3 Prisoners' Birthdays coming up- write!

Josh Harper (SHAC 7) and Jonathan Paul (Green Scare) both have birthdays coming up on January 31st. Jake Conroy (SHAC 7) has a birthday on Feb. 3rd. Please take a few minutes to send them a card, letter, or photos!

Joshua Harper
#29429-086
FCI Sheridan
Federal Correctional Institution
P.O. Box 5000
Sheridan, OR 97378
http://www.JoshHarper.org

JACOB CONROY
#93501-011
FCI TERMINAL ISLAND
FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION
PO BOX 3007
SAN PEDRO, CA 90731
http://www.SupportJake.org

Jonathan Paul
#07167-085
FCI Phoenix
Federal Correctional Institution
37910 N. 45th Ave.
Phoenix, AZ 85086
http://www.SupportJonathan.org

Celebrating Coretta, Who Celebrated Nonviolence--and Stopped Eating Animals

by Stephanie Ernst

This is the day when we annually celebrate the life, spirit, contributions, and philosophy of Martin Luther King Jr. But I'm not going to write about MLK today. I'm going to write, just briefly, about Coretta. Those opposed to the idea of animal rights, those who consider the fight for animal rights to be distinct from and lesser than other social justice movements, and--most clearly--those who consider veganism extreme could learn something from Coretta Scott King.

For more than the last decade of her extraordinary, compassionate, and passionate life, Coretta Scott King was a vegan. Really. Not an "extremist," not a "fanatic," not a "one-note," "single-issue" zealot--just a vegan.

In addition to fighting against racial injustices, Coretta Scott King fought openly and loudly for LGBT rights. She opposed war and violence and championed peace. And for the last 15 years of her life, she improved her own health and life and saved hundreds of animals' lives by refusing to eat their bodies or what came from their bodies.

On her health, she said in Ebony in 2003, "I feel blessed that I was introduced to this lifestyle more than 12 years ago by Dexter. I prefer to eat mostly raw or 'living' foods. The benefits for me are increased energy, a slowing of the aging process, and I have none of the diseases like hypertension, heart disease and diabetes that many people my age seem to get." And Coretta and Martin Luther King's son Dexter, also a vegan and, as noted, the one who introduced his mother to the lifestyle, considers veg*nism the "logical extension" of his father's philosophy of nonviolence, reported Vegetarian Times in 1995 in the write-up of the magazine's interview with him.

Every time someone remarks or implies that vegans are nothing but animal rights "fanatics" or health-obsessed neurotics who care about nothing else, who are vegans to the exclusion of caring about or fighting against any other injustices, one of the many people who comes to mind as proving this wrong is Coretta Scott King. So today I remember and honor not only Martin Luther King Jr. but Coretta Scott King as well. If I must be an extremist or a fanatic simply because I am a vegan, then I am at least happy with the company.

From here.

Martin Luther King taught us all nonviolence. I was told to extend nonviolence to the mother and her calf. -Dick Gregory

Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love. -Martin Luther King Jr.


Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?"
Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?"
Vanity asks the question, "Is it popular?"
But conscience asks the question, "Is it right?"
And there comes a point when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but one must take it because one's conscience tells one that it is right. -Martin Luther King Jr.

New year, new you: Go vegan!

Happy New Year! Day one of Animal Defense League's Top Ten New Years Resolutions!


For the first day of the new year, we're asking you to go vegan! Stay vegan! Talk about veganism to your family, friends- everyone!


If you’re not vegan, you’re not doing the single most powerful action you can to boycott animal cruelty. Think about it- every time you sit down to eat (or grab something to go), you can make a difference!

Do you still eat or use animal products, and/or participate in animal exploitation in other ways? We suggest you educate yourself about what you’re doing. Here are some very introductory resources.


ARTICLES, Specific-Focus

What About Fish?

What’s Wrong With Cheese?

What’s Wrong With Honey?

What About Humane or Organic Animal Products?


BOOKS, General

Generation V: The Complete Guide to Going, Being, and Staying Vegan as a Teenager by Claire Askew

Vegan Freak: Being Vegan in a Non-Vegan World by Drs. Jenna and Bob Torres.

(both books can be ordered here for 15% off the cover price)

Becoming Vegan: The Complete Guide to Adopting a Healthy Plant-Based Diet by Brenda Davis & Vesanto Melina

Introduction to Animal Rights: Your Child or the Dog? by Gary L. Francione

Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation and the No Kill Revolution in America by Nathan J. Winograd


FILMS, General

Earthlings (sometimes it is available on Google Video or You Tube, but please, support this amazing documentary!)

A Life Connected (free to watch!)


WEBSITES, General

Go Vegan Now

Peaceful Prairie Blog

(both of the above websites are run by Peaceful Prairie Animal Sanctuary)

An Animal Friendly Life

Animal Emancipation

Animal Rights: The Abolitionist Approach

Vegan Frequently Asked Questions

Vegans of Color

F/U on Micheal Vick's Dogs...

Quite possibly the only time you'll see me link to a Sports Illustrated article in a good way...

THE DOG approaches the outstretched hand. Her name is Sweet Jasmine, and she is 35 pounds of twitchy curiosity with a coat the color of fried chicken, a pink nose and brown eyes. She had spent a full 20 seconds studying this five-fingered offering before advancing. Now, as she moves forward, her tail points straight down, her butt is hunched toward the ground, her head is bowed, her ears pinned back. She stands at maybe three quarters of her height.

She gets within a foot of the hand and stops. She licks her snout, a sign of nervousness, and looks up at the stranger, seeking assurance. She looks back to the hand, licks her snout again and begins to extend her neck. Her nose is six inches away from the hand, one inch, half an inch. She sniffs once. She sniffs again. At this point almost any other dog in the world would offer up a gentle lick, a sweet hello, an invitation to be scratched or petted. She's come so far. She's so close.

But Jasmine pulls away.

Read the rest here.

Girl rescues tortured puppy

By the time Calli Vanderaa discovered the seven-week-old puppies in the garbage dumpster stationed behind her house, the fourth grader had spent two years soaking up ample evidence of society’s dark underbelly. She’d already seen more than most people witness in a lifetime.

The little girl was tossing away grass clippings with her dad last summer when they turned to walk away. She stopped in her tracks, ears instinctively tuned to the pleading cries coming from the big brown bin. The sounds were faint but unmistakably alive.

“I asked him, ‘Did you hear that?’”

“No,” he said.

“Well, come here.”

Her father Corey found a stool to boost himself up into the tall steel structure. Thankfully Calli stayed behind.

“He said I didn’t want to see what was inside there,” she told me.

The incident of cruelty made an impression on Calli. Last month, she wrote a letter to her local newspaper, the Winnipeg Free Press, detailing what had happened. A poem she had composed was also enclosed.

Dear Sir
My name is Calli Vanderaa.
I’m 9 years old and I live with my daddy.
One day we found a little puppy in the BFI bin in our lane. Somebody had put 3 puppies in there and set them on fire.
Two of the puppies died but daddy and I saved one that was sitting in the corner crying.
We took her home and named her Jessie. She is happy and growing bigger every day.

Full article here, with pictures

Fur Free Friday Recap!

On "humane" animal products

Restoration

It's like the pitter-patter of rain, the sound of their small feet rhythmically tapping, patting, stamping the ground, stirring up dirt in their enthusiastic rush to greet you and follow you around – a soothing, rustling, living sound. They follow you excitedly, flapping their wings, fluffing their feathers, craning their necks the better to behold you.

If you stop, they stop too and, with them, the sound. They surround you in expectant silence, their befeathered selves all aflutter with curiosity and excitement, billowing around you like a cloud – a radiant cloud of waking minds, throbbing hearts, hankering souls, living memories, passionately lived lives – riveting you at the center of their focused attention, lifted on almost tiptoes by the sheer force of their fascination with this new, rich feast of scents, sounds, shapes, colors, textures, thoughts, rhythms, and inner weather that you are to them.

It's hard to believe that these vibrant birds, crackling with life and wonder, are the same "free-range" hens who arrived at the sanctuary one year ago, bruised, battered, bewildered, disconnected from the world around them and from their own selves, unable or unwilling to inhabit their own lives (what was there to inhabit?).

Read the rest.

Are sharks really that dangerous?

Could you kill this cat?

Dog abuse, friends being deported.

Wow. Crazy past few days. First off, I still don't have the internet, so no daily updates for a while. I'm pirating someone else's internet currently.

Secondly, I'm doped up on pain meds. Yesterday, I stepped in between a man abusing his dog and he turned his aggression towards me. I spent a good deal of time in the ER- and the dog at the vet- but we're both OK, on the way to healing. I'll be seeing the man in court. As much as I disagree with the court system, I'm going to try to see if I can get him mandated counseling or something.

Thirdly, my friends are being deported to Poland and I wrote up a quick speech to say at their benefit party. It's written how I said it, so it's a bit different than had I written it to be read. Tell me what you think.

Hey everybody! I just wanted to say a little something about this benefit, privilege and other movements.

First, I want to thank everyone for coming out tonight and supporting M and F. I’m sure some of you came because you know them- and they are absolutely amazing- or maybe you’re here because you’re vegan and want to support fellow vegans- and they are tireless animal rights crusaders- or maybe you’re here because you’re sick of this government and how it treats people who come here to improve their lives and this world. In any case, I want everyone here to really think about the many implications that this case has for this great couple, their animals, the Chicago animal rights scene and more.

I’ve never actually talked to M and F about why they came here, but I personally don’t think the whys matter. They came, and they deserve more respect than living in fear about when the cops would kick them out, with absolutely no help from the government to help get them or their companion animals get back to Poland. To be cliche, we are a nation of immigrants. Personally, my father was born in Mexico, the maternal side of the family immigrated from Ireland and Germany and worked in the stockyards during The Jungle era. As a nation, we are living on stolen land that the mostly rich, old, white men in power- with some tokens- have made into their very own playground with confusing rules that try to make it so that no one can play except for them.

We have to fight to stop this. I choose animal rights and women’s rights, especially pertaining to access to abortion and other reproductive health services, but it doesn’t matter what your personal fight is- we must realize that these issues are all connected. How can you be anti-violence while murdering animals for meat? How can you fight for women’s rights and not empathize with cows being raped for milk, chickens being bred to produce more and more eggs for humans? How can we care about global warming but make personal excuses for buying cars, not supporting better public transportation, or riding a bike if you can? How can we be anti-police brutality and anti-war but support the occupation of Tibet and Palestine along with corporations like Boeing and Blackwater? How can we encourage equality between species when we’re so freaked out be people who play with their own gender, or love people of the same sex?

Last winter, after a racial slur was used against one of the animal rights activists that often comes to Animal Defense League events, we declared an emergency protest of the racist woman’s store- not only for selling leather and fur, but for being, well, a racist. We actually got an email from a member of our listserve who was dismayed that we were bringing others issues up at our protests. I’m sorry, but I can’t leave the fact that I’m a person of color at home when I’m at a protest. I get very different things yelled at me at demonstrations because I’m female, versus when a male speaks on the bullhorn. I can’t just ignore the fact that I’m bisexual or that I grew up in public housing and on welfare, nor can I dismiss my light skinned privilege or the fact that because my mother gave birth in this country, I have so many more rights I am “entitled” to than many, many others around the world. Each one of us holds within us our privileges and oppressions, and it’s important we realize how connected we are- to other people, other movements, other lives.

So, as you end the night- give money to M and F, they need it! But don’t forget the animals- so go vegan, stay vegan and get active for them. Don’t forget the protesters at the RNC, which were horribly brutalized for opposing this, well, brutal government. Please, get active in fighting the war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan, and fight to stop the war in Iran before it starts. Believe women who tell you they’ve been raped or abused and support them. Feed stray animals and donate vegan food to a food pantry. Fight for immigrants rights and workers rights and acknowledge the fact that you’re on stolen land whose original people are still some of the most marginalized, victimized people in this country and who are still being murdered by the U.S.A.’s policies. Get active for what fight you are most drawn to, but remember that it’s all connected. Because if we don’t do it, who will?

Thank you.