though he knows Koba is a male. Even to the extent he might have some regard for Caesar, as well as for the other apes, it clearly doesn’t extend to other species. We see his family gorging on bacon and eggs at breakfast. But compared to the callousness of the shelter guards, Will is a model of compassion.

However, while this movie presents a powerful critique of the ugliness of human behavior toward animals, it also offers much more than that. An ode to freedom and nature as the true home for any animal, Rise of the Planet of the Apes raises issues regarding animals that are timely for those of us in the real world. Throughout, an animal-centric point of view is explored and promoted. Naturally, the prominent issue is that of animal experimentation (although showcased in its PG version). But other less central issues are touched on as well — the keeping of apes as “pets,” the status of animals as property, and the issue of shelters supplying animals to testing facilities for profit. Perhaps the underlying fundamental theme of this dark tale concerns the effects that greed and the pursuit of profit (at all costs) has on animals, and, ultimately, on humans.

One of the most widely touted animal-positive features of Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the refusal to use live apes in the making of the movie, and it is, indeed, heartening to see this story about chimpanzee exploitation told without itself contributing to the suffering it decries. However, although the movie gets much right about the problems with humans’ attitudes toward animals, it is, unfortunately, itself guilty of speciesism. The movie not only uses live horses, but allows its ape hero to ride a horse in a scene where he is fighting his human enemies, thus begging the question: Will the apes not only replace us, but also continue our exploitation of other animals? Perhaps the writers wanted to be faithful to the original Planet of the Apes, which did indeed portray the simian society as using horses to hunt humans. Whatever the reason, it was disappointing to see this type of exploitation of one species portrayed so casually in a movie that so aptly addressed the evil exploitation of another.

But, flaws aside, there is no question that Rise of the Planet of the Apes is, ultimately, a paean to animal (or at least ape) liberation. Thus, the real question becomes — can a Hollywood blockbuster serve as a tool for social change? In the short time since it opened in theatres, the movie has been seen by an estimated 22 million people worldwide and has managed to create a media stir that goes far beyond Oscar predictions for its truly extraordinary special effects, reaching issues ranging from evolution, science, and animals in entertainment, to policy, race, and endangered species. The movie has piqued the interest of everyone from Peter Singer to republican Representative Roscoe Bartlett, whose op ed in The New York Times called for an end to all experiments on apes. Certainly animal protection organizations have seized the opportunities presented by the movie’s box office success and media attention. Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine issued a call to action entitled “The Real Planet of the Apes.” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals increased its focus on animal testing discourse in conjunction with the film’s release, and various other groups are organizing screenings and protests.

Can this blockbuster truly change hearts and minds about animals? In-depth research would be needed to assess the effects of the movie on attitudes and behaviors, but one thing is certain — Rise of the Planet of the Apes has brought much-needed attention to some animal issues.

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Also be sure to catch our Hollywood correspondent, Ari Solomon’s, review of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which can be heard on our 83rd podcast episode. 

Loredana Loy

Loredana Loy is a long-time animal liberation activist and a graduate student at New York University. She is studying the animal liberation movement through sociological and cultural lenses. Her research is focused on cinema as a tool for promoting animal liberation messages.

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Book Review: “Vegan for Life: Everything You Need to Know to Be Healthy and Fit on a Plant-Based Diet” by Jack Norris & Virginia Messina

Review by Piper Hoffman

Vegan for Life: Everything You Need to Know to Be Healthy and Fit on a Plant-Based Diet (Da Capo Press/Lifelong Books, 2011), by Jack Norris, RD and Virginia Messina, MPH, RD, is a densely-packed treasure chest of nutritional information for vegans and those who feed them. From the minutiae of the benefits of individual vitamins, to the bigger picture issues like low-carb diets, and that old chestnut, “how do you get enough protein?,” Norris and Messina have the answers and the empirical data to back them up.

"Vegan for Life"

Bring a pen when you dive into this book. I wound up with a list of supplements I should take, arrows next to all the recipes I’d like my chef/husband to try out, and slips of paper marking information I did not know, yet am determined to reread until it I know it well. For instance: did you know that excess sodium is linked to calcium loss? But iodine is necessary for the thyroid, and table salt is the major source of iodine for American vegans (non-vegans also get iodine from fish and dairy products). This leaves some vegans who don’t add salt to their food vulnerable to iodine deficiency. To make matters even more complicated, sea salt, which many cookbooks prefer over table salt, is an undependable source of iodine, and the salt added to processed food usually has no iodine at all. Suddenly I’m wondering whether I’m getting enough table salt – and then whether I’m getting enough calcium.

The beauty of this and other dilemmas Vegan for Life examines is the very fact that this book is raising and examining vegan-specific nutritional concerns. There is no sugar-coating here: Norris and Messina do not believe that veganism is nutritionally perfect (though they find it much healthier than eating animal products) and strongly recommend that vegans take certain supplements. They have examined a whole lot of science, explain which of it is most reliable, and admit that for many questions, science does not yet have answers. Through it all, their priority is to help people become – and stay – vegan and healthy.

The book is marketed for both veteran vegans and people considering becoming vegan, and it has vital information for both. But for people who are not yet vegan, I offer one caveat: read this book backwards. Not like holding it up to a mirror, of course; just start with the last chapter, then read the chapter before that, and then the one before that. It is the last one, Chapter 16, that answers the fundamental question (and is titled), “why vegan”? It is a condensed, vivid, and relentless depiction of the lives of animals raised for food. If you haven’t already, it will have you swearing off meat, eggs, and dairy. Chapter 16 illustrates that the welfare of non-human animals is the authors’ primary motivation for advocating veganism.

Chapter 15 tackles the safety of eating soy. Treat Chapters 9-14 like a “Choose Your Own Adventure” section. They delve into special nutritional needs like pregnancy and breast-feeding; vegan kids; eating vegan over age 50; veganism and diabetes; sports nutrition; and more. Pick the parts that are relevant to you and you will gain confidence that not only is a vegan diet healthy for you, whatever your special circumstances, it is also healthier for you than any alternative.

Chapter 8 is the most fun. It offers tips for transitioning to a vegan diet, easy meal ideas (how about chili beans with veggie burger crumbles served over rice with steamed carrots?), and paeans to the virtues of beans (sauté onion, garlic, white beans, and – wait for it – dried figs, season with basil and rosemary) and frozen vegetables (all the nutrition with less of the prep work!).

By this point in the book, new and potential vegans have a foundation and motivation for the work of learning about nutrition. Chapter 7 sets forth a Vegan Food Guide, followed by an almanac of what and how much to eat to get necessary nutrients. This chapter provides both a summary of the sources of nutrients and an overview for meal-planning, showing that it can actually be fairly easy to plan and prepare a healthy vegan diet. Fold over the corners and break out the highlighter: you’ll be going back to this chapter often.

Now the reader knows the moral imperative for eating a vegan diet and has been provided with ample evidence that it is healthy, weeks’ worth of easy recipes and shopping tips, and a food guide that wraps it all up in one page. Now it is time to tackle Chapters 1-6, which painstakingly analyze the vegan sources of nine individual nutrients, advising which supplements you should take, which nutrients you will get enough of without even thinking about them, why you should eat fats and carbs (and which ones), and what scientific studies have revealed. Some surprises (at least for me): sometimes eating calcium doesn’t mean getting the benefits of calcium; some sources of Vitamin D are vegan and some aren’t; and drinking coffee or tea with a meal impedes iron absorption.

Without the grounding and summaries provided in Chapters 7-16, the volume and detail of the information packed into Chapters 1-6 can seem overwhelming. As a long-time and (I thought) well-informed vegan, I was surprised by the amount and importance of the information I didn’t know, and spurred to action by the possibility that I am not getting enough of certain nutrients (in large part because my version of “vegan” is less focused on vegetables than on peanut butter, chocolate, cookies, muffins – in short, sugar with a generous helping of fat). If I were not yet a committed vegan, I might have been scared off from the task of eating healthfully, which is why I recommend that newbies start at the back of the book. By the time they get to Chapters 1-6, they will feel like I do: I have some work to do, but I am eager to do it because the benefits I will reap from applying the information in this book to my eating will improve my health for a lifetime.

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Book Review: Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide for Caring for Self While Caring for Others

Review by Lisa Rimmert

"Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide to Caring for Self While Caring for Others" by Laura van Dernoot Lipsky

As an animal rights activist, I have had the pleasure of witnessing many unforgettable and inspiring events. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of fulfillment that comes with finding a home for an abandoned animal, helping to pass a law that is beneficial to animals, or inspiring a friend to adopt a vegan lifestyle. I have had many such moments, and I treasure every one.

Along with the good though, we, as activists, also bear witness to the bad. Having chosen to open our eyes to the cruelty involved in factory farming and other industries that exploit animals, we now maintain — whether we like it or not — a constant awareness of the suffering these animals endure. For many of us, this awareness can cause us to sometimes feel overwhelmed or inadequate. It can be easy, even for the most well-adjusted activists, to internalize the suffering of others, allowing those negative feelings to overpower the positive ones.

In Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide for Caring for Self While Caring for Others, Laura van Dernoot Lipsky addresses these issues that novice and seasoned activists alike know all too well, and provides readers with tips for avoiding the negative effects of exposure to trauma. While the book is intended for anyone who is regularly exposed to trauma, Lipsky makes an effort to include individuals who work with suffering animals, and notes in the introduction that while many experts in trauma tend to solely focus on those who work with people, it is important to also include others, like “veterinarians, animal rescue workers, biologists, and ecologists.”

Lipsky adds credibility by telling her personal story, from her extensive exposure to trauma as an emergency room social worker, to her realization that this grueling work had changed her in a way with which she wasn’t comfortable. She goes on to explain the definition of “trauma exposure response,” which is the change or changes that take place when a person is exposed to trauma or suffering.

After an introduction to the concepts – which is saved from its inherently dry nature by the injection of quotes, comics, real-world examples, and activist profiles – Lipsky describes the warning signs of trauma exposure response. One is fear. She gives as an example animal control officers whose fear led to prejudice against certain breeds of dogs, which subsequently evolved into stereotypes of certain races and socioeconomic classes. Lipsky asserts that it is not the fear itself that is bad, but rather, not having a handle on it — or not even being aware of it. Other warning signs of trauma exposure response include minimizing one’s own problems (“Who am I to complain about my trivial problems?”), guilt (“How can I spend time on myself when I should be devoting it all to the animals?”), and a sense that one can never do enough (“I only handed out 500 leaflets; I should have tried harder to reach more people.”).

The most engaging parts of the book were the final chapters, covering various ways to practice trauma stewardship. “Trauma stewardship” is the term Lipsky uses to describe the overall practice of caring for oneself in order to remain effective at — and avoid negative effects of — caring for others. Drawing from Eastern religions and other spiritual ideas, Lipsky emphasizes the importance of being centered in oneself and living in the moment. Throughout this section, readers will find applicable advice and helpful activities for approaching their work with a new perspective. Lipsky outlines five “directions” – north, east, south, west, and center. Each represents an important aspect of trauma stewardship: creating space for inquiry, choosing our focus, building compassion and community, finding balance, and centering ourselves. With a chapter for each direction, readers receive a detailed look at each one, along with profiles of people who are shining examples of trauma stewardship, and practical ideas for how to begin your own journey.

Trauma Stewardship: An Everyday Guide for Caring for Self While Caring for Others is without question a worthwhile read for any activist. As Lipsky states, “This book is written for anyone who is doing work with an intention to make the world more sustainable and hopeful — all in all, a better place — and who, through this work, is exposed to the hardship, pain, crisis, trauma, or suffering of other living beings or the planet itself.” For me, Trauma Stewardship served as a reminder that life — as well as activism — is what we make of it, and that the only way to effectively advocate and care for animals is to first care for ourselves.

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Lisa Rimmert

Lisa Rimmert has been an animal lover since birth and an activist for about nine years. She has dabbled in many forms of activism, including lobbying, attending protests, and tabling at community events. She authored a column called “Animal Matters” for The Fayetteville Observer in North Carolina, and is currently the coordinator for Farm Sanctuary’s St. Louis Walk for Farm Animals. By day, Lisa works in marketing and communications. She is working to obtain a master’s degree in public relations, in hopes of becoming a more effective communicator and advocate, and to do her part to improve the world for people and animals alike.

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Book Review: Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel

Review by Jena Mazzio

"Half Brother" by Kenneth Oppel

Ben and Zan are loving brothers, of a sort. Ben Tomlin is a 13-year-old boy, growing up in Canada in 1973 and experiencing everything that life as a 13-year-old boy entails: teenage angst, getting into trouble, rebelling, noticing girls and learning life’s hard lessons.

Zan is an infant chimp, literally pulled from his mother’s breast at just eight days of age. Born in a research facility, he is now being raised as part of a human family – Ben’s family – for a university experiment on primates and language, which Ben’s father is leading.

In Half Brother, a novel for young adults told through the eyes of Ben, author Kenneth Oppel gives readers a vivid and intimate glimpse into the Tomlins’ family dynamics and, more importantly, reminds us of the perils, for both humans and animals, of thoughtless anthropomorphism and animal exploitation.

The Tomlins’ experiment, typical of many actually performed in the 1970s, aims to discover if, indeed, another species can be taught to understand and communicate in human language. From the very first day Zan is with their family, Ben’s parents are straightforward with him about what the experiment is to entail. His father stresses the importance of Zan being brought up to believe that he, too, is a human. Zan wears clothes, eats at the table with the Tomlins, and plays with Ben’s toys, as any human child would. The Tomlins teach Zan how to communicate using American Sign Language; ‘Up’, ‘Drink’, ‘Give’, ‘More’, ‘Eat’, ‘You’, and ‘Me’ becomes Zan’s vocabulary, and, before long, he is regularly signing to get what he desires.

Ben understands the experiment. However, he is increasingly baffled by the stark contrast between his father’s and his mother’s interactions with Zan. His father, opposed to even giving Zan a name, takes a very methodological approach. He never deviates from the guidelines of the experiment, and has little patience for anyone or anything that challenges his ideas of how the experiment should be carried out. His mother, on the other hand, is more nurturing. She recognizes that Zan’s needs extend beyond what is offered by the strict confines of the experiment and tries to be a mother figure for Zan, while at the same time not compromising the experiment. Ben’s struggle with this dichotomy and with his own growing feelings for Zan become one of the central themes of the book.

As Zan grows in both size and strength, and the experiment becomes more difficult to maintain safely, Project Zan begins to spiral out of control. At this point, Ben finds an ally in Peter, one of the student research assistants working on the project. Like Ben, Peter sees Zan for what he truly is – a living being with real needs and emotions. With Peter, Ben attempts to find a way out of what has become a tragic trap for Zan.

Half Brother takes the reader on an emotional journey that follows Ben’s developing relationship with an animal. From a starting point of selfishness and a total lack of compassion and understanding, Ben ultimately experiences a deep change of heart. It was beautiful and inspiring to watch Ben’s cold reaction to the baby chimp he referred to as his ‘freaky little brother’ turn into a very loving relationship with Zan.

At times, Half Brother had me literally laughing out loud, a few scenes brought tears to my eyes, and still other parts had me questioning the way in which I treat my own companion animals. It is intended as a young adult read; however, the themes of compassion and exploitation that are woven into the plot transcend age boundaries. Ben’s struggles throughout the story are ones we can all relate to, and the love and compassion he maintains for Zan can inspire us all to act on behalf of those who are voiceless.

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Jena Mazzio

Jena Mazzio is a newly-turned ethical vegan. She lives in New Jersey with her husband and rescue animals — a cat and two dogs. Jena is currently having a blast discovering and writing about the many vegan products available today, on her blog, Vegans Have Taste Buds, Too!

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"Ethics and Animals: An Introduction" by Lori Gruen

If you believe it is wrong to hold animals captive in zoos, is it justifiable to hold domesticated animals captive in our homes as pets?

Would you save a human child from a lion? Would you save a gazelle? Is there a non-speciesist reason to save the child and not the gazelle?

If experimenting on 100 non-human animals would save 1,000 humans from suffering and death, is the experiment ethical?

If you believe it is wrong to eat eggs from hens locked in battery cages, is it ethical to eat eggs laid by hens who enjoy free-roaming, natural, species-appropriate lifestyles?

Wesleyan philosophy professor Lori Gruen’s new book, Ethics and Animals: An Introduction, offers readers the tools to answer such questions in intellectually and ethically coherent ways. Ethics introduces readers to the many ways humans use animals, and to the schools of ethical thought that we can use to evaluate the morality of this use. As a vegan and animal advocate, I have struggled with some of the questions that Gruen analyzes; her rigorous approach doesn’t always yield iron-clad answers, but it is does offer thought-provoking guidelines.

Gruen opens with a chapter dismantling the myth of “Human Exceptionalism,” the belief that humans are somehow unique among and therefore superior to all other fauna. She takes on many arguments that exceptionalists have used to distinguish humans from all other animals, including tool use, language use, self-awareness, and morality, by describing one empirical study after another proving that none of these traits is unique to humans. “Human exceptionalism, as an ethical position, is untenable,” she concludes.

Gruen then turns to the schools and tools of ethical thought that we can use to evaluate whether humans are justified in treating other animals differently from ourselves. She writes in clear, accessible language about the elements of each philosophy and the differences among them. Still, the subject matter is complex, and her discussion sometimes falls prey to a hazard common to introductory books: because she has room only to skim the surface of each school of philosophy, her explanations occasionally raise more questions than they answer. Even so, they provide a valuable overview of the range of philosophical thought applicable to the relations between humans and other species.

Ethics draws the line of moral consideration around beings whose “lives can go better or worse for them.” These are “sentient beings who have interests and well-beings. They can be harmed when their interests are thwarted and their wellness is undermined,” and therefore are entitled to moral consideration. Gruen introduces four major approaches to evaluating how humans as “moral agents” should or must treat beings entitled to moral consideration: utilitarianism, rights views, feminist ethics, and the capabilities approach. The first two are represented by names familiar to animal advocates: Peter Singer’s Animal Liberation is probably the seminal utilitarian work on human treatment of animals (and was an important catalyst in my move from vegetarianism to veganism), and Tom Regan is a leading proponent of animal rights. The feminist ethicists Gruen discusses include Josephine Donovan and Carol Adams, and the work of Martha Nussbaum, the inimitable jack-of-all-scholarly trades, introduces the capabilities approach (full disclosure: as an undergraduate at Brown University I studied with Professor Nussbaum and believe that she is among the greatest thinkers of our time; the fact that she has turned her attention to the moral entitlements of non-human animals is a coup).

Gruen’s goal in Ethics is to “draw on the resources of these frameworks in discussing the ethical claims animals make on us in a variety of contexts.” She discusses each of those contexts in detail, concisely but powerfully conveying the horror of each form of human exploitation of animals and then applying the tools of ethical analysis to each one. Animal advocates may be frustrated that she does not conclude each discussion with an unqualified denunciation of the gruesome practices she describes, but she never fails to grant animals moral consideration.

The question of using non-human animals for food is a good example. After describing factory farming with gut-wrenching specifics, she asks whether vegetarianism is “ethically required,” and concludes only that “ethical justifications for killing [animals] for food, when it is not necessary to eat them, . . . remain questionable.” But she asserts that non-human animals unequivocally “warrant ethical attention,” and finds killing them for food “questionable” only if they receive that ethical attention and humans “significant[ly] reorient [their thinking about and treatment of] other animals.” The implication is that so long as the overwhelming number of animals raised for food continue to receive no ethical attention, killing them for food is unjustifiable. Though some activists may prefer a stronger condemnation of eating animals, Gruen’s measured and thoughtful consideration of competing views and interests lends her arguments a certain weight that could help shift mainstream debates towards the conclusions that activists favor.

The other contexts of animal use that Gruen analyzes include experimentation (“As long as animal interests are not taken into account and experimenters are unmotivated to change, it seems ethically reasonable to oppose animal experimentation”), captivity (“There may be no ethical way to rectify the wrong we have done” by taking animals into captivity, but given that we are holding animals captive, we are obligated “to attend more carefully and systematically to” their needs), and animals in the wild (the conflicts that arise between humans and wild animals prove too ethically and pragmatically difficult to admit of a single facile prescription).

The last chapter is perhaps the most interesting for animal advocates as it addresses the competing approaches to activism. Gruen explains the divide between “welfarists” and “liberationists” and the schism among liberationists around pragmatism versus abolition. Gruen herself appears to be what she would call a pragmatic liberationist, criticizing “[a]bsolutist commitments and demands for purity” as “not just strategically ineffectual, but [possibly] self-defeating,” and denouncing welfarists as “more or less committed speciesists.”

Illustrating the approaches to activism with descriptions and evaluations of actual campaigns, Gruen keeps this chapter practical. She closes by cautioning that animal activists may “want so much to be righteous [and] believe so deeply in their righteousness, that they think whatever they do must be righteous.” To avoid this pitfall, Gruen offers activists a guide to subjecting our ideologies to rigorous intellectual analysis, which can only make us more persuasive and effective in our struggles on behalf of non-human animals.

For me, Ethics was a useful though difficult book to read. Gruen’s descriptions of humans’ use and abuse of other animals can be heart-breaking, especially when she brings the statistics to life through stories of individuals. But it is these appalling facts that make otherwise academic debates among ethicists urgent and relevant. Gruen makes ethical arguments matter, even in situations that seem morally clear.

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Piper Hoffman

Piper Hoffman is a writer and attorney living in Brooklyn with her husband, two cats, and occasional foster kittens. She has a B.A. magna cum laude from Brown University and a J.D. cum laude from Harvard Law School. Piper has professional experience with the laws related to animal rights, employment, poverty, homelessness, women’s rights, and being childfree. She blogs at piperhoffman.com and her writing has been published by Salon, Forbes Woman, and others.

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I admit it. For most of my life, I had a love affair with dairy. Every birthday had to include a Carvel ice cream cake. Cookies just weren’t the same if they weren’t accompanied by a tall glass of milk. Pizza? Extra cheese, please. If asked, I would certainly have said that milk was healthy and necessary for strong bones, information that I had gotten from celebrities with milk mustaches, as well as from health teachers in school. Americans have been told for years that “milk does a body good.” Well, it turns out that none of it is true, and, thankfully, I finally realized that several years ago when I saw the light and went vegan.

If Mom only knew...

Since you read the Our Hen House blog, you are probably already at least somewhat aware of the hideous cruelties inherent in milk production. And, of course, in addition to the animal rights issues, milk can wreak absolute havoc on our health. If you need proof, you need to read Joseph Keon’s eye-opening new book, Whitewash: The Disturbing Truth About Cow’s Milk and Your Health, which busts through the misconceptions surrounding dairy, and lays bare its dangerous effects on the human body.

Keon starts by addressing the source of the myths about dairy’s healthfulness. The first problem is that the nutritional guidelines provided to Americans (including school children) about what they should be eating, are made up by government agencies that have been corrupted by special interest lobbies. But government isn’t the only problem. The corporate-owned media discourages stories that might go against their advertisers, deterring reporters from exposing the negative aspects of animal agriculture. If that weren’t enough, some states even have so-called “food disparagement laws” that prevent people from criticizing certain perishable food commodities. Remember when Oprah was sued by the cattle industry for telling the truth about mad cow disease?

Whitewash goes on to explain how our taxes are also used to strengthen the dairy industry. As a person who objects to milk on ethical grounds, that one really gets my rescued goat! The United States government subsidizes the milk industry with up to $2.5 billion in tax breaks every year. All the surplus milk from that subsidized production ends up as a required carton of milk that is given to every child participating in the national school lunch program. With the government, media, and schools all telling us that it is important to consume dairy products for good health, how could one not be misinformed? Perhaps if Whitewash were required reading by students, faculty, and parents, things would be looking up. But alas, this information is all kept under wraps, to say the least.

In addition to the brainwashing, there is also the unfortunate problem of addiction. Research has shown that cow’s milk contains components identical to narcotic opiates. These compounds are thought to function as a way to get calves to become addicted to milk so that they will drink enough to double their birth weight in 47 days. The presence of this addictive compound in milk points to what should be an obvious fact: Cow’s milk is made for calves, not humans.

That this is so is also abundantly clear from the detrimental effects of dairy on human health. Keon spends over 100 pages chronicling the myriad of health problems that can be linked to dairy consumption, including everything from acne and headaches, to diabetes, learning disorders and autism. Perhaps the most shocking is osteoporosis. Yes, osteoporosis. While most people think that preventing osteoporosis is the very reason they should be drinking milk, and while the government and the dairy industry continue to claim that milk contains calcium that builds strong bones, there is compelling evidence that shows quite the opposite effect. Keon references The China Study author Dr. T. Colin Campbell’s extensive research, which shows that the higher the meat and dairy consumption in a population, the higher the rate of osteoporosis. Campbell says,  “The correlation between animal protein [intake] and fracture rates in different societies is as strong as that between lung cancer and smoking.”

What kind of cruelty lurks in this container?

Although Keon focuses on the health reasons to jettison dairy, I was happy to see that he also highlighted the ethical and environmental reasons for doing so. The average dairy cow does not live her life grazing in pastures on rolling hills, but in a factory farm where she is continually impregnated and has her calves taken away from her so that her milk can be harvested by machines and sold to consumers instead of nourishing her baby. Her calf is either subjected to her mother’s same cruel fate of becoming a dairy cow, or if the calf is a boy, he is imprisoned in a veal crate and slaughtered while still a baby.

In addition to heartbreak and physical pain for the cows, factory farms also cause substantial environmental damage. Land is cleared to grow corn and soy to feed dairy cows. These cows produce an enormous amount of manure and methane gas that leeches into the water supply and is responsible a staggering percentage of greenhouse gas emissions. It was refreshing to see Keon going there, especially when this truly inconvenient truth is so rarely approached.

After reading about all the negative aspects of dairy, it’s hard to imagine that anyone would want to continue consuming it. For those who want to go dairy-free, Keon provides an informative and accessible chapter on how to get your calcium and other nutritional needs from plant-based sources, which, I can testify, is both easy and scrumptious. The book also includes a long list of other useful resources to explore – making Whitewash an even more important tool for animal advocates who want to reach our milk-guzzling friends and family. As we continue to arm ourselves with more and more facts about why animal products are cruel, unsustainable, and unhealthy, we will effectively be breeding new vegans. And that’s a hobby I very much enjoy.

While I personally gave up dairy for ethical reasons, I have experienced significant health benefits from doing so. The intestinal issues I had been suffering from for almost 10 years suddenly went away, my skin grew clearer and my eyes brighter. I no longer have any question that giving up dairy is essential for the animals, the environment and our health. And as I’m well aware, there is a delicious alternative to every kind of dairy product you can imagine. Nowadays, I’d take some vegan soft serve (Lula’s Sweet Apothecary is my fave) over pus-laden dairy any day.

In a clear and convincing manner, Whitewash outlines all the reasons to dump dairy. My suggestion? Read the book, and have a gallon or three of vegan soy ice cream waiting for you in the freezer for when you’re done. Something tells me you won’t be craving milk anymore.

Book Review: “Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India”

by Sangamithra Iyer

Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and his Struggle with India by Joseph Lelyveld

In 1893, a young Indian lawyer arrived on the shores of South Africa. He didn’t know then that he would stay for over twenty years, during which he would be confronted with injustices that would force him to continually challenge not only the law, but also himself. Nor did he know that what he learned in South Africa he would later adapt to a struggle for independence and equity in his home country. The opening pages of Joseph Lelyveld’s book, Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle with India, provide a portrait of this activist as a young man:

“He wants his life to matter, but he’s not sure where or how; in that sense, like most twenty-three-year-olds, he’s vulnerable and unfinished. He’s looking for something—a career, a sanctified way of life, preferably both—on which to fasten.”

Despite what the title may suggest, Great Soul is not hagiography, documenting the life of a saint, but rather a well-examined account of the making of an activist. In a recent talk at the Asia Society in New York, Lelyveld was asked what gave him the nerve to choose Gandhi as his subject, when the Mahatma is such a big figure and the literature on him is already so vast. “There’s a Sanskrit word for it,” Lelyveld joked. “Chutzpah.”

Indeed there is a certain amount of chutzpah required to re-examine a well examined life, but Great Soul succeeds in tracking Gandhi’s work in South Africa and analyzing how it shaped the man who would become a national and moral leader in India. It is well researched and artfully guided by Lelyveld, who spent decades studying Gandhi’s life and letters, tracing his footsteps on both continents. What I appreciated about the book is its intimate portrayal of a very human, flawed and conflicted Gandhi — a man trying to find his way to change the world.

My interest in Gandhi is multifold. My grandfather was an engineer working for the British in Burma when he responded to Gandhi’s call for activists in the struggle for independence. He rid himself of worldly possessions and started a Gandhian ashram in a rural village in south India, where my father was born. I was always fascinated by Gandhi’s connection of the personal to the political and inspired by his example to “be the change you wish to see in the world.” In Great Soul, I found an account of Gandhi’s life that wasn’t simplified or glorified, but instead addressed the complexity of the activist and his work.

While Gandhi’s thoughts on vegetarianism and animal related issues are barely and only peripherally touched upon in Great Soul — (see Gandhi’s Autobiography and Tristram Stuart’s Bloodless Revolution for more on these topics) — Lelyveld’s documentation of Gandhi’s social justice work provides valuable insight and perspective to animal activists.

Indeed, in the Bloodless Revolution, Stuart notes that “vegetarianism was Gandhi’s first political cause; many of his earliest writings were articles in the journals of the Vegetarian Society [of London] and correspondences about his new vegetarian ‘mission.’” He never abandoned this seminal cause (and in fact was continually refining it), but he connected it to other efforts that eventually led to his role in Indian independence.

The Power of the Pen

When Gandhi moved to South Africa, his first activist deed was a letter to the editor. It was after he had been ordered by a judge to remove his turban in a courtroom in Durban, and the local newspaper published an article about the situation titled “An Unwelcome Visitor.” Lelyveld writes that “Gandhi immediately shot off a letter to the newspaper, the first of dozens he’d write to deflect or deflate white sentiments.” After his next racial assault, when he was ejected from a train’s first-class compartment because a white passenger did not want to be in the same area as a “coolie,” Gandhi sent telegrams to the general manager of the railway station raising enough of a ruckus to reboard the train in first class. (Later in his life in India, he would voluntarily only travel third class in solidarity with the masses).

In South Africa, Gandhi needed a platform, so he launched his own weekly newspaper, Indian Opinion. In need of a name for his nonviolent movement, because he felt “passive resistance” indicated a certain weakness, he held a contest in Indian Opinion. Through that process, the name satyagraha — truth force — was coined.

As is the case with all independent media, funding became a concern. Inspired by reading John Ruskin and Leo Tolstoy, Gandhi “found an answer to his immediate practical problem: he could save his paper by moving it to a self-sustaining rural settlement,” Lelyveld writes. “Workers on the farm were expected to double as pressmen and simultaneously feed themselves. Hand labor, thereafter, would be the reflexive Gandhian answer to various problems from colonial exploitation to rural underemployment and poverty.”

As a result, for Gandhi, the publication was not only a pulpit but became a way to show how he was practicing what he preached. A compilation of his columns from Indian Opinion would later become his Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Upon his return to India, Gandhi started another publication, Young India, and later while in prison, distributed The Harijan, a weekly newsletter aimed at getting rid of the caste system.

Coalition Building

Gandhi was not a single-issue advocate. His views and philosophies were ever evolving but he understood the connections between all his causes, even when few others did. Lelyveld analyzes Gandhi’s work on his “four pillars” for swaraj (self-rule): Hindu Muslim unity, eradication of untouchability, revitalization of self-sustaining rural villages, and ahimsa, nonviolence. When I think about my grandfather’s work in the Freedom Movement, what it entailed was spinning cotton, providing water and sanitation to rural villages and fighting for caste equality. These tasks epitomized Gandhi’s pillars in function and in form.

Pyarelal, one of Gandhi’s biographers, documented one of his epiphanies in South Africa that ultimately led to the four pillars:

“The truth burst upon his heart with the force of the revelation that so long as India allowed a section of her people to be treated as pariahs, so long must her sons be prepared to be treated as pariahs abroad.”

In India, Gandhi expanded his thinking further: “Only at that time can non-cooperation with an enemy nation become a possibility, when full cooperation between ourselves has been achieved.”

Working towards these goals had its challenges, and Gandhi was subject to a fair amount of criticism. He needed to fight untouchability in Hinduism yet still maintain a Hindu base for the independence movement and build that base without alienating Muslims in the process. Lelyveld poses the questions Gandhi faced:

“Could he simultaneously lead a struggle for independence and a struggle for social justice if that meant taking on orthodox high-caste Hindus, which would inevitably strain and possibly splinter his movement?… Granted that Gandhi did much to make the practice of untouchability disreputable among modernizing Indians, what exactly was he prepared to do for the untouchables themselves besides preach to their oppressors?”

As he struggled with these issues and his approach to addressing them, one thing Gandhi was sure of was nonviolence:

“I personally can never be a party to a movement half-violent and half non-violent,” he said, “even though it may result in the attainment of so-called swaraj, for it will not be real swaraj as I have conceived it.”

Gandhi’s ruminations on building bridges within and between movements and defining tactics and strategies must surely echo and resonate among animal activists today. They remind us that every movement for change has had strong dissension within its ranks and that without constant care and thoughtful leadership, could easily be torn apart.

On Despair:

Despite the many challenges facing him and India, Gandhi once said he was “not a quick despairer.” But there were moments when Gandhi realized, that despite his efforts, the four pillars to which he devoted his life were crumbling. Lelyveld writes about a very lonely and disappointed Gandhi when violence erupted around him:

“For India’s prophet of unity, nonviolence, and peace, these events—the overture for a year and a half of mass mayhem, murder, forced migration, property loss on a vast scale, extensive ethnic cleansing—provided ample reason for despair, enough to bring his whole life into question. Or so he seemed to feel at his lowest ebb. But if he was shaken, he clung ever more fervently to his core value of ahimsa, on which much of India seemed to have given up.”

Lelyveld captures the personal struggle Gandhi faced, committing himself to a life of activism. In 1921, Gandhi thought independence could be achieved in one year. And when independence came in 1947, it was heartbreaking. Gandhi witnessed the partition of his homeland, what he referred to as “vivisection.”

“The tragic element is that he was ultimately forced like Lear, to see the limits of his ambition to remake his world,” Lelyveld explains. And yet, Gandhi non-violently soldiered on. He veered at the end of his life, Lelyveld observes “between dark despair and irrepressible hope.”

Satyagraha Now

Lelyveld points out that in South Africa today, “the vegetarian restaurant, steps away [from Gandhi’s law office] is long gone; hard by the place it stood, perhaps exactly on the spot, a McDonald’s now does a fairly brisk nonvegetarian trade.” And in India, Lelyveld writes, “The combination of piety and disregard [for Gandhi]—hardly unique to India—lasted as a cultural reflex surviving the explosion of India’s first nuclear bomb.”

When President Obama traveled to India last fall, he paid his respects to Gandhi’s memorial, but arrived with an economic agenda offering American meat, dairy and arms to the emerging superpower. Globalization, urbanization and modernization have shaped an India that is far removed from Gandhi’s vision of self-sustaining villages. Religious conflict and social inequality still plague India today.

What we may see now almost anywhere is not too dissimilar to what Gandhi discovered when he returned to India in 1915 and what ultimately drove his work. “I see around me on the surface nothing but hypocrisy, humbug and degradation, and yet underneath it, I trace a divinity.” We may be witnessing the erosion of Gandhian principles, but also their reincarnation. Perhaps it is in the nonviolent resistance movements in the Middle East, undercover investigations exposing the truth about how animals are treated, DIY efforts of self-sufficiency, or any time individuals realize that change begins with them, we find a trace of the Mahatma.

***
Sangamithra Iyer is an Associate for Brighter Green and the former Assistant Editor of Satya Magazine.

Sangamithra Iyer

When I found out about Gary’s newest project — to create a movement of people veganizing recipes in the comments section of non-vegan food sites — I nearly choked on my cruelty-free cupcake. Rather than me writing about this brilliant form of armchair activism, I asked Gary if he would be so kind as to write a guest blog post about what the project is, and how we can all get involved. Maybe he was also high on sugar at the time, but somehow, he agreed.

Veganizing Recipies on Non-Vegan Food Sites — and Commenting on Them

by Gary Loewenthal

Background

Most nights I cook dinner, and often I search the Net for ideas on what to make. The two main types of food sites I run into and use are recipe sites and food blogs.

It occurred to me recently that if I veganized dishes on non-vegan recipe sites or food blogs, and provided feedback – especially positive feedback – on the veganized versions of the recipes, I might accomplish some mild but easy and frequent outreach:

• The audience for my comments – from what I could tell – would be overwhelmingly non-vegan, and interested in food.
• My comments could briefly describe how I veganized the dish, and probably introduce people to products such as seitan and Daiya cheese.
• Cooks usually appreciate feedback on their dishes, so they would presumably have some interest in what I said.

New Outreach Project

I started doing this about three weeks ago. Although the project is still new, it may have a lot of potential, so I wanted to: a) report on how it’s going so far; b) see if anyone else is doing this; and c) encourage others to try it. It’s simple and non-confrontational.

Here are the basic guidelines I’m following, in an effort to maximize the outreach benefit from this endeavor. I have two caveats: 1) It’s still early, so this is subject to change; and 2) your results may vary.

Community

I decided that rather than hop from site to site, I would choose a small number of places and stick around there for a while, so I could become part of the community. The first two sites I chose were Mixing Bowl and Taste of Home. Each of these are fairly large mainstream sites – and profoundly non-vegan. Nearly every main course recipe has animal products, and most have meat. The top search term is often “chicken.” Veganism is essentially off the radar.

I’ve veganized several recipes on these two sites and given positive reviews. In fact, one of the veganized recipes – a pot pie using seitan instead of chicken – was the best pot pie I’ve ever had, hands down (click on “reviews” to see my effusive praise).

Selecting Dishes to Cook and Review

For the most part, I just browse and select dishes that sound good and look doable. But truth be told, I’ve been slightly favoring recipes where I substitute seitan for chicken. My thinking is:

• The public is sort of familiar with tofu, but not with seitan.
• Seitan is probably my favorite “meaty” food to put in recipes.
• Since seitan is such a great alternative to chicken, the number of animals potentially saved if more people use this product is huge.

On the other hand, seitan – at least the ready-made kind – is not nearly available as tofu.

Usually I look for recipes that are popular or currently generating buzz, in hope that my review will be seen by the most number of people. Although there is something to be said for being the lone reviewer of a recipe, especially if the feedback is positive, if it was my recipe, I’d certainly take notice and appreciate the comments.

For now, I’m only giving feedback if I like the dish, because that seems like it has the most outreach potential. I wouldn’t totally rule out giving negative or so-so reviews, but on a decidedly non-vegan site, would viewers tend to attribute my disappointment to the fact that I wasn’t using “real” meat, cheese, or butter?

Citing Brand Names and Specific Varieties of Vegan Products

In my reviews, I say “Daiya Cheese,” “Tofutti Cream Cheese,” “Field Roast apple-sage sausage,” and so forth, rather than “vegan cheese,” “vegan cream cheese,” and “vegan sausage.” For better or worse, I think mentioning the brand name makes the products sound more legitimate to people for whom veganism is an alien concept. Affixing the brand name may also make the products seem more appealing and be easier to remember.

For clarity (and a little PR) I often add brief descriptions or shout-outs about vegan products I’m using (e.g., “seitan is a wheat gluten-based veggie meat that has a taste and texture very similar to chicken in recipes,” or “mashed banana is great in pancakes,” or “Veganaise tastes even better than egg-based mayonnaise”).

Avoiding Pro-Animal Product Terminology

In my comments, I say “veggie meat,” not “fake meat.” Often, what we call commonly call “meat” is an amalgam of flavors anyway, far removed from – excuse the directness – a hunk of raw flesh.

Likewise, I say “animal-derived deli slices,” not “real deli slices.” Tofurky is as real as the round, thin, packaged, flavor-enhanced slices of genetically modified turkeys who lived and died in hideously unnatural circumstances.

I avoid saying “regular milk” and say “cow’s milk” instead. The choice of words can be a subtle form of outreach in itself. I don’t want to perpetuate the notion that animal products are the standard and that non-animal alternatives are a deviation. I don’t want to use carnist language, as explained by Dr. Melanie Joy in Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows.

Preferring Large, Active Sites

Some non-vegan recipe sites and food blogs have huge followings. In addition, subscribers can choose to receive email notifications when there are new recipes, discussion posts, reviews, and so forth, which can create sizable built-in audiences of non-vegan food fans.

I’m currently adding allrecipes.com and epicurious.com to my current home base of non-vegan food sites.

I still plan to regularly visit smaller food blogs as well, where the conversation with the recipe-maker may be more personal.

Low-Key

My perception so far is that this outreach will be most effective and sustainable – at least for a while – if I limit my views to food, occasional exceptions notwithstanding.

However, opportunities to sneak in some activism do arise. On one site, a regular contributor asked very politely why anyone would eat “imitation” meat if they’re opposed to meat.

She also expressed reservations about soy. This provided an opportunity to talk about the ethical reasons for opposing animal-based meat, and to link, respectively, to sites that explained (and showed) the horrors of animal agriculture and the safety of soy for most people. I was helped significantly by a vegan Facebook friend. Our two voices synergized. The conversation was cordial and productive.

For dishes where I use seitan instead of chicken, where applicable I point out that I don’t have to cook the veganized dish for as long as the original because I don’t have to worry about undercooked meat.

I have a feeling that I’ll be able to judiciously work in references to www.meatvideo.com , the horrid practices of hen hatcheries, and other unsettling but mostly hidden aspects of animal products from time to time. However, my gut tells me that if I overdo it, I’ll lose my audience and/or provoke angry reactions that will impair my gentler food outreach.

Beyond Veganizing Recipes

Many recipe sites have discussion groups. Mixing Bowl has one called “What did you cook today?” What could be easier? Join the group and infuse the conversation with tales of daily, real-life awesome vegan creations – or instant dinners for that matter. These discussions tend to be friendly, and vegan participation may help mainstream the concept to the other members.

I’ve also started to periodically give some love to recipes on these non-vegan sites that appear to be intentionally vegetarian (in which case I veganize it) or vegan, on the theory that non-vegans will be more likely to try a vegan recipe if it has a threshold of good reviews.

Of course, you can submit your own recipes! I don’t have the talent to make recipes from scratch, but I admire and appreciate people who do. I’d love to see vegans’ wonderful creations gracing the non-vegan recipe site landscape, and I look forward to trying those dishes and helping their visibility through rave reviews.

Strength in numbers / Invitation

If one vegan can make a difference in a non-vegan site, then two or ten should be even better. I’d like to see what happens as the frequency and percentage of friendly, informative vegan posts in non-vegan food sites increases.

If you’re interested in this simple – almost relaxing – form of food outreach, feel free to join me – or of course feel free to go at it independently if you prefer. If you want, contact me through email (gary[at]compassion4animails.org) or via Facebook. Optionally let me know the non-vegan food sites at which you’ll be hanging out, and I’ll try to join you there if you want company. If this technique starts to get popular, we could start a Facebook page so we can easily communicate with each other and see what everyone is doing.

***

Gary Loewenthal is the co-founder of Compassion for Animals and founder of the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sake. He and his wife live in Falls Church, Virginia with their cat Mike (who made them go vegetarian in 2002) and bunny Fiona (who made them vegan in 2004).

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Book Review: Fraser’s Penguins: A Journey to the Future in Antarctica

by Jennifer Parrucci

I have a slight obsession with penguins. My small apartment is littered with penguin books, penguin knick-knacks, penguin documentaries, and penguin art work. One of my fondest dreams is to take a trip to South Africa to see penguins in their natural habitat, littering the beaches and braying like donkeys at each other. So, when I heard about Fen Montaigne’s new book, Fraser’s Penguins: A Journey to the Future in Antarctica, I was more than eager to delve into it.

"Fraser's Penguins" by Fen Montaigne

Montaigne spent five months in 2005-2006 in the Antarctic with scientist Bill Fraser, who has studied Adélie penguins for 30 years. While much of his research has been to document the fascinating behaviors of these extraordinary animals, sadly, some of his most significant discoveries, and the ones that were of special interest to Montaigne, were his observations about global warming trends. The Antarctic has warmed at a faster rate than any place else on the planet, and Fraser’s beloved penguins have been profoundly affected.

The insidious cycle works something like this: Rapidly increasing temperatures within the Antarctic region have decreased the amount of sea ice, leading to an increased amount of snowfall. Among other things, the snow lingering on the Adélies’ nesting grounds well into spring causes a delay in the hatching of chicks. This delay means that chicks no longer hatch during peak krill season and this slight difference leads, in turn, to parents having to work harder to properly nourish the chicks to a healthy weight. Lighter chicks tend to have a lower survival rate. As a result of this series of catastrophes, Fraser has seen the penguin population decrease to an alarming degree.

While, except for the penguins themselves, this series of small tragedies may seem small in its implications, of course nothing could be further from the truth. Montaigne writes:

Should mankind continue to emit ever-larger quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, leading to temperature increases of 2° to 5° C (3.6° F to 9° F) in the next century, then global warming will no longer be gnawing at the edges of Antarctica. It will be taking large bites, bringing about changes that could destabilize the ice shelves, the ice sheets, and the sea ice that define the continent and support the tens of millions of penguins, seabirds, seals, and other creatures whose life histories have evolved inside the unique world of the Antarctic Convergence. Such disruption would be felt far beyond the bounds of the Southern Ocean as it leads to a significant rise in sea levels worldwide and alters the global climate system.

Though the book confirms the idea that this warming has been caused by man and modern civilization, I was disappointed about the lack of discussion about the greenhouse gas emissions caused by animal food production. Organizations such as Brighter Green, the documentary Meat the Truth, and even a United Nation’s report titled Livestock’s Long Shadow have concluded that animal agribusiness is a major contributor, if not the top contributor, to global climate change.

While the science of climate change is the core of this book and the facts set forth are compelling (and frightening), there is much joy to be had here as well, because of Montaigne’s intimate portraits of the penguins themselves — especially their interactions with one another. Like so many others, I have always found these waddling, tuxedo-clad birds to be unbelievably endearing. But these are no cartoon figures. The social dynamics within the colonies are especially fascinating. Adélie penguin pairs form strong bonds. If both survive the harsh winter season, they will generally reunite each year to mate. Sometimes, however, this doesn’t work out perfectly, and if a female finds her former partner with someone new, the result can be jealous fights.

It’s hard not to see human motivations and behavior mirrored in these love triangles. Through his astute observations of these and other interactions amongst the penguins Fraser has studied for so long, Montaigne illuminates complex and deeply moving relationships. As we watch these birds work together (and sometimes clash) while trying to survive in one of the harshest climates on the planet, we see glimpses of ourselves, and, perhaps, come to empathize with the plight of these magnificent creatures living on the edge of our fragile world.

Along with the endearing stories, I must warn that there are some parts of the book that the more sensitive reader may find upsetting. There is a history of Antarctic exploration that highlights the seal and whaling industries that were prevalent in the region. Hearing about the great numbers of seals, whales, and even penguins that were killed can be hard to stomach. In addition, there is a chapter called “Predators” that the squeamish may want to skim over.

Fraser’s Penguins gives the reader a glimpse into the majesty of the Antarctic and the tragedy of its decline. Montaigne’s depiction of the region will certainly cause the reader to empathize with the Adélies, and hopefully it will inspire them to take actions to ease their impact on our planet.

***

Editor’s Note: For a fictional tale about penguin research, which also gives a great deal of information about these fascinating animals, we also suggest you read The Tourist Trail by John Yunker.

Bee compassionate, for the love of God.

The veganism discussion I attended was part of MCCNY’s series of “conversations” on various issues. The event featured impressive speakers: Jim Allen, organizer of VegOut NYC, a NYC-based meetup group for LGBT vegans and vegetarians (which Our Hen House recently blogged about), Calla Wright, campaigns coordinator of Farm Sanctuary (who is, in the interest of full disclosure, the aforementioned Calla who happens to be my partner), Michael Easterling of MCCNY, and Brooklyn illustrator John Wyffels.

What was particularly great about the event was that MCCNY has a strong commitment to social justice, especially LGBT rights and marriage equality. You can imagine how amazing it was to have a vegan event at a place like that. I know I’m not alone in the observation that too many religious groups – almost all of them, in fact – blatantly ignore animal issues, even when they have a stated commitment to social justice. To have veganism recognized as a social justice issue that touches upon a multitude of causes, including animal rights, the environment, human health and workers’ rights, was an amazing opportunity, and all too rare.

Luckily, it doesn’t have to be rare – you can do your part to introduce veganism to your church, synagogue, mosque or temple. Here are some simple ideas that could be applied to many religious communities, regardless of creed or denomination:

• Religious communities often have some kind of social action committee. Participating in these is a great way to bring up veganism, and all of the intersections it involves. As a member of such a committee, you can suggest an event like the one at MCCNY. It’s easier than you might think to get speakers from animal rights organizations or activist groups to participate in these events. Most animal rights activists jump at the opportunity to speak about why they do what they do!
• Even if you can’t find a speaker in your area, you can step up to the (cruelty-free) plate yourself and share with your community why you’re committed to a vegan lifestyle. Engaging with people as a member of their community is sometimes more effective than bringing in the voice of an outsider. I find that The Animal Activist’s Handbook is very useful in terms of effective communication techniques. (Oh, and pardon the shameless plug, but the authors of that book, Matt Ball and Bruce Friedrich, were both recent guests on the Our Hen House podcast, and gave some stellar tips that every activist needs to hear.)
• Many religious communities also host reading groups or other study groups. You can easily recommend an accessible animal rights-related book to such a group. For instance, Jonathan Safran Foer’s amazing bestseller, Eating Animals, is an invaluable resource, and accessible for most audiences. Remember that you can also tailor your suggestions to your particular community. For example, if you attend an evangelical Christian church, a book like Matthew Scully’s Dominion might be a good choice. If you’re part of a Buddhist community, why not suggest checking out Norm Phelps’ The Great Compassion? If you’re Jewish, perhaps you can try Richard H. Schwartz’s Judaism and Vegetarianism?
• Coffee hour is another great avenue for animal activism. Why not see if you can get your community to offer vegan treats – perhaps even soy creamer – at coffee hour, along with a presentation about why a vegan diet is ideal? Convincing your community to offer more vegan options at such events may seem like a minor thing, but it can be highly significant for the animals (and great for you, since you’ll finally have something to eat!).
• I know all too well that sometimes, this kind of outreach to religious communities is easier said than done. If your community is reluctant to tread on these topics, start simple: leaving vegan literature around your place of worship is an easy, not as in-your-face way to bring animal issues to your community. Many houses of worship include tables for literature about various issues, so just ask if you can leave some Vegan Outreach or Mercy For Animals leaflets there. You’d be surprised at how effective this can be for starting a conversation, which can lead to further dialogue in the future.
• For more information on pro-animal outreach to specific religious communities, check out the Vegan Society’s list of vegan religious organizations. There are a lot more than you’d think.

Okay, so maybe you won’t immediately be successful in getting the sign out front updated with a pro-vegan message, like the chick sticker on my computer that says “Jesus Loves Me Too.” But by following one or more of these tips, you’ll definitely succeed in planting seeds of compassion — to use a Buddhist image — in a community where there weren’t any before, at least as far as animals were concerned. And that first step is crucial.

Now, May I Be Frank – A Film About Sex, Drugs and Transformation, has joined the collection. Filmmakers Cary Mosier, Ryland Engelhart, and Conor Gaffney have not only given animal advocates a new reason to host a community screening (your neighbors need to see this film), but they have also created a masterful and thoughtful film that details the journey of one man as his life is turned life upside-down in an effort to finally get healthy.

Since May I Be Frank is currently playing at screenings throughout the country (though, sadly for us, not yet in NYC), Our Hen House enlisted the help of San Francisco-based activist, Zoë Zuschlag, to review the film, after she saw it at a yoga studio in the City by the Bay.

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Review: May I Be Frank

by Zoë Zuschlag

mayibefrankmovie.com

May I Be Frank tells the harrowing but uplifting story of Frank Ferrante, who, when we first meet him, suffers from morbid obesity, diabetes, hepatitis C, a history of drug and alcohol addiction, as well as an emotional closet packed to the brim with skeletons.

Frank somehow finds his way into Cafe Gratitude — a raw, vegan, organic restaurant in San Francisco. There he meets Ryland, a twenty-something server who strikes up a conversation about changes Frank wants to make in his life. After Ryland enlists the help of coworkers Cary and Conor, the four agree to embark on a 42-day lifestyle change for Frank. During this period, Frank is to eat only raw, vegan, organic food, including three meals a day at Cafe Gratitude; practice affirmations; visit with holistic healthcare practitioners; and undergo weekly colonics —  all in hopes of transforming his body, mind, outlook, and, ultimately, his life.

I read the premise for this film and shuddered, picturing an overweight, pitiable man sitting through meditation circles, choking down unfamiliar foods, and telling his reflection in the mirror that he is beautiful, thin and deserving to be loved, all while hippies give him lots of hugs and teach him how to make hemp necklaces and center his chi. Lucky for me (and for Frank), I couldn’t have been more wrong.

Though Frank does practice affirmations and gag on his daily wheatgrass shot, the film is far from the drum circle hug-fest I envisioned. In fact, I left the screening feeling thoroughly entertained, enlivened, uplifted, and completely in love with Frank — not to mention seriously craving raw food. I truly did not want the experience to end (and it really was more of an experience than simply a screening). On the verge of buying the DVD as I was leaving the yoga studio where I saw the film, I pondered what it was that made me want to watch it over and over again. The answer was obvious — it was Frank himself.

Frank is funny, irreverent, candid, charming, honest, and, truth be told, frank. As we follow his journey through raw foods and raw emotions, the topics of conversation, as well as the difficult experiences he goes through in his efforts to regain his health, are often highly personal, and sometimes more than a little embarrassing. And yet, throughout it all, Frank remains thoroughly, and charmingly, non-plussed. He embraces the ups and downs with what can only be described as a commitment to full disclosure — he is as open about colonics, bowel movements, and bodily changes as he is in hashing out long-festering issues with his ex-wife.

Most importantly, throughout this physical and emotional upheaval, Frank somehow manages to never lose his always-surprising, and truly hilarious, sense of humor — there were many times when the entire audience was in stitches. But he is also truly inspired, and, when I wasn’t tearing up with laughter, it was hard to feel anything but awe for his acceptance and generosity. From the opening credits to the closing scene, Frank’s complete commitment to candidly telling his often painful journey in turn shocked and delighted his transfixed viewers.

Bottom line — treat yourself to May I Be Frank if and when you get the chance. You won’t be sorry. And, if at all possible, follow the filmmakers’ advice and see it with others. The importance of community experience is a major theme of this movie, and sharing it can only enhance your experience. At the end, you will want to talk it over with others — while, no doubt, munching on a raw kale salad.

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Zoë Zuschlag is the former Development Coordinator for Farm Sanctuary. Currently, she waits tables at San Francisco’s vegan capital, Herbivore: The Earthly Grill.

Zoë Zuschlag

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Much of human existence can be summed up as the pursuit of power. Whether it’s the power to change the world, to make someone laugh or make someone cry, no one has ever gotten anything done without it. And it is the dynamics of power, for better or (mostly) for worse that have defined relations between humanity and animals on our planet. In Dave Egger’s The Wild Things, a novel based on Maurice Sendak’s enduring 1963 classic Where the Wild Things Are and Spike Jonze’s 2009 film of the same name, a young boy named Max learns exactly how much power he can have. He also learns when to stop. There is, perhaps, a lesson to be learned from Max about what our relationship with real “wild things” could be, if we learned the appropriate limits of power.

"The Wild Things" (Faux) "Fur" Edition by Dave Eggers

In case we forgot, it’s not easy being a kid. Max is on the bottom. Everyone else looks down to him, wants to teach him something or give him an order. His older sister is way too cool for him now; she’d rather be giggling with boys who are chewing tobacco. His mom is dating a mushy-faced and fake nice guy who Max can’t stand. His dad lives in the city in a small apartment, and when he has a girl over, which is all too often, there is no room for Max. But tonight, Max is feeling more alive than usual; once he slips into his wolf suit, his ferocity is uncontainable. He can’t help it that he drenches his sister’s room in buckets of water (she deserves it) or that he bites his mom (it’s what wild things do). He doesn’t belong in this house anyway. So he leaves, and sails a long journey to an island where he can finally be himself — he is where the wild things are.

This is an island inhabited only by wild things, like Max. Together they can be wild! Destroy things, set fire to the forest! No rules, no homework, no saying you’re sorry. And, most surprising, Max finds it is easy for him to become ruler. All he has to do is say a few things they’ve never heard before and suddenly they’ve made him king! Just by being the only human on an island of wild things, without even trying, he becomes the most powerful living thing there. But soon Max learns that even wild things have hearts. And in the end, it’s even lonelier at the top than it is at the bottom.

This story takes on a new dimension when the child-like wild beasts of Max’s private island are seen as the wild things of our real world. Animals, wild and domesticated, occupy a place in our society where virtually any human, even one at the bottom of the human totem pole, can become their king. Like loyal dogs, the wild things completely trust Max’s intentions. And in the child-like intoxication of his power, Max is a dictator. Though his violence is not malevolent, the wild things are hurt: bruised, broken, battered. Max, in his wolf suit, slowly begins to realize that he may look like a wild thing on the outside, but he is a human within. That humanity has given him power, but it also bestows responsibility.

As with many humans who deal with animals, Max sets out to dominate these creatures without grasping the consequences of his actions. However, because of his child-like sensitivity, he decides to stop when he realizes these beasts are more like him than he initially thought. It is the wild things’ personalities — Eggers writes their voices in a way that often reminded me of what  thoughtful dogs would say if they could talk — that convinces Max of their ability to think and feel. His conscience stops him from going too far. As Max learns, the wild things are not only to be emulated and admired for their wildness, but also respected — and even feared — for what they are capable of. Wild things are to be honored — at a distance.

"Where the Wild Things Are" Movie (2009)

It is hard not to take away the message that people who harm animals are trying to empower the shrunken child within them; it is an instant dose of absolute power. But just as childishness can contribute to these sad, abusive tendencies, maintaining a child’s awed perspective of an animal’s power may be our best chance at keeping them safe. We need to work at maintaining Max’s ability to both identify with and fear the beasts at the same time.

Although The Wild Things can be understood as a rich allegory about the relationship between humanity and animals, it feels like a high-energy adventure, and you will feel like a high-energy child as you read. Eggers writes effortlessly — his prose simple and conversational, immediately accessible and intensely vivid. The hopefulness, the fervent enthusiasm and the palpable loneliness of not understanding our complex and punishing universe resonate in unexpected ways. It’s as if childhood memories and floating emotions from years ago flash back in an instant, and Max’s feelings and the reader’s become one.

In Max’s universe, where the punished wants to become the punisher, where out-of-control creatures may seem to be looking for a leader to tell them what to do, everything feels strangely familiar. Because we are lucky to live on this planet with so many powerful creatures — earth is where the wild things are. Let’s hope we can all learn the lessons that Max learned.

Painting at top of blog: “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak

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I’m Sorry: A Discussion With Katya Lidsky and Lauren Patrice Nadler

by Ari Solomon

If you’re in Los Angeles, there’s a hot ticket in town. The new play, I’m Sorry, written by and starring Katya Lidsky, and directed by Lauren Patrice Nadler, opens on Thursday, January 13 and plays through January 23 at The Lounge Theater in Hollywood.

The show is described as: “funny and poignant, a one-woman play about how a people-pleasing apologist became an animal-loving activist.” Totally intrigued and inspired how Katya used her talents as a springboard to share about her animal activism, I decided to sit down with her and the director, Lauren, during their crazy, hectic tech week and ask them a few questions. I’ll also being seeing the show opening night and talking about it on OHH’s podcast this weekend!

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Our Hen House: Katya, it’s not uncommon for actors to become involved in causes they care about. Could you share with us why animals are so close to your heart?

I'm Sorry's Katya Lidsky

Katya Lidsky: I think artists of any kind are empathetic, and it’s hard not to feel empathy for animals who are by nature voiceless and vulnerable — not to mention cute and furry. I grew up in a border town of Texas and Mexico, and there were many stray, down and out dogs, which always absolutely killed me to see. But about six years ago, I adopted my first dog, a Beagle. [...] She has been the gateway to all of this for me, and my greatest muse. I began learning more, volunteering at local animal shelters, and my activism grew from there the more I got involved.

OHH: Katya, what made you decide to use your craft as an actor/writer as a vehicle for sharing how you became an animal activist?

KL: I guess I just felt a burning desire to say these things, to tell this story, to speak to and for the animals I’ve met or loved. I don’t think I ever decided to do this, it’s more like I felt compelled to, I had to. It’s amazing to me how much we don’t know or choose not to know, and a lot of what I have to say is stuff I think we must know in order for change to ensue. I also really like laughing and I hope this show can carry the message while making people laugh and be entertained.

OHH: Lauren, has directing this show had an effect on you with regards to animal issues/activism?

Lauren Patrice Nadler: You bet!! I had no idea about some of the atrocities that take place, and of course I am feeling for sure that I don’t and have never done enough. I love animals and always have, and I seem to attract a lot of rescues, so I am always passing information along. But, I had no idea how far that little gesture could go until I passed on a note to my network about a pregnant pit bull that was in jeopardy. The reaction was astounding. There was a huge outpour of help and it touched me immeasurably. [...] That is just one awakening. Working with Katya on this piece I have learned so much. I am determined to get as many people to this play, to try to take it on the road as well as film slices of it and hit millions on the internet. In this show there is at least one personality, animal or event that everyone will identify with, and that identification will wake people up! I am so fortunate to be getting this opportunity to work on this show. I have always wanted to change the planet with my work for as long as I can remember. That is why I became an actor and a teacher, and a director!  Plus I am so fortunate to have an angel in my pet, and I can’t imagine my life without her…. more now then ever.

OHH: What are some of the themes you hope the audience walks away with?

from I'm Sorry

KL: I hope the audience walks away empowered, knowing there is so much they can do to make a difference. They can volunteer, adopt when they want a pet, donate to great organizations… I want the audience to know that our dollars count, they are our voting power, and where/how we spend them can help change the world. I just hope people walk away with a raised awareness about what happens to animals in our world today, and how we can be the answer.

LPN: [I hope the audience realizes] that it is never too late to start to help. I can’t say it better than Katya did in her interview here or in the show. Make a difference in any way you can. Every bit counts.

OHH: What do you hope to do with the show after your Los Angeles premiere? Will you be bringing I’m Sorry to other cities?

KL: I hope to do a longer run of the show in Los Angeles, and I would love to take I’m Sorry on the road if I’m invited! It’d be a dream to do this for colleges, in other cities, for animal organizations — just to spread the message and get to do this again would be an amazing goal to achieve. I hope I am that lucky, and I hope people enjoy the show enough to want to see it again and spread the word!

LPN: What she said! Yes, we would like to [take the show on the road] and it is the kind of show that can travel with very little baggage. It would be so great to get the attention that it deserves, and perhaps find an amazing team that wants to help us make that happen.

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You can get your tickets to I’m Sorry here. Be sure to also catch my review of the play on OHH’s 1-year anniversary podcast, airing this Saturday, January 15.

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Vegan Pen Pals Project

by Jenna McDavid

Is there anything cooler than receiving a hand-written letter in the mail? I’m the opposite of a pack rat, but I still have a folder full of letters and cards I’ve received over the last twenty years, and on more than a few occasions I’ve sat in the middle of my living room and pored over them when I was feeling sad/nostalgic/happy/homesick/excited/you get the idea.

In that spirit, we at L.O.V.E. [Living Opposed to Violence and Exploitation] have recently launched the Vegan Pen Pals Project, a worldwide community-building effort that connects vegans around the globe through the magic of the mail system. In a world that can sometimes be challenging for a vegan, we thought it would be really nice to make these one-on-one connections with tangible reminders that we are not alone, that we are loved and supported, and that we are making a more peaceful world, one letter at a time.

As one of the co-founders of L.O.V.E. I have always been really committed to building community and fostering local activism. While our collective only exists in a virtual space on the internet, the people who comprise the collective are operating in a very real world. In addition to the blog and other online elements of our site, we’ve also definitely tried to make off-line activism accessible for all: we provide free literature for distribution, we have a video (You Can Help Stop This) that can be downloaded and shared, we have how-to directions for letter writing and video projection, and now we’re hoping to build even more connections through the Pen Pals Project.

The premise is simple: you answer some questions about yourself on an online application, we review and pair you up with another vegan (or aspiring vegan) based on your similar interests, and once a month or more you send them a letter via a central PO Box. You never have to give your address to anyone but the Pen Pals Project moderator (oh, that’s me) who promises not to share it with anybody. Creative types are encouraged to send mixtapes, stickers, artwork, photographs, zines — whatever might be of interest to your vegan pen pal.

Maybe you just adopted a vegan diet and are having trouble finding new recipes. Maybe you’re an aspiring vegan who just needs that little push from someone who’s been there to get you over the edge. Maybe you want more ideas for activism and would like to know what other folks are doing in their communities. Maybe you’re a long-time vegan and social justice activist who is looking for a compassionate friend to listen to your gripes about the people who just don’t get it. All of these are great reasons for signing up to be a Vegan Pen Pal, and we’re hoping that this project will grow and expand and create some really strong friendships for vegans around the world.

Interested?  Check out the Vegan Pen Pals Project at loveallbeings.org and sign up today!  We expect to begin pairing people after January 1, 2011. If you have any questions, you can write to me at jenna[at]loveallbeings.org.

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Jenna McDavid and Ophie

Jenna McDavid is a Harlem-based queer vegan activist with a love for riding bikes, chalking on the sidewalk, and writing letters. She went vegan in high school and is still trying valiantly to convince her family that it’s not “just a phase.” In 2008, Jenna co-founded the LOVE Collective (Living Opposed to Violence and Exploitation), where she writes regularly and manages several projects designed to foster community and end oppression. When not blogging or shirking responsibilities at work, you can find Jenna playing cards in the West Village, training for roller derby, singing karaoke (poorly), or up to her elbows in cupcake batter. Her two cats, Hamlet and Ophelia, have more Facebook friends than she does.

Fur Activism Tips

by Joshua Katcher

I specifically want to address how to approach and engage with people wearing fur, shopping for fur, or stores that are selling fur garments or accessories. If you live in an area that gets even slightly chilly, you’ll probably notice people who are oblivious to the dark side of the fur industry, strutting around in a fur coat, vest, or even hanging an accessory from their bag or belt-loop. The challenge is, how do you approach them in a way that is the is most effective to help animals?

The first rule in all three cases is to make a visual statement that will be taken seriously in a fashion context: dress well. Not only will people take fashion advice from someone who looks like they know about fashion, but it will embolden your own confidence in approaching someone.

Here is a simple, step by step method that I’d recommend.

For the Fur Wearer:

1. First, approach with a smile, and say “excuse me, I only have a moment, but…”. This statement lets the person know that you will not bother them for long, and it gets their guard down a bit.
2. Next, engage with a question that demands a response like “do you know how that coat was made?” or “do you hate animals?” or “do you have any pets at home?”
3. Then, allow them to respond. Most answers are predictable — people do not generally hate animals, many people have pets, and many people subscribe to inaccurate ideas, or have been lied to by stores, about how fur items are made.
4. Make sure to mix criticisms with compliments. For example “You are a very attractive person, and you don’t need something so cruel, that represents animal suffering, to look good”.
5. Have supporting materials ready to show them. If you have a smartphone or an iPad, I’d recommend having video footage from undercover fur investigations on your device that you can show people, or a pamphlet that explains how fur is made to give them.
6. Lastly, leave them with a positive thing they can do. For example, they can donate their fur to the homeless, to the Coats for Cubs program, or they can send it to PETA.

Remember that the goal is not to verbally assault the person. Shaming them in a public setting is the last resort, and only worthy of consideration if they are completely unwilling to engage (for example, a celebrity who you are not able to engage in a conversation, or someone who totally ignores you). In that case, have something short and clever to say, like “if only you knew how that coat was made you wouldn’t be wearing it,” or “You look like you hate animals.”

For the Shopper:

When it comes to approaching someone who is shopping and you see them considering fur, make sure to give your opinion. “Sorry for butting in,  but have you seen how they make those things?” Always end on a question that requires a response. Then repeat steps 3 – 6 from above.

For the Seller/Store Manager:

This section is sort of a choose-your-own-adventure novel.

1. Before you enter the establishment, prepare anything you plan to utilize. For example, have your smartphone ready to play the video you will show the manager or sales rep, or have pamphlets in a convenient location if you plan to leave them. Also decide whether you’ll play the eager consumer who wants all the info, the shopper who was going to make a purchase (until you noticed they sell fur in the store), or the straight up activist who wants to educate the manager.
2. Enter and inspect the garments in question. You are a shopper just like everyone else… for now.
3. Once you have determined that the garments are fur, approach a sales rep, or wait for someone to ask you if you need help.
4. Because most decisions in stores are made based on money, pick out a non-fur item you were going to potentially purchase and bring it up to the register. Explain to the rep (or better yet, ask for the manager) that you were going to purchase this item until you realized that they sell fur, and would they please stop selling fur.
5. Ask if they know how the fur garments are made or what kind of animal it used to be, and how the animals are killed. Their response is geared towards getting you to make the purchase, obviously, so they will probably lie.
6. Briefly explain how fur is made. I usually say something like this: “Animals on fur farms are bludgeoned, crushed, or genitally and anally electrocuted, and animals in the wild slowly starve, dehydrate or bleed to death in fur traps.” Then show the video or hand over a pamphlet.
7. Ask to speak to a manager or person in charge and redo steps 5 and 6.
8. Finally, ask if they would be willing to take fur off their shelves or find a more compassionate alternative.
9. Always take a business card and send a follow up email.

I hope this helps make approaching someone in fur easier!

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Joshua Katcher

Joshua Katcher started “The Discerning Brute” in 2008 as a resource for intelligent men who want to make ethical, informed decisions concerning their lifestyles. He launched the PINNACLE initiative and the Brave GentleMan online mens shop in 2010. Joshua is a committed environmentalist, vegan, and social justice advocate. He is critical of unbridled consumerism, backwards classical economics, and most things that do more damage than good. Joshua encourages skepticism, conscientious hedonism, critical thinking, and accountability.

The Bloggers Bible

by Michael Parrish DuDell

New media is taking over the world and has the power – if used correctly – to serve as a powerful activist tool. While editing videos, producing podcasts, and navigating the latest social network might feel a bit overwhelming, one simple way to spread your message is through the power of blogging. As a career blogger, I’ve written over 3,000 original articles in a little under 3 years. Below, you’ll find what I consider to be the five most important rules for effective blogging:

1. Develop a Point of View – Sure, there are those who appreciate AP-style content, but most of us who read blogs do so for the strong point of view. Instead of focusing on fair and balanced reporting, embrace your (fill in the blank) personality and be bold!
2. Engage your Readers – The comment section of your blog is where dreams are made. When writing a post, encourage others to chime in and participate in the story. Comments allow you to create a group dialogue and engage with your readers in a real way.
3. Share the Lovin’ – Sure, a blog is all about your point of view, but that doesn’t mean you can’t share the lovin’. Hyperlinking to your favorite sites, creating a blogroll, and finding innovative ways to spotlight your favorite sites are a great way to win friends and contribute to the community at large.
4. Produce the Goods– In the digital world, content is king! When starting a new blog, keep in mind that the best way to develop a serious following is by regularly providing content. For the first 3 months, amateur bloggers should aim to produce 5 pieces of original content per week. Once you get used to the tempo, you’ll discover how quick and easy it is to create quality work.
5. Social Network Your Face Off – Is managing both a Facebook and Twitter page too much for you? Fine! Then pick one of them, and commit like hell. The most effective way to get new readers is through connecting with like-minded individuals on social networks. Don’t be afraid to reach out and self-promote. A little networking goes a long way.

Want to know more? Find me on Facebook (facebook.com/mparrishdudell) or follow me on Twitter (@mparrishdudell).

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Michael Parrish DuDell

Michael Parrish DuDell is a writer, speaker and entrepreneur. He is the senior editor of Ecorazzi.com and the co-founder and editor-in-chief of VEGdaily.com. He is also a frequent contributor to The Huffington Post, Crazy Sexy Life, and VegNews magazine. Michael is the president of New York’s Sustainable Leadership Council and consults with companies on issues relating to social action. He is currently working with American Express on the ZYNC card — a new card geared towards Gen Y. Michael is twenty-seven years old and lives in New York City.

Vegan Activism Through Restaurant Outreach

by Eddie Garza

One of the most effective forms of vegan activism is helping to make animal-friendly foods enticing and easily accessible to the public. Recently, six Dallas celebrity chefs collaborated with Mercy For Animals’ Texas chapter to offer exciting, new vegan options at their upscale eateries during World Go Vegan Week (October 24-31). Mercy For Animals distributed colorful promotional materials on the streets of bustling Downtown Dallas and used online advertising to heavily promote the participating fine dining establishments. Restaurant owners and chefs were delighted with all the local and national press coverage generated by Dallas’ Vegan Week, and the overwhelming positive response resulted in two of the participating restaurants adding their vegan dishes to their permanent menus, and one other participant is working on an all-new sans animal tasting menu! Creatively promoting veganism in your own town’s food scene can be a fun and easy way to help spare the lives of countless animals!

Target Your Audience

What are the locals eating? Dallas is big on Tex-Mex, pizza joints and chef-driven restaurants. Targeting popular eateries will provide a larger platform to spread the compassionate message of veganism. Try scheduling a meeting with one of your town’s favorite restaurateurs to discuss the benefits of adding or increasing vegan options at his or her establishment.

Know the Stats

Presenting well-researched statistics to restaurateurs is extremely important, as one of their main missions is to keep their restaurants afloat in this not-super-lucrative business. Consider this:

• Zogby International found that 57 percent of all restaurant-goers “sometimes, often, or always” order a vegetarian item when dining out.
  • The health and eco-conscious population contributed to the growth of a $1.2 billion market for vegan goods (primarily dairy, egg, cheese and meat substitutes), one that jumped 63.5% between 2000 and 2005 (New York Times, Jan. 11, 2007).
  • 35% of adults aged 45 to 64 regularly consume vegetarian foods and milk alternatives, such as soy or rice milk (Mintel Consumer Intelligence Survey).

Introduce Vegan Products

Providing nationally available, easily adaptable vegan food samples is key to a successful restaurant outreach meeting. Popular items such as Lightlife’s Gimme Lean meat substitutes and Daiya Cheese are great for restaurateurs wanting to feature vegan items without having to give up the integrity of their original recipes.

For more tips on restaurant outreach, check out Mercy For Animals’ Vegetarian Dining Campaign.

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Eddie Garza

Eddie Garza serves as Mercy For Animals’ Texas Campaign Coordinator, organizing events, overseeing campaigns, and coordinating volunteers throughout the lone star state. A first generation Hispanic-American born and raised in Brownsville, Texas, and a proud Dallas resident since 1995, Eddie is “committed to driving a new breed of animal advocacy in the land of beef, beef and more beef.” A die-hard vegan foodie, who holds a special appreciation for well-crafted southern comfort foods such as country fried “steak,” “meatloaf,” and brownie sundaes, Eddie is the founder of DallasVegan.com, a site dedicated to exploring the many joys of vegan dining in Dallas. Eddie’s passion for compassionate cuisine has landed him advice columns and profile stories in major Texas media outlets, including the Dallas Morning News, Pegasus News, Dallas Voice, Dallas Observer, and NBC.

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Serving as the interweb’s local antique shop, Etsy is a great resource for finding unique handmade or vintage items, including vegan selections. Now Our Hen House is in on the fun! The Our Hen House Etsy Shop is now open, with a beautiful selection of 100% vegan handmade jewelry and knits (the latter by Beth Begany)!

Plucky Acrylic Fingerless Gloves by Beth Begany

Everything featured on the shop is dazzling, but some of my favorites include this incredible pair of bronze bauble earrings, which look like something straight out of Arabian Nights, the “Trellis” acrylic scarf, and the “Plucky” fingerless gloves (in fact, all of the gloves and scarves are particularly awesome).

But don’t take my word for it: take a look for yourself, and, if you’re in New York City, do some last minute holiday shopping with our exclusive NEW YORK CITY SPECIAL! If you are in NYC and would like your item HAND-DELIVERED on Thursday, December 23d, just include a comment with your order that specifies a preferred time for delivery, along with any information we might need to get your items safely in your hands. The first 10 people who take advantage of this NYC deal will receive a pair of FREE CHICKEN EARRINGS or a ZIPPER PULL, courtesy of Bonnifide Designs! So order now! (To qualify, you must be in NYC and order by the end of the day on December 22.)

Again, all of the items on our shop are 100% vegan. All purchases that you make through our Etsy page will go directly to Our Hen House! Your contribution will help Our Hen House reach more people through expanded efforts and improved multimedia capabilities. It’s really a win-win situation for everyone involved.

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Nicholas Laccetti

Nicholas Laccetti is a social justice activist living in Manhattan’s East Village. He studied late antique religion while concentrating in Religious Studies at the New School, and got his MA in Medieval Studies at Fordham University. He has been a longtime volunteer for Farm Sanctuary, and recently interned for GLAAD (Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation) in their religion, faith & values program. He is dedicated to animal liberation, feminism, gender/sexuality issues, and progressive religion. He lives with one human and three cats, only one of whom scratches him on a regular basis.

How to Spread a Vegan Message for the Holidays

by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

• Create a little vegan cookzine for the holidays. Pick a theme (soups are a good choice) and use supermarket-friendly ingredients that everyone already loves (think lentils, not soy curls). Use 5 or so of your absolute favorite, time tested and loved soups. Send the zine out to friends and family like a holiday card.
• Have a bakesale! Bakesale is my response to everything. Pick a local animal organization (a sanctuary or shelter, perhaps) and organize a bakesale for them.
• Create a vegan hot chocolate kiosk. Hand out cupfuls of vegan hot chocolate for free. Have info about going vegan available for people that ask (and people will ask). Avoid pictures of factory farmed animals this time, keep it upbeat and kid-friendly. Make it obvious what you’re about; have a sign that says “Free Vegan Hot Chocolate!” You’ll have to check with local food ordinances and possibly prepare the hot chocolate in a commercial kitchen.

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Isa Chandra Moskowitz

Isa Chandra Moskowtiz is the author of several bestselling vegan cookbooks, including Vegan With a Vengeance, Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World, Veganomicon, and Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. She runs Post Punk Kitchen. Her most recent book, Appetite for Reduction, was released earlier this month.

I have told this story before: I remember a phone conversation he and I had back when we were working together on a project. It was a Friday night, somewhere around midnight, but the project needed to get done. After emailing back and forth a few times, we finally just got on the phone with one another. I was tired and cranky. But to my surprise, Gene, as always, was cheerleading. After figuring out the issue at hand, Gene started proclaiming how our movement is really making headway, and how we vegans are penetrating the mainstream, and how much more vegan food is available than ever before…. I remember thinking, does this man ever just sleep?

Gene is an optimist, which is one of the characteristics that has almost certainly helped him succeed in everything he has done. First and foremost, his glass-half-full outlook has assisted him in speaking with the opposition. That’s right: When he’s not busy as the president of Farm Sanctuary, or, in his spare time, playing ultimate frisbee, Gene travels around the country speaking with dairy farmers and other members of animal agribusiness. This falls into the category of Something I Could Never Do. Or, let me rephrase that: Something Waaaay Outside My Comfort Zone.

But what’s wrong with going outside of one’s comfort zone every now and then, right? Speaking with the opposition in a productive manner may just be the ticket to opening the eyes (and dare I say hearts?) of those we’re trying the most to reach. If part of our goal is to work on transforming animal factories into cruelty-free, plant-based operations, then honing our communication skills is a necessity. Gene took some time out of his busy schedule to share with us a few tips he always remembers when speaking with the opposition.

Speaking With the Opposition

by Gene Baur

• Try to understand, rather than judge and condemn people for their actions.
• People often do bad things because they believe they must, and because they are unaware that alternatives exist.
• I try to remember what Gandhi said about creating change by bringing people to their senses, not their knees.

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Gene Baur

Gene Baur is co‑founder and president of Farm Sanctuary, America’s leading farm animal protection organization.  He holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from California State University, Northridge and a master’s degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University. He has conducted hundreds of visits to farms, stockyards, and slaughterhouses to document conditions.  His pictures and videotape, exposing factory farming cruelty, have been aired nationally and internationally, educating millions.  Gene has testified in court and before local, state and federal legislative bodies, and has initiated groundbreaking legal enforcement and legislative action to prevent farm animal abuse.  He played an important role in passing the first U.S. laws to prohibit cruel farming methods – including the Florida ban on gestation crates, the Arizona ban on veal and gestation crates, the California ban on veal and gestation crates and battery cages, and the California ban on foie gras.  His efforts have been covered by leading news organizations, including the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, National Public Radio, ABC, NBC, CBS, and CNN.  His book, entitled Farm Sanctuary: Changing Hearts and Minds about Animals and Food, was published by Touchstone in March, 2008 and has appeared on the Los Angeles Times and Boston Globe best seller lists.

Citizen Lobbying

by Patrick Kwan

To many people, Congress and our state legislatures seem like unwelcoming and intimidating places where decisions are made by a handful of high-powered lobbyists and legislators, and everyday citizens like us cannot make a difference. The truth is, legislators are elected public officials whose job is to represent the views and interests of their constituents, and animal advocates can make a difference and get our voices heard, if we speak up and speak up effectively.

If we don’t speak up, our legislators have no choice but listen to the moneyed interests like the puppy millers, furriers, and factory farmers and their corporate lobbyists.

Lobbying is as easy as the ABCs. To be an effective citizen lobbyist, simply remember to be:

• Accurate – Stick to the facts. Get back to them whenever you can.
• Brief – Don’t overwhelm legislators with info. Focus & leave factsheets.
• Courteous – Remain professional at all times. Say thank you!
• Do Follow-Up – Send any requested info. Check on commitments.

Check out http://www.humanesociety.org/action/toolkit/ for more tips on how you can make a difference for animals and make sure our laws reflect a truly humane society!

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Patrick Kwan

Patrick Kwan is New York state director for The Humane Society of the United States and spearheads the organization’s animal protection policy & campaigns in the Empire State. Backed by 11 million Americans, or one of every 28, including over 800,000 New Yorkers, The HSUS is the nation’s largest animal protection organization. With The HSUS, Patrick has exposed the illegal sale of endangered elephant ivory and the grisly underground trade of NYC pigeons for cruel shooting contests in Pennsylvania. Prior to joining The HSUS, he was a field organizer for Amnesty International USA and an advisory board member of the Center for Environmental Citizenship, now the League of Conservation Voters Education Fund. Patrick also managed media relations and communications efforts for corporate, nonprofit, and government organizations, including the Mayor’s Alliance’s for NYC’s Animals, The September 11th Fund, and NYC & Company.

Flash-forward to her 25th birthday a couple years ago. After spending most of her life consuming little to no meat, the light finally turned on vis a vis the disgusting, horrendous, egregious cruelty inherent in dairy and egg production. I had been vegan for several years by then, and couldn’t have been happier to have yet another vegan family member. Little did I know that veganism was just the start of something beautiful; Jordana would grow to become a true activist in her own right, not only using her skills in communication to spread the word, but doing so in the most important setting we have: the office.

I know that office activism is something that many people can relate to — as is being marginalized by your colleagues for your compassionate choices. Jordana agreed to share her experiences with office outreach with us today. I’m so proud of my cousin, and I have no doubt you will glean some wisdom from her wise words.

Office Activism and Hunting Accidents

by Jordana Reim

As the holiday season kicks into gear, more and more sweet treats are adorning my office’s kitchen. Today it was leftover cheesecake and pork rinds (is that even food?). What might’ve once been tempting for me (the cheesecake, not the pork rinds), has become easier than ever for me to pass up. When I look office temptation in the face, I just think about the bacteria, fecal matter and suffering in the food and I look no further.

But who wants to be the Scrooge who doesn’t partake in the holiday cheer? At holidays and year round, being vegan in a sea of omnivores has its challenges – sometimes so much so that you may not want to be involved at all. But, in my opinion, that’s a missed opportunity to connect with others. These are my tips for inclusion rather than exclusion.

1. Turn it positive. Despite the fact that you may be thinking about the pus and blood in the holiday cheesecake, do not openly share this information with your coworkers. Alienating others because you feel alienated won’t do well for anyone. Instead, turn it positive. For example, “I have a great recipe for a chocolate oreo cheesecake that you would love. I’ll email it to you!” You, of course, send them to a link on Vegan Yumminess.
2. Cater your next lunch meeting with vegan food. Order the yummiest food on the menu for attendants. They will comment on how different the menu is and, most likely, how tasty it is. Happily let them know that you ordered from the organic vegan joint on 43rd street. This opens the door to “I had no idea this place existed.” They’ll start eating there from time to time, tell others, and before you know it, you might just see vegan leftovers in the office kitchen.
3. Be awesome and approachable. Others will admire your confidence and friendly attitude. Your veganism will pique others’ interest. Vegetarians, other vegans and veg-curious coworkers will come out of the woodwork. You’ll have lunch dates every day of the week.

The best advice that I can give is to be open to others. They may not be where you are yet, and they may never take the vegan’s path at all, but it’s not to say that you can’t have influence on them to make some change in their lives. At the end of the day, it’s not about forcing others to do exactly as you do, but to have a positive impact on those you encounter.

Last week, a coworker came with me to Food Fight, a vegan grocery in Portland, Oregon. Before I had checked out, she had walked out the door. When I met her outside she said to me, “I felt bad for being in there when I’m wearing leather boots. I didn’t want them to say something to me.” To this I replied, “It is not about judging anyone. Do you feel comfortable wearing your boots in front of me?” She replied that she did, to which I then let her know that most vegans are like me in that way; they understand she’s in her own process, and they won’t judge. I accept her for who she is, just as she accepts me for who I am.

My coworker went back inside the store and bought a sticker. She put it on her laptop case, it reads: “I Love Hunting Accidents.”

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Jordana Reim

Jordana Reim is an award-winning Senior Digital Producer at RGA, managing global business for Nike+ Running. Jordana is also the Creative Director for PlanetVerge.com, an all-female staffed music and indie lifestyle site and Internet TV show.

Leafleting 101

by Matt Ball

The great thing about leafleting is that anyone can do it — you don’t need a group, you don’t need big bucks, you don’t need the media, you don’t need to prepare, you don’t need to be an expert, and you don’t need a big investment of time. At the right time and place, just one person can hand out hundreds of brochures in less than an hour. You will inevitably interest many new people in altering their diet, sowing seeds of change where they do not currently exist.

You can leaflet anywhere there is a crowd — concerts, festivals, walk-a-thons, etc. Younger people tend to be more interested in animal issues and vegetarianism than the rest of society, making college campuses good places to leaflet. Weekdays before 3 p.m. are the busiest times. At large universities, there is normally a steady flow of pedestrian traffic somewhere on campus at all times throughout the day. Smaller colleges and universities usually have a steady flow of traffic between classes.

Many activists are nervous about leafleting the first time. I was very nervous before the first few times. But as hundreds of leafleters will tell you, nervousness often fades once you’ve offered the brochure to a few people.

One person can make an enormous difference. Many people will pass the information on to others, causing a chain reaction. If just one person changes because of the hour or two you leaflet, you will double the impact of your personal vegetarianism!

Check out more of Matt’s suggestions on leafleting.

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Matt Ball

Matt Ball is co-founder, along with Jack Norris, of Vegan Outreach (VO). Since 1993, Matt, as Executive Director, has grown VO into the leading grassroots animal advocacy organization, with active members across the country and around the world distributing VO’s detailed, documented booklets, Why Vegan, Compassionate Choices, and Even If You Like Meat, along with the Guide to Cruelty-Free Eating. Vegan Outreach has distributed more than 13,000,000 of these powerful booklets. Through VO’s main program, Adopt a College, activists have directly reached over 7,300,000 young people at schools, concerts, festivals, and other venues. As Matt said when he was inducted into the Animal Rights Hall of Fame, Vegan Outreach’s mission is to make everyone and anyone, in any situation, the most effective advocate for animals possible. Over the past 17 years, VO has published many influential essays, including How Vegan and A Meaningful Life. Matt is co-author, with Bruce Friedrich, of The Animal Activist’s Handbook.