Archive for the ‘Veganism’ Category

Puppies, 4Chan & Chicks

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Less than a month after the people at 4Chan discovered the identity of the “cat bin lady”, they are going after a girl who tossed a bucket full of puppies into a river.

http://gawker.com/5626105/4chan-on-the-hunt-for-puppy+throwing-girl

A new internet outrage against animal abusers is bubbling. The director of “Armageddon” and “Transformers” is even offering a $50K award:

http://www.ecorazzi.com/2010/09/01/michael-bay-offers-50k-reward-for-capture-of-puppy-throwing-girl

And it looks like the two people involved with the online video are about to get busted:

Faced with threats from 4chan, a person identifying himself as the girl’s brother asked for help on the forum section of Croatian gaming site HCL.hr, arguing that these were stray puppies and that they had to do it to protect their health.

http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/after-cat-in-bin-woman-puppythrowing-girl-sparks-online-outrage-20100901-14l3g.html

This girl could have put a little work in to get veterinary care and found homes for those puppies. Even if she could not, the girl did not have to have herself filmed killing the puppies, nor did her brother have to put the film up on the internet. So, I think it is a good thing 4Chan went after them and is causing an outrage. Putting up videos of cruelty should be something that is shamed.

How do you deal with these people though?

You can’t throw them away. It is also fairly uncommon for people to admit they are wrong and become compassionate after having many, many people express hostility at them.

I’ve never been cruel to animals, but I have been in a room full of people censuring me. It was hard to filter out their anger and consider their points objectively. At all. I witnessed a number of people in the same situation who only became hostile as a result and who did not change.

So, how do you teach a person who did something negative, not to be negative anymore?

Again, I think the internet hostility over the “cat bin lady” and now the “puppy tossing girl” is a good thing. It is drawing a much needed line.

However, there is an element of hypocrisy going on.

The girl tossed the puppies away to kill them. The puppies unwanted and with no perceived value.

What about other animals that are unwanted and with no perceived value?

Most people take part in a similar throwing out of animals every day by buying eggs. Male chicks, which have no value to the egg industry are literally thrown out the way these puppies were thrown out:

I don’t mean any offense to anyone. I used to eat eggs myself and I don’t think I am better than anyone else. I’m just trying to start a discussion and communicate what may be a new idea to some people.

Please, if you view the content of one link, please view all of them.

Thanks.

** Update **

Police have taken the girl into custody

Not Original: Carnist Bingo

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

It has been over 30 years since I went vegetarian. Aside from a deviant period of about a year and a half in college I have been one all of this time. I have been a vegan for about over 15 years.

During that time I have met some wonderful people who were carnists. I have also met plenty of people who, upon simply meeting me, have given me what they thought were original “witticisms” ,

I’m not the only person who has had this experience, as you can see from the internet classic “Defensive Omnivore Bingo” pictured below, followed up by the more modern sequel.

If you are using Firefox ( and you know you should be :) ) you can make the text larger by holding down your Ctrl key and pressing your ‘+’ key. Doing the same but pressing the ‘-’ will return the text to normal size.

Enjoy!

… and …

Vegan With A Side Of Beef

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

I enjoyed reading “Vegan diet is appealing, but so is a hamburger”. It seems like most of the time either a person eats a vegan diet or that a person is a carnist who is hostile towards the idea of a vegan diet, hostile towards vegans and who has bizarre beliefs about nutrition that make you wonder if the person just stepped out of a time machine from the Middle Ages.

Bill Ervolino’s article is uncommon in that he is a carnist who has no particular problem with vegan diets or vegans. He is informed, but somewhere in the middle. His article is light hearted and funny without being offensive to anyone.

I think the existence of this article reflects an evolution of veganism. First there were articles where the writers wondered what the hell it was or that warned people about the dangers of it. Then came writers, who like I wrote, are either all for it or are all against it. Now, comes this article that seems to show that veganism is becoming part of our society ( or at least starting too ) enough to be recognized without being pigeonholed……at least by everyone.

I also enjoyed that fact that Ervolino is very pro-vegetable, something that most Americans, even vegans are not.

It is short, funny and belies a decent, informed attitude towards veganism. I recommend it.

“Vegan diet is appealing, but so is a hamburger”.