Sometimes I wonder how effective we are as activists when we urge people to go vegan. Perhaps the idea of going vegan overnight is scary or confusing to people or as this video demonstrates, maybe the people we are reaching out to don't even know what a vegan is.

Most non-vegans are inundated with myths about how vegans lack protein and are weak and unhealthy. Vegan Bodybuilder Kenneth G. Williams dismantles those myths just by being himself. Check out this great video where he describes his philosophy. More info at www.veganmusclepower.com

The website Change.org allows the Obama administration a window into public opinion that will help them shape their priorities for change over the next four years. Activists have submitted the idea to rescind the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) and we can help make this happen. Animal rights activists have posted the following idea on Change.org that is waiting for your vote:

"The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) was enacted in November of 2006 at the behest of the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries. AETA restricts the freedom of speech and assembly of animal and other social justice activists. It unfairly brands as terrorism any activities that cross a state line and interfere with the operation of an animal enterprise or of any entity that deals with one. Such activities may include website posts, peaceful vigils, nonviolent civil disobedience, undercover investigations, and whistle-blowing."

Please take a few moments to vote for this issue and help bring national attention to this profound violation of our constitutional rights. You can even add a widget to your blog that allows others to vote on this important issue.

Vote now to end the AETA!

Hope you've all had a good holiday. Here are some stories for you to check out this lazy Sunday.

- Man tries to lose weight on an all-jerky diet.

- ALF and SHAC 7 get international (negative) attention.

- New bill could reduce animal cruelty.

- Student poses as bidder and disrupts corrupt auction.

- Germany open soup kitchen to help hungry pets.

- Asia devours endangered U.S. animals.

- Aussies dump glue traps.

- Threatened species returns to England.

- ACTION ALERT: Pledge to go Veg in 2009!

As always, something to keep you smiling.


Have a good week.

Mexico suspended purchases from 30 U.S. meat plants due to sanitary issues. The suspension may be permanent and has sent U.S. cattle and hog prices into a sharp decline. is move may in fact be retaliation against a U.S. labeling law that would require meat sold in the U.S. to be labeled with the country of origin (commonly called Country-of-Origin Labeling or COOL).

Canada and Mexico oppose the law because they believe it would prompt American shoppers to buy only American meat believing it was safer. Canada and Mexico have nothing to fear, we all know that meat from any country is equally unsanitary.

Banned plants include some of the worst animal right offenders including Cargill Inc, Tyson Foods Inc, JBS, Seaboard and Smithfield Food.

Consumer rights groups say that people have the right to know the origin of their products while the industry would rather see you eat its "mystery meat. " In a time when consumers are attempting to become more aware, the meat industry is eating itself.

Six producers and sellers of milk products that killed six babies and contaminated over 300,000 are set for trial in China. The milk products sold lacked proper nutrition so producers added the toxic substance melamine to help it pass inspection.

It's frightening to me that a toxic substance like melamine can be added to HELP pass milk inspection. Just one more reason not to consume milk (here's some others).

This dog is an inspiration to us all.

Sleeping sound knowing that you won't eat him. Have a good holiday.

With the economic downturn many companion animals are being kicked onto the street and into the cold. Fortunately in the UK, baby hedgehogs have a place to go. The charity, Wildlife Aid, has received 50 hedgehogs already and are expecting more.

The babies will enjoy a nice warm bed and big Christmas dinner this year. In spring, the healthy hedgehogs can be released back into the wild.

Just in time for the holiday season, hot chocolate has been found to contain Melamine, the substance found in cow's milk that is said to cause death in high quantities. One more good reason to have a vegan holiday this year.

Be safe and tell your non-vegan friends and family to lay off the hot chocolate unless it's vegan.

COOKING TIP: Try heating up a cup of chocolate soy on the stove and put in a vegan candy cane to stir. I've been living off this stuff for weeks.

The Telegraph has a great slideshow of the best animal pictures of 2008. They are terrifying, hilarious, cute, and mindblowing all at once so be sure to check it out.

WE DID IT!

From the obscure to the bizarre, here they are.

- Doctors warn of a new mad cow strain.

- FDA decides to protect the public and animal welfare.

- SHAC 7 prisoner Jake Conroy moved to new prison.

- Actor Jeremy Piven suffers from mercury poisoning possibly from eating fish.

- A WARNING: Animal activist turned police informant.

- Gang of wild cats raise baby.

- "Fashion" designer Donna Karan is gonna shit herself.

- Tyson Foods struggling to stay afloat.

- Vegetarian food producer Lightlife, looks to go more vegan.

- ACTION ALERT! Tell Urban Outfitters to Ditch Fur.

And as always, here's something to keep you smiling.



Take care.

It seems like the Baboons are the smarter ones here.

Wanna hit animal abusers like Sarah Palin in the face with snowballs? Me too! Check out a new online video game where you get the opportunity to hit some of the most infamous animal abusers of 2008 in the face with snowballs to win big points.

Check out the new online game here...

Enjoy!

TGIF because I couldn't wait to post this week's spotlight of vegan activist/musician Michael Franti. Michael plays music that blends rock, reggae, and rap and has toured with Ziggy Marley and U2 while becoming one of the most influential progressive musicians of the 21st century. He tours the middle east to encourage peace though music with his unforgettable mantra "Power to the Peaceful!"

Michael has been vegan ever since his son showed him the light. This gives us all hope that we can someday convince OUR dads to be this cool.

Michael Franti is renowned for his amazing live concerts (I can personally attest to this). He inspires love and peace in all types of people and he has been able to convince many people to apply that love to the animals they eat by going vegan.

If you've never heard anything by Michael Franti, now is the time. Here is a sample of some of my all-time favorites:

"Yell Fire!"

"Hello Bonjour"

"Rock the Nation"

The nation’s largest foie gras factory farm in the U.S. is Hudson Valley Foie Gras in Ferndale, New York. Most factory farms are under super tight security for fear of "eco-terrorists" (people who dislike cruelty to animals) but Hudson Valley Foie Gras gives guided tours. Compassion Over Killing (COK) has taken advantage of this opportunity and brought a hidden camera on their tour.

The tour was no doubt a watered down look at how foie gras is made but even the censored tour reveals the house of horrors that is Hudson Valley Foie Gras. A statement from COK called described the scene as "a torture chamber for birds—from pipes being shoved down their throats and food pumped into their stomachs to being grabbed by their wings, shackled upside down, and their throats slit."



We can work together to put Hudson Valley Foie Gras and the rest of the industry out of business.

Read how scientists reveal the dangers of producing and consuming the fatty liver.

This a great list that PETA has put on their blog about the 10 most karmic moments in animal abuse of 2008. I don't usually laugh at the misfortune of others, but when it comes to animal abusers they should have seen this coming. So here they are, 10 classic moments in animal abuse:

10. While striking his dog with a gun to make him release a bone, a man managed to shoot himself. Granted, I don't think there's any safe place to point a gun, but letting the "business end" face you as you swing it like a club? Wow. Maybe he'll think twice about hitting his dog next time—if he, ya know, survived.

9. What happens when you anger a 10-foot python who's been stuck in a cage for a long time? An intern at a Venezuelan zoo found out when he decided to play with the snake during his night shift. Turns out that snakes are fond of strangling and swallowing their prey (someone really should put that on Wikipedia).

8. Some people shoo wasps away with their hands. Others think it's fair play to go after them with lighted torches. One monk learned that when you play with fire, you (and your entire temple) might get burned (to the ground).

7. While tracking a deer whom he had shot and was in the process of killing, a hunter apparently misjudged a cliff's edge and fell off.

6. A New Jersey man tried to kill insects in his apartment with bug spray, but the propellant chemicals in the spray seemed to have some unforeseen consequences. He succeeded in killing many bugs, but probably not so much because of the poison as because of the explosion, which destroyed 80 percent of his apartment.

5. Though the purpose of "sea kitten hunting" is to dig a hook painfully into another being's skin, one guy seems to have misread the how-to manual and managed to drive the hook into his own hand.

4. Have you ever seen bears who were forced to perform in captivity and felt sorry for how helpless they look? Well, it turns out gigantic land mammals with sharp, sharp teeth aren't always that helpless—as demonstrated by the fatal attack that a bear at Predators in Action wild animal training center made against a trainer.

3. Why don't we allow children to drive? Because it's dangerous. Why do we allow children to kill animals with loaded firearms? Good question. Though some folks argue that children can be trusted with firearms if trained properly, I don't think that helps the two men who were allegedly shot by one eight-year-old boy who had reportedly been taught how to use a deadly weapon to hunt animals.

2. After being jailed on burglary charges, a man was attacked by another inmate who chewed off a part of his ear (ewww!). What are the odds that something so disgusting and awful would happen to someone? To top it off, what are the odds that it would happen to a man who had previously been charged with cutting off a dog's ears?!

1. Proving that using a .44 Magnum to kill mice is not a good idea, a trailer park resident managed to shoot herself and a bystander while trying to fire at a rodent who was simply trying to share her space. Is anyone else stunned that two accidental injuries occurred? PETA's humane mousetrap, on the other hand, has never hurt a living soul.

Andy was sentenced to 3 years in Federal prison over 1 year ago under the Animal Enterprise Protection Act which allows people to be placed in prison for exercising their 1st Amendment rights. Andy and 5 other activists (known as the SHAC 7) were sentenced together under conspiracy charges for an alleged connection to a website critical of the group Huntingdon Life Sciences. The activists had never met and many claimed to have no connection to the controversial website.

Regardless, Andy was sentenced to 3 years in federal prison for which he served just over a year before being released this Monday. Andy is now free to spend the holidays with his friends and family as he currently resides at a halfway house in New York.

The Federal government created 6 heroes the day they sentenced the SHAC 7. Andy and his co-defendents are now legends of the animal rights movement and their sacrifice has inspired thousands. They have brought worldwide attention to the creulty shown toward animals like those at Huntingdon Life Sciences.

Welcome back Andy. We love you. Thank you.

Please don't forget Josh, Jake, Lauren, and Kevin who are still in prison this holiday season, they could use our support.

China currently supplies half of the fur garments imported and sold the the United States. PETA has just released a new investigation highlighting some of what goes on in Chinese Fur Farms.

"..many animals are still alive and struggling desperately when workers flip them onto their backs or hang them up by their legs or tails to skin them. When workers on these farms begin to cut the skin and fur from an animal's leg, the free limbs kick and writhe. Workers stomp on the necks and heads of animals who struggle too hard to allow a clean cut."

The first step to doing something is knowing something. Watch the video, get mad, and get active and never forget, WE have the power to stop this.


Pledge to go fur-free at PETA.org.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is opening up space for advertising on the bottom of shoe bins at American airports and PETA is all over it.

"The ad features the photograph of a 'missing' calf named Charlie, who was pulled away from his mother. Charlie was most likely branded without any pain relief, and eventually slaughtered for his meat. His skin was made into someone's shoes, belt, or jacket—the very same items that get tossed into the bins at security checkpoints."

I think this ad campaign will be very effective if PETA can get it going. This will really help people connect the fact that their shoes or belt used to be someone just like Charlie.

Leather is not a fashion statement, it's someone else skin.

People are abandoning their pets all over the western world for seemingly ridiculous reasons. A group in the UK has put together a list of the Top 10 excuses people have ACTUALLY given for bringing their dogs to the shelter.

Here is the top 10 list of most irresponsible reasons for abandoning a dog:

:: "My dog doesn't match the sofa."

:: "The dog looks evil and has different coloured eyes, just like David Bowie."

:: "My black dog doesn't match new white carpet, can we swap him for a white dog?"

:: "My current dog is too old, can we swap for a puppy or younger model?"

:: "My dog ate the Christmas turkey cooling on the worktop."

:: "My pet guinea pig got worried with a dog in the house."

:: "The dog opened all the presents on Christmas Eve."

:: An owner who accidentally knelt in dog mess while cleaning it up brought the dog in the very next day.

:: A puppy bought as a present for elderly couple with dementia.

:: The negative image of Staffordshire Bull Terriers because of their perceived resemblance to Pit Bull-style dogs.

For those of you out there that walk into a Burger King and think, "I wish i could smell this scent all the time", Burger King can hook you up. Perhaps it's just a ploy for attention or perhaps there are people who really do want to smell like cooked meat so for them, Burger King is now selling body spray. Their website has this hilarious description of the product:

As we near the end of the year, it's important to remember all of our victories. The year 2008 will be remembered as the year the wave of animal cruelty broke and new era of compassion began. The Humane Society of the United States has put together a great video of just some of the successes.

Please think of your favorite animal rights group this x-mas and let's work together to make 2009 the year of animal liberation.



Some of my favorite groups that I contribute to:

Humane Society of the United States (HSUS)
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)
Save the Manatee
The Gorilla Foundation
In Defense of Animals (IDA)

A pair of gay penguins were recently expelled for stealing eggs at a Chinese zoo because they wanted to be parents so badly. After mass protests from animal rights groups, the pair where aloud to adopt and raise a baby from birth. The penguins have proven to be the 'best parents' out of the whole group.

The story has made scientists think differently about the parental drive of gay animals.

The video does a great job of addressing the major arguments FOR eating meat. Take a look at it and send this post to a friend or family member when your done. Who knows, it may change what you have for x-mas dinner this year.

Here's this week's batch of interesting stories from around the internets [sic].

- Nearly 11 million animals are deemed unfit for consumption upon arrival at slaughterhouse.

-One-fifth of the world's coral reefs are dead.

- NEW US LAW: Biologists no longer get to weigh in on environmentally damaging projects.

- No more recess, kids grow their own lunch.

- OBVIOUS NEWS OF THE WEEK: Elephants don't live as long in zoos.

- Pork recalled all across the US.

- Biden ignores America's overpopulation crisis and buys dog from breeder.

- ACTION ALERT: Help Obama pick a pro-animal rights Secretary of the Interior.

As promised, something to keep you smiling.


Have a good week everyone!

Nonprofit organization, The Cancer Project, has published their "Top Five WORST Value Menu Items" list for 2008. Not surprisingly, all the foods listed contain processed meat and are from fast food restaurants. The Cancer Project is also affiliated with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, which aggressively promotes a vegetarian diet.

Without further ado, here are the "Top Five" or should we say "Bottom Five:"

1) Jack in the Box’s junior bacon cheeseburger topped the list as the worst offender. The burger costs just one dollar but is packed with 23 grams of fat, including 8 grams of saturated fat, 55 milligrams of cholesterol and 860 milligrams of sodium and just one gram of fiber.

2) second-worst place, the 89-cent Taco Bell cheesy double beef burrito, with 460 calories, 20 grams of fat and a whopping 1,620 milligrams of sodium.

3) In third-worst place was the one-dollar Burger King breakfast sausage biscuit, with 27 grams of fat, including 15 grams of saturated fat and over 1,000 milligrams of sodium.

4) Fourth worst went to the one-dollar McDonald’s McDouble, which contains 19 grams of fat and 65 milligrams of cholesterol.

5) Last, and least-worst, was the Wendy’s junior bacon cheeseburger, for $1.53, with 310 calories and 16 grams of fat.

Vegan food is the healthier diet because most vegan foods are low in fat and high in fiber. ALL vegan food in cholesterol free because cholesterol is only found in other animals.

In the short term, it may seem expensive or time consuming to eat vegan but groups like the Cancer Project have all shown that vegans and vegetarians have less cancer and other health problems.

The little extra time money spent eating vegan now may keep you from going bankrupt becasue of cancer treatment in the future.

Bon Apatite!

This week we focus on one of the animal rights movements biggest celebrities, Joaquin Pheonix. Pheonix is a successful vegan actor/activists and the narrator one the most influential animal rights documentaries ever assembled, Earthlings. Rumor has it that Earthings will be one of his final films as he has recently retired from filmmaking.

Pheonix has been extremely active in the movement lending his celebrity to numerous ad campaigns and speaking out all over the world about the benefits of a vegan lifestyle. He has been a vegan since the age of 3 and believes in living his life as a shining example of veganism. He has been nominated for an Oscar twice but barely missed the opportunity to become the first vegan to ever win.

If you don't have the time to see all 95 minutes of the film Earthlings, please watch the first 7 minutes here:

A full page ad ran in the New York Times this Thursday that demonstrates the Humane Society's ties to 'terrorist' groups.  The ad was sponsored by the Center for Consumer Freedom (CCF) that represents the fast food and dairy industries and has spoke out against the Mothers AgainstDrunk Driving (because CCF represents the alcohol industry too).  

Demonstrations will be held against Ungar Fur's every Friday at 1pm in Portland Oregon.
The group organizing the campaign released this statement recently:

"We have started a dedicated and focused anti fur campaign against UNGUR FUR's. We are here to educate the public on the process in which the fur goes through to end up on the bloody racks at a fur shop. how this fur was once a part of a living creature with its own life."

As Americans are bailing out our banks and our auto industry, Italians are giving millions to save a failing cheese industry. It seems that another industry fueled by the suffering of others is set to topple. The stimulus given to revive it is seen as a futile attempt to save what animal rights advocates have been trying to stop for years.

I'm all for showin' the kitties some love but this is a little bizarre.

Less then 400 right whales are left on earth today and the US has taken action to try and save the species. Today a new law takes effect that forces freighters to slow down when traveling through migration paths in the North Atlantic.

The right whale was driven almost to extinction in the 1700's by capitalists seeking whale oil. In recent years they were threatened more by the enormous ships that crisscross their migratory path.
Studies have shown that deceasing the speed over these areas could reduce right whale deaths by 80%.

Once endangered, scientists say that this new law may mean the survival of the species.

Time magazine online has posted the "Top 10 Everything of 2008" and as part of that series, the "Top 10 Animal Stories." Some are of huge significance to the animal rights movement (Proposition 2) and some are not (cat has home foreclosed).

This is kind of how animal news goes, sometimes its earth shaking and profound and other times it's about stuff like this.

The year 2008 will go down as a turning point in the fight against factory farms and I have a feeling that 2009 in going to be even better.

PETA's big turkey abuse investigation that broke last month has taken a dramatic turn. The corporation responsible for the abuse (Avigen, Inc.) has fired what they claimed to be "all involved personnel." This is great news! Hopefully these guys can seek some counseling to deal with their violent perversions. Here's a few horrific highlights from the Avigen, Inc. investigation:

• Employees stomped on turkeys' heads, punched turkeys, hit them on the head with a can of spray paint and pliers, and struck turkeys' heads against metal scaffolding.
• Men shoved feces and feed into turkeys' mouths and held turkeys' heads under water. Another bragged about jamming a broom stick 2 feet down a turkey's throat.
  
• A supervisor said he saw workers kill 450 turkeys with 2-by-4s.
  
• One man said he saw a coworker fatally inject turkey semen and sulfuric acid into turkeys' heads.
  

The Guardian reports today that soy farming in South America is the cause of massive deforestation. The issue here is that the majority of the soy being farmed in South America is fed to livestock around the world which are then killed and eaten. Feeding food to our food so that we can have food makes no sense. We should eat the food directly to reduce the impact of soy fed animals in factory farms.

In the UK alone, soy was used to feed 850 million broiler chickens, produce 10 billion eggs, 10 million turkeys, 4.9 million pigs and 10 million cattle for dairy and beef. Cattle and pigs alone eat more food every year that the average person. If the soy was used to feed humans directly, would be well fed and the environmental impact the meat industry has on the earth would be eliminated.

The soy deforestation argument is one that has been used by the pro-animal cruelty sect for years however, meat producers are the largest purchasers of soy in the world. Currently we are relying on both plant and animals means of agriculture to support our diet so we're doing double the damage. If we would choose subsist on soy and other plants alone we would be fine. Instead we feed our food to our food.

The meat industry is increasing the demand on the soy industry more than any vegan ever could. We can end this illogical chain of consumption by eating the food we grow directly and going vegan.

National animal rights organization, In Defense of Animals, has launched a campaign to stop Amazon.com from selling fur. Recently, Amazon competitor Zappos.com has gone fur-free and attracted a considerable amount of business because of it.

The fur industry is responsible for the torture and deaths of millions. Animals are skinned (sometimes alive), electrocuted, have their necks broken, stuffed into tiny filthy cages, and poisoned for the sake of an out-of-date fashion.

Be the voice for millions of tortured animals by telling Amazon to go fur-free today!

For more information about the industry that Amazon.com is currently supporting, go to furisdead.com.

Found a cool website that shows your tons of different meat alternatives from around the world. Did you know that Japan has NO available meat alternatives!?

Meatalternatives.org

Here's a few of the most interesting stories that are floating around the web this weekend.

- Berlin zoo looks to sell baby polar bear.

- Burger King proves once again that they have zero taste.

- Once thought to be endangered, turns out they were just hiding.

- The meat industry caused a land scarcity but there may be another vegan solution.

- The 'fart tax' may not be as bad as it sounds.

- Hunter learns that karma is a bitch.

- Giant flying reptile may be dead; but alive he was a badass.

And as always, something to keep you going...



Think he knew exactly what he was doing.

Dennis Kucinich, former 2008 presidential candidate and current U.S. Representative is a committed vegan. Check out this great video of him talking about his diet with Chris Matthews and Lance Armstrong.

Josh Harper is an animal activist from the Northwest that has been sentenced to 3 years in federal prison for "free speech." Josh spoke out for the animals by talking about a tactic known as "black faxing." Black faxing essentially drains its victim of all the toner in their fax machine. Josh was convicted under the Animal Enterprise Protection Act which can put animal activists away for speaking out against the animal industry.

Josh was never convicted of an illegal act. Josh was convicted for talking about an illegal act. Black faxing used to be thought of as a prank but if your an animal activist, black faxing can be considered terrorism. Animal/environmental activists have been moved to the #1 spot on the domestic terrorist watch list, and are more prominent on the FBI's website than Osama bin Laden.

Josh spoke for those who had no voice and he paid the price. The US has not stifled the problem of vocal animal activists they have only created heroes and martyrs. From what i can tell, Josh used to be the average Joe; now he's a symbol. Josh stood by his belief in what was right and it will serve as inspiration for the movement forever.

I wish I could say this case is unique, but it's not. There are dozens of other activists that have been locked away. Caged like the animals they seek to protect. We understand what you've given for the cause and we will never back down, we will never compromise.

Please take the time to write Josh and the other prisoners and let the know you care.

The New York Times reports that based on recommendations made by the UN, ministers will meet in Poland from 187 nations to discuss a new treaty on global warming focusing on harmful environmental effects of meat and dairy production.

This weeks' meeting is important in part, because leaders hope to develop strategies to curb emissions such as global promotion of a more vegan lifestyle. They are also debating the placement a “sin tax” on pork and beef. Going Vegan reduces more greenhouse gases than switching to a hybrid car not to mention the thousands of lives you save.

The United Nations estimates that 18% of all global warming emissions come from livestock. In countries like Brazil, Australia and New Zealand, meat production accounts for well over 50% of all harmful emissions. The Times reports that producing a pound of beef creates 11 times as much greenhouse gas emission as a pound of chicken and 100 times more than a pound of carrots.

An increase in production also means that more of the Earth's rainforests are slashed and burned to make room for livestock. The rainforests of South America in particular have been called "the lungs of the earth" because of their role in replenishing our air supply; their survival is directly linked to our own.

I want to personally thank the UN and all the world leaders that have finally decided to listen to what animal/environmental rights advocates have been saying for years. So if you haven't already, go vegan (or at least vegetarian) and save the planet.

I've noticed a lot of you reading this site so i thought I would pass on a little something i got from one of my favorite places, Food Fight! Vegan Grocery.

Here's a list of all the fur farms in Oregon in case you want to get out and do some outreach (fliers, letter writing, pamphlets, etc.)

Let's get out there and make this a better x-mas season for all those locked away on these farms who have no freedom and no voice.

Ikea is drawing fire from animal rights activists for selling reindeer salami. Ranchers buzz over the reindeer in helicopters, herd them with snowmobiles and truck them hundreds of miles and their terror doesn't end once they are caught.
The reindeer are taken to facilities were they have their throats cut so they can bleed to death. When they get close to being dead they are skinned and ground into salami to be sold at a shitty furniture store.
Sadly, more than 70 per cent of reindeer slaughtered for meat are calves that have grazed during the summer, which means they never even get to see snow. Ikea should do the right thing and ban the sale of reindeer meat altogether at the very least to avoid losing the business of millions of vegans and vegetarians.

The campaign to end Ikea's sale of this Christmas icon is being run by the United Kingdom's Viva! organization.

Go to here to find out how you can help end the slaughter and sale of reindeer.

Has this news changed your opinion of Ikea?