My 14 faves of '14: #5

I am vegan because of animals. I love animals, and do all I can in my life to do no harm to them and to create a safer, more kind and compassionate world for them.

This year I met, via Facebook, Lucy the pig.

Lucy is my #5 fave of 2014.

This photo is Lucy now. After a few months of being loved and nurtured back to health by the wonderful folks at Rooterville sanctuary in Florida. I met Lucy through my sweet friend at Indiana Pig Save and for me it was love at first site. This next photo is how I first saw Lucy.

She was in super bad shape. Brought to Rooterville after being found, whoever brought her knew what they were doing and saved Lucy's precious life. It has not been an easy road this this sweet being, but with the folks at Rooterville being her voice and loving on her so much, she has a chance that most farmed animals will never even come close to.

For more information on Rooterville or to donate to their crazy awesome work, go here: www.rooterville.org

Thanks for reading!

Your bacon had a face and so much more

Everyone seems to love bacon.

When some folks find out that I am vegan they make sure they let me know how much they love bacon.

I became vegan because I do not want to do harm to any living beings, including pigs. I haven't had bacon for over 18 years.

When I see or smell bacon, I think about pigs and how awesome they are. I don't think about missing bacon or wishing I could eat it.

I think about torture, abuse, cruelty, sadness, intelligence, and squealing.

While considering this post I read articles on pigs. I could have spent months on this. Pigs are quite the intelligent beings. There is plenty of data online if you'd like to learn about that.

For me though, pigs could be the dumbest creation on earth and I would still not want to kill them. I firmly believe that if given a choice, a pig would run away from a dude about to slit her throat. She wouldn't want to die. She wouldn't want to live her life in a gestation crate, unable to turn around and unable to truly care for her piglets.

Pigs are product to those who make money off of them. Pure and simple money.

As I write this I am thinking of a little pig named Lucy. This past week she was found by neighbors of a woman who rocks compassion in my book. I found out about Lucy from friends on Facebook and immediately donated to her care. She is so young and so sick, and so precious. I am grateful that she got in the hands of humans who give a crap.

I'm not sure about Lucy's story, or where she was born. Not sure if her mom was bred so Lucy could be bacon or not. Regardless, she's in great hands now and I hope that with her illnesses she come through everything OK.

If you would like to donate to Lucy's care, click here.  We donated not only because Lucy touched us, but also because we believe that as animal-loving folk, we have to support those who go out on a financial limb to help animals that are suffering when possible for us to do so.

Every time someone buys bacon they support the maltreatment of living, feeling, intelligent beings. They pay someone to inflict harm and cruelty on that same being.

It's totally not worth it.

On our blogs main page we have several links that could be supportive of you if you would like to consider going vegan.

Thanks for reading.

Your Easter ham

I seldom click on videos showing animal cruelty. It's actually been a long time since I have watched one of those undercover videos showing animals being treated in ways that I honestly cannot believe anyone would support.

That changed today. I don't know why, but I clicked on a video from Mercy For Animals showing men torturing, beating and killing pigs. The men work for a pig factory that supplies Walmart.

On our blog and on all of our social media we do not post videos of animal cruelty. We do offer links to animal rights groups we support that have those videos on their sites.

I believe this type of cruelty happens everywhere animals are produced for food. It happens because there is little regard for the life of these animals and also, in a very simple way, because they can. They have the power to do terrible things to these animals and they do it.

I unequivocally support any group that does these undercover investigations. People need to see what happens to animals in order for them to become their dinner.

Or their Easter ham.

I cannot stop thinking about the video I watched earlier. These workers were hell bent on inflicting fear, terror and pain on these pigs. Nothing was going to stop them.

The only thing that can stop them is the consumer.

If you eat meat, in this case pork, you have the power to stop the cruelty. The video I watched is only the tip of the iceberg of what happens to pigs on a daily basis throughout the country.

Although I haven't looked into the purpose of the video, I am pretty sure it was part of Mercy For Animals campaign to get Walmart to stop using certain suppliers, including the one in the video.

We have the power to stop it. We can be a voice for these voiceless creatures who are treated in such a pathetically terrible way.

If you would like to see the video you can go to the Mercy For Animals website here: http://www.mercyforanimals.org/

The only way to not support animal cruelty like that shown in the video I saw is to go vegan. Don't support the inherent cruelty that is part of taking animals that are living and breathing and feeling to create your steak, pork chop or lamb chop.

Thanks for reading.

A letter to Senator Claire McCaskill

Dear Senator:

This blog post is in response to your tweet posted on August 31st. From what I gathered, you posted  a photo of a pig roast and must have gotten some feedback from folks on Twitter, especially vegans. Then you responded with your tweet: "Goodness gracious. So sorry I offended so many vegans. In Missouri we raise pigs and cattle and chickens to eat them."

I felt the need to compassionately write this hoping one day you'll see it. Your tweet did not seem apologetic at all. It resonated with smugness and some type of "us against them". There were so many other ways you could have responded.

There are thousands of people in Missouri that do not support animal cruelty. There are also a vast amount of people in Missouri and outside of Missouri that support farmers who grow kale, soybeans (for human consumption), wheat (for human consumption like in bread), Swiss chard, broccoli, cauliflower and so many other items that do not involve harming animals. In our home, we probably eat three or four times the amount of these items than a typical, non-vegan household, and we love every farming family that produces them.

Veganism and vegetarianism are flourishing in our country. Have lunch with Bill Clinton and he'll tell you all about it as well as why he became vegan.

And we vote and are becoming more politically active (I have been an active Democrat since high school which was  along time ago). I remember the days when your last US Senate campaign were not going that well. Boy did I support you, with words and money.

I'd also like you to know that in your tweet you forgot the word "slaughter". After you raise the animals and before you eat them they must be slaughtered. And I guarantee you that there is no "we" in that. Perhaps you have visited factory farms and slaughterhouses and met the employees whose lives are not all that great to begin with and are worsened by becoming killing machines: higher divorce rates, higher domestic violence rates, and the list goes on and on.

Vegans simply do not want any part of cruelty towards animals. It's not a bad thing. It's honorable. The result is that many vegans are healthier and are using less resources from the earth. I urge you to check out how factory farming affects the environment.

I hope one day you check out one of the many incredible, vegan friendly places to eat in Missouri or in DC. We would take you to several if you're ever in Denver. The plate of food you eat would still support US agriculture and farmers. With animal production starting to become owned by foreign interests (like Smithfield Farms in Virginia), a good vegan meal supports US farmers in so many ways.

Thank you for reading this.

On behalf of our family and the tens of thousands of compassionate vegans and vegetarians in the US.

Loving animals

I remember one day many years ago I was volunteering at a farmed animal sanctuary and during one of the tours a guest told me that they loved animals. My response, with a big smile and loving heart, was that if we love animals the best thing we can do for them is to not eat them.

Not eating animals seems totally radical to many people. In our part of the country animal production is a big part of the economy. Agriculture law and even how some wildlife is treated is based on the economic value of animal production.

There has been a change though. And the change is mainly around how we think about animals. Moving away from animals as products and moving towards animals as sentient creatures, as living beings that feel pain and fear. Even people I have met who still eat animals say that they do not want to be part of animal suffering.

It can be overwhelming to be a meat eater and consider veganism. It can look not only radical, but almost impossible. How on earth could I ever give up cheese? I smile as I write this as giving up cheese seems to be what is on many people's minds when even thinking about becoming vegan. Although I haven't had cow's cheese in 17 years, I think the vegan cheeses these days are delicious. Great flavor and texture without the cruelty.

The how part in becoming vegan is rather simple although I could write several blog posts about it. I started with one animal, pigs. Then cows, then chickens. I thought that process would take a long time. In my path it took a couple of weeks. And that was before I had access to the internet. The internet is filled with information on veganism, recipes, fitness and nutrition ideas that will help anyone as they consider a plant-based life.

Some people take a giant step and one day decide they are vegan. Others take smaller steps, a little bit longer of a process. When thinking of animals and animal suffering, any type of action towards veganism is good.

In my time being vegan, and having met many vegans (the vast majority of whom were not raised vegan, rather made a choice to become vegan), I have come to realize that those people who become vegan for the animal's sake, because they do not want to be part of the inherent cruelty towards animals, find it easy to not only become vegan but to live an incredibly new life they would have never imagined as vegan.

Last night Mike made chunky chipotle mashed potato empanadas accompanied with steamed Swiss chard for dinner and while I was enjoying the incredible flavors I mentally added to my list of things I eat today thanks to fellow vegans who showed my a wonderful new path towards culinary delight. 

And it all began because I love animals.