Brilliant quote from Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivores Dilemma and In Defense of Food.

“There’s a schizoid quality to our relationship with animals, in which sentiment and brutality exist side by side. Half the dogs in America will receive Christmas presents this year, yet few of us pause to consider the miserable life of the pig—an animal easily as intelligent as a dog—that becomes the Christmas ham.”

The New York Times Magazine, “An Animal’s Place”
by Michael Pollan, 11/10/02

Thought you might enjoy that.

Portland Oregon activists have scared away every furrier in the city except one, Nicholas Ungar Furs. The anti-fur movement in Portland has grown with every victory and will continue until Nicholas Ungar Furs is finally out of business. The campaign against the furrier will eventually end in victory for the animals, it's only a matter of time.

This years Fur Free Friday brought massive protests to the door of Ungar Furs. The Portland Independent Media Center had a great report on some of the activities:

"At Ungar Furs, I watched as the police raced over to inform the proprietors that people of conscience were almost at their door. An agitated employee came out and unabashedly pulled clanging metal doors shut, fumbling with the locks. He was unable to get the doors to close properly, and his movements became more frenzied and panic-stricken, as the chanting crowd closed in. A couple of yellow-jacketed (rent-a?) cops grabbed the doors and tried to wrestle them closed. (After all, the police state works for the business alliance in this town, so corporate security is obviously a big part of their job description.) At last, the metal gates were closed and locked, and just in the nick of time. A moment later, radical cheerleaders, little old ladies, small children, teenagers, dogs, and activists of all kinds descended on the establishment, belting out anti-fur chants and strong doses of conscience. A banner reading, "A.L.F. Welcome Here" was unfurled in front of the barred doors. We stayed long enough to keep the doors closed for awhile on this Black Friday, and a smaller crowd returned later, to keep the doors closed even longer."

There are a few sites out there that have lists where you can find out about ethical fashion but I found this one pretty cool. It's interactive, fun, and ran by one of my favorite newspapers The Guardian from the UK. They separate their clothes by fair trade, vegan, made from recycled materials, sustainable, and made in the UK. I appreciate that a major newspaper is acknowledging the ethics of vegan fashion.

So if you celebrate the holidays and plan on buy tons of gifts for your loved ones then buy vegan!

Check out the Guardian's Ethical clothing guide here.

I found this trailer for a new movie called Processed People. Its about the undernourishment and overeating in the American diet. Looks like it presents a great case for veganism.



Check out the Processed People website for more info.

U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman recently gave a ruling in support of the National Marine Fisheries Service that gives Oregon, Washington and Idaho authority to kill sea lions because they eat salmon and steelhead in the Columbia River. The only rule for the killings is that states can only murder 85 a year each. Oregon, Washington and Idaho plan to start killing sea lions March 2009.

The campaign against sea lions was mounted by fisherman and tribal groups that complain that the animals decrease the number of salmon and steelhead leaving less for them to catch. It has been estimated that "0.4 percent to 4.2 percent of the annual Chinook run has been lost since 2002 to sea lions." Something tells me that a mass killing of sea lions will cause more problems than it solves.

YOU can be one of those problems. Write to Donna Darm because she can stop these killings from happening if enough of us get active.

The federal government has introduced plans to round up all wild horses in America and send them to slaughter. Some 31,000 wild horses are set to be rounded-up and killed in a mass murder. The project is intended to protect "grazing land used by the cattle industry(link)."

Activists are calling for the government to save the wild horses but so called experts claim the horses are invasive species. Perhaps the cattle are just as much of an invasive species as well. The motivation behind the killing is cloudy however because the government now says that the horse meat will be sold to "foreign markets."

If people stopped buying beef, the cattle industry would collapse and the horses would be saved. Please speak out against the needless slaughter of 31,000 wild horses.