Plant Peace Daily

Blogs Everywhere!

2012-01-12T17:15:00.000-08:00

I just found out that I can continue to post the blogs I write for Happy Cow here .....after they have been on Happy Cow for a bit. So they will start popping up here again. Coming Next: The Sacred Heart of T. Colin Campbell or Campbell Saves....Repent. Stay tuned for that one.....

Bending Toward Justice

2012-01-12T17:12:00.000-08:00

(Photo: Public Domain-National Archives)

“The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, but It Bends Toward Justice”
― Martin Luther King Jr.

The education process is never ending. We are continuously taking in new information that can change our view of the world. Everything we say, wear and do is letting those around us know what we believe in…and may challenge what they see as the “norm”.
My friend Carrie is exceptional when it comes to living her values. She is a perfect example of walking your talk. Her carbon footprint is a tiptoe compared to most humans. Her compassion for all beings has no boundaries. Some years ago, Carrie rescued a blind hen. She named her 2Blindy, 2B for short, because this bird is the second blind bird she has shared her life with.
A few weeks ago, it seemed that 2B was on deaths doorstep and Carrie’s world turned upside down. She took time off work and drove 2B around on her lap in a blanket for hours trying to find a veterinarian who could help her.
The love between Carrie and 2B is obvious to anyone who has visited their home. 2B has run of the house, comes when called, eats organic food and most of the time only wants to be held, pet and loved. She is a needy kid and Carrie doesn’t mind meeting her needs. Carrie even fashioned a sling so she could keep 2B close and still get some work done.

I had the pleasure of chicken sitting for 2B for a few days and was woken up each day at about 6 am by a very demanding bird. There was no discussion. I had no choice. If I were to translate Hen-speak to English, it would have gone like this, “Good morning Rae, please get up and hold me….UM, RAE, CAN YOU HEAR ME? I NEED YOU TO WAKE UP….PLEASE GET UP AND HOLD ME!….GET UP AND HOLD ME RIGHT NOW!” as her escalating demands forced me out of bed. I picked her up and the shouts turned into contented purrs. Sweetness, total sweetness.
With 2B’s illness, they experienced many veterinary waiting rooms. Now, the loving bond between them, usually only witnessed by those who visit their home, was seen by the staff and everyone at each vet’s offices.
It can take time for people to realize that the living beings whom they think are food, actually have desires, personalities and are deserving of our care and love. Most people do not realize we can have a deep relationship with a chicken. In fact, many people would laugh at the idea. We are used to seeing people caring for a dog, cat, rabbit or ferret in the vet’s office, but Carrie and 2B were living ambassadors for chickens and the love that can exist between a person and their bird companion.
As Carrie sat crying and holding 2B in one office, a man in the waiting room boomed, “I’m hungry!”. He grabbed one of the bags of dog food on the shelf and then looked right at Carrie and said, “Hmmm, first ingredient, CHICKEN!” Carrie ignored him and continued to focus on 2B. When she came out of the examination room, this man had obviously changed his tune. He held the door for Carrie and 2B and helped them get arranged in the car. These are the little seeds that get planted and change the world.
Human culture has a long way to go in its evolution toward understanding each other and all species. One would hope that a veterinarian would be further along on the spectrum of understanding. But, one vet that Carrie saw said to her, “We could give her antibiotics, but are you going to eat her?” For those of us who have loved and cared for many species, and choose not to eat animals, this comment is the same as saying this to someone who is holding their dog or their human child. It sounds so absurd to be asked if we would eat our closest companion.
We are slowly evolving as we live somewhere on that arc of the moral universe. There will be a day when we will be shocked that we, as humans, could not look in the eyes of a chicken, sheep, cow or pig and see an individual deserving of a life of freedom and choice.
“200 years ago, Americans would have thought you were absurd if you advocated for the end of slavery. 150 years ago, they would have laughed at you for suggesting that women should have the right to vote. 75 years ago, they would have loudly objected to the idea of African Americans receiving equal rights under the law. They laugh at us now for suggesting that animal slavery be ended. Someday they won’t be laughing.” - Gary Smith

To “V” or Not to “V”

2012-01-12T11:38:00.000-08:00

There has been a lot of discussion, buzz, arguing about whether or not we should use the word “vegan” or the word “vegetarian” in our outreach and discussions. Some folks say that using the “V” word (vegan) turns people off and we should just say “vegetarian” because it is seen as less “extreme”. While cooking at the meditation center I go to, I was told I could not label things vegan, even if they were vegan, because that word is too “political”.
Last night we had two “couch surfers” stay at our house. Neither one was vegan or vegetarian, but they shared their perspectives. One of our guests said that the only vegans she ever met, before us, ate junk all the time and were very unhealthy. I told her that they certainly did not represent all vegans and in fact were the worst “poster children” for veganism. It only reinforced for me how important it is to be a healthy representative of our community. While I was having the discussion with her, our other guest said she thought it was better to say “plant-based” than vegan. The problem with saying plant-based is that this term only addresses what we eat. Choosing to practice veganism is about so much more than what we eat. As a vegan we use our compassionate yard stick to decide which clothing, cosmetics, household products, entertainment and food we will support as consumers. It goes so far beyond our food choices.

The discussions around using the V word or not, reminded me of a childhood experience. I grew up in a Jewish family in a very non-Jewish community. In our little community, our family was the poster family for Jews everywhere. The preconceived ideas about Jews that existed in the community before we even arrived there made this a very tough job. Without even meeting us, there were homes, yards and some business who banned us from stepping on their property. I spent many years trying to hide the fact that my family was Jewish. I wanted to enjoy the ease of just being places without the judgments. When people did know that I was from a Jewish family, I felt it was my job to personally dispel all the myths about Jews. This is a big job for a kid. At some point, I decided that my unwillingness to readily admit that I came from a Jewish family only reflected that I had the same judgments as those around me. I was giving in to the myths and prejudices. Everyone wants to be seen as an individual and not be judged based on prejudices and cultural stories. I do not want people to assume they know all about me because I am a woman, over 50, Caucasian, etc. If it is true that most myths are based on the truth of a particular group, then surely there are exceptions to these myths. There are individuals who blow these stereotypes out of the water. Every group is made up of unique individuals.

If we feel good about our compassionate vegan path, then it is very important to be honest with people about who we are. We vegans come in all shapes, ages, colors, and education and economic levels. Some of us are very healthy and some of us are not. Some of us exercise and eat pure foods and some of us sit on our butts and eat junk. None of that changes the fact that we are all choosing a practice that is alleviating some suffering in the world. Honestly, there are times when I have met people who are vegan, but are, in my opinion, not the best representatives of our community. They might be physically unhealthy or mean-spirited or self-righteous. Because we are such a small percentage of the population, you may be the first vegan or the only vegan that someone meets personally.
You can think of this as a two-step process. First, think of yourself as the poster child for veganism. If not for yourself, than for the animals who will be saved when people meet you and say “Whatever you are doing, I want to do it!” They meet an energetic, healthy, loving person and want to be part of their community. You can be that invitation. Do all that you can to care for yourself physically, emotionally and spiritually and you will be like a flower to the bees.

Photo credit: Zoltán Futó via BigStock

Second, be willing to use the “V” word when you feel like you are a positive representative of the community. It may be you who dispels the myths that this person is carrying around. It may be you who opens them up to the possibility that someone practicing veganism can be healthy and loving. Your choice to walk the vegan path is about compassion for all beings, including yourself and all those you connect with in life. Take this job seriously. It is an honor to be chosen for this role. You are the ambassador who is speaking up for all life. So, care for yourself and go out into the world unapologetically, letting your vegan light shine. The animals and the earth and all people will be better off for your efforts and honesty.

Photo credit: meepoohfoto‘s

Need some encouragement in your practice? Watch these short, inspiring films:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKr4HZ7ukSE
AND:
http://www.nonviolenceunited.org/veganvideo.html

The Good in Us All

2011-12-24T15:47:00.000-08:00

There are times when my judgments of humans and of the destruction we have caused on the planet are all I can see of our crazy species. When we moved here we heard horror stories about some of the neighbors. Those telling me the horror stories were people who do not speak Spanish have not been able to have a conversation with our many Hispanic neighbors. I took their descriptions to heart and made assumptions about many of our neighbors who have recently moved here from Mexico.
One neighbor has many animals....from goats to dogs to chickens.

One of their dogs adopted us as soon as we got here and hasn't left. Another one of their dogs is a huge white Malamute who has been tied for a few years on a short chain with no shelter and often no water. I called animal control recently and they came out to check on the dog. They gave the family two days to provide water, a longer chain and a shelter. A pitiful A frame made of old plywood appeared in the hole the dog has worn out with his chain over the many days of pacing. Then as I went out skiing yesterday, I noticed that even that pitiful shelter was gone. I was prepared to contact animal control again as I was skiing back toward home. But, what I saw surprised me. They had replaced the A frame shelter with a large strong dog house that is up off the wet ground. I saw a man near the dog house and we talked a bit about skiing and about the dog house. This is not an evil man who keeps goats in a pen and a dog on a chain. This is a really nice guy who is doing what he knows. He had never thought about the dog having needs. Today there is also a big blanket out there for the dog. It was such a good lesson for me in not judging. It is quick and easy to judge someone who does not care for the animals in their care like I would like them to. It is easy to assume that the rumors spoken by other neighbors are true. It takes longer to get to know this person and slowly plant seeds about another way to view and care for all living beings. It takes longer to be friends with him and his family first and then share our ideas.

When we moved here there were more stories about another neighbor up the hill from us. People who have lived here for years have not ever had a conversation with him because he and his family speak Spanish. I went and talked to this neighbor about crossing his land to get to the public land. He was kind and easy to talk with and gladly gave us permission to cross his land. Now I am looking out my office window at his grandchildren sledding down their steep driveway with their three dogs chasing the sled and climbing back up with the kids. This scene is a far cry from how these neighbors were represented by others when we moved here. OK, these are the same neighbors who throw their trash out the window as they drive along. And, yes, many of our other neighbors do the same. But, culturally this is not taboo for them. These are people who get up in the morning and do their best with what they know. Just like me. Just like you. They have blind spots when it comes to mindful living and so do you and so do I.

I am reminded of how impossible it is to really know another person or another species if we don't share their language and culture. Somehow, I can easily assume the best about other species. I don't have big judgments about them. I am living here for a reason. I am living surrounded by people who's culture is, in many ways, very different from mine. I want to find that same caring and openness that I have for other species, for these neighbors. Once again surrounded by my teachers.

To V or Not to V

2011-12-22T20:27:00.000-08:00

It is on the happy cow website.....
I will write some blogs just for this space....but right now my latest two are on Happy Cow.
http://www.happycow.net/blog/?p=2731

and a new one is coming as soon as they post it...it is called Bending Toward Justice.

Happy Solstice and I will see you back here after the new year.....

To V or Not to V

2011-12-14T11:55:00.000-08:00

You can find this blog on my new posting spot:
http://www.happycow.net/blog/?p=2731

I will still be posting here, too ....when there is a blog that does not seem perfect for the Happy Cow site.

Thanks for jumping over to Happy Cow to read the blogs!

My Blogs now on Happy Cow

2011-11-22T19:17:00.001-08:00

For my most recent blog posting go to:
http://www.happycow.net/blog/?p=2671

Thanks to all my loyal readers....hope you won't mind hopping over to Happy Cow occasionally for viewing.

The HUMANS are out there! Stay home for your own safety!

2011-10-26T11:12:00.000-07:00

Now that we are not on the road, it is easier to look back and appreciate it.
When you are out there, you get to see all sorts of educational things....I call it "visiting America"....

Billboards like the one for:

Angry Bull Steakhouse

right next to a hospital billboard:

We Treat ~~Men~~ Friends With Prostate Cancer

(Is it just me, or do you think they work as a team?)

Or.......how about this one...

Jesus Christ is Lord Travel Center 5 Miles Ahead!

Featuring the Heavenly Hamburger!

Then a bit further down the road, another billboard:

Top of Texas, Catholic Superstore!

And somehow we resisted stopping at:
Jesus Christ is Lord, Not a Swearword Travel Center

OK, I can't just pick on Texas....
A sign we saw in Maine:
Benefit BBQ for Cancer! Pork! Hamburgers! Hot Dogs!
("Yes", I thought, "this event will benefit CANCER...but not the cure or prevention!")

You might think this crazy little oxymoron is unusual, but you can find a pig roast for cancer in almost every state!

And just in case you didn't know that the cancer fundraisers around the world can be just as insane as in the USA, here is one in Ireland:

There are things you only get to experience when you are on the road.....do you really want to miss one of the greatest southern wonders? Jesus appearing in the kudzu? For a small fee, you don't have to miss out.

The Unimaginable

2011-10-26T10:15:00.000-07:00

If you are someone who is willing to witness all the pain and beauty in the world on a regular basis, you have probably known despair.

A few months ago we stopped living full-time on the road in our solar camper and we started working on a house we bought near Santa Fe, New Mexico. Working non-stop on the house has been a labor of LOVE. And we have been physically and emotionally exhausted from the process. Writing has not been an option for me. I was too tired to be inspired.

HOME

But now, we are in our home and loving it. It is quiet, solid, peaceful and warm and we are surrounded by incredible day and night skies, a kirgillion birds and snoring neighborhood dogs (all spread out on rugs and furniture around the house). All of the unloved critters in the area found us within a day of us being here. I cleaned and dressed their physical wounds and JC and I continue to put healing love balm on their emotional wounds daily.

One of the neighborhood, previously unloved dogs, resting on the sofa.

Seeing the deplorable condition of the dogs and other animals in the area along with doing my usual research for my work.... and, on top of that being exhausted and breathing lots of toxic stuff while working on the house, was making me sink deep into despair.

And then, just as unannounced as the despair came, it is gone. Intention is so powerful. I decided yesterday that I would read a few Mary Oliver poems each morning and write down a favorite line. Every time I read her poetry, there is some line that grabs me and gives me exactly what I need.

Today’s line was perfect: “Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable”

I think much of our despair comes from not being able to imagine a bright outcome when we see the suffering humans are causing in the world. So, for now, I am going to leave some room in my heart for the unimaginable….A world free of needless suffering...a world where the humans care about life on earth and act on that caring.

With Liberty and Justic for ALL

2011-08-06T12:50:00.000-07:00

Unless you were a feisty kid who was committed to only doing what you believed in or understood thoroughly, you probably grew up saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

Not many people know that the Pledge of Allegiance has gone through some major changes since it was first written in 1892 by Francis Bellamy (a socialist).

The first version (1892) read:

“I pledge allegiance to my flag and the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”

The second version read:

"I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

The third version (1923) read:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States and to the republic for which it stands: one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

The fourth version (1924) read:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands; one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

The fifth version (1954) read:

"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Under god wasn’t added until 1954. In a country that claims to separate church and state, this addition does not make sense. But it also doesn't make sense to close all government offices for Christian holidays but not close them for Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu or Jain holidays.

The pledge was supposed to be quick and to the point. Bellamy designed it to be recited in 15 seconds. In his initial version he considered using the words equality and fraternity but decided not to because he knew it would not be approved by the state superintendents of education on the committee. They were against equality for women and African Americans.

Through all these changes, I can’t help but notice that one part was not messed with: “….with liberty and justice for all.”

I am surprised that no one thought to eventually change it to “With liberty and justice for all humans.” ….just to reflect the reality of our laws and social structure.

Just like the golden rule, we somehow conveniently forget to actually pay attention to the literal meaning. In the golden rule, Others means Others…all others. In the Pledge of Allegiance, All means All. The most accurate way to define all is probably “anyone who would benefit from liberty and justice”.

Let your imagination run with that. Who would benefit from liberty and justice? All humans, all species, all life and the earth itself.

It is much easier for me to imagine pledging allegiance to the earth and all life than to a piece of fabric with a design on it. So, here is my suggestion for revision number 6 of the Pledge:

“I pledge allegiance to my earth home and all life which it supports. We are but one world, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.”

And just for fun, watch this little you tube ….

http://youtube/Q2BfqDUPL1I

Balance, It’s All About Balance

2011-07-24T08:21:00.000-07:00

I know how busy everyone is, so let me make this as brief as possible. If you were at our green smoothie demo at Summerfest or you just love throwing a lot of kale in your smoothie, you will want to read this. If you are a woman approaching menopause, going thru menopause or are post menopausal, you will want to read this.

The following all relate to each other:

1-The smoothies I make typically contain the equivalent of one full bunch of raw kale.

2-This year I discovered a creamy delightful unsweetened yogurt made by Whole Soy and was eating it by the case.

3-This year I discovered the joy of making “massaged” raw kale salads and have been eating a lot of them.

4-A few months ago I went from my usual complaint “I have way too much energy” to feeling like doing anything was too much effort. My first full blown exhaustion. In addition, my throat felt tight and I sounded like a cigarette smoker. The exhaustion was accompanied by brain fog….forgetting even simple words.

After lots of research into possible causes, I decided that the symptoms could be thyroid related. 70% of menopausal and post-menopausal women have thyroid issues. My research into hypo-thyroid consistently came up with the same results: Eating way too many raw cruciferous (cabbage family) vegetables (also known as brassica veggies) can be harmful to thyroid function. Eating way too much processed soy can be the same.

6 days ago I stopped eating processed soy and cut out all the raw cruciferous veggies to see if I felt any different. I continued to make green smoothies but used wild greens, lettuces, parsley, and other raw non brassica greens. Within two days I could feel my energy coming back. By day 5, I was back to my familiar “too much energy” and I no longer sound like a cigarette smoker.

I will start including raw kale and some soy back into my diet, but in balanced proportions.

Let me just be clear. I am not a doctor or registered dietician. And, this is NOT AN ANTI-SOY OR ANTI-RAW GREENS STATEMENT!

While I am in touch with how my own body is feeling, I do not know a lot about the physiology of a human body. Before this experience, I did not even know exactly what the thyroid did or that it is shaped like a butterfly.

My conclusion after all my research and my own experience is that soy and raw greens are both healthy foods. Soy is one of the best foods for hormonal balance in menopausal women. Raw and cooked greens are great for healthy nutrients and minerals.

And, too much of a good thing is….well….too much.

While nutrition is not my expertise or even my number one passion, I love the idea of healthy energetic vegans going out into the world and making it a more compassionate place for all species.

Here is how I want you to feel....

So, eat your raw greens and eat your soy and don’t overdo it!

Balance, Balance, Balance….It’s all about balance.

Here is a link to one of the many articles I found about this issue:

http://www.advance-health.com/HypoThyroid.html

Cow Love

2011-07-16T03:32:00.000-07:00

We stopped on a road in New Hampshire and JC napped while Bean and I walked a dirt road. We passed a gate with a large cow pasture. Bean and I stood by the fence and I said quietly to the cows across the pasture, "We are working on it. You won't be milk machines for long if we can help it." And I just stood there feeling a lot of love for these long lashed big eyed beings. They were all looking at us and when I spoke out loud, the leader of the herd came over to see what was up. She sniffed Bean through the fence and then brought her sweet face up to me and licked me. It was what you would expect of a dog. Then the rest of the herd saw that there was something nice going on and hurried over to join us. I had my arms out rubbing their heads and necks and eventually I had a dozen tongues licking my bare arms. Exactly like a pack of affectionate puppies. We love the little cute animals and disregard the older ones who we may not see the beauty in. These cows loved the affection....couldn't get enough of it. Of course. They feel everything that the dog living under your roof feels. Given the opportunity they love affection, play, relating to their favorite friends, feeling comfortable.....Given the opportunity they avoid pain and suffering....like all of us.

I recently read a story about a cow who gave birth to a stillborn calf. She was weak and in pain after the ordeal. And still, she managed to get up and walk a long distance across miles of fields to find her own mother for comfort. She was found in the distant field with her mother wrapped around her nuzzling her. Their two large bodies like one.

I have lots of friends and family who still eat dairy. What most of them do not know (or do not want to know) is that dairy involves more prolonged suffering than the meat industry and that in fact dairy cows do end up slaughtered for beef. So they just go through a longer captivity/slave period before being slaughtered. Their babies are stolen from them so that humans can drink the milk. This is just a small part of the suffering these gentle beings go through before being slaughtered. I know that many people do not want to read about or watch the reality of the horrors we inflict on other species. Not wanting to witness the violence is fine....IF you are not contributing to it in your daily choices. For those who have already chosen a path that does not support this kind of cruelty, there is no need to witness the violence. For those who still choose to support animal agriculture, at a minimum, please be willing to witness what you choose to support. If it is too difficult to witness, you may want to consider not supporting it in any way. Next opportunity, stand face to face with a cow. Look her in the eyes. Connect with her. Then do all you can to ensure that her well-being is all you are willing to support.

Do You Feel Like Giving Up?

2011-06-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

There are times when even the most caring educator or activist wants to throw in the towel and give up their outreach work. If you want to stay motivated to be a voice for the voiceless in society, just keep your eyes open to what is going on around you.

Trust me: Your despair or hopelessness at seeing/knowing what goes on in the world behind closed doors and gates is nothing compared with the amount of suffering that these beings are experiencing….

I wouldn’t say my eyes are really wide open this week, but even so, I have watched bulls being sold at a roadside who were crammed together in a panic as they were being loaded into trailers from three different ranches. I was out running and stopped to witness what was happening. They all turned and looked at me. I felt helpless. What was being done to them was legal and I couldn’t stop it at that moment.

Today I spoke with relatives who found a dead mother mouse in their garage. Soon after, they found the babies who were so tiny they were crawling on the concrete floor to try to get to the mother. These were nursing babies. They put the babies on a shovel and put them in the woods. When I said that these were babies, this relative reminded me that they are mice and not cute like chipmunks and squirrels. I then reminded this relative that even the not-cute babies suffer and need care.

This evening I went past a newspaper on the table and saw the story of the Minnesota Zoo killing a wolf who escaped his enclosure.

There are plenty of incentives and reminders to keep speaking up for all species. Keep your eyes open.

We have been waging a war on domestic and wild non-humans for most of history. We do not have to. It is not necessary for our survival to keep animals in enclosures, kill them for food, experiment on them, breed them or use them for entertainment. We can choose a whole new path. We can choose a path of caring and compassion for all beings.

So, when you have those moments where you think your voice doesn’t matter or you are just feeling too sad or hopeless to continue doing outreach, remember who is counting on you. Imagine yourself in their position. You would never want those speaking out for you to give up because the work was too difficult or because they felt too sad thinking about you. Do whatever it takes to keep yourself feeling healthy and strong mentally and physically. Then, take that strength out into the world and plant every seed of compassion you can.

Three Lucky Dogs

2011-06-21T14:11:00.000-07:00

One of the hardest parts of being on the road is seeing the trucks filled with imprisoned animals being transported to slaughter or feedlots.

We are driving through Michigan right now and it is 95 degrees and humid. I want to complain about the nasty heat and my sticky skin as we travel 4 hours today. I just got a nice cool dunk in Lake Michigan and had a beautiful fresh fruit breakfast. I know exactly how long our trip is and that it ends at a lake where all three of us can swim. I am drinking water the whole way. I have endless choices for making this ride more comfortable.

A truck packed solidly with pigs passed us. I could see their noses sticking through any hole in the transportation trailer. I watched them panting heavily. I can only imagine the temperature in there with bodies so crowded there is no room for them to move and no air circulation around their skin. The stench must be intense for them. From the location printed on the truck, it looks like they have about 15 hours to go. They don’t know that. They don’t get the bathroom breaks, water breaks, snacks and walks that we get when we travel even just two hours. Their urine and feces covers the floor of the truck and must be hell for their olfactory senses that are many times more sensitive than a dog’s. Given proper space, they will never pee or poo anywhere near where they rest or eat. They are also as smart and sensitive as dogs and have relationships with each other and other species. Anyone who has visited one of the sanctuaries that rescue farmed animals knows that pigs love affection, freedom to roam, a good swim on a hot day and a great meal.

Now I want you to imagine you are a prisoner (as these pigs are) who has committed no crime (as these pigs have not commited any crime).

One day, without any notice you are loaded with all the other prisoners into a semi trailer (or slave ship or train car). No one tells you why you are being loaded on the truck or where you are going or how long it will take. You are crammed in so tightly that you can barely move. There are holes on the side of the truck, but you are not near any and you are having a hard time getting any fresh air. You do not know why you are being transported and you do not know when you will arrive at the destination. You hope you will get food and water, but you have no way of knowing that. It is in the 90’s and humid. 3 hours into the trip you are feeling tired of standing, but you don’t want to sit down on the floor covered in urine and shit. The heat and the smell make you feel sick. The truck has stopped twice, and the driver has been eating, drinking and using the bathroom, but never even checks in on you and the other prisoners. At 5 hours into the trip you are so exhausted you find that you have slid down to the floor and are covered in urine and shit, both your own and your fellow prisoners. When the driver stops, he parks in the sun and the hot foul odors attracts flies. You are all covered in flies, many of them biting. Everytime the truck stops you pray the doors will open and you will get some air and maybe water and food. But it does not happen until many stops and 15 hours later, when the doors finally open. Many prisoners are too sick or lame to walk out of the trailer, but you and the others are forced down a ramp with electric prods. Some are crawling and dragging their legs to try to escape the pain of the prods. You notice that a few of the prisoners have collapsed and died during the trip. You step over them.

OK, I will stop there. I won’t take you through the next horrific steps in the death process for animals we call food. Human prisoners in trains.

I would love a video monitor to be installed at every meat and dairy counter in every grocery store. These would show the background reality for the animals who were raised, trucked and slaughtered for these “foods”. (Yes, even dairy cows are slaughtered for meat at a young age. And yes, their young are torn away from them so that humans can have the milk meant for their young. And yes, the male calves are slaughtered immediately or are raised for veal…so don’t give me the “I am a vegetarian and that is enough rap)

Downed veal calf unable to walk at slaughterhouse.

So, do you think knowing the reality would change people’s choices in the grocery? I know that many people, including me, can view the horrors and then go into denial even a day later. But what if it was right there in front of them as they pick up that package of bacon or chunk of cheese? Are we capable of acting on what we know? Some humans are capable of this, but even some of the best in terms of their values being consistent with their choices are not always consistent and responsible with their spending power.

We are still cruising down the road. The windows are open. Bean, our dog, has the whole back seat and a dish of tofurky slices cut into little pieces and ice water to go with it. We get out of the truck every hour and run around and find water for her to jump into. There is no foul odor in the truck from her not being able to get out when she needs to pee or poo…..and although she doesn’t know how long we will be driving today, she knows there will be pleasure at the end of it. In one hour we will arrive at the place we will park for the next week or so. When we arrive, we will step out of the truck and race to the clear cool lake only a minute from our parking place. We are so grateful. We are three lucky dogs.

Vegan Tzatziki Heaven

2011-05-20T11:17:00.000-07:00

I have had too many balls in the air to blog lately. But I am never too busy to prepare food and eat !

This is for all you Tzatziki fans who have had to live without it since you chose the vegan path....Your ship has come in! This is as good as you remember the old dairy version!

(Tzatziki is traditionally a Greek yogurt and cucumber sauce...this vegan version creates a whole new tradition...compassionate Tzatziki)

Makes about 3 1/2 cups.

Ingredients:

-3 cups WHOLE SOY UNSWEETENED Yogurt (DO NOT try to substitute other non-dairy yogurts or any sweetened plain non-dairy yogurt. Only Whole Soy is smooth enough and tasty enough and only unsweetened will work)
-Juice of one lemon (about 3 T)
-1 or 2garlic cloves, minced fine

-2 medium cucumbers, seeded and diced (I do not seed or peel mine)
-About 1 T salt for salting cucumbers if you choose to do that step
-2 T finely chopped fresh dill (can substitute mint leaves for a slightly different version)
-Salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

I am including the traditional Greek steps here and then letting you know when I do it differently.

You can peel the cucumbers (I don't), then cut in half lengthwise and take a small spoon and scrape out seeds (I use the seeds). Discard seeds. (If you use the small seedless or European cucumbers with few seeds or you like seeds like I do, you can skip that step.) Slice cucumbers, then put in a colander, sprinkle on 1 T salt, and let stand for 30 minutes to draw out water (I don't do this step either :). Drain well and wipe dry with paper towel.

Greek style: In food processor with steel blade, add cucumbers, garlic, lemon juice, dill, and black pepper. Process until well blended, then stir this mixture into the yogurt. Taste before adding any extra salt, then salt if needed. Place in refrigerator for at least two hours before serving so flavors can blend. (This resting time is very important.)

My version: Just slice or cube the cukes and put all the ingredients together.

Chill.

This will keep for a few days or more in the refrigerator, but you will need to drain off any water and stir each time you use it.

Dove Inspiration

2011-04-17T10:07:00.000-07:00

It all started this morning after my silent meditation. I could hear the doves in the tree above me. I remember bird’s songs by putting English words to what their songs sound like. These doves were saying “I don’t know why”. The doves in Arizona sang “My brother says…” This morning I could also hear the difference in the individual birds. Not every “I don’t know why” was the same. It is so hard to think of another species as individuals. Like any group that we are not familiar with…..another race, another religion, etc. If we group them all together, it is easy to disregard them as a group and needlessly cause them suffering or kill them. It has happened throughout history and continues today. If Jews were seen as individuals rather than a group, the holocaust would not have happened. If Africans had been seen as individuals rather than a group, they would not have been captured and sold into slavery. If cows were seen as individuals, rather than a species that we are allowed to own, they would most likely not become property that we abuse and slaughter for food.

For most people, not all, dogs and cats are our familiars. We see them as distinct individuals and because of this, most people in this country would not eat them.

You can, more often than not, find people who are Dog Lovers and Cow Eaters, Horse Lovers and Pig Eaters, etc. The animal lovers who actually just love the ones whom they have known as individuals or can see as individuals.

We can easily disregard the lives of an entire species because we do not have experience or connection with an individual in that group. And the opposite is also true: If someone has a connected experience with an individual in a group they once disregarded, they can be changed forever.

Think about a group of humans or non-humans that you have strong judgments about….maybe you even hate them. Most likely you do not have a connection with an individual in that group.

What I find surprising is that individual humans from groups that are typically oppressed as a group (because of race, sexual orientation, religion, etc) are often not open to learning about (and acting on) how their daily actions oppress others (especially other species). Many people in typically oppressed groups do not want to hear anything about the well-being of other species we use for food, testing, entertainment, etc.

I want to be seen as an individual. We all do. I do not want to be grouped together with all women, all humans, all Caucasians, all vegans, all animal rights activists, all environmentalists, all yoga practitioners, all people over 50, all RVers, all Jews, etc. I want to be seen and heard as the unique individual that I am. All beings want this. No one, not one being, wants to be disregarded, violently beaten or killed for no good reason.

Even the tiniest among us fights for his life. Try to swat a fly to demonstrate this for yourself. He will try to escape.

We all seek LIFE.

How would our lives be different if we looked at a group of birds or cows or sheep or pigs and saw individuals rather than a species? How would our lives be different if we looked at any group of people and saw individuals, rather than the group?

Old Primate Super Healing!

2011-04-14T10:00:00.000-07:00

We are Northeast of Payson AZ in the Tonto National Forest. Parked here in a spot for the night that only has the sound of the wind in the trees. We get to an area and clean up any trash left by other folks camping there. Most of what we find is shotgun shells, fast food containers, cigarette packs and beer cans and broken beer bottles. I think humans should have to carry waste bags for each other like we have to do for our dog companions in lots of places.

Yesterday we hiked into a huge gorge in the Superstitions. It was a no trail bushwacking hike where we mostly followed a creekbed down and had to do some bouldering along the way. The hike was fantastic. Blooming cactus and birds that were mostly unknown to me (both the sounds and the appearance). The familiar little hummingbirds were tooling around and one was especially interested in buzzing us while we were sitting up on a ridge half way down to the base of the gorge. I watched her buzz around us and then go land in a cactus. Finally she landed in the big cholla cactus and stayed there. It was then I noticed that she was sitting on one of those magical little hummingbird nests..... about the size of a golf ball.

On our hike back up the gorge, we were pawing our way up a huge boulder when JC offered his hand at the end of my climb to pull me up the last bit. I was doing this whole thing in my wet Chaco sandals and one of them slipped on the rock and sent me flying into the boulder with JC still holding my arm. So, with my bloody foot and what I could tell was a torn muscle inside my upper thigh, I hobbled my way back to our camper. I could not lift my leg up enough to walk up the small stairs to the camper or take off my shorts without extreme pain. I said to JC, "This is going to heal really fast because I eat healthy plant-based foods." And lately I have been eating VERY healthy foods. It is all I have been attracted to eating. Mostly organic greens and other veggies and organic fruits and nuts. So yesterday was the big body slam that made me wonder if I would have to cancel my upcoming backpacking trip and day of rock climbing with my New Mexico buddies. When I got back to the camper yesterday, I rubbed arnica into my entire leg and took arnica tablets and Bach Rescue Remedy.
This morning I woke up feeling like someone had slammed me with a baseball bat. But by mid-morning today I was able to lift my leg about 6 inches higher than the day before and went on a hike. And by this evening I was able to do the camper stairs! I can feel this thing healing like time lapse photography! Even the bloody gash across my toe is almost totally healed.
So I wonder.....is it the healthy food? meditating twice a day? Yoga every other day? Or is it my attitude that assumed I was going to heal really fast? All I know is this: I am incredibly grateful to be 55 years old (old for a primate), slamming into a boulder with all my weight and to be hiking the next day.

RVegans Stole My Blog Time!

2011-04-12T18:13:00.000-07:00

OK, it isn't just the RVegans Facebook page that is taking my time....But, who can blame me for wanting to hike and meditate and do yoga in the mountains rather than look at a computer screen?
You can see some beautiful photos of where we are (a blooming desert next to the mountains) if you go to:
http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#!/pages/RVegans/196082600431252

This Flag is My Flag, This Flag is Your Flag

2011-04-04T17:17:00.000-07:00

I figure it this way: All suffering comes from stories. There is not one stressful or painful incident that does not have at least one believed story behind it.

I learned much of this theory from Byron Katie (http://www.thework.com/index.php) years ago and the tools she taught me continue to help me let go of fear and stress. They also help me in being more honest with myself and others.

We are still in our solar rv spot in Arizona. As I have said before, this place is a very diverse mix of lifestyles. Luckily it is mostly a live and let live place. And, luckily, we are not parked right next to each other…..we have lots of elbow room and thousands of acres of mountain/desert. People fly American flags or Canadian flags at their camper. We fly an Earth flag. I never thought of a flag as being offensive. Certainly not one that represents our HOME (Earth).

Last week one of the folks here was telling me about a couple who were here a few years ago who had a Peace flag flying at their place. Some people complained about the Peace flag and wanted them to take it down. It didn’t happen. I never thought of a Peace sign or Peace flag as being offensive. The Peace flag couple had drumming circles every evening and most of the people here loved those circles and would happily attend them. (Must have been the people who weren’t offended by the Peace flag.) I could not imagine any of the people I know here (or anywhere) complaining about a Peace flag.

When I told one woman here that I used to be quite a little hippie, she told me to never say that. I asked her why. She said, “A hippie is a very bad thing, Rae. A very bad thing. Just say you are an earthy person.” I never did quite get the reasoning behind it all. I do know that people are afraid of certain labels. I was doing a program at a church and I was carrying my stainless steel water bottle. A man started going off at me…accusing me of being an “environmentalist”. I said, “Aren’t you an environmentalist?” “No!” he shouted. I then asked him if he cared about living in a clean environment. He answered “yes”. “Well”, I said calmly, “in my definition, that would make you an environmentalist, too.” He walked out of the program.

A few days after I heard about the Peace flag incident here, I asked some folks I was hanging out with if it was true. Turns out it is not only true, but some people don’t even think that the Canadians here should be flying their flags. Then everyone started talking about all these flag rules that I had never heard of: “Never fly any flag higher than the American flag. That is disrespectful.” “If you fly a state flag you never fly it higher than the American flag.” “When you are in the USA, you should never fly a flag from another country.” Everyone had rules they knew about the American flag. I asked the most vocal person what that meant to him when he said it was disrespectful. “Rae, you have obviously never been in the military”, was his reply. It is true, I have never been in the military. That is no accident.

What I found interesting is that the same person who was the most adamant about respecting the flag eats living beings everyday. Reminds me of Gary Yourofsky’s (http://www.adaptt.org/bio.html) talk where he says that if he burned a flag or a bible people would want to have him arrested…but if he burns up a pig or a goat, people will go get some beer and be ready to party. Cloth and paper and ink compared to a living being. Stories.

We all have so many stories about how things should be or shouldn’t be. My story that people should not abuse or needlessly kill living beings can often cause me incredible suffering and stress because I think the world should be kinder than it is..not everyone believes my kindness story. The story that flags should be respected seems to cause people suffering because not everyone shares their story. The story that living beings are food causes suffering to the living beings who are raised/trucked/killed and the earth and the people who consume these products that cause disease.

Some of the stories do not cause much suffering. My story that eating lots of organic fruits and veggies is the best path for me, does not cause me any suffering. I feel great physically and emotionally. But even this seemingly harmless story could cause suffering. In fact, in the past, it caused great stress to my family members and friends who wished I would just “eat normal”. Combine my vegan story with their story that eating “normal” meant eating the products from captive or dead living beings and there was a whole lot of suffering going on. Or, just my story alone could cause suffering or stress. What if I think that I must eat organic vegan food and I am in a place where none is available and I am hungry?

My "wierd" food...why can't I just eat normal?

I knew a woman in the Midwest who insisted that her children never consume ANYTHING but organic food. She was stressed every time her kids went somewhere without her. She could not control what other people fed her children. She stormed into my house one time and screamed at me for quite a while….accusing me of feeding her children non-organic wholewheat pasta. She was in the midst of shouting that she could not trust me anymore when I silently went to the kitchen, took the package out of the trash and showed her it was indeed organic pasta. About 4 years after that incident, this woman died of cancer. I cannot prove my theory on this, but I would say that stress was part of her health issues. She left behind three great kids and a sweet husband.

If I observe my mind through the course of a day, I can identify story after story. Some of the stories are pretty harmless. Some of them are strong judgments about me or others. When I let go of these stories I can feel myself breath deeper. I can feel the absolute freedom of not being in what can often feel like a prison of stories. If you let go of your stories, not everyone around you will be happy with you. That is their stories to deal with. It is none of your business. You are being true to yourself. They are being true to their stories.

Can you go through this blog and pick out all the stories that cause suffering or stress? There are so many.

I even get to let go of the story that people should not have stories! Because the reality is, we all do. Examining the stories is a lifelong process.

Byron Katie often asks, “Who would you be without your story?”

Who would you be? Who would I be?

"What is your story about me?"

No Time To Spare Raw Potluck Hit!

2011-03-29T15:44:00.000-07:00

Raw Potluck Recipe Gets Ooohs and Aaahs Every Time!

People cannot get enough of it. It is the Raw Not-Chips that surprise everyone!

Not-Chips and Guacamole

Make your favorite guacamole recipe.

For those of you who need a recipe for the guacamole, here is a yummy one. (I do not like pre-made quacamole you can get in tubs in the store. There is nothing like FRESH avocados.)

Ingredients:

4 avocados
1 large tomato
2 teaspoons salt
freshly ground pepper
juice of 1/2 small lemon
juice of 1/2 small lime (do not substitute bottled lemon or lime juice!)
1/4 cup freshly chopped cilantro

Preparation:

Cut avocados in half, remove seed, then scoop out fruit into a medium bowl.
Mash avocados with a large utensil until they are at a slightly creamy, but still rustic consistency
Chop tomatoes into small cubes
Add tomatoes, salt, pepper, lemon juice, lime juice and chopped cilantro to avocados and stir well
Add more salt and pepper and cayenne to taste

Now that your guacamole is made....Slice fresh uncooked organic yams or sweet potatoes. (You can use any of the mandoline style slicers or a knife and a steady hand.

I use the Benriner slicer and adjust it to the thickness I want my yam not-chips to be.)

(I prefer to leave the skins on the slices)

Slice your yams (or sweet potatoes) just thick enough to hold up to the quacamole dipping and arrange them around the guacamole. That is it. Do not cook the yams. Do not slice them too far in advance because they will dry out. Just before serving is best. Dipping these slices of raw yam into the guacamole is crunchy perfection.

Slowing Down and Watching the Insects

2011-03-29T15:09:00.000-07:00

Sometimes it is hard to see what we have in common with other humans and it's even more difficult to notice what we have in common with other species.

Last week while I was at Sasha Farm to speak at their annual banquet, I got to witness something that opened my heart up even further to the non-human animals. I woke up in the morning and the 7 rescued cows outside the window were all watching the sky. The clouds opened up a bit and there was a small patch of sun on a little hill in the distance. They moved toward it in unison and when they arrived at the spot, they all laid down next to each other and tipped their faces toward the sun. Seeking comfort and not wanting to suffer is something all beings have in common. These are fellow mammals and even then, it is difficult for most people to make the changes necessary to not exploit them and cause them needless suffering.

We are still at our solar rv spot in Arizona. Young calves have been branded and released to graze in the public land around us. I have heard dozens of people express sadness at how forlorn these young calves seem and how little there is for them to eat (let alone drink) in this dry sparse desert. The same people who are expressing this kind of compassion and concern are eating beef everyday. One 16 year old Canadian boy said to me yesterday, "I could never be vegetarian, I love that Alberta beef too much." The same boy practically melts at the sight of a cat or dog, he loves them so much. When I asked if he loves that taste more than he loves animals, he said "I guess so." How can we slow our lives down enough to connect with each other and other species on a deeper level? I am so busy that I have not taken the time to connect much with this boy. That might make a difference.

A couple here in the park who dove fully into the vegan world about a month ago, shared something with me yesterday. When we first met J and L, we told them we were vegan. When we left their place, J said to L, "Well, we will never be friends with them, they think they are better than us." The reality is that whenever people learn that someone doesn't drink or eat animals products, they assume that the person is self righteous. How can we make it any clearer? How can we let folks know that we don't care which human is better than another....we just want people to care enough about other species that they don't torture them for entertainment, food, clothing, product testing, etc. We do not go around thinking we are better than anyone else. We simply want to be a voice for those without a voice in society. I know that if I am in a hurry, I may share my choices in a less mindful way. I need to slow down more. And I wonder if there was anything I really could have said that would have given them a different first impression.

When I simplify life and slow down enough to watch insects, I know I am doing something right in my life. When I slow down, I am a better communicator and I see more of what is around me.

This true slowing down doesn't happen often enough. You may remember in another blog I talked about the dung beetle in Florida who created a backpack out of a dry leaf so he could carry more manure. He piled the leaf high with manure and then dug himself under the leaf and trotted off. Brilliant.

A Sonoran Tiger Beetle fell into our water bucket outside the other day. I didn't know if he was dead or not by the time I noticed him. I gently scooped him up and placed him on a piece of dry wood. Then I watched the most graceful drying off dance I have ever seen. He tipped his head from right to left slowly and dried himself with one arm and then the other. He gently stroked each of his wings. I couldn't stop watching this amazing dance. Even the smallest of the creatures around us wants to survive and does not want to suffer needlessly. Eventually, after about 15 minutes of self pampering, he flew off. I know, I know....I said I was too busy to connect with the Canadian boy, but I made time for the beetle.

Earthquakes.....Unrelated?

2011-03-17T15:40:00.000-07:00

Well, after publishing that last posting, JC enlightened me a bit.
I have a live in climate change expert and didn't consult him!
Apparently, earthquakes are not part of the climate change we are experiencing.
The quirky weather patterns are in a class of their own and earthquakes are apparently just
part of life on earth.

I will watch the comments to see if this is common knowledge.

"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!"

2011-03-17T15:31:00.000-07:00

“I can’t believe it!” “I don’t understand this.” “It makes no sense.”

These are the types of comments I heard all week while in the Midwest for my father's surgery. While there, one of my folk’s best friends (relatively young woman) died of heart failure, my mother’s sister was diagnosed with colon cancer and Tokyo was slammed with a historical earthquake. The day after my father’s surgery, I offered to make a (vegan) meal for him and some other relatives and the relatives chose to bring three types of meat rather than take a chance on what I was making.

Believe it or not, all of the scenarios above are connected.

They are linked by our choices as humans and the consequences of these choices.

Tokyo’s earthquake does make sense when you see it through the lens of cause and effect. The regularity of unusual and extreme weather is the kind of climate change we have been warned about for many years. Climate change is not just happening to us, we are creating it.

The diseases that are plaguing humans are, in most cases, not just happening to them. Our culture and individual choices have created many of them.

The choices we made and are making are showing up as heart disease, diabetes, obesity, cancer and other “epidemics”. Our choices have brought us to the point where pharmaceuticals companies are happily marketing to people of all ages. Most people are choosing to take pills rather than make lifestyle changes.

The majority of people dealing with health issues, from diabetes to heart disease, cancer and strokes are, in most cases, dealing with preventable diseases. While it is true that some people are predisposed to certain diseases, they can choose a healthy lifestyle that will increase their chances of beating the odds. We are not trained from a young age to take responsibility for our own health.

Animal agriculture is the number one contributor to human induced global warming. When we make choices that contribute to our declining health or the destruction of our once healthy environment, most people hope that some expert will come along and save the day…clean up the mess that we have created. Most people do not decide that they will look at their part in the situation and take responsibility.

In response to major environmental or health crisis , when I hear the comment “I can’t believe it!” I think, “I totally believe it.” When I hear “It makes no sense”, I think, “It makes total sense.”
What does not make sense to me are the times when we have the information to choose differently and do not do it.

We humans have a hard time taking responsibility for what we have created. One of the most mature responses to a conflict between you and another person is to admit your part in the situation and do things differently at the next opportunity. The same is true when it comes to our response to the current environmental crisis or a personal health crisis. The most mature response would be to admit our part and do things differently...whenever possible....beginning NOW.

Here at our solar rv park, there are people who are starting to take responsibility for their own health by learning about healthy plant-based nutrition. We taught a well-attended Vegan 101 class here yesterday.

I want to be sympathetic and caring with those around me who are dealing with health issues. And I have to admit that it is not always easy when I am standing face to face with a neighbor who recently had a stroke and he is grilling cheeseburgers or another neighbor who has heart disease but says to me: "I could never give up meat."

And, JC and I continue, as we have done for decades now. We share the information with those who are open minded and open hearted enough to hear it……we plant the seeds and hope that they find fertile ground to grow in.

May we all find the strength to care for ourselves and the compassion to care for the earth and all life.

Eat Your Greens!

2011-03-17T14:11:00.000-07:00

Delicious Raw Kale Salad

Ingredients

One bunch of kale

1/2 teaspoon of sea salt

Fresh squeezed juice of two lemons

One teaspoon of olive oil

One teaspoon of balsamic vinegar

One clove garlic

A pinch of cayenne pepper

Directions

1.) Rip the leaves of the kale into tiny pieces (I don't use the stems)

2.) Add the lemon juice and sea salt.

3.) Massage the mixture for about 10 minutes.

4.) Add the cayenne, garlic, oil, and balsamic vinegar.

5.) Mix

6.) Eat right away or chill and eat the next day.

(you can add tomatoes, shredded carrots, cukes or eat as is..... )

Our Primate Relatives....

2011-03-03T14:33:00.000-08:00

For this blog I am going to share pieces from two incredible voices for other species.

First the bad news then the sweet news....

4300 primates are being held captive at the Oregon National Primate Lab. At least 50 of them are part of an obesity study there.

From Marc Bekoff's blog: The monkeys are fattened up by giving them lots of rich, fattening food, and kept in small cages so they can't have any exercise, as if this sort of regime is going to tell us much about human obesity. Monkeys don't normally eat like this and are very active so the way in which they're treated is thoroughly abnormal and severely compromises their well being. It's highly likely that they're stressed and researchers are concerned about how stress compromises the reliability of the data they collect. So, even if one doesn't care about how these monkeys are treated, indeed a frightening thought, we should all be concerned about whether the data are relevant to the questions at hand. Some of the monkeys will also undergo gastric surgery and be euthanized, a sanitized way of saying they're killed so that their pancreas and brain can be examined.

Now the sweet story.....

Some of you know Rick Bogle from his tireless work with the Primate Freedom Tour. Others know his work with Alliance for Animals in Madison.

Rick told me this story when I was in Madison and I was so moved, I wanted to share it with you. Included are photos from the hotel and sanctuary where the story took place:

The cages at the hotel where Pepe, Jackie, and Becky were kept for 30 years

"In 2000 and 2001 I served as a volunteer at Sanaga-Yong Chimpanzee Sanctuary in the central highlands of Cameroon.

On my first trip, there were only three adult chimpanzees there –
chimpanzees whose long term confinement in separate cages had led
veterinarian Sheri Speede to abandon her practice in Portland, Oregon and move to Cameroon. After meeting them, she had made a promise to them that she would return and find a way to rescue them.

They were being kept in a row of three cages. The chimpanzee in the middle cage could touch the other two through the bars, but the two on the ends could not touch each other. I wasn’t there to witness their move from the hotel where they had been kept for nearly thirty years, to their new quarters at Sanaga-Yong, but I heard that these three chimpanzees, when finally together, two of them being able to touch each other for the first time in three decades, just couldn’t stop
hugging each other.

I got to know these three chimpanzees fairly well. There were two
males, Jackie and Pepe, and Becky. At first, they were housed in a
very large sort of house-cage, maybe forty feet on a side and maybe
fifteen feet high. Eventually they also had access to forty or so
acres of climax rain forest.

I sat for many hours grooming and being groomed by Pepe. We would sit in front of each other with the bars between us. The bars were far enough apart that we could reach easily through to give each other a hug. Pepe would let me search over his body and would turn around to let me comb through the hair on the back of his head and neck. I would look through his hair, or clean the dirt from under his nails. He would let me look into his mouth, in his ears, and seemed to enjoy being touched.

Then he would do the same to me, searching through the hair on my
head, through my beard. He would gently pull at my eyelashes. He would pull my pants legs up and groom my legs. Sometimes he would pull my shirt up and explore my stomach and chest, and then turn me around to examine my back.

The bars between us gave me some security. Chimpanzees seem to have a more volatile emotional response to the world than we do. If Pepe was in a particularly boisterous mood, I was able to sit near-by without risk of him grabbing me a bit too roughly.

Sometimes, we would tickle each other. Pepe loved for me to tickle
him, and he would tickle me back, sometimes a bit too chimpanzee-like for my comparatively weak human body. But it was all in good fun.
Once, when we were both laughing and digging our fingers into each other, I jerked my head back and one of his finger nails scratched me across the nose and causing me to bleed rather profusely. It was a
complete accident.

For the rest of my stay, whenever we would groom each other, Pepe
studiously avoided the wound and eventual scab, an odd thing because any wound is always of the greatest interest to chimpanzees grooming each other. I can’t know with certainty, but Pepe seemed to know that he had wounded me, and by ignoring it, he seemed to be expressing some remorse or maybe a little guilt.

On my second trip to Sanaga-Yong, there were an additional maybe two dozen young chimpanzees, all rescued from the market or from dismal captive situations. The nursery for the older children was an electric fence enclosure of about five acres that included a building that was divided into sleeping quarters for the chimpanzees and a separate very small room for a volunteer to sleep in.

There were six very high energy young chimpanzees there when I
visited. I slept in the nursery. While I was there I was a nursemaid
to a young putty-nosed guenon who slept with me. In the morning, when the boisterous kids next door started rustling around, I would get up and take Monkey (a creative name) to a cage while I fed the young chimpanzees.

I made formula and pabulum for them which I served to them in plastic cups when I opened the door to their sleeping quarters. It was always pandemonium when they ran out looking for their cups of morning cereal.

The electric fence around the enclosure was about ten feet high; the
strands of wire were spaced about four inches apart. After eating and
throughout the day, one of the chimpanzees would approach the fence and touch it very briefly, obviously checking to see if it would still hurt them. After they ate, I would sit with them for a few hours as they chased each other in and out of the trees.

One of the young chimpanzees had an odd habit that he indulged every morning after breakfast, while everyone else was running around. Hewould gather little pieces of wood and small stones and arrange them. If it had been a human child doing this no one would have doubted that he was lost in some make believe world of his own. This is exactly what it looked like to me, and precisely what I thought he was doing.

Eventually one of his play mates would charge through and scatter his toys and he would join in the seemingly endless melee.

I learned to be careful when I was sitting with them. I sat with my
back to the building or the fence to avoid being ambushed from behind by a thirty pound ball of energy. They liked to use me as a sort of jungle gym and would climb all over me.

One day, after a wrestling bout with them, I was taking a break and
sitting with my back to the fence. They had decided to play among
themselves for the moment, and so I was sitting alone. My shirt was
soaked with perspiration, and I was winded from my workout with them.
In a lapse of attention, I leaned back a little too far and was hit by
about 9000 volts – the current pulsing off and on through the wires.

I shouted out and recoiled from the fence. I was immediately the
center of attention. The six young apes surrounded me – not interested in wrestling for a moment, but being very concerned and consoling, hugging me, and wanting to inspect my back.

It was clear to me that they had all been similarly shocked previously and were concerned for me. Their empathy for my experience and sympathy for my pain were obvious and appreciated. The moment lasted only two or three minutes but was one of sharing and concern. They made me feel much better.

A few minutes later one of them jumped on my head started pulling my ear again."

The young chimpanzee who seemed to have an imaginary world, Bikol.

Pepe

Thank you Marc and Rick for your wonderful work for all species.

The USA's Health I Don't Care System (HIDCS)

2011-02-06T11:14:00.000-08:00

I cannot call it a health care system.
I was already sure that I wanted to avoid hospitals and supposed health care workers.....but after being in Chicago helping my folks out after my dad's surgery, I am double sure I don't want to be in those places.

In a nutshell, they take a pretty healthy person and turn them into a chemical stew of prescription drugs and then they feed them three killer meals a day in the chemically cleaned room. The list of drugs they put my dad on has about a dozen different items meant to do everything that his body would actually figure out on its own.

Last night after watching this insane system in action all day, I tried to go to sleep and could only think about the millions of non-humans who are subjected to medical procedures and medicines in labs. Those beings are not treated nearly as kindly as the humans undergoing procedures. And, remember, they are not there by choice like the humans. Most of them are in these hell hole labs because the labs are trying to supposedly save humans who have chosen to not live healthy lives. We humans eat crap, don't exercise and then when our bodies crumble we want those drugs and procedures tested on innocent beings. Not only do we want to be saved by the Health I Don't Care System, but we want to live about 50 years past what the normal lifespan is for a primate. We are primates, folks.

My father was told he couldn't eat greens because they have too much vitamin K and his blood needs thinning. Then today he was told that his blood is too thin and he should eat some greens. My mother thought that meant celery. When I told the RN that I was glad I finally get to feed him some healthy vegan food, she said, "Oh no....he needs meat because he has to have protein." Once again, the folks trained in the HIDCS, don't have a clue about nutrition. She left the room before I got to tell her that brocolli, mushrooms and pretty much all foods have protein. I didn't get to tell her to check out a few cows and elephants to find out what kind of nutrition is in a plant-based diet.
The hospital menu did not have a single vegetarian or vegan option, except for breakfast oatmeal or a cup of canned fruit. There was meat, dairy and eggs in every other option.
So I am left wondering, once again, what will it take for humans to choose health and compassion? Obviously Oprah saying the word vegan and experimenting with some of her staff for millions of viewers is not enough.
For those who saw the show, please disregard Michael Pollan's comment that animals in animal agriculture have a good life and then one bad day. What most of them have is a horrendous life of captivity, no choices, torn from their families, treated violently and then trucked in painful conditions and slaughtered in their prime. Somebody needs to clue him in to reality.

What I am left feeling after this insider's view into the hospital system is gratitude. I am grateful that at some point in my life I learned about caring for myself in a way that brings me here....to this place of being in my fifties without a doctor or any prescriptions and with a diet that does not require killing animals for my taste preferences.

My plant-based diet gives me more than enough energy....I shoveled giant mountains of snow for my parents and their neighbors today..
Grateful Grateful Grateful.....

Another Plant Peace Daily Contest!

2011-01-23T08:36:00.000-08:00

The first person who correctly identifies ALL THREE of these objects wins the prizes!
An assortment of PPD bumper stickers, the Plant Peace Daily Everyday Outreach book and a mystery vegan treat (last contest it was chocolate)!

Slaves Make a Wonderful Gift....?

2011-01-04T15:43:00.000-08:00

I have been thinking a lot about the problems that go along with humans thinking that we can own any living being. Around the world there are still many regions where women are owned by men. There are other regions where children are owned by parents and are sold into slavery. As soon as someone becomes property, the owner of this being has the legal right to do anything he or she wants to with this property. Pretty much anyone reading this blog would agree that no human is property and no human should be in a position to be bought and sold as property. This is clear. What isn’t so clear for most people is where to draw the line when it comes to non-humans. A friend of the folks we are house/horse/dog sitting for came by with his cows yesterday to let them graze on the land there. He brought the mothers first. The were stressed and agitated because their nursing babies were not with them. About two hours later he arrived with the babies and each mother ran to their child who was running to them. Then they got as far away from that trailer as they could….they literally were heading for the hills. This farmer sees himself as their owner. As their owner, he will decide when to separate them and when to send some of them to slaughter.

I cannot find any logical or caring argument for owning a living being. We care for our dog, but we are not her “owners” and she is not our property.

Organizations like Heifer International and Outreach International think that living beings make great gifts and have built their organizations around the idea of ownership of living beings (non-human slaves). Both organizations also have valuable programs that do not involve the sale, shipping and slaughter of non-human slaves. Heifer has programs that focus on community gardens. Outreach International has programs that provide acreage, school supplies, education, sewing machines, clothing, water wells, cooking stoves, carpentry tools, medical supplies, and fruit trees to communities. If Outreach International would just stick with the non-slave programs, I would love to support them and encourage others to do the same. But photos of happy people holding cute animals that you can buy and have sent to a community are the ones that really bring in the big revenue.

So instead of these other valuable programs being enough, goats, sheep, chickens, cows, water buffaloes, fish and other beings suffer and die to supposedly help these communities. For the whole story on the reality for the living beings sold by organizations like these, go to this link:

http://plantpeacedaily.org/files/The_Reality_of_Heifer_International.doc

Please spread the word between now and the next holiday season. Let the people in your life know that they can donate to compassionate organizations that support sustainable choices. They can make a donation to any of a number of groups who are not promoting the use of living beings as property. Also, if you care about ending this type of accepted slavery, please contact organizations that sell living beings as "gifts" and let them know that you would support their other programs if they eliminated the offering of living beings.

I would not want to be thought of as property. I would not want to be bought and sold to whoever can offer the best price. I want to be treated as an individual and live a life free of needless pain and suffering. This is true for all beings. Even the tiniest housefly will avoid being killed and will choose life.

There was a time in my life that I would look at a group of animals and just see a species. A group of cows, a group of goats, a group of birds, etc. It is different for me now. I have met too many of them one to one, face to face. Now, as I look in the eyes of the owned beings on the land we are now parked on, I see individuals, not property. The same is true as I look at these catalogs selling these beings as products. I see individuals, not species.

Roger Fouts and Booee

2010-12-29T14:56:00.000-08:00

I have been looking for the accurate story of Roger Fouts being reunited with one of the chimps he had taught sign language to. I had thought it was 60 minutes and the chimp was Washoe. I actually saw this story on 20/20 in 1995 while visiting my parents....I was frozen in place for an hour after the show with tears running down my cheeks. I am so glad to have found the description.

Here is the entire story. It is so moving I wanted to include all of it here in Roger Fouts own words:

Booee is the one on the left. He is speaking American Sign Language with Bruno.

In early 1995 I got a call from Dean Irwin, a producer of 20/20, the ABC news magazine. While planning a show about the morality of conducting biomedical experiments on chimpanzees, he had learned about Booee and my other former chimpanzee students at LEMS I P, the biomedical lab owned by New York University. He asked me if I would be willing to visit the lab and be reunited with Booee in front of television cameras.

I wanted to say 'No.' I had deliberately avoided LEMSIP since Booee and the others were transferred there in 1982. Seeing them would be agonizing because I knew there wasn't a damn thing I could do to rescue them. As for helping them, I'd tried that already. In 1988 Jane Goodall and I had sent a student of mine, Mark Bodamer, to LEMSIP to start an enrichment and activity program for all 250 chimps. The program was a great success, but unfortunately it was scuttled after Mark left.

Mark never got to see Booee - Booee had been transferred to another lab temporarily - but he did visit Bruno for me. When Mark began signing to him, Bruno answered with two signs of his own: KEY CUT. I wasn't sure if Booee would remember me if we saw each other after more than a decade. But if he did remember, he might well think I was there to free him, something I could not do. It would break my heart and his.

But I also knew that visiting Booee would make for some very good television. We could take millions of people inside a biomedical laboratory, which I'd dreamed of doing since I toured Sema seven years earlier. If there was any chance that this wide exposure might improve conditions or help Booee, then I would do it.

A few months later, I found myself in the back seat of a long black limousine, sitting next to anchorman Hugh Downs as we drove to LEMSIP. A soundman and cameraman, seated across from us, taped our conversation. I couldn't help thinking that the back of the limo was bigger than Booee's cage. Hugh Downs wanted to know ifBooee would remember me. I didn't know.

I couldn't begin to guess what thirteen years alone in a cage would do to someone's mind and personality. But the closer we got to LEMSIP the more I hoped that Booee would not remember me, that he would see me asjust another lab-coated visitor passing through. I didn't want to sign GOODBYE to Booee. I was sure I would break down.

When we got to the lab, we were instructed to put on white gowns and caps. Then Dr James Mahoney escorted Hugh Downs, the cameramen and me to Booee~s windowless barrack. Booee lived in a hot unit', where all the inmates were infected with one virus or another. He was infected with Hepatitis C, a virus that can cause progressive liver disease. Through the door I could see my friend sitting alone in his cage.

He looks the same, but bigger, I thought.

The last time I saw Booee he was a young teenager like Loulis. Now he was twenty-seven.

This is really happening. It's too late to turn back.

I hesitated for another moment, then entered the room in a low crouch. I approached Booee's cage uttering gentle chimpanzee greetings.

A big smile lit up Booee's face. He remembered me, after all.

HI, BOOEE, I signed. YOU REMEMBER?

BOOEE, BOOEE, ME BOOEE, he signed back, overjoyed that someone actually acknowledged him. He kept drawing his finger down the center of his head in his name sign - the one I had given him in 1970, three years after NI H researchers had split his infant brain in two.

YES, YOU BOOEE, YOU BOOEE, I signed back. GIVE ME FOOD, ROGER, he pleaded.

Booee not only remembered that I always carried raisins for him, but he used the nickname he had invented for me twenty-five years earlier. Instead of tugging the ear lobe for ROGER, he flicked his finger off the ear. This was like calling someone Rodg' instead of Roger'. Seeing him sign my old nickname floored me. I had forgotten it, but Booee hadn't. He remembered the good old days better than I did.

I gave Booee some raisins, and the years just melted away, the way they do between old friends. He reached his hand through the bars and groomed my arm. He was happy again. He was the same sweet boy I met on that autumn day decades earlier when Washoe and I first stepped on to the chimpanzee island at Lemmon's Institute. That was before everything, before the stun guns and Dobermanns, before the adult colony and Sequoyah's death, before Yerkes and Sema. I was a young know-it-all professor then, right out of graduate school. I yelled at Booee one day, and he humbled me in front of my very first college students by lifting me off my feet and letting me dangle there. For twenty-five years I'd been telling my students about how Booee embraced me and forgave my anger toward him.

Look at him now, I thought. Thirteen years in a hellhole and he's still forgiving, still guileless. Booee still loved me, in spite of everything that humans had done to him. How many people would be so generous of spirit?

As we signed back and forth and played CHASE and TICKLE through the iron bars, I forgot about the cameras and the millions of people who would be watching this. For one wonderful moment I even forgot where we were. But only for a moment.

I MUST GO NOW, BOOEE, I signed after a while. Booee's grin changed to a grimace, and his body sank. I MUST LEAVE, BOOEE. Booee moved to the back of his cage. GOODBYE, BOOEE.

As we left LEMSIP, I shook hands cordially with the director, Dr Jan Moor-Jankowski, as if we were two colleagues who had just transacted some mundane piece of business. I was overwhelmed by shame. I was ashamed of Booee's hepatitis, ashamed of the professionalism of Moor-Jankowski and myself, ashamed of the respectability that hung over all this suffering.

After our limousine pulled out through the heavily barred security gate, no one spoke for the whole drive back to the hotel.

Canines to Love, Canines to Kill

2010-12-27T15:30:00.000-08:00

We are house/horse/dogsitting in southern AZ. The house has lots of reading material, which is always a plus. I have been reading a National Georgraphic from March 2010 that I found on an end table here.

The cover story is Wolf Wars. The problem with wolves is that the silly creatures like to eat and survive. Can you imagine? They kill cattle. This makes for some very unhappy ranchers. The ranchers want the wolves outta there.

We have been around lots of people who are over-the-top dog lovers everywhere we park our home on wheels. Most of the same folks who feel their dogs are family, will consume animal products that are the demise of many other, just as wonderful, canines.

If this were the rancher’s beloved dogs who were somehow in an area or situation where no human was feeding them, the dogs would kill cattle, too. And in that scenario the ranchers would be sympathetic. It is THEIR dogs. The wolves belong to nobody. They are not evil when they kill for food. They are hungry. They are no more evil than I am when I eat a a bowl of soup because I am hungry.

The other group that is flipping out about the reintroduction of the wolf, and any protective measures for them, are the elk and deer hunters.

Because of what is considered the “overpopulation” of the wolves, some states are allowing wolves to be hunted up to a certain quota. Idaho permitted the legal hunting of 220 wolves in the 2009/2010 season. This is a photo of hunters protesting against the federal protection of wolves. In the photo one angry man holds a sign that says “Does Anyone Care About Our Deer and Elk Herds?”. I find the sign a bit ironic coming from the group (hunters) that are the most vocal about the elk and deer population growing out of control if they are not killed by hunters...on one hand. And, on the other hand, they are saying that the wolves will kill too many.

One of the most popular bumper stickers that the anti-wolf groups have on their vehicles is SMOKE A PACK A DAY.

There are lots of illogical and ironic parts to this situation. If a rancher can prove that a wolf killed a calf on his land or while out grazing on public land, he is compensated. The compensation ranges from $500 to $1000.

When we were in New Mexico last month, billboards showed the horrible death of livestock killed by wolves. What the billboards didn’t show is that those killed by wolves were spared the prolonged fear, pain and suffering that awaits those who make it to the next steps of the meat industry. Separation from family and companions, trucking, stockyards, livestock auctions and slaughterhouses are a fate worse than being taken by a pack of wolves. When interviewed about the horrible deaths of livestock, it comes down to dollars. The ranchers want to make money on the cattle and they don’t want to lose any of their cash cows to wolves.

A part of the story that is rarely told is that only a small percentage of the deaths really are caused by wolves. Research into the loss of sheep show that wolves account for a very small percentage of the loss.

In Wyoming, Montana and Idaho only 1% of sheep loss is from wolf predation. As a comparison, 22% is caused by sever weather and 25% is from coyote attacks.

So, back to this love of one canine and hate of another. I cannot find how it makes any sense. It is right in the same category as the people who LOVE their dogs but will purchase fur, animal tested products (often tested on dogs….but not THEIR dogs), and foods that come from suffering animals.

Jacques-Henri Lartigue 1911 Photo

I watched a young fashionable woman walk through the airport last week. She was wearing a full length fox fur coat and carrying a large handbag made out of snake skin. In her other arm was her dog. I assume that she could not see the irony in wearing the skin of a group of canine’s she does not care about while carrying the one who is her “baby”.

There was a time when I would not have noticed these kinds of inconsistencies in myself or others. There are still many in myself that I am sure I am blind to. I would hope that those around me would point them out to me. When they do, I would hope that I would not get defensive.

But, we shy away from being that honest with the people in our lives….whether it is someone we have known for life or someone we cross paths with briefly.

Do You See What I See?

2010-12-16T15:25:00.000-08:00

One week ago in the Denver airport I was in a bathroom stall, the marble floors were overly polished and when I looked down I realized I could see the stalls to my right and left as if the floor was a mirror. The woman to my right was one of those wild tissue users who pulls off enough paper to clean up an oil spill. The woman on the left was a conservative paper user. While noticing this, I realized that the piped in Christmas music was playing “Do you see what I see…..”

I became the crazy person laughing in her stall, while, I am sure Ms. Big Tissue and Ms. Tiny Tissue watched me on the mirrored floor to make sure I wasn’t as crazy as I sounded.

Years ago I was traveling through Paris by bicycle. I had left Minneapolis to travel in Europe for as long as my money held out. I got a one-way ticket to Athens Greece and took off from there for what turned out to be many months. I kept my apartment in Minneapolis and my Australian friend Helena was staying there before heading back to Australia.

She figured I was in Greece. This is before the internet and she had no way to find out where I was.

I was biking through Paris and saw a woman with a backpack and a scarf exactly like Helena’s. It had to be her. This woman was looking at a menu outside a restaurant. I whispered in her ear “you can’t afford this place.” She whipped around and we hugged. Before heading back to Australia, she had decided to go to Paris and the UK. In her pocket was a ticket for the ferry between France and England for the next morning. In my pocket was a ticket for the same ferry.

Synchronicity…..

WHAT DO YOU EAT?

2010-12-12T11:35:00.000-08:00

The cooks

"What do you eat?"

I have been asked this a thousand times in my decades of being vegan....

One visit to Adena and Kate's in Boulder and this question would be happily answered for anyone!

It has been a week of eating bliss......

This is the vegan conversion house. I wish every human could come experience this food.

Black bean soup with corn and cilantro....yummmmmmmmmmm

First Ever Plant Peace Daily Contest!

2010-12-12T11:21:00.000-08:00

The first person to identify this object correctly will win a free Plant Peace Daily Book and the bumper sticker of your choice!

2 views of the same object:

Move to Bolivia to be a Locavore?

2010-12-12T11:11:00.000-08:00

Sign on a building in Boulder...

JC and I watched the film FUEL and it only makes me more aware of how I take part in the crazy consumption of non-renewables. I am right now, at this moment, sitting in a big chunk of aluminum flying from Tucson to Boulder after taking a shuttle from Patagonia to Tucson. Why? Because I want to see my friends there and I found a great deal on the flight. 200 years ago I would have written long letters to my friends and they would have gotten them a month later and then responded and I would most likely have most of my dearest friends and family within walking distance. I would not have expected to see my friends on a regular basis who live hundreds of miles away.

I know that my choice to be vegan saves a boatload of oil. Animal agriculture uses more petroleum than all forms of transportation combined in the world. Also, I am not a shopper and rarely buy anything new. My idea of a gift for our home is the beautiful rocks and sticks and bones I find while hiking. So, I may not be the world’s biggest petroleum consumer…..but I am still aware of how spoiled I am…and I could sure make my footprint smaller.

We have a home on wheels. We get to park it wherever we please. I would guess that we don’t drive even a fraction of the miles that most commuters do, but the fact that we can even have this mobile lifestyle depends on fuel.

And, it’s not just that part of our lifestyle that contributes to the USA’s over the top consumption….

Our wonderful daily green smoothie drink has ginger and cinnamon from who knows where and bananas from Mexico. It is only by chance that the kale, lemons, oranges, carrots, and apples in it are from the local organic farms in the area where we are parked right now. There are places we have lived where the sources for our smoothie ingredients make it a virtual United Nations in a blender.

I have to admit it….I am just another fossil fuel dependent human.

I would like to simplify life down to the point where I am not so dependent on fossil fuels. But, as I look around at my life, it seems almost impossible. First I would have to shed the things that are wants rather than needs….that means most of what I have and do. Could I really do without my sun-dried organic Bolivian olives? Probably. Or I guess we could move to Bolivia so then I would be eating locally. The olives would be the easiest to let go of (I know this is hard to believe for those of you who have seen me go through a pint of them in less than 5 minutes) ….Choices choices.
It's all easier when I remember that those really simple pleasures are what bring me the most contentment....

JC making saurkraut with local organic veggies.

2010-12-03T21:55:00.000-08:00

This photo is mother and calf together.......as it should be.....

I came home from the library where I wrote the Bovines and Bees blog today and found that there were about 75 more cattle who were rounded up today. It has gone from bad to worse.

This is a group that is mostly moms and kids. They are separated in pens where they can see each other, but can’t get to each other.

Now, what was bellowing has turned into the cow equivalent of screaming and moaning. The mom’s are freaking out and their screams fill the air and our home. Some of them are howling like coyotes. The babies are panicked and we can hear their cries in response to the mothers. It is unbearable.

The neighbor at the bottom of the hill told me that the first year she lived here she cried through the whole round-up season. Now, she tries to just tune it out. I am just trying to breath. I cannot get my breath past my chest into my belly.

Bean, our dog, is upset by the sound of the mother’s screams and can’t relax. She is staring toward the herd with big nervous eyes. It may not be her canine language, but she understands panic and fear.

I want to just be like Byron Katie who can “love what is”. I went to BK’s 10 day school three times and I still cannot “love what is” in all situations. I feel edgy and nauseous. The sound of the moms is the same sound that, years ago, made me go next door to my landlord’s dairy farm and find the male calves being loaded on a semi. The mom’s were pressed against the barbed wire screaming just like these moms are. Some had blood coming down their chest fur and all of them had their mouths wide open bellowing for their babies. It was that witnessing that made me give up dairy. As I listen to the moms tonight, the visuals of the dairy farm mothers from years ago is like a painful movie running in my mind…

The same people, who LOVE their dogs and would be completely heartbroken if their canine “children” were taken from them, cannot understand that this is a bond between an actual mother and her birth child. These same people will often have no problem sitting down to a hamburger. It is this disconnect that perpetuates this kind of needless abuse and violence.

There is no difference between the mother/child bonds in these cattle than there is between a human mother and her child. The same pain is felt when chimpanzees are taken from their mothers for research or zoos or the exotic pet trade. Elephants feel the same pain when their babies are taken for circuses, zoos or for work in the lumber industry. The pain of that broken bond is the same in all beings.

Tomorrow some of the cattle will be taken out in trailers. Some will be returned to their grazing land.

I saw a story in the news about a trailer hauling 160 cows in Washington State. The driver changed lanes and crashed into another vehicle and the trailer was smashed and on its side. It was a two level trailer. Only 90 of the 160 cows survived. Those who survived had to be taken from the scene in volunteer trailers after saws cut the trailer apart to get to them. The photos of the survivors are intense. Bodies covered in blood and manure and bulging eyes filled with panic and fear.

I know I am rambling here. I am still, after all these years, shocked by how disconnected we humans are. I just spent the weekend at a family reunion with people who love their dogs with all their heart and would do anything for them…and, these same individuals will eat other beings who are capable of the same bonds, suffering, joy, etc.

I don’t want to be one of those people who only socialize with other vegans. And I completely understand people who make that choice. There is nothing like being with someone who understands the despair of witnessing the abuse we inflict on other species or the joy of doing something to speak up for the voiceless ones. I have this in my partner, JC and in my dearest friends and extended vegan/animal rights community.

It is ironic that I am looking up right now at the side of our stove where we have the bumper sticker: PEACE BEGINS IN THE KITCHEN, GO VEGAN….and at the same time I am listening to the abuse of these cows.

Tonight, we will watch a dvd with the volume turned up high to drown out the mother’s moans, screams and bellowing and the babies’ panicked cries. And when the film is over, I will focus on the community of caring people who are working tirelessly, all over the world everyday to shine some light in the dark corners.

Bovines and Bees

2010-12-03T11:12:00.000-08:00

Why do beautiful places often come with extreme animal abuse? We keep parking in incredible spots, and often, part of the package is hunting, animal agriculture or other animal abuse.

Right now we are in the gorgeous desert and mountains of southern Arizona. We are on the edge of the national forest. The national forest and all private land in the area is range for cattle. If you have private land and do not want cattle grazing on it, you have to fence them out. Cattle grazing has changed the landscape here. The plants and soil all showing the abuse of large herds of domestic cattle who are owned by people.

On the land to the east of us is a ranch. It is round-up time. This means that cowboys have gone out on horseback and rounded up the free-roaming cattle and have them in pens so close to us that we can hear their bellowing 24/7. I sat outside the pens today and watched the trapped cattle trying to get back to the cattle they had been grazing with and all of them wanting out of the pens. Because these cattle are being sold off to slaughter or other ranches, they are divided by new owner. This means that mothers and babies are separated..... and friends, those who spent the last 5 months wandering these mountains side by side, are no longer together. Their bellowing is not random bellowing. They have gone from freedom to captivity. They have gone from choosing their food and friends to having no choice.

I watched one mother staring at a youngster three pens away. The youngster was staring back. When the mother called out, the youngster answered. While watching them, I thought about the story I read a few days ago by a writer who is a holocaust survivor. He tells of getting off the train at the camp and being lined up with all the men. His mother was lined up with the women. He watched her line move forward and as he and his mother looked in each others eyes, they had no idea that would be the last time they would see each other.

The pens are slowly being emptied by pick-up trucks coming in empty with empty trailers, loading the cattle and then driving out. I have watched about a dozen leave in the last few days. For those who are full grown and heading to slaughter, the next part of their journey will be the worst. They are heading for a place where the air is filled with panic and the floors are covered in blood.

I heard one of the cowboys screaming at the cattle to get in the trailer. He was calling them lots of names, including “stupid”. We think that cattle or other animals are “stupid” when they do not willingly walk toward a violent situation. The cows and pigs who have escaped from stockyards and slaughterhouses by leaping over 5-6 foot fences and walls were not stupid. No one had to tell them in their own language that they needed to get out of there. The cows who are trying to avoid getting in those trailers are far from stupid. They are no more stupid than any human trying to avoid pain and death.

Our sweet gentle and beautiful neighbors to the west:

I find it amazing that any of these beings are able to eek out a living on this land....where do the cattle find water in a place of no year round lakes or rivers? These two are in a large field, but they have most likely been out on the open range until recently. They slowly suck up the water from the tank with a look of total bliss on their faces.
How do they find food on land that seems to barely sustain dry brush?

Even the smallest creatures want to live. It is so dry where we are that the animals have learned to seek out any moisture. Our first morning here, I turned on the outside shower and within a few minutes bees, crickets, ants, birds and other life appeared all around me. The bees will not leave. There is a constant hummmmmmm around our camper as they enjoy the party. I asked the neighbor why the bees are swarmed around one of our screen doors. She asked if we had fruit inside. Sure enough, they are smart enough to know that there is a giant bowl of fruit just inside that door. I am too dumb to have figured out they wanted the fruit. When the occasional bee gets into our home, our dog Bean starts chasing them and trying to eat them. They do not just dumbly sit there and let Bean chow down. They fly for their lives. They hide in the perfect places that she cannot get to. They want to live. Like all of us…..from the tiniest insect to the biggest mammal.

Another Wavelength

2010-11-08T12:05:00.000-08:00

One definition of the word invention is: the creation of something new. Ask me what I think is one of the greatest inventions and I am most likely going to say “libraries”. I love libraries. I have a huge stack of library cards for every place I have been from Minnesota to Stockholm. Drop me in a place for more than a day and I will end up with a library card. My library card collection is even bigger than my co-op membership card collection. I also join every co-op I live near for more than a week.

Libraries are filled with history, fantasy, new ideas, films, recipes, music, art and shelves of what is possible and what has been. And, all of this is available to anyone of any age, background, race, gender, and economic bracket.

JC brought home a dvd called Unchained Memories from the library yesterday. It was a 2002 documentary about former slaves in the USA who were interviewed in the late 1930’s as part of the Federal Writers’ Project. They wrote memoirs in the exact words of the ex-slaves. More than two thousand former slaves were interviewed. For the documentary, HBO chose some of the interviews and had actors emulate the accent and personalities and read the interviews.

The dvd was eye opening, even for someone like me who grew up in a very aware civil rights family.

What really struck me was how recent these interviews were. It made this documentary a mix of horrifying and hopeful. Incredible that people were sold to the highest bidder and taken from their families and given no choices. Intense to hear about people being whipped horizontally and vertically across their backs so the skin would come right off in chunks and then have salt rubbed into the wounds. These beatings could happen to a hungry adult or child stealing part of a biscuit. Children and adults were forced to watch

the beatings.

I have been working as a voice for the voiceless for so many years. I am working with the hope that people, who so recently were able to commit these kinds of atrocities legally in the USA, will widen their vision to include all beings, human and non-human. It is asking a lot. Not that long ago, we could not even see that a human of another race was not property and had feelings. Now I am asking the human race to see non-human beings as other than property. A big leap. But, the most hopeful for me is that in just a few generations we have gone from thinking that having human slaves was just fine to being shocked by what we Americans were capable of. And that said, there are currently 27 million human slaves around the world. Slavery is not just part of history.

But, most people, if asked if slavery is morally or ethically ok, would say “no”. Most people in the USA look back at what we did to Africans who were stolen from their land and people and sold into bondage, as something that we, as a nation, are ashamed of.

I look forward to the day when we look back at this time and feel the same about our current treatment of other species. It is going to happen….it is just a matter of time.

I love this by Ellie Maldonado in NY City:

In order to believe we are entitled to domesticate, exploit, and kill, we need to believe the others are inferior to us, and that they can’t think, feel, or experience emotions. Now we know better. No wonder this myth is losing believers, and that so many of us include other animals in our moral code.

And, as Lee Hall so beautifully put in her book On Their Own Terms:

Each person plays a political role every day. We can conform to the scheme of things, and that’s one role. Alternatively, we can become conscious of the messages that run through our heads, adjust them, tune our thoughts to another wavelength, conceive other possibilities. We can then organize our lives, and perhaps whole communities, around a key idea. This takes stamina. Whenever we get together and dare to undo old hierarchies, we can anticipate vehement attacks that mischaracterize our efforts.

We may be very close to the tipping point….the place where a minority of the population influence the entire culture to choose compassion for all beings.

I want to hold this vision. The vision that this tipping point could be tomorrow….

OY

2010-11-04T11:20:00.000-07:00

Silver City New Mexico is impossible to describe accurately. Mix cowboys and hunters with artists and wealthy Californians and co-op loving organic baby boomers….stir in many toothless smokers living on the street and a strong GLBT community and you still don’t have the whole picture. Plop all this on the edge of the beautiful Gila Wilderness and you may think you get the picture, but without a few years of exploring it is impossible.

Snapshots of this past week:

Jumping Man flying in front of our home on wheels.....

We kept bumping into Paul the Jumping Man. His card says Wonderer. He is jumping all over the USA… taking photos for a sport trampoline company. He keeps the trampoline on top of his car. He also photographs the most beautiful parts of the country. When asked any philosophically challenging questions, his answer is “It is all light and angles”. He jumped into our life.

In our almost two months here I haven’t seen anyone in the endless wild space trails outside our door. We hike for hours everyday and ….no one. This week for the first time I bumped into a young woman coming toward me on the trail. She was hiking in black lingerie and bouncing along to iPod entertainment… her arms and legs were solidly tattooed. Her un-neutered pit bull was with her and she told me his name was Luger. What could be more charming than a dog named after a gun with balls hanging down to his knees and a fat studded leather collar? If she had hesitated long enough I would have gotten a chance to give her my “neuter your dog” routine.

And the best day for me, since we hit the road, was a few days ago hiking into this canyon...

and along the Gila River for hours….stopping to swim in the clear cold river….then hiking straight up the canyon in the afternoon…finding the rock that has OY imbedded in it…..

and ending the day at the hot springs in water so hot it makes you dizzy.

What is the word for gigantic gratitude? Oy.

Wheel of Misfortune

2010-10-27T03:24:00.000-07:00

I am not a TV person. Haven’t had one since I lived at my parents house when I was 17. I think the programming is mostly shallow useless time wasting fluff or violence. I know there are exceptions…those exceptions still do not feel like they balance out the utter crap.

I realize that I am out of the mainstream when it comes to discussing shows that have been popular for either the past twenty years or the past two years. I asked JC what that show was called with all the good questions and he shook his head and said “Jeopardy”. I guess that is common knowledge to most people. Wouldn’t that be a great question to have on that show? See if the contestants could remember the name of the show?

Where we are currently parked with our home on wheels, we have the misfortune of having TV reception. Our camper came with a TV as standard equipment. It is a built in thing that lives in our living room. Luckily we rarely have reception. I love the places that have no phone, TV or internet reception.

JC has been obliging enough to wear headphones so I don’t have to hear about bladder control drugs and the explosive diarrhea I could get from taking an anti-depressant. I also don’t have to hear what now passes for “news”. I pass through and glance at the thing every once in a while. He is there with his headphones on watching and listening. What I see only makes me that much more grateful for not being part of the human/black box relationship.

There was some “reality” show on when I passed by the other evening. Some half-dressed young woman was crying about something that didn’t go right on their island. I laughed at her belief that what she was experiencing on that island was actually reality.

But, Sunday night I passed by and saw Jane Goodall on the screen. I immediately unplugged JC’s headphones and found out that she was going to be one of three segments on 60 minutes.

I think I actually sat down in a chair to watch it. Someone should have caught that rare moment on film.

(Here is a bit of personal background: HOME has been a constant holy grail for me. I test everything and everyone with my litmus test of “does this feel like HOME”?

I am like Dorothy. There is no place like HOME and it has been inside me all along. I never left HOME.

Yea yea, whatever….I still have my HOME tinted litmus paper handy at all times.)

So, from my perspective, all three segments of the 60 minutes show were about HOME. (It's like Woody Allen thinking everything he hears relates to anti-semitism....)

The first 60 minutes segment was about the folks in Silicon Valley who once earned six figures and are now unemployed. They are collecting recyclables from people’s trash, selling their McMansions and living in everything from stranger’s attics to their cars. What they once assumed would always be their HOME got pulled out from under them. This is exactly why I never wanted to get used to some fancy high price lifestyle. I always wanted to know that how I live was sustainable in any economy and in all situations. I want to always be happy with few material goods and I want to know the ins and outs of surviving during apocalyptic situations. You want to live near me if the shit hits the fan in this country. We would survive just fine.

The next segment was about a very popular automobile TV show in Britain. It is called Gear something or other. One of the hosts was interviewed. The big bruiser guy was talking about caravans (that is Europeans call rv trailers). He said, “Oh yes, just what I want to do, go out in the freezing rain and live in a metal box parked in a field. With Americans it is different. You Americans like that kind of thing.”

Hmmm, here we are with bright sunshine parked in the national forest in the metal box we call HOME….and loving it.

young JG

Then, Jane Goodall appeared. Can I just say, I LOVE this woman. First, her beautiful relationship with the chimps as a twenty something non-academic untrained scientist…then her visit with them as a seventy something spokesperson for all living beings. The forest habitat that serves as HOME to the chimps is being chipped away at. Jane points to once forested hillsides that are now barren. She is delighted to find that many of her old chimp friends are still alive in the forest and have children and grandchildren. But, their population is a fraction of what it once was and she blames habitat destruction, killing them for bushmeat and killing them to steal their babies for the exotic animal trade.

I feel for these chimps who just want to be HOME…with their familiar surroundings, family, friends and food.

It is really so little to ask.

I cried tears of gratitude for Jane Goodall's clear compassionate voice. And for just a moment I was glad that the black box brought Jane right into our living room.

Blow Away That Symbol of Peace!

2010-10-24T20:06:00.000-07:00

I have been studying the road atlas so that I can figure out the details of our winter plans. I have been reading more of the road atlas than ever before in my life.

And I am shocked. While I have been busy studying those maps in the front, there has been a whole section that I could have been enjoying in the back pages….The Festivals of the USA!

The festival section has lots of pictures and ideas, including:

For the kids!

-Photo of a boy in a kid’s rodeo called Mutton Busting. Kids cling to terrified sheep in a rodeo arena.

-Photo and description of kids in the specially flooded Center St. of Spanish Fork, Utah. The center of town is turned into an artificial pond and is stocked with hundreds of trout. The kids can use their hands or plastic bags to catch a trout and every kid who participates gets to take home a 10 inch trout for their family.

(What better way to teach kids about our connection with the natural world and the other animals in our big animal family)

For the Adults

-Endless rodeos and Renaissance Festivals where you can grab some lamb or a turkey leg and show off your unique human skills.

I actually could not find a single page that did not include some glorification and celebration of violence in our culture…..

I pretty much held my breath in horror as I looked through page after page of “Americana”. As I was reading them to JC he was sure I must be making some of this stuff up…especially when I was reading to him about “Mike the Headless Chicken Festival” in Colorado. I am not kidding.

Finally I let out a sigh of relief when…at the bottom of one page, I got to the National Lentil Festival in Pullman Washington….There was of a guy dressed as a giant brown lentil wearing a baseball cap. Now there is a festival I can get excited about…..Between that and the Gilroy CA garlic festival, they are finally talking my language. (Well truthfully the lentil looks like an M &M and is very corny.....but I am desperate to find a non-violent image in the atlas!)

I like anything that makes me feel like I almost belong in this country.

Today, JC, Bean and I were hiking in the beautiful national forest. About an hour into our hike, a gunshot was fired less than 50 yards from us. Bean came running back to us and I watched the smoke from the gun rise above the bushes just in front of us. We held Bean close and I whistled and shouted so the hunters would stop shooting. They did not answer my whistle or shout, which makes me assume they were hunting illegally.

We turned around and left the area just before getting to our destination on the ridge top.

I came home and looked up the hunting season in New Mexico to see if they were poaching.

Fish and Game….a government agency supported by tax dollars….has a website that is almost as shocking as the Rand McNally Road Atlas.

A few of the “highlights”:

Private land owners are now paid to allow hunters to kill on their land. And the most exciting part is that these private lands are open just in time for killing the world symbol for PEACE (doves)! Here is the news from their website:

New Mexico landowners and the Department of Game and Fish are working together to provide New Mexico hunters more opportunities to pursue game on private land across the state, including more than 102,000 acres available just in time for the Sept. 1 opening of dove season.
The 5-year-old program is funded by $4 Habitat Management and Access validations required with every hunting and fishing license. This year, 19 landowners have enrolled in the program to offer public dove hunting.
“This program is great for dove hunters because some of the best dove hunting is around water tanks and agricultural fields on private land,” said Aaron Roberts, coordinator of the Open Gate Program. “At the same time, it benefits the landowners by putting some money in their pockets and keeping the birds off their crops.”
Participating landowners are paid for allowing hunters or anglers access to their property or for allowing access across their property to landlocked public land. Lease agreements are negotiated individually and can vary according to property descriptions, easements and hunting opportunities. Statewide, landowners have enrolled more than 105,000 acres for dove, quail, turkey, waterfowl, javelina and deer hunting, and some angling.

<table id="zoomedInMenu" class="menuBar" cellpadding="0"  cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td><div id=""  class="subMenu " hoveroffclass="modClrHdr" hoveronclass="modClrBg"  hoveroptionclass="modClrHi">     <a href="javascript: void(0);" class="header modClrHdr  bdrModClrBg txtClrDef submenu" onclick="tr('zoom menu header clicked');  FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleZoom({mode:'in',url:'http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg?1287974682',width:1023,tracking:'full  size'});"><b></b>zoom <span  class="icon2"><b>♦</b></span></a>                   <div class="menuOptions modClrBg bdrModClrBg">                             <a href="javascript: void(0);"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('zoom menu full size  clicked');FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleZoom({mode:'in',url:'http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg?1287974682',width:1023,tracking:'full  size'});">                    web size                 </a>                             <a href="javascript: void(0);"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('zoom menu high res  clicked');FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleZoom({mode:'in',url:'http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/.highres/DSC_0008.jpg?1287974682',width:1936,tracking:'high  res image'});">                    high res image                 </a>                     </div>     </div></td><td><div id="" class="subMenu "  hoveroffclass="modClrHdr" hoveronclass="modClrBg"  hoveroptionclass="modClrHi">     <a  href="/login?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fhunter%2520killing%2520dove%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%252520Hunting%2525202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg"  class="header modClrHdr bdrModClrBg txtClrDef submenu"  onclick="tr('edit menu header clicked'); "><b></b>edit  <span class="icon2"><b>♦</b></span></a>                   <div class="menuOptions modClrBg bdrModClrBg">                             <a  href="/login?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fhunter%2520killing%2520dove%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%252520Hunting%2525202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('edit menu add stickers  clicked');">                    add stickers                 </a>                             <a  href="/login?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fhunter%2520killing%2520dove%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%252520Hunting%2525202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('edit menu add text  clicked');">                    add text                 </a>                             <a  href="/login?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fhunter%2520killing%2520dove%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%252520Hunting%2525202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('edit menu animations  clicked');">                    animations                 </a>                             <a  href="/login?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fhunter%2520killing%2520dove%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%252520Hunting%2525202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('edit menu distort  clicked');">                    distort                 </a>                             <a  href="/login?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fhunter%2520killing%2520dove%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%252520Hunting%2525202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('edit menu beautify  clicked');">                    beautify                 </a>                             <a  href="/login?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fhunter%2520killing%2520dove%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%252520Hunting%2525202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('edit menu effects  clicked');">                    effects                 </a>                             <a  href="/login?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fhunter%2520killing%2520dove%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%252520Hunting%2525202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('edit menu see more  clicked');">                    see much more...                 </a>                     </div>     </div></td><td><div id="" class="subMenu "  hoveroffclass="modClrHdr" hoveronclass="modClrBg"  hoveroptionclass="modClrHi">     <a href="javascript: void(0);" class="header modClrHdr  bdrModClrBg txtClrDef submenu" onclick="tr('share menu header clicked');   FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleSharePanel({type:SharePanelController.TYPE.EASY,mediaUrl:'http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg',mediaType:'image'});"><b></b>share  <span class="icon2"><b>♦</b></span></a>                   <div class="menuOptions modClrBg bdrModClrBg">                                 <div class="option btn_share  txtClrDef">                         <a href="javascript:void(0);" class="button  buttons blue sharebutton"  onclick="document.fire(SharePanelController.EVENT.SHOW,  {'tabType':SharePanelController.TYPE.EASY,                                                              'partnerID':'',                                                               'mediaUrl':'http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg',                                                                'mediaType':'image',                                                               'origin':'thumb'});tr('share_button_click_share_menu_total','share_button_click_total');">      <span class="sharetext">Share </span>     <span class="share facebook"></span>     <span class="share myspace"></span>     <span class="share twitter"></span>         <span class="share hi5"></span>     </a>                 </div>                             <a href="javascript: void(0);"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('share menu post to website  clicked');FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleSharePanel({type:SharePanelController.TYPE.EASY,mediaUrl:'http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg',mediaType:'image'});">                 post to website             </a>                             <a  href="mailto:?subject=Check%20out%20this%20image%20on%20Photobucket&body=I%20wanted%20to%20share%20something%20on%20Photobucket%20with%20you:%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fi889.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fac98%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%2520Hunting%25202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg%3E"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('share menu send email  clicked');FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleShareEmail();">                 send email             </a>                             <a href="javascript: void(0);"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('share menu send to phone  clicked');FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleSharePanel({type:SharePanelController.TYPE.MOBILE,mediaUrl:'http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg',mediaType:'image'});">                     send to phone                 </a>                             <a href="javascript: void(0);"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('share menu more options  clicked');FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleSharePanel({type:SharePanelController.TYPE.EASY,mediaUrl:'http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg',mediaType:'image'});">                 more options...             </a>                     </div>     </div></td><td><div id="" class="subMenu "  hoveroffclass="modClrHdr" hoveronclass="modClrBg"  hoveroptionclass="modClrHi">     <a  href="http://s889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/"  class="header modClrHdr bdrModClrBg txtClrDef " onclick="tr('view album  menu header clicked'); "><b></b>view album </a>       </div></td><td><div id="" class="subMenu "  hoveroffclass="modClrHdr" hoveronclass="modClrBg"  hoveroptionclass="modClrHi">     <a href="javascript: void(0);" class="header modClrHdr  bdrModClrBg txtClrDef " onclick="tr('copy menu header clicked');  FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleSave({viewerSaveToAlbumUrl:'http%3A%2F%2F.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2F%2F%2F%3Faction%3Dsavetoalbum',mediaUrl:'http%3A%2F%2Fi889.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fac98%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%2520Hunting%25202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg',mediaBrowseUrl:'http%3A%2F%2Fs889.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fac98%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%2520Hunting%25202010%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DDSC_0008.jpg',isLoggedIn:false});"><b></b>copy  to my album </a>       </div></td><td><div id="" class="subMenu "  hoveroffclass="modClrHdr" hoveronclass="modClrBg"  hoveroptionclass="modClrHi">     <a href="javascript: void(0);" class="header modClrHdr  bdrModClrBg txtClrDef submenu" onclick="tr('download menu header  clicked');  FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleDownload({url:'http://i889.photobucket.com/download-albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg'});"><b></b>download  <span class="icon2"><b>♦</b></span></a>                   <div class="menuOptions modClrBg bdrModClrBg">                             <a href="javascript: void(0);"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('download menu web size  clicked');FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleDownload({url:'http://i889.photobucket.com/download-albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg'});">                     web size                 </a>                             <a href="javascript: void(0);"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('download menu high res  clicked');FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleDownload({url:'http://i889.photobucket.com/download-albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/.highres/DSC_0008.jpg'});">                     high res image                 </a>                     </div>     </div></td><td><div id="" class="subMenu  mobile" hoveroffclass="modClrHdr" hoveronclass="modClrBg"  hoveroptionclass="modClrHi">     <a href="javascript: void(0);" class="header modClrHdr  bdrModClrBg txtClrDef " onclick="tr('mobile menu header clicked');  FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleSharePanel({type:SharePanelController.TYPE.MOBILE,mediaUrl:'http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg',mediaType:'image'});"><b></b>send  to phone </a>       </div></td></tr></tbody></table>

<table id="zoomedOutMenu" class="menuBar"  cellpadding="0"  cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td><div id=""  class="subMenu " hoveroffclass="modClrHdr" hoveronclass="modClrBg"  hoveroptionclass="modClrHi">     <a href="javascript: void(0);" class="header modClrHdr  bdrModClrBg txtClrDef " onclick="tr('zoom menu header clicked');  FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleZoom({mode:'out'});"><b></b>zoom  out </a>       </div></td><td><div id="" class="subMenu "  hoveroffclass="modClrHdr" hoveronclass="modClrBg"  hoveroptionclass="modClrHi">     <a  href="/login?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fhunter%2520killing%2520dove%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%252520Hunting%2525202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg"  class="header modClrHdr bdrModClrBg txtClrDef submenu"  onclick="tr('edit menu header clicked'); "><b></b>edit  <span class="icon2"><b>♦</b></span></a>                   <div class="menuOptions modClrBg bdrModClrBg">                             <a  href="/login?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fhunter%2520killing%2520dove%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%252520Hunting%2525202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('edit menu add stickers  clicked');">                    add stickers                 </a>                             <a  href="/login?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fhunter%2520killing%2520dove%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%252520Hunting%2525202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('edit menu add text  clicked');">                    add text                 </a>                             <a  href="/login?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fhunter%2520killing%2520dove%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%252520Hunting%2525202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('edit menu animations  clicked');">                    animations                 </a>                             <a  href="/login?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fhunter%2520killing%2520dove%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%252520Hunting%2525202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('edit menu distort  clicked');">                    distort                 </a>                             <a  href="/login?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fhunter%2520killing%2520dove%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%252520Hunting%2525202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('edit menu beautify  clicked');">                    beautify                 </a>                             <a  href="/login?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fhunter%2520killing%2520dove%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%252520Hunting%2525202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('edit menu effects  clicked');">                    effects                 </a>                             <a  href="/login?returnUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fmedia.photobucket.com%2Fimage%2Fhunter%2520killing%2520dove%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%252520Hunting%2525202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('edit menu see more  clicked');">                    see much more...                 </a>                     </div>     </div></td><td><div id="" class="subMenu "  hoveroffclass="modClrHdr" hoveronclass="modClrBg"  hoveroptionclass="modClrHi">     <a href="javascript: void(0);" class="header modClrHdr  bdrModClrBg txtClrDef submenu" onclick="tr('share menu header clicked');   FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleSharePanel({type:SharePanelController.TYPE.EASY,mediaUrl:'http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg',mediaType:'image'});"><b></b>share  <span class="icon2"><b>♦</b></span></a>                   <div class="menuOptions modClrBg bdrModClrBg">                                 <div class="option btn_share  txtClrDef">                         <a href="javascript:void(0);" class="button  buttons blue sharebutton"  onclick="document.fire(SharePanelController.EVENT.SHOW,  {'tabType':SharePanelController.TYPE.EASY,                                                              'partnerID':'',                                                               'mediaUrl':'http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg',                                                                'mediaType':'image',                                                               'origin':'thumb'});tr('share_button_click_share_menu_total','share_button_click_total');">      <span class="sharetext">Share </span>     <span class="share facebook"></span>     <span class="share myspace"></span>     <span class="share twitter"></span>         <span class="share hi5"></span>     </a>                 </div>                             <a href="javascript: void(0);"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('share menu post to website  clicked');FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleSharePanel({type:SharePanelController.TYPE.EASY,mediaUrl:'http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg',mediaType:'image'});">                 post to website             </a>                             <a  href="mailto:?subject=Check%20out%20this%20image%20on%20Photobucket&body=I%20wanted%20to%20share%20something%20on%20Photobucket%20with%20you:%20%3Chttp%3A%2F%2Fi889.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fac98%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%2520Hunting%25202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg%3E"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('share menu send email  clicked');FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleShareEmail();">                 send email             </a>                             <a href="javascript: void(0);"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('share menu send to phone  clicked');FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleSharePanel({type:SharePanelController.TYPE.MOBILE,mediaUrl:'http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg',mediaType:'image'});">                     send to phone                 </a>                             <a href="javascript: void(0);"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('share menu more options  clicked');FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleSharePanel({type:SharePanelController.TYPE.EASY,mediaUrl:'http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg',mediaType:'image'});">                 more options...             </a>                     </div>     </div></td><td><div id="" class="subMenu "  hoveroffclass="modClrHdr" hoveronclass="modClrBg"  hoveroptionclass="modClrHi">     <a href="javascript: void(0);" class="header modClrHdr  bdrModClrBg txtClrDef " onclick="tr('copy menu header clicked');  FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleSave({viewerSaveToAlbumUrl:'http%3A%2F%2F.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2F%2F%2F%3Faction%3Dsavetoalbum',mediaUrl:'http%3A%2F%2Fi889.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fac98%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%2520Hunting%25202010%2FDSC_0008.jpg',mediaBrowseUrl:'http%3A%2F%2Fs889.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fac98%2FT-Ripper%2FDove%2520Hunting%25202010%2F%3Faction%3Dview%26current%3DDSC_0008.jpg',isLoggedIn:false});"><b></b>copy  to my album </a>       </div></td><td><div id="" class="subMenu "  hoveroffclass="modClrHdr" hoveronclass="modClrBg"  hoveroptionclass="modClrHi">     <a href="javascript: void(0);" class="header modClrHdr  bdrModClrBg txtClrDef submenu" onclick="tr('download menu header  clicked');  FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleDownload({url:'http://i889.photobucket.com/download-albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg'});"><b></b>download  <span class="icon2"><b>♦</b></span></a>                   <div class="menuOptions modClrBg bdrModClrBg">                             <a href="javascript: void(0);"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('download menu web size  clicked');FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleDownload({url:'http://i889.photobucket.com/download-albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg'});">                     web size                 </a>                             <a href="javascript: void(0);"  class="option  txtClrDef" onclick="tr('download menu high res  clicked');FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleDownload({url:'http://i889.photobucket.com/download-albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/.highres/DSC_0008.jpg'});">                     high res image                 </a>                     </div>     </div></td><td><div id="" class="subMenu  mobile" hoveroffclass="modClrHdr" hoveronclass="modClrBg"  hoveroptionclass="modClrHi">     <a href="javascript: void(0);" class="header modClrHdr  bdrModClrBg txtClrDef " onclick="tr('mobile menu header clicked');  FullViewMenuController.getInstance().handleSharePanel({type:SharePanelController.TYPE.MOBILE,mediaUrl:'http://i889.photobucket.com/albums/ac98/T-Ripper/Dove%20Hunting%202010/DSC_0008.jpg',mediaType:'image'});"><b></b>send  to phone </a>       </div></td></tr></tbody></table>

How I imagine this boy 50 years later........

And more “great news”…..Kids “learn to kill” programs are in full swing. And for you adults who are not satisfied with viewing the glorious Sandhill Crane, you can legally shoot them and carry them home in the trunk of your car.

Applications are due Wednesday, Sept. 8, for 2010-2011 youth waterfowl hunts at Bernardo Wildlife Area and for special-permit sandhill crane hunts. More than 200 youth waterfowl hunts are available at Bernardo and hundreds of special crane permits are available in various areas around the state.

OK, call me a stick in the mud, but I actually think that all land should be considered no hunting unless it is marked as a place that some land owner has decided to allow hunting. Instead most states have strict regulations for exactly how you must post your land if you do not want hunting on it. Is it me or is this backwards?

The NRA works so hard to ensure hunters have the right to go out there and blast away. But what about land owner and hiker’s rights? Private land and National forests are suddenly war zones during hunting seasons across the USA. Most people head to the forest for silence and beauty. The most beautiful time of year for being in the woods, turns into an act of courage (or insanity) if you love hiking. The Fish and Wildlife page reminds those of us who are not hunting to wear bright colors. Right. Hunters never shoot other hunters in bright colors. Right. Hunters always make sure that their target is clearly identified. Right. Hunters are never blurry eyed and hung-over because they never drink on their hunting trips. Right. Hunters are very responsible guys who love following regulations. Right.

All of this reminds me…it is that time of year….time to pull out one of my favorites:

A Holiday Thought. You can find this on our website (www.plantpeacedaily.org) in pdf form to print out or send around:

A Holiday Thought…

Aren’t humans amazing? They kill wildlife - birds, deer, all kinds of cats, coyotes, beavers, groundhogs, mice and foxes by the million in order to protect their domestic animals and their feed.

Then they kill domestic animals by the billion and eat them. This in turn kills people by the million, because eating all those animals leads to degenerative - and fatal - health conditions like heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and cancer.

So then humans spend billions of dollars torturing and killing millions more animals to look for cures for these diseases.

Elsewhere, millions of other human beings are being killed by hunger and malnutrition because food they could eat is being used to fatten domestic animals.

Meanwhile, few people recognize the absurdity of humans, who kill so easily and violently, and once-a-year send out cards praying for "Peace on Earth."

~Revised Preface to Old MacDonald’s Factory Farm by C. David Coates~

The Bliss of Ignorance

2010-10-11T20:37:00.000-07:00

Maybe I am reading too much these days. I don’t mean the wonderful novels I have been getting from the library. I mean the news…the daily news of what the humans on earth are up to right now.

I am a visual person. Seeing images (today) of stitched up teenage boys who were beaten and sodomized with baseball bats and other weapons because they were having a relationship with another boy breaks my heart. I have tried to shake the images all day.

Yesterday, I was researching non-human primates for a lesson plan that I am writing. The Wikipedia entry for non-human primates is filled with photos and descriptions of the horrors that they are being exposed to in labs across the country. It is information I already knew and photos I have already seen and still, I cannot keep from sobbing when I see the images and look into the eyes of these innocent beings being tortured.

(I am intentionally not showing any images of what is done to these primates)

Hang in there, these different incidents are all related….trust me.

I reconnected with some old friends on the phone yesterday and they were doing what they often did when we used to hang out together: teasing me about my vegan lifestyle choice. They themselves love dogs and wildlife dearly…..but that love does not extend past the arbitrary boundary set up in their heart and mind: Animals we love, Animals we don’t love. They would consider themselves to be the most compassionate and liberal people around and yet they cannot let themselves see beyond the limits of their current circle of compassion. Vegan is a joke to them. It is non-violence and compassion…..not always easy to live up to in this world and certainly not a joke.

I cannot laugh at the suffering of the primates and other animals being tortured in labs and I cannot laugh at the horrific violence against those teenage boys.

Today, I am overwhelmed by the amount of needless suffering on the planet. JC thinks it is hormones. Probably is. But it is also the reality of the human actions on the planet on one of those days when it seeps into some little gate I have left open inside me.

A part of me wants to hide from it all and not engage in any of it….and a part of me wants to do all I can to at least have a smidgen of positive impact on this crazy beautiful painful earth.

I had a thought that if I did not have a computer or a phone, I would never have experienced any of those three incidences. I might have been in blissful ignorance of all of it.

I work hard to leap over what often feels like giant obstacles to find a way to lovingly connect with those who seem like they do not care or want to know what is going on.

A dear friend of mine in Maine often asks me, “How can you keep doing this work? How can you keep witnessing the violence and suffering? Doesn’t it take its toll on you?”

I think it does take its toll. Today, while riding my bike into town to the food coop with the beautiful hills in the background, I cannot shake the images of the teenage boys. I cannot stop mourning. I cry the whole ride into the coop.

This is what happens when you decide you will look directly at life and feel it fully. Or maybe you don't decide to do that....it decides you. You cannot help but witness what is happening.

I sat down to meditate this evening. I had ants in my pants. I could not sit still. I got up and grabbed dog biscuits for Bean and put peanut butter on them and lined them up carefully in front of her. It wasn’t until I had lined them all up that I remembered, “I am supposed to be sitting on that cushion in there with my eyes closed.” I got back to the cushion and forced myself to sit still. And that is when I knew that the antsy-ness was me trying not to feel. I got as still as I could in my body and mind and the tears fell down my cheeks and into in my lap until there are no more tears. And then there is just my breath. And for the first time all day, I was not haunted by the pictures of the boy's black and blue butt cheeks with stitches the whole length of their cheeks and thighs. For the first time all day, I was just exactly where I was sitting.

Two Days of Chama Healing

2010-09-16T11:32:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you need healing without even knowing it.....
Sometimes you know it.....

We are camped at the Rio Chama near Ghost Ranch in Northern New Mexico…Georgia O’Keefe territory. If I glance up from the keyboard right now I look across the wide “river Chama” to the exact rocks that inspired her to take time away from the crowds and her partner in New York and hike and paint. It is not just her. It happens to most people who visit here. They want to shed anything that doesn’t shout: “BEAUTY AND SIMPLICITY”.

People look at our life with our turtle home and often get envious. They picture us hanging out in beautiful places without a care in the world. The reality has been quite different. The reality has felt like an intense marathon since June. We knew that coming west would give us space in more ways than one. I have been longing for both physical and mental space and am getting a few days of that right now.

After an hour of yoga and an hour of meditation and opening my eyes to a place that will never really be captured in photos, the world looks like a better place.

Sometimes everyone needs to get away from the places overpowered by human influence and just rest in what is still left of the most beautiful parts of earth....

A friend of mine in New York City who has a very high profile high powered life, told me that she could never visit these wild places that I do. It is just not her world. I told her that there are different kinds of wild. New York is wild for me. The Rio Chama is not wild, it is home.

Urban Coyote

2010-08-29T15:13:00.001-07:00

Thursday:

It is 4:00 in the morning. I have just been out in the full moon looking for the wounded coyote I met earlier today.

You think I am in the mountains of the west, don’t you?

You don’t know that I am in the closely packed northwestern suburbs of Chicago.

It started this morning when I was in the forest preserve adjacent to this subdivision. The subdivision and the world literally in its backyard are worlds apart. In the subdivision, laundry lines are against the rules, workers spray large amounts of herbicides on even the tiniest plants (I refuse to say weeds) growing up around the barren soil at the base of the landscaped trees. After the original trees were removed, the streets were named after the removed trees and the landscape trees and shrubs were brought in. Deer wander through the yards and eat the expensive landscaped additions. It is a conflict in communities like this across America.

It is very surreal to be where these worlds collide. The suburbs grew around and through the habitat of deer, coyotes, rabbits, skunks and other wild beings. These beings are still here making their way around the strange new land that was once their domain. For the most part they have learned to navigate across busy highways and chemical laden lawns. They have managed to make home wherever they can in the maze of traffic, concrete, houses and people.

I was biking on the trails through the forest preserve with my dog Bean. We crossed over the creek (so blue with lawn chemical run off that Bean won’t drink from it) and turned up into the thicker woods.

One large downed tree made me get off my bike. A second after I swung my leg over the bike seat, I heard what I thought was a dog barking close behind me. I looked back and saw a coyote about twenty feet away. He stared right at me and barked and howled.

For the next hour he followed us at close range on three legs, his fourth leg dangling and wounded. Here is where I wish I had done things differently. I wish I had sat down with Bean and let the coyote come to me so I could help him. My fearful self could not figure out what a coyote was doing in the Chicago suburbs, out in the middle of the day and so close to us. I thought he must be crazed from rabies or drinking polluted water. In fear, I got on my bike and rode fast with Bean at my side. No matter how fast I rode, the coyote stayed with us…running and limping on his three good legs and never taking his eyes off us. When I stopped he stopped and barked and howled. I could tell he was in pain. He followed us as far as the busy road with constant cars in both lanes. When we crossed, he stopped and watched us from the woods.

I got back to my parents house and looked up Chicago coyote on the computer immediately. I was shocked to find out that they are common in these woods. The first story I got in my search was of a coyote walking into a Quiznos sandwich shop in the middle of the city on a very hot day. He walked through the propped open door and wandered straight back to a walk-in cooler and rested there. The people in the restaurant took photos with their phones or finished their sandwiches. Animal control simply came in and put a noose around the neck of the coyote and walked the calm creature out the door to who knows what fate. I found out that coyotes in the city are such a regular occurrence that people complain if they get into the newspaper because it is not really news. Recently, one urban coyote in the news had wandered onto an athletic field at a school and was taken away and “destroyed”. The athletic field bordered the forest.

I called the wildlife rescue center closest to here. He said there was nothing they could do. He also said that the coyote is probably following our scent and most likely trying to get my help. Apparently, because we don’t follow trails, we are easy to follow by our scent. The coyote was probably hit by a car and the rehab folks are not allowed to live trap animals in the forest preserve. I asked if coyotes had any predators in the area and was told that humans were their only predators. The guy on the phone had obviously heard thousands of coyote stories and dully told me that people poison or illegally shoot them or intentionally hit them while driving.

These are coyotes. These are the same animals who are revered enough to be the subject of pseudo-native art that people buy on their vacation in Santa Fe or Scottsdale. My aunt and uncle live a few blocks from here in the same subdivision. Their son lives on the edge of Tucson. When I visited him, I slept outside and listened to the coyotes howling. My cousin and I both love this sound. We love the pure wildness of it. Hearing them howl feels like all is well in the world.

Here, these sacred animals are caught by suburban sprawl and endless traffic. The people I asked about them felt no awe at sharing the land with the coyotes. They spoke of them as annoying pests who threaten their cats and dogs and children (Everyone who shared this with me had NEVER experienced this problem or really knew of anyone who had…an urban myth apparently).

I went back to the woods and searched for the wounded coyote. This time I was determined to help him in some way, anyway. Hours of searching and no coyote.

After sunset a truck drove through the subdivision spraying the air with pesticides meant to take care of the mosquitoes. I had thought that this practice ended with the DDT foggers of our childhoods. As kids, JC and his brothers use to follow the cloud and play in the mist of DDT while they chased the slow moving truck down the street. While I know that this fogger did not spray the now-banned DDT, I also know that what it sprayed tonight, most likely has consequences we will not discover for another 10 years after torturing thousands of animals in labs around the world to determine if it is toxic.

I quickly closed the bedroom windows and wondered where the bats and birds are who would eat the mosquitoes. What have we done with the balance that once existed? I would bet that I could easily get a bat exterminator to come out with short notice to any home in the area.

I went to bed with Bean lying at my feet and the coyote still on my mind. We were both startled awake at 2:30 am when we heard our wounded coyote again. The sound of his erratic bark and howl is unmistakable. He found me, I thought.

I walked outside in the full moon light and searched again. Wandering around the neighborhood between mailboxes with huge American flags, I looked in the shadows for the coyote….but only caught glimpses of who I assumed was our limping coyote.

What have we done? What have we humans done? We inherited this beautiful planet. We were given incredible life all around us have chosen to cut ourselves off from it and lock ourselves up in our houses and cars and stop caring for it….. We were given these miraculous bodies and chose to cut ourselves off from them and stopped using them and caring for them.

I heard a wonderful speaker this past weekend who asked the audience if they would like the car of their dreams given to them free of charge. Everyone answered “yes”. He said there was one catch: This would be the only one you will have for the rest of your life. “How will you care for it?” he asked. Then he compared that car to our bodies. This is it. We don’t get another one. Rats make better choices than humans. Given the choice between healthy fruits and vegetables and junk food, they always choose the healthy foods. Humans are as evolved or intelligent. Given the choice to care for our bodies or not, most have opted to not care for them.

It is the same with this planet. This is it. This is the only one we will have for the rest of our lives. We are treating it like most of us are treating our bodies.

Now, from the bed, I hear the sound of the interstate but no coyote. Bean and I are not sleeping. We are staring out the window into the yellow glow of the streetlight with the full moon light mixed in…looking past the giant American flag on the mailbox… and hoping to see something more….

Friday:

Just got back from a long walk with Bean. An hour into our walk, the coyote showed up 15 feet to our right. I immediately sat down this time. The coyote didn’t move. Just stared at us. I got up and we walked a bit….the coyote shadowing us at about 15 feet away, still limping and unable to use the foot, but not seeming to be in as much pain. I stopped again and sat on the ground with Bean. The coyote came closer and curled up in the grass like a puppy. He closed his eyes and slept. I let him rest for quite a while by not moving at all. The mosquitos were so busy eating me and Bean that I think the coyote got to have a good snooze. When the coyote opened his eyes I got up and tried to approach him. If Bean had not been with me, he might have let me get close, but he got up and kept the 15 feet between us. I considered calling animal control for help. Then I realized that they would most likely either trap him to take him “who knows where”…or shoot him. And once I had called them, it would be out of my hands and out of the coyote’s paws. I decided to at least let him have his freedom in the forest preserve.

Our coyote buddy followed us to the highway again and sat and watched us leave. I turned around and watched him over the passing cars on the highway. He watched me just as closely.

Intimacy comes in so many forms. I am missing the coyote already. I know that there is some message in all this….I know that, one day, looking back I will understand more of what I am meant to take away from this powerful connection. For now, it is just another lesson in letting go. I don’t get to fix all the pain in the world. I don’t even get to fix the pain in this one little corner of the world for this one small beautiful being.

After So Long....

2010-08-06T12:11:00.000-07:00

A terrible pipeline explosion tore through Nanjing, China, killing 13 people and injuring 300. News like that has become so commonplace that it’s almost hard to connect and understand the reality for those in that region. The news rarely, if ever, covers the suffering of non-humans.

This monkey saved the puppy from the explosion.

If anyone asks me why I work as a voice for other species instead of just working to help humans, and claims that other species are somehow less worthy than we humans, I want to show them this picture. Most humans would save themselves and get the heck out of there....

These are our forgotten relatives. These caring, feeling, thinking beings whom many of us still think are "things". They want nothing more than their own lives....They want freedom and family and friends and comfort. Just like us.

I have not been able to blog lately because I have been crazy busy with conferences and speaking and leading workshops. In between those, I have not had internet access.

Thanks for waiting patiently for my return.

Untouchable Subjects

2010-06-23T09:14:00.000-07:00

There are things that you just don't talk about with other people, because you don't want to offend them or you just know they don't want to go there....untouchable subjects. Sometimes it is to avoid conflict. Some untouchable subjects are permanently untouchable, almost like cultural taboos. Others are temporary untouchable subjects that eventually get talked about.
And there are things you just don't want to talk to others about because you don't want to feel the emotions that go with it. These are temporary untouchables.
This blog is about three topics that are totally unrelated except for their different flavors of untouchableness.

(My soul mate, Tikvah...You can have more than one soul mate in life and that soul mate is not always a human)

Let me start with why it has taken me a while to visit blogland. I have not wanted to deal with a personal untouchable topic. I did not want to feel the emotions. This untouchable subject is now ok to talk about. I have had people writing and asking me how Tikvah's health is (our old dog who had diabetes). I chose not to write the blog for a while because it seemed terrible to not mention him and too personal and too emotional to talk about him. Now, two weeks after his passing, I can write about him with fewer tears. He went totally blind in a weeks time and was also completely deaf. He was so disoriented that he was walking into the kitchen cabinets thinking they were his dog door. I rescued him at 2 am from a river bank were he was struggling in brush trying to find the path to get back home. His breathing was labored and I knew he was in pain. We chose to let him go. He is now buried next to one of his Maine dog buddies, Paix. I have not written about him because the sadness still feels close to my most vital organ, my heart. He was so loved by so many people....the Buddha dog is now free of pain.

Untouchable subject two:
Commenting on how people raise their children is generally an untouchable subject unless they are doing something that is against the law. So much damage is done to innocent children that falls within the legal realms of parenting. I recently visited two high-powered wealthy professional friends who have two little girls. One child is treated like a goddess and given everything she wants. She has a major earthshaking mind-numbing screaming tantrum every 10 minutes or so when she thinks things aren't going her way. The other child is a brilliant quiet little caretaker who is pretty much fearless. She is mostly ignored in the family. The parents continuously tell the little indulged goddess child that they love her and they call her all kinds of little sweetie lovey dovey nicknames. The other one, the quiet smart little caretaker has no nicknames and is put down for the one very minor fear that she has in life. It was painful to watch the extreme inequality in this family during my days there. I wanted to say something and did not know how to approach it with the parents. After returning home, I sought the advice of many other friends who do and do not have children. I wanted to know what they would do in this situation. 100% of the wise council advice I got was the same: There is nothing you can do. Parents of children and puppies are very defensive about how they raise their little ones and will not take any input. So, for now, I have chosen to not say or do anything. And I feel like I am deserting a little being in need. Not easy for me.

Untouchable subject three:
People's lifestyle choices. I am not saying that I want to tell people what to choose in their life or that I am always comfortable with people giving me their opinions on my choices. I am just saying that there is often a giant elephant walking around in the room who we ignore with even our closest friends. I think that not discussing the elephant effects our honesty and intimacy levels in a big way. We recently stayed with two very old friends. One of the friends has never in all our years as close friends asked me about my work. I know that I am not supposed to bring it up and he never brings it up. It is a sort of unspoken rule. I know all about his work, he knows nothing about mine. I know that my work is threatening to many of his lifestyle choices. It has sort of worked to not talk about it all these years....but I have to wonder if we will ever really be as close as two friends could be. My work is not just work. It is who I am at my core in many ways. Not wanting to know about this work, is not wanting to know much of who I am.
Another version of this elephant in the room is when friends or acquaintances share information with me that is counter to the exact issues I care about deeply (and my work) and we do not say anything about the contrast to what I do each day. Instead of telling the truth, as I see it, I stand there and wonder: "Do they know the reality of what they are saying to me and don't care if it is offensive or do they not see the connections?" But I don't say anything.
A friend was showing me her new purchase this week. A big wool rug made from New Zealand wool that was shipped to India and made into a rug that was then shipped to New York where she purchased it. I knew I was only supposed to ooooh and ahhhh over it. Instead, I pictured every photo and film I have seen about the abuse of sheep in the wool industry in New Zealand and the shipping of the wool in freighters going to India and the people making the rug in India for pennies and the shipping of the rugs to New York. My mind was reeling from the environmental and human and non-human animal costs that brought the rug to her house. We did not talk about anything but how beautiful it was and that she had two more in other parts of the house.
There are times when all of us make purchases that are not the most conscientious, but I think it is important to talk about the realities of our choices with each other.

Another recent example:
A friend keeps making disparaging remarks about vegans when she is with me. She makes broad sweeping statements that clump all vegans into one tidy little box for her. But, like any population group, we vegans are all very different. We range from junk food vegans who care about animals to those who are in it for their health only. I am hurt by her stereotyping us, and yet I don't say anything about how hurtful it is for me when she does this.
While I am not saying that my life is the perfect example of no-impact woman, I just don't know why we or I don't talk about the realities of these things. I don't want people to be uncomfortable with us visiting because of what the focus of our work is. I don't want them to feel watched or judged. But I do want honest relationships.
In every communication workshop I give, I encourage people to discuss the reality sitting right there in front of them and the person they are trying to communicate with. We work on non-judgemental ways to do this. Ways of just saying what our personal reality is. But, I realize how often I don't take my own advice.
I often keep things to myself because they are too emotional (like Tikvah dying) or they will cross some cultural taboo (like commenting on how a child is raised) or it will offend someone who is my friend (like the rug scene). We walk around with the thoughts and feelings we are unwilling to share with each other. We all know we do this. We all know that no one really knows the full reality of who we are and we do not know the full reality of who they are. We all have a sort of unspoken agreement about this.
How different would this world be if we spoke our truths? How different would our communities be if we opened up enough to take the chance to express who we really are and what we are really thinking and feeling?

Why I Do What I Do

2010-05-31T06:14:00.001-07:00

I rarely send something to my entire list. Today I am sending out my blog posting to my entire email list.
I have many people in my life who think that the vegan choice is just sort of my little thing I do or the equivalent of my religion or is a popular trend and nothing more. They would not think this if it were me working each day to end violence toward humans. In most human circles, the non-violence education work I do would be considered "more important" if I were working for humans rather than non-humans.
I am sending this out because it is important to not turn our backs on needless violence. It is not to point a finger at anyone or to say that I am a perfect example of non-violence/consistency.
I am not perfect. I have inconsistencies in my life. Like everyone, I do my best with what I know and with the often difficult choices I have to make.
Most people want to help create a less violent and more caring society. Some situations seem overwhelming. How do I personally stop the war in the Middle East? I have no idea. Other situations are totally within our power. How do I personally stop contributing to the war on innocent non-humans? Here the choices are often within our hands and can be acted on immediately.
Some choices are easier than others.
Whether it is ethical to eat dairy or not eat dairy is not one of the more difficult choices in life. It is quite clear that we are causing lifetimes of violence and suffering for the pleasure of a bowl of yogurt or a cheese pizza or a dish of ice cream. Most people do not realize this or do not want to make this connection.

Most people do not want to watch difficult/violent footage. I understand....there are images that I have witnessed that have haunted me for years. And, it is important to not turn away, especially if the industries are ones we choose to support.

I am going over to the meditation center to volunteer today. The center serves dairy. It is accepted in even the most caring circles.
I know that many of my most politically and environmentally conscious friends are going to say that they only get "humane" or "organic" dairy products. Most of them have never visited these dairies. Caring people would not support these farms if they were witness to every step of the process. Even the most "humane" dairy farm has to deal with the by-product of their industry: the male calves. They are slaughtered or sent to a veal facility within a few days because the milk meant for them is destined for ice cream, yogurt, cheese and milk for humans who are beyond the nursing age.
There is no humane way around that or the fact that the mothers are slaughtered while still in the prime of their life and become part of the meat industry.
Eating dairy is a slippery slope. You may start out saying you only support "humane" or "organic" animals products, but when you go out to eat you go ahead and order animal products in your meal without regard for the source.

Please, if you still consume dairy products and decide that you do not want to witness the extremely difficult/violent video attached to this email, there are other, gentler places to get informed.
Buy some Daiya vegan cheese (the best..) and some coconut milk ice cream and make yourself a comfort food snack while reading through the endless vegan educational material on-line. Simple Google: Dairy cruelty

Once you read the material you find, you will be more informed.
What you do with that information is up to you.
I hope you will choose to act on what you see.

http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/05/26/conklin-dairy-farms-animal-abuse-video-goes-viral/

Exactly Len.....Memorial Day As If All Life Mattered

2010-05-28T12:46:00.000-07:00

On May 28, 2010, at 8:17 AM, My friend Len Frenkel wrote:

AN UNTRADITIONAL MEMORIAL DAY

Please allow me to express some ideas about Memorial Day that go beyond the traditional. Of course I honor those men and women who have given their time, their bodies, their lives for the betterment of this country or the salvation of another. I honor those unfortunate innocent civilians caught in the crossfire who have lost their homes, their belongings, their lives.

But I also honor those living things and beings, innocent of any crime, who have also lost their place, lost their right to exist in peace, or lost their lives after brutal treatment by humans. I refer to trees cut down, needlessly; to fish corralled in nets by the zillions, needlessly; to mammals that undergo painful testing, needlessly; to animals in circuses and zoos forced to perform unnatural acts or live in constrained spaces, needlessly; to the billions of chickens, cows, pigs, turkeys, sheep and goats that are confined and brutalized for their short lives so that we can eat them, needlessly.

That’s what my Memorial Day is about, and it is a profoundly sad one. When will humans learn to cohabit with other life forms rather than treat them as property to be used for selfish purposes?

Pet Them, View Them, Feed Them, Fall in Love with Them and Eat Them.....

2010-05-25T10:04:00.001-07:00

WHICH ONE LOOKS LIKE LUNCH?

It is no wonder that human children grow up confused about what constitutes violence and what it means to be compassionate and live our values with consistency........

Here is an ad from the local Quaker e-newsletter:

(I removed the full name and email to give this guy some anonymity)

Roger Y. of River Oak Farm is selling organic Angus beef from cattle he has raised in Micaville. Groups make an order together. He can have 1/2 cut the way a group wants it. People can order with 2,4, 6, or 8 together. The full steer is about 500 lbs. His e-mail is: ay@peoplepc.com. His cell is 208-55**. Small children may come and feed a calf.

And this from the Christian Science Monitor:

Hey kids, wanna go to the zoo today and look at the crocodiles? And then maybe eat one? The Beijing Zoo puts the same animals on its restaurant menu as it keeps behind bars. Crocodile, kangaroo, antelope, and hippopotamus are among the species that visitors can go the zoo to admire on the hoof, and then savor at lunch – steamed, braised, or roasted – at the Bin Feng Tang restaurant. This has been going on for years, according to the restaurant’s manager, who seemed surprised that a newspaper article this week about her establishment should cause a stir on the Chinese Internet. The news has not gone down well. “How would you feel, watching animals imprisoned in a limited space while eating their siblings?” asked Zheng Yuanjie, a well-known author, on his blog. The zoo restaurant apparently has the requisite license from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Landscape and Forestry (which would presumably prefer to see crocodiles and hippos in a soup than in their landscapes) and is quite legal because none of the species on the menu is endangered. Nor, the restaurant insists, do any of the animals come from the zoo’s own enclosures. Still, the restaurant’s menu makes some people wonder. “The zoo is where we teach children to be nice to animals,” Qin Xiaona, head of the Capital Animal Welfare Association told the daily “Global Times.” “How can we do this after eating them?”

*Christian Science Monitor
The original link:
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Global-News/2010/0520/Beijing-Zoo-lets-visitors-admire-eat-wildlife

Forks Over Knives - Movie Trailer

2010-05-25T08:31:00.000-07:00

I cannot wait to see this film...check out the trailer....fantastic! Two of my favorite people coming together for this film!

Don't Cut Down That Tree!

2010-05-23T12:39:00.000-07:00

My friend Daniel Seifert bought my little log cabin in western Wisconsin some years back. He totally gets that the land belongs to the wildlife and he is a visitor.

Today he emailed me:

"i've been threatening to cut this tree down for years

these little guys must've been the reason i haven't"

And these are the photos he took and attached to the email:

Simple Food

2010-05-22T15:02:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the most simple foods are the BEST.
An apple eaten right off the tree in the autumn. A mango that drips juice down your chin. Greens munched while gardening. A handful of blueberries picked on the side of a hill overlooking the ocean.
Here is today's favorite. Not as simple as raw foods, but this is total comfort food delight.

We got some red rice at the market.
I cooked up red rice. I cooked up garbanzo beans that I had soaked overnight.
I put these together with umeboshi vinegar (plum vinegar) and olive oil.
I added some chopped celery.
Heaven.
Don't bother asking me for measurements......use your intuition and enjoy.

Joyful Pandas and Brilliant Bees....

2010-05-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

I am working on my book that includes lots of stories of animal intelligence. It is pretty shocking that most humans still think that we are the intelligent species and other species are just sort of animal machines without feelings, thoughts, desires, language, etc. I was reading about animals reveling in freedom. in the book When Elephants Weep. I read this book when it first came out and just pulled it out to re-read some sections today. If you haven't read this book, you are missing out.

Zookeepers, scientists who keep animals in cages in labs and others who make a living from captive animals, usually say/think that the animals just want food and a comfortable place to be, but do not care if they have freedom. In the book there is a story of a two-year old panda at a Chinese breeding center who lives in a dark cage. When she was given a chance to go into an outdoor enclosure, she ran out into the outdoor space, trotted up a hill and again and again somersaulted down the hill. The scientist observing the panda said that she exploded with joy.

It is obvious that zoo animals want more than just food and a roof over their head when they try to escape time and time again.

What is less obvious, and most scientists will argue against, is that all species want the ability to control their own destiny. One study with mice first proved that they had preferences. When given a dimmer switch to control their own lighting, they would turn down very bright lights to a more comfortable level. When left alone they would adjust the lights to their own preference. The mice would also often choose the opposite of the scientist's choice. If he turned the lights on bright, they would darken them and if he turned them off completely they would turn them on very bright. If this same scientist disturbed the sleeping mice they would come out of their nesting boxes and immediately return to their cozy spot. But if he put them back into the nesting boxes, they would come back out immediately and would not stay in no matter now many times he put them back in. This and other studies have shown that they (and other species) care more about choice than comfort.

There is a division in the animal rights/animal welfare community. Some animal rights groups are joining in the fight for "better conditions" for farmed animals. This is a welfare issue, not a rights issue. While I would be happy if the animals we keep captive had better lives, my job, and the job of all animal rights activists is to work for the abolition of this type of slavery. The backlash of the new "happy meat" products is that many people are going back to eating meat and dairy who had once boycotted it. The reality is that there is no such thing as humane slaughter. There is no such thing as happy meat. The animals are all killed before they are old or sick. And even those farms calling themselves "organic" "humane" or "free-range" include practices that no peaceful non-violent person would want to support if they saw the reality. (For more information on this issue, go to www.humanemyth.org). My reason for bringing this up is the connection to animals wanting choice more than comfort. Even if the reality was that "humane" farming practices were really humane, this important element would still be absent for the animals. Like slaves getting nicer living quarters and better food, they still do not have free-will.

We know so little about other mammals. We know even less about insects.

There is no way that humans could recognize individual bee's faces. But, bees, sheep, fish and other non-humans have no trouble recognizing human faces and remembering them later.

One study in Australia found that bees could remember human faces even days after they were trained. The scientists would show the bees the very same series of black-and-white photos of faces (the same ones that are often used to test human memory). The bees got sweet rewards for choosing correctly and sour rewards for choosing incorrectly.

Just more proof that we have barely tapped the tip of the iceberg when it comes to understanding our big animal family. what I am sure of is that they can comprehend our language and our culture much more than we can theirs. Just ask your dog or cat.

(For the full bee story, go to: www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s1532832.htm)

Breathing it In

2010-05-17T05:43:00.001-07:00

I know what brings me alive and recharges me. I don’t always choose it, but I know it when I am submerged in it. I also know when something drains me…I can feel it. We arrived in North Carolina about a week ago with my mind haunted by the continuous flow of oil in the gulf. How can every news story on NPR only talk about the loss of tourists and the financial loss to the fisheries? How can it be that we humans still cannot widen our circle of caring to include the other animals in our family? Like an adolescent caught up in their own world and unable to understand that everyone around them has their own desires and pain, the people of the USA focus only on their own puny troubles. Once again we show that we are unable to see the big picture and once again we are slow to see the misery our choices are causing. I can guarantee you that most people in the USA are not thinking that they have anything to do with the oil spill. They cannot see that their choices/actions and the demand for oil are part of the equation. A present time aerial view of the people of the USA will show a large number of them shopping at Walmart, filling their cart with UPOs (Unnecessary Plastic Objects), purchasing their UPO’s, loading the UPO’s into their SUVs and driving the two blocks to their house.

The timing was perfect....with my head filled with haunting images of dead oil covered turtles, JC and I returned to one of our many homes....the beauty and healing of the mountains of North Carolina….I breath deep here and feel all the tension melt from my crazy worried human brain and body. This is the beauty that reminds me why I do the work I do. This is the kind of place that reminds me that all is not lost….

Here it is in pictures….much better than words (all of these were taken on one short walk in Celo):

Our sweet host and friend: Peggy

One of many pink lady slippers

Hasidic :) Yellow Lady Slippers

Spring bamboo shoots (these are about a foot tall and 5 inches across

JC and Bean in the pond

View out our front door (Mt Mitchell is right there in those clouds)

Our little home on wheels

Becky's angelic art mixing with leaves

More of Becky's art

One of Celo's most talented artists and beautiful, inside and out, community members died last year......she was so loved in the community. Here is her gravestone in the Celo burial spot in the woods...

And this gravestone says it all...

Start All Peace

2010-05-03T14:02:00.000-07:00

Dairy cows have their babies stolen from them so humans can consume their milk. They become meat at a young age and their male calves become veal or meat. This is true of all dairy farms....Those calling themselves humane and organic are also guilty of this as part of their practices.

I was asked to speak at the Athens Human Rights Festival this past weekend. The big banner on the stage inspired me. The banner read: STOP ALL WARS. When I saw that sign I realized that this is probably not very empowering for people. It is overwhelming. It is not tangible. I imagined people looking at that and thinking, “How can I, one person, stop all wars? I have no idea how to do that. It is out of my hands.” I talked about taking the words on that banner and just switching a few of them to their opposite to empower ourselves. Rather than STOP ALL WARS, I asked people to change the word stop and the word wars to their opposite. It then becomes START ALL PEACE. Now that is something we can all do. Right now. With our daily actions. ALL Peace really means ALL Peace. Not just some peace for some beings. We humans are slowly evolving and including all people in our circle of compassion...even those who historically were outside of our circle of caring. The majority of us now accept that children, women and all races are deserving of basic rights like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It was not always this way. We had to evolve to this place of caring.

Some of us have been able to take this circle of compassion even further to include all species. We have redefined the word “other” to include all beings and the earth herself. Do unto others as you would have them do to you, the golden rule, takes on a new meaning when we let ourselves re-define others to be more inclusive. We humans are very slow learners. Other species can take in new information and adapt much quicker than we can.

I asked the people at the human rights festival to raise their hand if they would be willing to change a daily action/choice of theirs if they knew this choice was causing needless suffering/oppression to others. Everyone raised their hand. They easily raised their hand again when I asked if this would apply to buying items produced with sweatshop labor. This is not an easy choice in a world of cheap goods made by slaves and sweatshop workers. But they easily raised their hands because they know this is the most compassionate thing to do. I do not know how many took it to heart.

Then I talked about some of the needless suffering/oppression in animal agriculture. With a broader definition of “other” they would have to change many daily habits if they were being honest when I asked them the first question, “Would you change a daily action/choice if you knew this choice was causing needless suffering/oppression to others?”

The people in the crowd who were enjoying ice cream or hamburgers or sour cream laden burritos raised their hands to the question, but may not have made a connection to what was in their other hand. We do what we can when we are ready to act. We act when we are able to take in the new information. When does our compassion override our own selfish desires? I grapple with it myself today as I selfishly want to keep Tikvah alive and feed him meat from other suffering beings.

Start All Peace….not just some Peace...ALL Peace. It isn’t always easy. The choices are not always easy. Our dollars are our votes. Each time we spend money on something we are saying to the company producing the goods “keep doing what you are doing.”

Ethical consumerism has to be a strong conscious choice that we help each other make. It is easy for me to buy coconut ice cream and eat a vegan diet….That is a no brainer for me. It is not so easy to sort out the decisions around a family member I want to be with for many more years. We all cause some harm in the world.....but, how do we cause the least harm we can?
Zoe Weil, a wonderful teacher and author teaches MOGO (Most Good) workshops and has written a MOGO book.

Even when it is not so black and white, we can try to make decisions that do the most good and least harm. We can start with the easy, obvious choices and move on to the more difficult ones...it is that simple. We can start right now.

Better Than TV

2010-05-03T13:44:00.001-07:00

Maybe it will help my mood if I write about tool use in the dung beetle world…… A beautiful dung beetle let me witness his smarts. Please, share this story with any of the less experienced humans who think humans are intelligent and other species are just “things”.

I was coming back from a run with our younger dog, Bean. I stopped and watched a dung beetle as he was surveying a pile of poo. It had rained the day before, so it wasn’t a dung beetles favorite poo package. They like a large chunk they can burrow under and carry on their backs. This little guy tried that method, but the crumbly dung kept falling off. He tried this a few times and then walked about two feet to a dry oak leaf and pushed it back toward the dung. Then he loaded the dry leaf with a high pile of dung. He was using his head like a snow shovel and piling the dung on load by load. He then did a circle around it and checked out all the sides. It must have met his approval, because he then started burrowing under the leaf. Once under the leaf, he lifted the whole load on his back and carried it away with his new fangled “backpack”. From my birdseye view, it just looked like a leaf with poo moving along the path. Who needs TV with a show like that?

Plant Peace Daily

Blogs Everywhere!

Bending Toward Justice

To “V” or Not to “V”

The Good in Us All

To V or Not to V

To V or Not to V

My Blogs now on Happy Cow

The HUMANS are out there! Stay home for your own safety!

The Unimaginable

With Liberty and Justic for ALL

Balance, It’s All About Balance

Cow Love

Do You Feel Like Giving Up?

Three Lucky Dogs

Vegan Tzatziki Heaven

Dove Inspiration

Old Primate Super Healing!

RVegans Stole My Blog Time!

This Flag is My Flag, This Flag is Your Flag

No Time To Spare Raw Potluck Hit!

Slowing Down and Watching the Insects

Earthquakes.....Unrelated?

"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT!"

Eat Your Greens!

Our Primate Relatives....

The USA's Health I Don't Care System (HIDCS)

Another Plant Peace Daily Contest!

Slaves Make a Wonderful Gift....?

Roger Fouts and Booee

Canines to Love, Canines to Kill

Do You See What I See?

WHAT DO YOU EAT?

First Ever Plant Peace Daily Contest!

Move to Bolivia to be a Locavore?

Bovines and Bees

Another Wavelength

OY

Wheel of Misfortune

Blow Away That Symbol of Peace!

Share

Share on:

Add a message:

Share an album slideshow (close advanced options)

1. Choose where to share this image:

Choose your album password

Share a link to the album:

Or

Embed album slideshow:

(close advanced options)

Choose your album password

The Bliss of Ignorance

Two Days of Chama Healing

Urban Coyote

After So Long....

Untouchable Subjects

Why I Do What I Do

Exactly Len.....Memorial Day As If All Life Mattered

Pet Them, View Them, Feed Them, Fall in Love with Them and Eat Them.....

Forks Over Knives - Movie Trailer

Don't Cut Down That Tree!

Simple Food

Joyful Pandas and Brilliant Bees....

Breathing it In

Start All Peace

Better Than TV