Quotation of the Day

"If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor,"

~Desmond Tutu

Tutu also penned the forward to the forthcoming Global Guide to Animal Protection edited by Andrew Linzey, for which Tutu writes,

I have seen firsthand how injustice gets overlooked when the victims are powerless or vulnerable, when they have no one to speak up for them and no means of representing themselves to a higher authority. Animals are in precisely that position. Unless we are mindful of their interests and speak out loudly on their behalf, abuse and cruelty go unchallenged.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu Outside Tuto House, Soweto by Johan Wessels
licensed under CC BY 2.0 

If Fast Food Could Talk...

I just donated $10 to help Mercy for Animals campaign to help promote advertising that shows the animal suffering that goes on daily in factory farms.

Quotation of the Day: The Please Don't Hurt Them Edition

"Aristotle's ladder of nature is not just being flattened; it is being transformed into a bush with many branches. This is no insult to human superiority. It is long-overdue recognition that intelligent life is not something for us to seek in the outer reaches of space but is abundant right here on earth, under our noses."

~Frans de Waal

"The Brains of the Animal Kingdom",

The Wall Street Journal

Quotation of the Day

“As a civilized society, it is our moral obligation to protect all animals, including farmed animals, from needless suffering and abuse." 

 ~Mercy For Animals Executive Director, Nathan Runkle

New Jersey assembly votes to ban gestation crates!

International Polar Bears Day

Climate change leading to melting ice threatens the very existence of polar bears. On this annual International Polar Bears Day, please visit Polar Bears International to learn what you can do to help these beautiful beings. See polar bears in action at the Tundra Cam.

Meet Sunny

Sunny is the mascot for National Justice for Animals week, running today, February 18, through Friday, February 24. Sunny is a sweet, spirited dog who was rescued from a horrible abuse case. The abuser was successfully prosecuted with the help of the Animal Legal Defense Fund. They do wonderful work for animals. Please support them through a donation or spreading information about their message.

Quotation of the Day: Thanksgiving Edition

"If we have the choice between doing something kind and doing something cruel, we should choose kindness. If we can do something merciful or something that adds to the level or misery in the world, we should choose mercy. And that’s a choice we make every time we sit down to eat."   

~Bruce Friedrich, Farm Sanctuary

World Vegan Day

Celebrate World Vegan Day, November 1, to kick off World Vegan Month. Remember 269!

National Feral Cat Day

• Alley Cat Allies: National Feral Cat Day
• Humane Society of the United States Feral Cat Management Resources

ACTION ALERT: Save Bill and Lou!

At the end of October 2012, Bill and Lou, the hard-working team of oxen for Green Mountain College’s Cerridwen Farm, are scheduled to be slaughtered. Bill and Lou have worked as draft animals on the school’s farm for over ten years. They have provided many services for the college and are mascots and friends to many students, past and present. Since Lou sustained a recurring injury to his left rear hock, he no longer has “value” to GMC, so they decided to purchase a new team and send both of these oxen to the slaughterhouse to be "processed" (euphemism for killed) for their meat. Please encourage Green Mountain College to allow Bill and Lou to be adopted by the VINE Sanctuary in Vermont where they can live out the remainder of their lives. They've worked so hard for the college for 10 years and deserve a better fate than ending up on someone's plate!

Bill and Lou deserve better! Please sign the petition and send an email to lend your voice to the campaign to save Bill and Lou from slaughter and allow them to live in peace at the VINE Sanctuary!

Sign the Petition!
Send an Email!

World Farm Animals Day

Today, October 2, on World Farm Animals Day, please remember the 65 billion land animals who suffer and die each year for human consumption.

Why I Am Vegan #1001

Photo from the Humane Society of the United States

Factory farming is a cruel industry, where animals suffer unspeakable pain and injury, as in the photo above. Please visit the Humane Society's Farm Animal Protection Campaign page to learn how you can help.

International Respect for Chickens Day

Chicken Friend at the Farm Sanctuary

In the time it takes you to read this post, nearly 10,000 chickens will be killed for food. The conditions in which they live are horrific. On factory farms, birds are confined in such small quarters, it would be similar to you living your entire life in the space of a folding chair. They are bred in such a way their poor little legs have trouble supporting their bodies, and often their beaks and feet are mutilated. Chicken factory farms and slaughterhouses also create significant pollution in their communities.

Chicken are empathetic, intelligent creatures who deserve better. Please think of chickens today, on International Respect for Chickens Day, and resolve to advocate for legislation that protects chicken.

I Support Wolves

Farm Sanctuary Emergency Rescue

Please donate if you can. The Farm Sanctuary needs funds to help with the medical costs faced by these poor animals.

50,000 Hens Left for Dead

After Andy Keung Cheung no longer had the funds to feed the hens at his battery cage egg plant, he abandoned them without food or water. Officials only learned the hens were abandoned two days ago, two weeks after Cheung abandoned the property. Rescue groups from Animal Place, Harvest Home Animal Sanctuary, and the Farm Sanctuary are on site trying to save the hens that remain alive. The rescuers believe about 2,000 of the hens can be saved and moved to sanctuaries or adopted into loving homes. While it is wonderful that a number of hens will live a better live, it is unconscionable that so many were left to starve to death. This is what happens when animals are treated as commodities instead of sentient beings. Please consider donating to one of the groups to help with the cost of the rescue. Even better, eliminate eggs from your diet so there is no market for the kind of cruel factories farms that perpetuate misery and death.

Thousands of Hens Saved from Turlock Egg Plant

Undercover Footage Exposes Butterball's Cruelty to Animals

Please visit Mercy for Animals' Butterball Abuse page to sign a petition demanding Butterball treat its animals humanely and with compassion.

AAVS

Many non-profit organizations solicit year-end donations while sending holiday greetings to their supporters. I've noticed that this year, I've received more electronic messages than holiday cards sent in the mail. While I sometimes miss the actual cards being a mail junkie, I know that email is better for the organization's budget as well as to preserve natural resources. 

I thought this greeting from the American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS), a group dedicated to ending the use of animals in experiments, was precious. AAVS sponsors Animalearn, an initiative to provide alternatives to dissection in science classes. They also work to educate consumers on cruelty-free products. The Tina Nelson Sanctuary Fund provides grant assistance to sanctuaries that provides shelter to animals previously used in laboratories. 

AAVS is a group worthy of a year-end donation. What a wonderful way to celebrate life and peace on earth!

Quotation of the Day

"If a being suffers, there can be no moral justification for refusing to take that suffering into consideration."

~Peter Singer

Animal Rights in the Classroom

On Wednesday, we are scheduled to discuss animal rights as they relate to business ethics. Perhaps I should be more excited about covering this with my students, but I am too close to the subject. In thinking about the upcoming class, I was reminded of an incident in my MBA program.

In my Operations Management class, we had to give group presentations on a topic related to the course. (I can't remember at all what my group's presentation covered.) One day, a group helmed by a student I remember as a jerk presented on slaughterhouse waste. I suppose that the topic was legitimate, and perhaps not even controversial in an Oklahoma classroom, but the group treated the concept as a joke. To me, the death of animals is never a joke, and in fact, the entire premise of slaughterhouses is immoral.

I had to leave the classroom until the presentation was over. It's bad enough that animals are killed in a cruel and inhumane manner, but to laugh about it? This is what they found so humorous:

Unforgivable.