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This page is a archive of entries in the Random category from June 2008.

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Number of animals killed in the world by the meat, dairy and egg industries since you opened this webpage, not including the billions of marine animals killed annually.

Random: June 2008 Archives

Alert the damn presses!

Tuesday June 17, 2008 7:11 PM by Jen
Guess who decided to follow in Oprah's footsteps and do a 21-day vegan cleanse?

None other than my hero and personal savior, Heather B. Armstrong of Dooce.com fame. Until this point the only thing Heather and I have ever disagreed about was bacon, and so for the next 21 days, I guess I can safely say she rocks times about 20. 20 million. 

For those of you who don't know, Heather is one of the country's most well known bloggers. I think she actually got rated in the top 10 most powerful blogs this year, right behind the Huffington Post. She's a kick-ass amazing woman, and I've been addicted to her blog for the past two years. I actually got to 'meet' her about two weeks ago at a book signing and I'm still completely twitter-pated, and now this? My week just got awesome. 

Since she's obviously not just doing this for health reasons (if you read her post, linked above, you'll see where she notes she's thinking of being a veggie permanently) it'd be great if everyone could go and leave her comments for support - there are a couple people who have left quasi-moron comments about how asparagus feels pain and how small-time cattlemen are actually really nice to the animals whose lives they remove. Think of how nice it'd be to see hundreds of vegans supporting her and providing accurate information. 

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No longer a death sentence.

Friday June 13, 2008 7:58 PM by Jen
This is completely random, I know. 

Broken legs are probably a horse person's greatest fear. Unlike most dogs, horses don't do all that well with amputations, so I'm completely fascinated by the story of Riley, a mare living at Best Friends Animal Sanctuary whose leg injuries finally resulted in an experimental prosthesis - which is working out swimmingly. 

Why has it taken us so long to provide this for horses? Thousands of horses are euthanized yearly due to 'unmanageable' leg injuries. While this surgery may not work for every horse, I can't tell you how happy I am to know that this is possible, and that even 'unwanted' horses like Riley have potential access to it. 

When so many animals suffer ostensibly so that we can have health care, it always amazes me that many of the life saving treatments we test on animals are not available to them, and that it's taken this long for some of the most simple and life-altering procedures to be used on creatures who really, really need them. 
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"Less meat consumed = less production = less groundwater pollution."

Thursday June 12, 2008 11:01 AM by Alex

Remember this?

Just in case you weren't informed (I certainly wasn't), VeganBits.com schools us a little:

After feeling all smug and superior about eating vegan these last few months (meat recall here, meat recall there), wham! tomatoes are infected with Salmonella. I wasn't planning on writing a post on this topic because it's all over the place, but today, instead of more stories about who's not carrying tomatoes, and what variety is infected, I read an explanation as to why this is happening. So here is the executive summary of the article I read in New Scientist Magazine.

Bottom line, it appears our groundwater is contaminated with animal feces. The water is used to propagate the tomatoes which then act as an "incubator" for the Salmonella.

      • A recent census of produce outbreaks between 1996 and 2007 counted no fewer than 33 epidemics from Salmonella-contaminated fruits and vegetables. In five of them, tomatoes were the culprit. Cantaloupe melons and sprouted seeds, such as clover and alfalfa, were also common victims. Animal pathogens tend to infect only a limited range of plants.

Yikes! And yet another reason not to eat meat! (Less meat consumed = less production = less groundwater pollution.)

Scientists postulate that since fresh vegetables are increasingly packaged and shipped in centralized locations, nationwide epidemics are becoming more prevalent. 

So, our groundwater is contaminated by animal feces, and our crops are being propagated with this polluted water. Well, if we're processing ten billion animals annually for food here in the US, that's a lot of poop to process! It certainly stands to reason that not all of that poop is being processed effectively.

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Some calls it cognitive dissonance.

Monday June 9, 2008 4:36 PM by Jen
Next time you say that you're not bothered by the thought of animal slaughter, but find it disgusting that PETA would interrupt your meal with photos of the animals you're eating while they're being slaughtered, think about what you're really saying. 

What I hear you saying is that you wish you weren't bothered by it, but really, you are. This tells me that despite the fact that you'd dearly love not to care, on some deep level you know that this is wrong. That's not a bad thing at all, but it helps if you don't ignore it. 

It's called cognitive dissonance, and it's your subconscious telling you to pull your head out of your ass. Give it a try, I'm sure you'll enjoy the new view. 
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