March, 2010

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Vegan chef Tal Ronnen in Vancouver

Saturday, March 27th, 2010

Tal Ronnen, the author of the New York Times best-selling cookbook, The Conscious Cook, was in Vancouver earlier this week to promote Gardein products and his cookbook.  Tal Ronnen is a talented vegan chef and self-proclaimed foodie who was trained in traditional French cooking.  Check out my video below, if you missed him on Tuesday.

Last year, Tal got to spend 21 days cooking for Oprah when she went on a vegan cleanse.  This is what Oprah had to say about Tal’s cooking: “I just cleaned my dinner plate, down to the last grain of brown rice left under my oh-so-deliciously seasoned soy chicken. I can not believe how tasty, spicy and wonderful it all was. I’m ever more surprised at how I don’t miss anything and feel so satisfied at every meal. Bravo to Tal!!”

The chicken she was referring to is probably Gardein chicken.  If you’ve been a vegan for a while and have lost the taste for meat, you may not find it all that great.  But for meat lovers who are trying to cut down or transition to vegetarianism, this stuff is a must-have in your kitchen.

Gardein tastes and looks very similar to real meat.  They come in handy packages in the frozen and refrigerated isles in your grocery store.  From herb dijon breasts to buffalo wings, you will not even know that the meat and cholesterol are missing from your plate.

Pick up a copy of the Conscious Cook and a package or two of Gardein and begin your delicious journey to a healthy and compassionate lifestyle.

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Chickens used as “props” in a media stunt

Thursday, March 25th, 2010
Chickens at Victoria Animal Control

Chickens at Victoria Animal Control

Showing a clear lack of respect for the well-being of animals, several University of Victoria students released (some accounts say “tossed”) 6 hens into MLA Ida Chong’s office in Victoria during a Dogwood Initiative rally on Tuesday.

Dogwood Initiative is a BC-based environmental organization that has dealt with issues like urban sprawl and tankers on BC’s coast. They famously created decals to be placed on loonies depicting a loon caught in an oil slick.

They have since issued an apology on their website and have distributed it to the media.

Dogwood Initiative apologizes for the release chickens in Oak Bay-Gordon Head MLA Ida Chong’s office on Tuesday, March 23 during a rally to protect forest lands and stop reckless development on Southern Vancouver Island.

….

Concerns have been raised about the welfare of the chicken released. We have investigated and determined that the chickens were not harmed during the event. We regret any distress that the chickens may have experienced during the event. The chickens are now Victoria’s Animal Control and we are taking steps to ensure that the birds are adopted by a humane home.

If you are able to provide a home for these chickens, or know someone who might be able to, contact Victoria Animal Control.

Apparently the students who released the chickens claimed that they were rescued from “a very crowded egg farm where they were they were living on a two foot pile of their own filth.” (Source) However, the chickens as pictured are clean, have all of their feathers, and nice, healthy combs. So I don’t know what to believe.

Valerie at GreenMuze wrote a really great post about the whole thing:

The apparent disconnect between environmental activism and animal rights was again highlighted by a recent protest organized by Victoria-based Dogwood Initiative. During the protest, student activists threw six live chickens into an office area to protest MLA Ida Chong’s inactivity on protecting the Western Forest Products land, located on Vancouver Island.

The fate of these lands has long been a contentious subject in the community, and, like most environmentalists, I think the lands must be protected. But I strongly disagree with the tactics of throwing and abandoning live animals to make a publicity point about saving forests.

Frankly, aside from the ignorance of the chicken throwers, what has surprised me the most is that the Dogwood Initiative would in anyway associate themselves with such a stupid stunt. Most thinking environmental organizations would run a million miles from assholes throwing lives animals at a protest. (Source)

She goes into a lot more detail and writes a lot better than I do, so I’d encourage you to check out the rest of that post for the whole story.

The apology was prompted by a much bigger backlash than Dogwood had anticipated. Not only did the Vancouver Humane Society and the BC SPCA speak out about in the media, a small but fierce firestorm raged on Twitter, Facebook, and in the comments sections of some of the articles (Victoria Times-Colonist, National Post, Province). Dogwood Initiative also received several phone calls about it. US-based poultry protection group United Poultry Concerns also put out a press release.

Chickens are one of the most abused animals on the planet. There was no need to subject them to such stress and danger for a media stunt. In the future, I hope that Dogwood Initiative and other activists will plan their events to show respect for all life, whether that be human or animal or the environment.

The apology

Dogwood is to be commended for issuing an apology, even though it was two days late and was not their first choice.

Some of my fellow activists have expressed concerns about the apology, wondering what steps Dogwood Initiative will be taking to ensure that these chickens find a safe and caring home. Also, some are bothered that the apology does not really address anything about the issues associated with the use of animals.

But, I do think it’s likely to be the best apology that we will get, and I do hope that going forward this makes it that much less likely that someone will think that it’s ok to exploit an animal for our own gain.

When animals are abused we need to be ready to stand up for them. If we don’t do it, no one else is going to. Especially if they are chickens.

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MPs eat seal, understand ordinary Canadians

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

Ew. This is icky in so many ways.

1. What’s the statement they’re trying to make? Our legislators eat seal meat at their exclusive, upscale restaurant–starting now, at most once a week–so the seal slaughter is at the heart of Canadian culture? Are we supposed to suddenly start believing that the slaughter is for meat, rather than for fur? If it’s about meat, then we shouldn’t be concerned about the EU ban on imported seal products–they weren’t a major consumer of seal meat, after all.

2. Are my taxes paying for this? Who runs this parliamentary restaurant?

3. Maybe it’s just me, but I’m uncomfortable with the picture here:

“The idea of serving seal came after Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean gnawed on a piece of raw seal heart during a northern visit last fall.”

Overwhelmingly white legislators see “quaint native practice,” and try to get their private chef to replicate it. See, there’s nothing wrong with cultural appropriation as long as it’s clumsy.

I feel gross.

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The battle will rage

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

Image by flickr user bionicteaching

We are fighting a war. One that will only get fiercer and uglier before anyone wins.

According to a Vancouver Sun article, a recent survey by the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association showed that vegan foods are one of the top 10 food trends. But, at the same time, small, traditional butchers are also one of the top 10 food trends.

As veganism and a real respect for all life grows, we will see a fierce reaction from the proponents of the status quo.

We are often seeing “humane” meat and “traditional” butchery passed off as a solution to the suffering of animals. Actually, though, it’s just another way of covering up the unethical murder of animals for our own personal pleasure.

I know that the metaphor of battle or war is not often appreciated by proponents of nonviolence, but taken in the spirit of Chogyam Trungpa, we are indeed warriors. Warriors for what is right, defenders of those who cannot speak or fight for themselves.

Let’s push the vegan trend even further, but be prepared for an even fiercer backlash. Be prepared for anger, hostility, and cruelty. Be prepared, and fight.

Peace is our weapon, compassion is our sword.

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Friday’s Animal Voices Radio Show

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

So, are you listening yet?

Okay, so I’m a little biased–the hosts are Liberation BC’s very own Joanne Chang, as well as VeganMania’s Christa Trueman and Alison Cole of Earthsave.  But it’s seriously an entertaining show and a great resource for animal advocates.

The first guest was Karen Levenson, of the Toronto-based Animal Alliance.  The topic of discussion, the Canadian commercial seal hunt, always comes up around this time of year, of course.  Levenson brought up the fact that the seal hunt is a dying industry.  Very few people are making any money from it, least of all the hunters, and overall it’s costing Canada quite a bit to defend what is basically a national embarrassment.  We chose to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to (unsuccessfully) stop the EU ban on seal products; instead, we could have used it to help train and transfer seal hunters into an industry that isn’t already on its way out.  She also discussed the impressive effect of the Canadian seafood ban that so many restaurateurs–many of them top chefs–and individuals have agreed to.

In Canada, the ban is on seafood harvested in the eastern part of the country.  One might think that we can get all the fish we want in BC’s coastal waters, but the truth is that with seafood shortages occurring all over the world, we can’t guarantee that we always will.

The show’s next guest was Jason Hribal, author of Fear of the Animal Planet: The Hidden History of Animal Resistance. A discussion of this book is particularly appropro after a trainer at Sea World was killed by a captive orca last week.  In this book–which I’ll admit sounds fascinating–Hribal counters the idea that animals are willing, dumb, and docile captives; instead, as history shows us, plenty of them are actively fighting back.

Joanne pointed out that the recent attack of Tillicum received a great deal of attention because it occurred in front of an audience, and asked whether similar incidents happen more often than we hear about.  Hribal said that they definitely do, and listed a number of attacks, many of which I didn’t know about.  He also brought up the idea that in some situations, the animals have warned us–whales who have intentionally and repeatedly injuring trainers and spectators until finally (and again, with clear intent) killing one.

Would you believe that the head of the Vancouver Aquarium has suggested that orcas are incapable of conscious thought, and couldn’t possibly do this?  I’m not terribly impressed with his professional opinion that these mammals, who have been proven time and time again to be surprisingly intelligent and complicated, are only slightly more capable of emotion and thought than a robot.  But then, that’s why he’s in favour of keeping animals in cages, I guess.  It doesn’t say much for his interest in ensuring that they’re happy or entertained, though, does it?  (The Vancouver Aquarium does not have any orcas left, as far as I know, but they do have dolphins and some other large marine mammals.)

The assumption that whales couldn’t ever intend to hurt people–that they’re playing or that it was an accident–is also an altogether dangerous statement.  Park managers and other officials have been insisting upon it for some time, even as trainers and employees, who presumably know their animals far better, abandon their jobs out of concern for personal safety.  This refusal to upset the profit margin of the park has often had injurious and sometimes fatal results.

Anyway, next week’s guest is apparently going to be the producer of the new Peaceable Kingdom.  If you managed to see the first Peaceable Kingdom while it was out, you can understand why everyone is so excited about this upcoming release!

Be sure to tune in if you can!  Animal Voices airs every Friday from noon to 1 pm on Co-op Radio 102.7 FM.

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Teats and Tweets

Monday, March 8th, 2010

I just read about a new project called “Teats and Tweets” where tweets are sent out “by” a cow as her RFID tags are read when she comes to be milked.

The cows don’t actually write the tweets themselves, of course. The people who set up the project created a set of tweets, and the data gets filled in from the information collected by the milking machine. The tweets are extra creepy. Here are some of the most recent ones:

Teat race! Front lefty loses again at 3:3 seconds.

Teat tweet: left front teat took 3:49 secs.”Drop milky udders”

Farmers feed cities. 13.1 kgs.

Laser guided robot milker found my teats. Gave 18.7.

“More copious soon the teat-pressed torrents flow”

I just squirted 12.1 kgs of milk out of my teats in 5:19 seconds. What did you do today?

Sound much like anthropomorphism? And “teat race?” Shudder.

I’ll bet that we won’t see tweets like “gave birth today and my baby was taken away from me,” “so sad I have all this milk and can’t feed my calf,” “some man came and stuck his arm up my ass and then impregnated me.” No, apparently all cows have to say (and apparently care about) is how much milk they “gave.”

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Chilean Earthquake Relief Vegan Bake Sale (guest post by Stephanie Belding)

Saturday, March 6th, 2010

Chile Earthquake ReliefIt is amazing what a difference a week can make. As I write this post, I am overlooking the North Shore mountains, watching float planes skirt the sky and can still see the Olympic rings floating idly on their barge in the harbour below.

This time last Saturday morning, February 27th, the world awoke, yet again, to horrific news of a phenomenal 8.8 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Chile.  A massive tsunami followed as well as numerous aftershocks, which as of last night, were still occurring in and around Valparaiso, Chile, at a magnitude of 6.5. The destruction has been devastating, wiping out roads, bridges, almost the complete infrastructure, including water supplies and electricity. The city of Concepción, Chile’s second-largest metropolitan area, which is roughly 70 miles from the quake’s center, has been among the hardest hit. The capital of Santiago also experienced massive destruction. Chile’s aid and emergency relief efforts are well underway and foreign aid has started to trickle in but there are thousands reported still missing and the death toll has yet to be properly accounted for. Water purification systems, emergency field hospitals, temporary bridges are all of high priority. Over the coming weeks, months, years, the world will watch as Chile slowly starts to rebuild and recover.

Chile Bake Sale poster

Chile Earthquake Relief Vegan Bake Sale - March 12, 6:30pm - 10pm, Radha Yoga & Eatery

As was the case in the horrific January 13th earthquake in Haiti, the world is coming together to raise funds, offer support and help rebuild the ravaged communities. Although the earthquake that rocked Chile last week was far stronger than the 7.0-magnitude one that destroyed Haiti six weeks ago, the damage and death toll in Chile are likely to be far less extensive, in part because of strict building codes put in place after devastating earthquakes.

That being said, I wondered if people were still willing to offer up aid and assistance after giving so generously to Haiti’s relief efforts. I hoped there wouldn’t be a charity malaise that had set in. Perhaps that sounds cynical, but for those of us so far away from the point of impact, it can be easy to disengage.

Last month, Radha Yoga Eatery so very generously donated their space for a vegan Bake Sale to raise funds for the Haitian Earthquake Relief. Gabrielle Pope wrote a wonderful post here about the gestation of vegan bake sales, and the power of small scale community activism, how a group of like minded individuals can pool resources, talents and time to create a much larger effort. Over $3000 was raised from last month’s vegan bake sale, which was matched by the Canadian government. I know as an individual, there is no way I can contribute anywhere near that kind of aid but boy oh boy, I can sure bake up a storm; I can spend a nominal amount in donating baked goods in order to help manifest a return which is a thousand times greater than my singular input.

So we’re doing it again. On Friday, March 12th from 6:30 pm to 10 pm Radha is graciously hosting our Chilean Earthquake Relief Vegan Bake Sale, with special musical guest Reid Jamieson.

Please come down, bring your own take away containers and lots of cash to stock up on phenomenal vegan baked goods supplied by wonderful local bakers, including Veganmania and many other fabulous contributers. We will also have fabulous raffle prizes to offer up from Sequel Naturals and a $50 gift certificate to Karmavore.
If you would like to contribute baked goods or offer up raffle donations, you can find more information on Facebook, here.

Being vegan for me is about compassion, about eradicating the pain and suffering of all sentient beings through conscientious and mindful living. It is about practicing ahimsa, the avoidance of violence. When the earth seems to be tilting on it’s axis, when everything is pell mell and the world itself seems to be shaking us off and creating incredible turmoil, destruction and overwhelming despair, instinctively I want to reach out and somehow affect change for the greater good. I alone have limited resources and skills; I bake, I act, I train people, I sort of write and create work where need be. But if I gather other like minded folk around me and we pool our resources and intentions then together we can make great change.

I love the Margaret Mead quote:  “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” So please, help us raise funds for the people of Chile; for their families and friends who are far away and unable to reconnect, for the survivors and their loved ones who are facing months, perhaps years of struggle and rebuilding. For all the sentient beings who need our help.

Funds raised will go to Medecins Sans Frontieres/Doctors Without Borders, who have been on the ground in Chile over the past week supplying medical help and relief to those hardest hit by the earthquake.

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Stephanie Belding is an actor, personal trainer, and  passionate lover of tasty vegan treats. You can often find her baking up a storm and pouring over vegan cookbooks with a zealot’s delight. She is currently in Vancouver but come May, will make Toronto her home once again.

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Johnny Weir: sometimes it’s easy to make ethical choices.

Monday, March 1st, 2010

I’d like to call out Olympic skater Johnny Weir on his  response to people who decried his (cancelled) plans to wear fur trim on his uniform.  The Olympics may be over, but this kind of poor logic exists elsewhere and should be addressed:

“I totally get the dirtiness of the fur industry and how terrible it is to animals. But it’s not something that’s the No. 1 priority in my life. There are humans dying everyday. There are thousands if not millions of homeless people in New York City. Look at what just happened in Haiti. I tend to focus my energy, if there is a cause, on humans. While that may be callous and bad of me, it’s my choice.

Every skater is wearing skates made out of cow. Maybe I’m wearing a cute little fox while everyone else is wearing cow, but we’re all still wearing animals.”

It’s hard for me to believe that an adult would come up with an argument this poor to defend their unethical choices.  Yes, Johnny, that is “callous and bad” of you, which is why people were upset.

I would understand, to some degree, if Weir were discussing leather.  Not that leather is  less cruel than fur, really.  Leather is often a byproduct of the beef industry, but it’s such an important byproduct–their most profitable, by far–that some people have gone so far as to refer to it as a coproduct.

That said, though, the skates that Olympic athletes use are probably all made out of leather as a default.  If Weir were to go out of his way to force the manufacture of special non-leather Olympic standard skates, he could, hypothetically, be taking time away from his supposed charitable work in New York City and Haiti.

As it is, though, Weir made a conscious decision to pick fur for his costume–an specific choice on his part, since it’s not a standard part of Olympic uniforms.  And now he’s claiming that while he understands how terrible fur is, he’s more concerned with helping people, so he had to choose to support the fur industry–as if his options were either a) fur or b) beating up an orphan, rather than a) fur or b) …no fur.

Sometimes it’s not so easy to make ethical choices, but a lot of the time, it couldn’t possibly be simpler.  This is one of those cases.  When kinder options are that readily available–at no detriment to ourselves or to others–it’s really our obligation to take advantage of them.  I’ve heard some very positive things about Weir’s progressive attitudes–mostly in regards to his refusal to play the “is he gay or is he straight?” media game, as he (correctly) feels that it’s no one’s business but his own–so perhaps there is hope for him after all.

I really, really do not believe that he "understand(s) the dirtiness of the fur industry."

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Killer Whale Kills Trainer

Monday, March 1st, 2010

From the Huffington Post:

A killer whale attacked and killed a trainer in front of a horrified audience at a SeaWorld show Wednesday, with witnesses saying the animal involved in two previous deaths dragged the trainer under and thrashed her around violently. Distraught audience members were hustled out of the stadium, and the park was immediately closed.

Obviously, this is a very sad accident.  What makes it particularly sad is how very avoidable it was.  The whale, Tilikum, had been involved in two deaths before, one in 1991 and one in 1999.  And he wasn’t the only marine mammal to suddenly turn on his trainer, even in the last decade:

In November 2006, a trainer was bitten and held underwater several times by a killer whale during a show at SeaWorld’s San Diego park.The trainer, Kenneth Peters, escaped with a broken foot. The 17-foot orca that attacked him was the dominant female of SeaWorld San Diego’s seven killer whales. She had attacked Peters two other times, in 1993 and 1999.

In 2004, another whale at the company’s San Antonio park tried to hit one of the trainers and attempted to bite him. He also escaped.

In December, a whale drowned a trainer at a Spanish zoo.

Then there was the July 1999 incident at the Orlando SeaWorld, when the body of a naked man was found draped over Tilikum.

Daniel Dukes reportedly made his way past security and remained in the park after it had closed. Wearing only his underwear, he ended up in the frigid water of Tilikum’s huge tank.

We should have seen this coming.

An orca in the wild.

Animals in entertainment are very often abused to make them perform.  (The circus is particularly infamous when it comes to this.) I have no idea whether this is the case at Sea World.  All accounts indicate that Dawn Brancheau, the trainer who was killed, truly loved the whales in her care.  But even if the whales are treated well, given lots of pats and treats and praise, they remain enormous and extremely intelligent wild animals who are expected to exist for their entire lives in a small tank.  And that’s abuse, regardless of how much you claim to love them.

(The connection between Sea World and our very own Vancouver Aquarium.)

I can totally understand the draw of Sea World, particularly for animal lovers.  Some of my very earliest childhood memories involve trips to small, local dolphin shows on the east coast.  The dolphins were named Dottie and (I think) Daisy, and because I loved animals, I loved seeing them perform.  I had no idea that they were very likely frustrated and unhappy.  The point is that now that I know better, I will not be visiting Sea World.  I will not be visiting the Vancouver Aquarium or the zoo.  Whatever joy it brings us to see these animals with our own eyes is not more important than the rights of the animals themselves–and they have the right to be free.

Learn more about captive marine animals at the Vancouver-based No Whales in Captivity.

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