VEGAN SANCTUARY

Linking a Revolution

2011-03-31T20:26:00.000-07:00

Besides going vegan, volunteering one's time at Animal Acres is one of the best ways to help farmed animals.

And when someone volunteers at a farmed sanctuary like Animal Acres they are directly helping animals that have been rescued from the fate of being another countless victim of the meat, dairy and egg industry. However, there's also another way of volunteering one's time that can help save countless farmed animals lives too and it's nearly as easy as just turning on your computer.

From Your Computer Comes A Vegan World

Social activism creates change in the world when people communicate with one another and the ideas behind that activism spread within a community, then beyond. When one human empowers another to make the connection from, what they sense is true about the world in their heart, to doing the right thing in their lives.

When people volunteer to make a difference in the world not only do they help those in need but they also empower others to communicate and spread the word. This is what assists getting people involved in the specific cause as well.

This is what effective activism is all about. Not telling people what to do...but encouraging them by example and engaging them to see for themselves what is really happening in society.

Great activists change the world by laying down the foundation for other people to make the connections to other people and so forth and so on. This is so much different and extremely more successful than demanding or commanding that people change.

Empowering others to see for themselves is how revolutions start and today it's actually easier than ever.

We see this type of foundation for change happening right now before our eyes with the uprisings in the Middle East.

Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, cell phones etc are playing the main role in keeping the momentum continuing for the usually voiceless masses by making communication simple and by exposing the oppression to the world.... in real time.

Animal activists have this same power right now. The power to connect to other potential future vegans by using the Internet to be a very effective uncensored news agency and a revealer of oppression, cruelty and truth.

We have the opportunity now to spread the word so to speak, by showing the images of oppression and violence. When we share the videos that reveal the reality of how animals are violently turned from living, feeling beings into unnecessary food items we make that unjust universe known.

We live in a time that no matter how hard the animal killing industries try they can no longer censor the images and reality of where our animal food comes from. The lies, myths and walls that have been erected to specifically prevent people from seeing for themselves the misery, death and pain they actually cause when they themselves buy animal products... are now disappearing.

Even though bills are being passed

as this post is written to outlaw filming undercover video in businesses that kill animals for food products the censorship is slowly however, coming to an end because we all now possess the power of the internet at our finger tips.

It's now up to each and every vegan activist to volunteer our time in sharing the images of truth with the rest of our social network. The videos available online now are some of the most important tools we have in changing the world for the animals.

Yet, it is impossible to change the world without taking action.

The non human animals need your volunteer efforts now.. to paste that video link in an email, tweet it to a twitter, or link it on that "friends" Facebook page.

This is why people volunteer in the first place. They want to make a difference.

If we do nothing at all the world remains a cruel and more hopeless place where apathy becomes the actual camouflage that maintains the cover for those who continue to abuse and exploit.

We can easily see in politics here in the US as well as throughout the world that those who are overwhelmed by greed, selfishness and hate need to maintain their power with lies, fear and violence.

We live in a society where extreme violence toward non human animals is completely accepted because those who might actually care, or who might demand change or who might fight the powers that be are kept ignorant of how their meat and dairy is created.

We now have the opportunity to challenge a violent system of oppression with a simple few clicks from our computers. It is we animal rights advocates who now have the power to awaken the world to a possible future without so much ignorance and so much killing.

By simply volunteering a few minutes of your life to posting this video here on the pages of your social network contacts, your twitter followers or email contacts we can slowly destroy a world built on speciesism and controlled through ignorance.

I can tell you now for a fact that these videos are having an effect and are waking people up and changing their lives.

Living vegan not only entails a life that refrains from causing harm to others but also includes recognizing that we can change the world by educating other humans of what the consequences are when they eat or wear animal products.

There is no such thing as humane meat.

Be a sanctuary for others, go vegan and share a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-xLc0C8u9Y

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUkHkyy4uqw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWVu1Pnc-iQ

Marley Goldman

2010-11-29T10:13:00.000-08:00

A conversation with the future of Animal Rights.

Nine year old animal activist and vegan Marley Goldman with a photo of the turkey

she adopted at Animal Acres.

Just nearing her 4th birthday Marley Goldman was eating at a restaurant with her father Gregg Goldman when she asked him a simple question.

"Dada, how come the food that you're eating has the same name as the bird?"

Her father responded by explaining to Marley who was waiting enthusiastically for her answer as she loved to learn everything she could about the world around her, that the names were in fact the same because they were both the same thing. That chicken the food in which he was eating was the same as chicken the bird.

This conversation would eventually lead Marley only a few months later and just 4 years old at the time, to explain to her father,

"if you eat the chicken you hurt the chicken."

Marley knew that her father was a kind and gentle man and would never want to hurt anyone.

Marley also knew that it was up to her now to make it clear, not just to her father but to all of the other human animals, as she liked to call them, that eating animals was not the best or the correct thing to do.

That eating a hamburger or chicken was really about taking someone's life away.

Reality T-Shirt designed by 4 year old Marley Goldman

And so begins a young activists goal to educate the humans around her about where their food with a face actually comes from.

If you were to ask Marley today about eating animals she would point out to you in a soft, kind, passionate, non judgmental manner that a lot of what people call food are actually living creatures with feelings who are just like you and I.

We've all asked ourselves the question in one way or another how it is that some people can feel a much deeper empathy than others. There is an adaptive evolutionary reason why people would want to be kind to their own flesh and blood so to speak.

Yet what makes some people care about complete strangers or care about others such as non human animals who are so different? What is the intuition or mechanism that compels some people to become concerned with the plight of those who cannot defend themselves and take it on with a commitment as if their own life depended on it?

Most, but not all of what we believe about the world comes from what we are taught as children. Children's brains are like sponges absorbing up information like liquid and holding onto it until education, experience or one's culture allows for some of that information to be expelled back out. Yet most of what we learn when we are young stays with us forever.

The behavior of babies is now showing scientists that we all have kindness and empathy built in yet extending it to others who are different from us takes much more work and is a very rare quality.

Why and how can some children extend their moral concerns and feelings towards non human animals and some never feel anything? The answer does not lie simply in just how children are raised and what they are taught by their parents, etc. For instance two siblings born and raised in the same house can end up with completely different views of the way the world should be.

As animal activists and advocates for living vegan these are the questions we need to ask ourselves and attempt to find answers. We need to create the possibilities that we may reach those humans who might actually change their ways.

Nine year old Marley Goldman is a person who when you meet her, you will be changed.

Talking with Marley you can begin to feel more hope for the future of animal rights and veganism than just about anything imaginable.

Marley is an incredible example of someone who has tapped into everything that makes the world a better place. Beside being an example of our species moral progress Marley is the perfect explanation from where expanded empathy and kindness come from. Just meet her.

Marley and Me

Philip:

How long have you been an animal rights person?

Marley:

9 years.

Philip:

And you're only 9 now? That's pretty incredible. So please tell us how old you were when you actually thought or felt something about animals.

Marley:

Well, the biggest first time was when I was two and a half and I got my first kitten. I went to an animal adoption place and we adopted her. That was the first interaction I had with an animal that I can remember.

Philip:

How old were you when you became vegan?

Marley:

I had never eaten meat before.

Philip:

When you say you never ate meat do you mean you never ate meat since you were born? Was this because of your parents...I mean did you make this decision on your own? Usually babies eat what their parents feed them.

Marley:

Well, I was being fed whatever they would give me but it was vegan so I just never wanted to eat meat.

Philip:

Oh OK so your parents were already vegan?

Marley:

My mom was.

Philip:

So tell us the first time when you realized you were vegan or what that actually meant to you?

Marley:

The first time I kind of really knew about it was when I was around one and a half but I didn't know it was called vegan I just knew I wasn't eating animals. I can't really remember perfectly when I knew what it meant but probably the same time I was old enough to make my own decisions about what I could eat and that was around 3.

Philip:

So you knew what the word vegan meant when you were 3?

Marley:

Well, my mom described it, what it meant.

Philip:

So did you notice other people eating animals?

Marley:

Well, I didn't know that it was animals they were eating but I would ask "what is that?" and people would tell me what it was.

Philip:

I heard a story from your father that you asked him why it was that he was eating something that had the same name as the animal called chicken?

Marley:

Yes I asked him at a restaurant why is that food called the same thing as the bird? And he said well, it is the bird.

Philip:

What is it about animals that you love so much and have such a connection with that you didn't and still don't want to eat them?

Marley:

Well, they are just like humans. They are living creatures and they deserve to be treated just like us and treated with equal rights like we treat humans. Humans are animals. A lot of people think like there are humans and animals but everyone is an animal basically.

Philip:

So Marley tell us what it's like to be 9 years old and so enlightened, to be so wise about all of this and also if you can tell us what other kids your age think about all of this.

Marley:

Some of them just don't understand it or pay attention to it but a lot of my close friends are trying vegan or going vegan or at least vegetarian. My friend Josh who is one year older than me and is the hard core meat guy but he adopted a turkey from animal acres after I brought him here and is now trying to go vegan. One of my other friends she is kind of a mainstream vegan now. She doesn't eat a lot of healthy stuff but won't eat meat now.

A lot of kids are curious but a lot of kids don't really care that I don't eat animals.

Philip:

When was the first time you came up to Animal Acres?

Marley:

I think I was about four when I first came here. And then I had my 5th birthday party here.

Philip:

Was that your idea when you were 5 to have your birthday party at Animal Acres?

Marley:

Yes, and I designed the card with a little red barn and I had about 20 people.

Philip:

I hear you also design your own protest signs?

Marley:

Well, I just think about the cause and write about how it should be stopped. Mostly animal rights but also an anti war protest too. I went to the dolphin protest against killing dolphins in Taiji. We stood on the side of the road with our signs and just spread our message against killing. I went to Seaworld once years ago and left after 3 minutes. I didn't like it.

Philip:

When you meet people your own age what do you tell them about being vegan?

Marley:

I tell them to ask their parents and then come to Animal Acres. (Laughs)

Philip:

Nice. Do you think Animal Acres can change people who eat animals and get them to think twice about them as just food?

Marley:

Yes, I do. When people see the animals they consider food they see something different. People just think of food as a hamburger but they have never stared a cow in the eyes. Or Turkeys and chickens who you think of as meat, eggs or soup but they are creatures who are alive and have feelings.

People can make there own decisions, yes, but they should at least know what they are eating.

Philip:

So you're a vegan for ethical reasons not just for health or the environment?

Marley:

Well, it is an environment thing and a health thing but it's that animals are raised in a place that is not natural for them and its hurting peoples health and the animals health. Everyone.

Philip:

So tell us about the future. Do you see kids going vegan and what's your feeling about the future and people being vegan? Do you see a vegan future?

Marley:

Yes. When kids are younger and before they get too old they can change before meat is the only thing they know. But the problem is that its the parents who are feeding the kids this way.

I've taken 3 people here to Animal Acres and its changed them.

Philip:

What do you see as your future in being vegan?

Marley:

Well, I hope I can help someone. People and animals.

Philip:

Is there anything else you want to say to people who will be reading this?

Marley:

Yes, I want to say that being vegan is easier than it is eating meat and animals. It's more compassionate and you'll feel better.

Philip:

Why do you think people feel it's so difficult to live vegan?

Marley:

Because it's change from what they are used to. They think that its something so alien to them that its just not done.

Change can come about in many ways.

Marley was so inspired by Karen Dawn's video post about rescuing two turkeys that she wants to do that next year at her house. Marley wants to now adopt two turkeys about a week or so before thanksgiving and invite people over for an afternoon tea with the turkeys. Marley realizes this gives people enough lead time to change their dining plans and decide not to eat turkey!

There is clearly a way despite the myths, lies and false beliefs that people are indoctrinated with by society regarding non human animals, that some humans can find enough compassion, kindness and truth in themselves to transcend it all. Some people are able to call attention to this way by example of who they are. Some people are equipped with enough spirit, love and wisdom that their existence reveals a fragment of proof that we can actually witness a phase of human evolution happening right in front of our eyes.

Marley with a new friend at Animal Acres.

Help Marley change the world into a sanctuary for all animals.

Be a sanctuary,

Go vegan

*A very important thank you to Gail and Gregg Goldman for making the world a better place for everyone.

Thankful, Grateful....Mindful

2010-11-23T23:32:00.000-08:00

7 Suggestions On How To Integrate Being Mindful With

Living Vegan

It's always the perfect time to be thankful, grateful and mindful about the lives we live.

This is the time of year however when we Americans supposedly take time out to reflect on what it is specifically we have to be thankful about.

Rather than write about the usual hypocritical aspects of what Americans now unashamedly call Turkey day I think it's rather important to notice the relationship between being thankful, grateful and mindful with living vegan.

Living vegan is easy. It's very simple. It's not born from some magnificent sacrifice and there is really nothing that remarkable about it. The only thing remarkable or special in regard to being vegan is when we realize that 99% of our neighbors are not vegan.

Living vegan is not a diet. It's not a fashion or lifestyle choice either.

Being vegan is about opening our hearts and minds and about expanding our moral concerns to everyone.

Yes, everyone.

So with the above idea in mind (no pun intended, yet definitely noticed) during this time of year we can look at what it means to integrate and incorporate being mindful into our daily lives as vegans.

Since being thankful and grateful fall under the umbrella of being mindful we'll focus (no pun intended again but noticed once more) on bringing mindfulness to living vegan.

Being mindful or mindfulness comes directly from the teaching of Buddha himself and has become a main part of the Buddhist tradition.

Being mindful simply is about being purposefully aware.

Being mindful is about noticing what we are experiencing and what our responses might be to that experience. Being mindful is about contemplation and focusing ones attention.

While there are certain activities involved with being mindful it is not a technique but rather a way of being.

It's not about doing something but rather about connecting and being aware.

Mindfulness is a subtle activity and you are in some ways...doing it right now while reading this.

There is something real and extremely beneficial to be said about deliberately transforming our moment to moment experience of the world and becoming absorbed in the present moment.

Mindfulness can feel like the ah ha moment we can sometimes experience.

In that brief flash of insight we notice our own attention being focused and we're automatically absorbed in the ...what's happening now moment.

When we have insight like this it really feels as if time is slowing down. This is because when we're truly focused on something time disappears.

We all know the saying that a watched pot never boils. This is because when we're focused on the water in the pot our perception of time changes because we're being mindful to the situation. That is the beauty in being focused and in deliberately paying close attention to what is important.

This is where the practice of mindfulness can benefit our living vegan.

Being mindful is about paying attention and attempting to understand our own minds. This can help lead to self knowledge of who we are, why we are drawn to living vegan and why the rights of non human animals matters to us.

Being mindful helps us see the big picture of our being vegan. To discover what's important and what's not.

Mindfulness is one-third attention training, one-third being focused on a very important aspect of who we are and one-third of everything else.

OK, I made that very last bit up about mindfulness but it sounded very Zen and actually made sense. This is really because being mindful is a very open and simple concept.

Anyway...

Here are 7 suggestions on how to bring mindfulness into being and living vegan.

These are not rules or techniques and certainly not a to do list but rather some simple ways to incorporate mindfulness into your own veganism.

1. Self Inquiry. Self reflection with some type of inner growth work.

Learning about who we are through introspection.

Asking ourselves important questions and attempting to find the answers.

Personally connecting to what it is that drives or draws us to living vegan.

Being vegan is something which takes place and happens within us.

Becoming vegan is not something that is an external something or that takes place outside of us. It happens inside and that is where we begin to investigate as well.

2. Study.

Read, listen, research. There are so many important books, websites, podcasts and other resources from which we can learn everything we need to know about animal rights and living vegan.

Studying is about understanding the theories behind what we feel so that we might know which action to take.

Studying is important so we can have a more reflective attitude toward being vegan.

We all should know the difference between an abolitionist vegan and an animal liberationist vegan.

And those are just the A's.

Not everything is found in books however, so this can also include studying nature or our own relationships with others in regard to our veganism.

This is about connecting the dots, growing in wisdom and understanding the principles about being vegan.

3. Personal, mindful practice.

Finding something that takes you beyond yourself yet where you can also become mindful about being vegan and contemplate it. This can be anything from practicing meditation, practicing yoga, hiking, running or even gardening.

Something where you can connect your thoughts about being vegan to an activity and then connect with it on a regular basis.

This is where you can notice the connection to moving, breathing and being alive. This is where you make the connection that we animals are all the same. We move, we breath, we feel.

4. Finding a teacher.

Looking for guidance and direction from someone. Someone who can give us advice, who we can learn from and who we have a connection with.

The truth is we can learn from everyone and in a very real sense we can make everyone we meet into our teacher.

The world and our own perception of the world becomes a very different place when we treat everyone as if they were our teacher.

We can learn a lot about being vegan from people who are not vegan.

We can learn incredible truths about compassion and kindness from people who seem cruel and who mention that they're not concerned about the lives or well being of other animals.

We can discover new aspects about ourselves when we see how others shut down at the mention of our veganism. We can also learn from others how and where we close up or shut down too.

This is easily noticed for example when we walk directly past a homeless human and we fail to stop and offer help.

5. Community.

Humans are social animals and we need to be with others.

It's very important to feel we're part of a community.

That we belong somewhere. That we fit in and connect with others in important ways.

That we share ideals and values with certain other people.

Every major social and political movement throughout history thrived and succeeded by building a community of support and collaboration. A supportive group of other people helps us stay focused on the journey ahead.

Being with other vegans who get us, who think like us can help round off the rough edges that we've built up from living in an animal eating/wearing/exploiting society.

The consequences of not having a community or belonging to a group is alienation.

Feeling cut off from the world can make us believe that we can't fulfill our role or purpose in society.

6. Volunteering/Giving back.

This is compassion in action and the essence of living vegan.

Being a mindful vegan is all about volunteering to help relieve the suffering in the world and to making the world a more peaceful and loving place.

On the outer level it's all about making a difference for others, being generous to others and being connected to our altruistic nature.

It's not about writing a check (although money is always needed when animals are being rescued and need to be cared for).

However, on a more mindful and contemplative level it's about giving without expecting or wanting anything in return.

It's about focusing our attention on dropping the need to be recognized for giving back to others and or for receiving attention from our giving back to help.

So being mindful about giving back might be doing something compassionate or kind without anyone else ever even knowing about it.

7. Being thankful/grateful.

In the context of being mindful it's important to focus on being thankful and grateful.

The world is not a worse place than it was in the past. We have so much to be thankful and grateful for

about being alive today and that we are living vegan.

We have so much cruelty free food to choose from and so much positive vegan culture to become involved with. We need to learn to appreciate our circumstances so that we can become better activists and better advocates for the non human animals.

Living vegan makes a real difference.

Being thankful helps us stay focused on the actual positive aspects that we're doing something that is saving lives.

Every vegan saves approximately 95 farmed animals lives each year.

Being grateful when we are motivated by compassion, kindness and empathy.

Being thankful however does not mean we don't realize and recognize that it's far worse today for the 55 billion farmed animals being killed for food every year on this planet than it ever has been.

It's not a better time for the animlas raised and slaughtered for food than it was in the past. The same modern technology that makes our lives easier, more efficient is also the cause of so much greater harm and makes life a million times more horrific for the animals, whom we eat, wear or exploit.

Yet as vegans living today the burden is on us to help other humans discover a much more compassionate way of living on this planet we share with our fellow earthlings.

Becoming vegan is the only solution to ending the death and suffering being inflicted on the other animals of the world.

Being mindful on a personal level of what it means to live vegan is such an incredibly important aspect to developing veganism for the rest of humanity.

The implications of not being mindful about our own veganism is that we run the risk of losing focus and losing the power each of us has in helping develop the next phase of human evolution.

That evolution is human veganism.

And it will come about by our all being more mindful together.

Be a mindful living sanctuary to someone else's existence.

Go vegan.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deborah-schoeberlein/teachers-take-a-breath-in_b_768044.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/technology/16brain.html?_r=1&hp

Inner Acres

2010-11-03T23:18:00.000-07:00

The Personal Lessons Learned About Living Vegan

From A Farmed Animal Sanctuary.

I long to accomplish a great and noble task.

But it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.

Helen Keller

(1880-1968)

Cowboy and friend

Now whenever I spend a day at Animal Acres something within me opens up.

It used to be much more common for me that I would experience myself shutting down after being there.

Especially on that 50 minute drive back to Los Angeles where I would seem to focus on the fact that this beautiful safe haven for animals was a bit of a delusion and not the reality for which the vast majority of farmed animals live their lives.

The reality is that there are nearly 12 billion farmed animals killed every year for food in the United States. The reality is that the modern farmed chicken industry today will confine up to a quarter million birds in one building alone. The reality is that an industrial hog producer in America will kill nearly 80,000 animals in one single day. The reality is there are about 400 rescued farmed animals living peacefully at the sanctuary here at Animal Acres.

This massive imbalance of killing and cruelty versus kindness and protection is heart wrenching to say the least. One can't help but feel the weight of this reality bearing down and literally crushing any positive feeling, either about the sanctuary itself or what we as individuals might be able to contribute in helping bring an end to this violent and oppressive injustice our society calls, food production.

Yet now, after the end of each day and after having spent more time with the chosen few non humans at Animal Acres, I leave the sanctuary with more awareness about these thoughts.

I now leave with a much deeper acceptance of this reality and of the positive aspects of living vegan.

It's not just about the obvious connection to the animals and seeing them living happily and in peace. It's not just about recognizing their wisdom, humor, insights and how brilliantly they appear to live in the endless present that makes being around them so perfect and so rewarding. No, that's only a part of it all.

For me now, it's also the understanding that providing sanctuary for even one life matters immensely. Especially to that one life who has been given refuge.

I know this sounds quite obvious but sometimes it's the easily recognized and obvious things that are the big lessons and the ones which hit us the hardest when we seriously acknowledge them for the first time.

When we pause and think about the actions we take everyday for instance to protect our own lives or to increase our own well being we may also recognize that our life too is only just one life and yet worthy of sanctuary.

We do what needs to be done everyday for our own lives and it never seems meaningless or unimportant. So why would it be any less important to save or vastly improve another life?

When someone adopts one dog or one cat from a kill shelter it makes a huge difference to that one animal. It's never an unimportant or insignificant event for the life saved , especially on a personal level for that being.

And in this exact context the lessons I've learned and have found to be so moving about my time at Animal Acres is the awakening to what living vegan means when wrapped up in this specific sentiment.

Living vegan makes a huge difference in this context and understanding it as having meaning and importance has served as new inspiration for making it the foundation of a different reality than the one I used to stand on.

Although I've been living vegan for many years I never fully grasped that my being vegan was something that happened from my inner life and not something that came about from outside myself.

When we are able to discover it and sense it directly from within, it deepens.

When we find those places, those inner acres of meaningful terrain they can be the strongest ground we have to stand on.

This new foundation for me is one constructed on appreciation, contemplation and compassion.

And from this also comes the insight that living vegan is simple and not in any way at all very remarkable.

Being vegan is also not at all even the slightest bit challenging .

This to me, gives veganism a truth that cannot be denied.

In a world that's so brutal and seems so dismal it's not always what we do or who we are that means anything but rather how we connect those experiences to our inner life that can make a difference.

When we stop worrying about how nothing we ever do will actually make a difference and live with the knowledge that everything we do matters, we not only gain strength from our choices but we are able to notice that what we do... we can do quite well.

If in that moment whatever we are doing is actually our main focus and inspiration then everything else disappears and this becomes who we are and gains much more meaning.

Cleaning out one barn stall, carrying one bag of pig feed, feeding an apple to a goat resident all makes a difference.

The importance and meaning of whatever we do comes about when that activity is cared for and respected.

Nearly everything we do are just tiny activities but they can all add up. The same is true for every life that is given sanctuary.

The same is true about living vegan and in remembering the lessons we've learned when we're inspired by what is important to us. It's in those lessons that something important arises and something meaningful can be given back.

Living vegan is the most important step we can take when we open up to the idea of living compassionately.

When something is important and has meaning it's because we found that something in ourselves and then opened up to it.

Be a Sanctuary for someone,

Go vegan.

Click MP3 below to Listen

Someone

2010-10-07T12:37:00.000-07:00

We must begin seeing other animals as equal. Existence makes us all equal.

Alice Walker

Erin and Bruno at Animal Acres

You, are now in front of a computer reading this sentence. You, who clicked on an internet link which brought you to this blog is the same you who feels that you are one thing and the computer is another thing.

You, acknowledge the computer is only a physical object in front of you however, you also know that you are more than just merely a physical object.

You, have moods, feelings, thoughts, memories and expectations.

You, have wants, desires, awareness and personal characteristics that make you, who you are.

You, have a mental life, yet you are also more than just that specific dimension as well.

You, are that one, that place, where the world ignites around you or seems as if it illuminates from inside you and perhaps it feels as if you are noticing all of this from somewhere behind your own eyes.

These impressions, these feelings are merely the firsthand results of your own perceptions of what it is to feel like a self.

Even though none of these feelings, perceptions or experiences are you, (anymore than are your eyes, hands or mouth), the feeling of being a self exists.

And the boundless contents of who you are, are not just sensations, thoughts or experiences but are also made up of your assumptions of who you might be for example in a social context or of your ability to be kind, or of your level of confidence or lack there of.

All of these phenomenon add up to the complex notion that you are more than just a body or brain or even a mind.

You, are someone.

Although there are many mysteries in the universe that are unanswered and you may not actually know why you are a someone... you, do in fact know what it feels like to be someone.

It feels exactly what you are feeling right now.

Alive, aware and conscious in this exact present moment.

In simple terms, this is it.

In a more generous explanation it is the feeling that you are the emissary or the agent of that distinct and unique, internal dimension you might interpret as yourself.

But being someone is even more than just this.

The simple fact that your ideas, emotions and sensations all have a subjective quality is exactly what it means to be someone.

And without a doubt you can experience all of the above without ever even being aware of lets say, your liver, your lungs, your aging process or even your own thoughts.

Very often humans will make the claim that non human animals are unaware of their own lives or not conscious of who they are. But the very fact that we humans are not always self aware or conscious of what our body or brain are doing at any particular moment does not mean we're not a someone with feelings, needs or a life to be cherished and honored.

And all of this, makes you, being a someone, the most important substance in the world.

All of this ability to experience happiness or suffering, in this specific context, makes you the only legitimate sphere of concern as well.

Even when you care or have concern about others it all originates from you being a someone who has those interests with or for others.

Now with all this said we can pause here, reflect and realize we're

(you and I) not the only ones who must be someones.

There are others out there who also have similar qualities of subjectivity and similar components that make being a someone a very relative concept.

We notice that others are someones too on the basis that they declare they are alive and conscious beings through the outward signs they display.

For instance how do we even know that our human friends and family are someones like we are?

We can only infer that they are by relying on their reporting to us that they are.

Sometimes with our family and friends it can even be a bit too much reporting.

However, it's not just in words or language that matter in regard to this but rather a reportability based on external signals that are relayed to us which will make the case, that there is someone there.

This is true for not only humans but non human animals as well.

If you are possibly doubting this premise than you can sincerely take notice that there exists no sanctuaries or shelters for chairs or stones. None of us (in our right minds) have compassion for cars , ipods or sticks. And with this said it should be noticed here and focused on....that when it comes to ethical or moral concerns, being a someone is all that's important.

Being a someone is the only context in which happiness and suffering actually matters. Nothing else in the world has any value other than how it affects the actual or the potential experience of some-body who is a someone.

You are a someone and so is every other being that possesses the qualities of having a subjective component to themselves, even if they are not aware of that actual component.

This element might be what many call sentience or if we are generous to one another, consciousness.

Whatever differences we might have from another someone it is our fundamental similarities of being someone that make us all equal.

When we humans live vegan we become a sanctuary for other someones and our actions reflect exactly what it is that makes the world a better place.

When we choose to be kind and love all others and not just some, we make the world a happier, healthier and more preferable place for every-one.

When we become vegan we save the life of someone else and become a personal sanctuary for the many others who want to live and be loved just like, you.

Be a sanctuary for someone....

Go vegan.

Many of you might remember this song and video which was performed live a the 2010 Animal Acres Gala.

This song was written and recorded by Josh Auer.

The video was created by the fabulous Casey Suchan and Denis Hennelly of

Open Road Films. My sincere gratitude to everyone who made this work come to life.

Click here to watch the video

Josh Auer's music...

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dear-you-ep/id301749161?i=301749261

PATTY SHENKER

2010-09-01T14:21:00.000-07:00

It seems when we ignore that specific urge many of us have to stand up for those who are exploited, persecuted and abused, we not only allow others to suffer, but we allow ourselves to become indifferent to the world we live in.

Apathy is itself a form of self -destruction.

It is also a sure path to a life without meaning.

Relating to, sympathizing, and identifying with the plight of the underdog, has been a dominant theme and a motivating factor in the life and activism of Patty Shenker. No one could ever accuse her of apathy or of not taking action in a cause she felt drawn to.

Ever since she can remember Patty felt that urge to stand up for the powerless, the helpless and the most vulnerable citizens in the world.

Specifically, it was her father's experience in an anti Semitic Russia at the beginning of World War One that would influence her understanding of the horrors of persecution, prejudice and violence.

In 1922 Morris Shenker was only 15 years old when he arrived in America and escaped the wrath aimed against Jews that was spreading throughout Europe. It was her fathers feisty spirit to fight against the odds, to survive and then to defend others that shaped Patty's view of the world and pushed her into action.

That action tended to be more often than not taken on behalf of the non human animals whom she always recognized as the most defenseless of all the oppressed others.

Yet, Patty also saw the other animals as no different than anyone else who were alive in the world and who wanted to live.

The journey to Animal Rights was a process that arrived with frequent epiphanies and episodes of insight. These moments of deep perception moved Patty to transform her life step by step, notch by notch, even before she realized the details of what animal advocacy actually consisted of.

So in 1970, with no guide book or an organized movement to inform her, making the decision not to consume the flesh of other living creatures was much more about working with her own intuition rather than following in someone else's footsteps. Going vegetarian back then was more about being true to herself rather than fighting or rebelling against society, which so many people her age were doing at that time. It was not about some counter culture revolutionary attitude or a reaction against conforming to a cookie cutter like existence of the American dream, but rather Patty's discernment for wanting to live a life of non violence.

For Patty violence was a foe who could be defeated through kindness. And to be victorious meant she would need to start on a personal level by giving up the food choices that were created from violence and who's offspring were suffering and death.

In order to live in a world of non violence a fundamental change had to take place and Patty's instincts told her it would begin on her plate. She would later coin the compelling phrase "Peace Begins On Your Plate" which says it all about the foresight of this particular adopted girl from St Louis, Missouri.

Opening her heart to the animals used as food and including them as members of the moral community also opened her mind and her awareness to the many aspects of what animal rights was really about. Patty soon noticed that an openness to compassion, which driven by a philosophy of non violence often led to solutions and to many wonderful connections in the world of animal advocacy. In the years to follow she would become involved with many of the top animal rights organizations including Farm Sanctuary, the worlds very first farmed animal sanctuary.

A passionate civil and animal rights activist, Patty has been honored over the years for her dedication and commitment to animal causes, garnering awards from Animal Acres, C.A.R.E., the Animal Rights Legal Clinic of Rutgers University, the California Wildlife Center, to name but a few. Patty also owns two properties for the benefit of rescued animals; One that houses Dreamcatchers Wild Horse & Burro Rescue with over 200 rescued horses in northern California and the other which is a dog rescue here in Southern California.

Patty is currently on the board of directors at Animal Acres, the sanctuary she helped start in 2005.

She is married to Douglas Stoll, who teaches in the Los Angeles School system and they have raised their daughter Julia as a vegetarian. Julia just started her senior year at Boston University and has never eaten an animal in her life.

Vegan Sanctuary recently had the honor to talk with Patty Shenker about the process in becoming a long time committed activist over many years, about her living vegan and about the wonderful place called Animal Acres.

________________________________________________________

Philip:

Why did you become an animal activist? What inspired you?

Patty:

I became an animal advocate for several reasons. I grew up caring about animals; and of course I loved them as well. I cannot stand injustice, cruelty and suffering and my father taught me to help the underdog. I think I just took him literally! Becoming an animal advocate for most of us is a process, as it was for me. After becoming vegetarian, it took me years to give up leather and a little more time to become vegan. As proud as I am of being vegetarian this long, I want people to know that the important thing is that one goes vegan eventually.

Of course, the earlier, the better!

My father was and still is my greatest inspiration and role model. But there definitely are other inspiring people who have changed my life; two of them being Lorri Houston and the political artist Sue Coe. Another being Tim Gorski, who busts poachers in Asia among other pro-animal projects.

Philip:

You are one of the people who started Animal Acres and were involved even before it had a name. Can you tell us of your involvement and the history of Animal Acres?

Patty:

Rescuing farm animals with Lorri Houston started a bond between us and which also led to a very close friendship. In about 2004, Lorri and I started dreaming about a farmed animal sanctuary in the LA area. We knew that we would get caring celebrities, lots of media and plenty of compassionate, dedicated animal advocates who would lend their talents to help farmed animals. We certainly understood that there were many animals needing to be rescued and when given sanctuary would then become their own best "ambassadors".

We also knew that we could reach so many more people being close to Los Angeles.

Aaron Leider, my good friend, real estate broker and now an Animal Acres board member, brought Lorri and me to the property and even though it was the first property we looked at we both immediately knew it was our "sanctuary". We looked at several others places but they couldn't compete with the Acton property. The response to our first volunteer efforts was incredible and Animal Acres began with our first rescues, Louie the First, a chicken and then Gandhi, a calf, who unfortunately did not survive.

Animal Acres continues to grow and rescue hundreds of animals and I am so proud to be on the board and to be a Gandhi honoree.

Philip:

There feels like a growing awareness with more and more people wanting to contribute to help make the world a better place, but many people don't know how to get started. As such a longtime activist, what words of encouragement would you offer to other activists?

Patty:

I am not that optimistic any more. I think that's for the young- and for certain type of personalities. But I do have to admit that I've seen huge changes for animals in the forty years since I became a vegetarian so we must be doing something right. Back then, just being a veggie, I was seen as a freak; now, it's quite accepted and is actually seen by many to be a health and a environmental necessity. The United Nations has even come out with a report that a shift towards a vegan diet is vital to save the world from hunger, poverty and the worst impacts of climate change. This is incredible but, just like the zoo issue, too many people will ignore the facts with their short-sightedness and arrogance. They'll just say "I can eat whatever I want" or repeat the brainwashed mantra of lies that the human body needs milk & meat or that global warming is some kind of liberal trick.

Still, the fact that there is a growing consciousness about animals for many and there are some improvements for these abused, suffering beings is another wonderful step forward in our evolution toward a kinder world. I think every social issue makes incremental progress and our movement is no different. I truly believe that, whenever and wherever we confront and stop any form of cruelty, whether to humans or animals, we are making the world a better place.

Philip:

Can you please share with us about Billy the elephant and you're involvement with his plight as well?

Patty:

Some children can't stand to see animals in zoos and circuses, I was one of them.

The fact that elephants suffer physically, psychologically and die at a much younger age in captivity but it all became clear to me that confining them for entertainment purposes was morally wrong and had nothing to do with conservation. I had to get involved in the fight against their captivity and to fight against the zoo industry's lies and distortions to keep the public's support. We were able to get Ruby to PAWS Sanctuary (she didn't fit in the zoo's plans as she cannot breed anymore),

Gita died at the zoo, only days after Betty White and the zoo told the public that she was fine. She also lay suffering for over 12 hours before she was attended to and finally died. We were unable to convince LA City Council to stop the $45 million dollar "Pachyderm Forest" with plans to bring in other elephants & start a breeding program. We're still hoping to stop these plans and get Billy, the lone, Asian bull elephant at the LA Zoo to the northern California sanctuary, PAWS, through a groundbreaking lawsuit. The wonderful Bob Barker and I paid for the barn that awaits him at PAWS. Go to Helpbilly.org for more information and become Billy's friend. He desperately needs your help!

Philip:

I'm wondering what you think about using graphic images of animals being abused and killed by humans as a way to wake people up to the reality of what actually happens to non humans in a world where they have no rights.

Patty:

I think graphic images are often necessary to shock people into the realities of so much horrible abuse which animals endure, but I do think there's also a fine line for when people can't take it all in and they get totally overwhelmed and lost or become angry rather than educated.

However, Shaun Monson's documentary Earthlings for instance is a very successful although very difficult film to watch , it has persuaded so many people to become dedicated vegans and effective animal advocates. There are so many creative ways though to educate, to inspire and to change people's attitudes towards animals. I"m constantly in awe at the writings, videos, photos and animation I see just on Facebook from activists all around the world.

The important thing is to keep educating via any media, to keep speaking up and speaking out and do it with a kind, reasonable voice. That's why Sandra Mohr and I started

FreeAnimalVideo.org- as a tool for advocates to donate or use our videos to educate and inspire people about animal issues.

But graphic images as artistic expression can also change the world. Take an artist like the painter Sue Coe for instance. I was taken by her exhibit-Porkopolis which came out to Los Angeles after which I bought her painting, Modern Man Being Followed by His Meat. We later became friends and I continue to collect her works but she often gives me works as gifts. She isincredibly intelligent and an inspiring speaker not only for animals but for all disenfranchised groups, as her art conveys.

Philip:

I'm wondering about what you think in regard to people who care about animals and are even vegetarian, yet so unwilling to notice and ackowledge the cruelty in the egg and dairy industry?

Patty:

This is an important question and I'm glad you asked me because I was vegetarian for so many years (31 to be exact) before becoming vegan. For me, killing seemed to be the only issue in my definition of living non-violently. For many of those early years, I had no idea about factory farms in general or about the specific cruelties to different farmed animals. I just thought that I was no longer a part of the killing of animals for food. As I learned about more, I think I just simply refused to recognize the inherent violence to the birds who provided the eggs and to the cows and calves who provided my cheese. I see so many people, who like myself, have long ago given up eating veal because of the inherent cruelty yet, they continue to consume dairy and are totally unaware that they are supporting the veal industry. I think what or actually "who" got me to change to veganism were the farmed animals themselves who I had gotten to know and some I had personally rescued.

Once you meet a veal calf, you can no longer keep your defenses up; these precious babies force you, in their sweet, nonverbal way, to realize a truth and you have no choice if you care about animals but to make that change!

There's a wonderful quote in the book- The Art of Herbivore- about these two industries which brings a feminist perspective to this issue.

"Eggs & dairy are industries built on the exploitation of the female reproductive systems.

I wish more people, fighting for equality and fairness when it comes to feminist issues, would see the unity of oppression in all of this and advocate for all females, including non-human ones."

Philip:

I had the opportunity to talk with Carol J Adams for Vegan Sanctuary's very first interview about a year ago and she so eloquently talks about the relationship and exploitation of female animals used for food. I have to just mention here, it's this idea of how all oppression is wrong no matter where it exists and how it's all related as well. It was this thought pattern that initially turned me into an animal rights activist.

Patty:

Yes, for sure and that last quote about advocating for all females is not only brilliant in its observation of the egg and dairy industry as related to women's issues but it also calls for everyone involved in women's rights also fight for equality for female farmed animals too. In doing that, the link between social causes can been made very clear.

I'm foremost an animal advocate but I also fight for gay rights, abortion rights, human rights, etc. Because, as I said earlier, I cannot tolerate injustice and the abuse and suffering that always accompanies it. My father fled Russia as a child because of the persecution to his family and the Jewish people. He spent his life fighting for justice and equality so I grew up in a very politically involved family. Although I've given up my association to Judaism, in large part because of the religions disregard and callousness towards animals. In my opinion, Jewish people need to be able to identify with the persecution, intolerance and cruelty towards animals and then need to refuse to be a part of it in general. Presently, I'm very concerned about our right of choice in this country as the anti choice forces become stronger they are wanting to overturn the law that women in America fought so hard for- the right to choose to terminate a pregnancy.

Prop 8 is another big issue for me. The right to marriage must belong to all of the people, not just heterosexuals. There are certain constitutional rights which were written to ensure equality and fairness, even when some people don't like it. That's what makes this country truly great! I don't expect everyone to become an animal advocate; I just want them to stop being part of the abuse.

As animal advocates, I believe we must speak out against prejudice and injustice for other people as well. Our own rights could be taken away while we're fighting for the animals so we need make sure that doesn't happen or everyone in this fight loses.

I also strongly believe that we must be vigilant as our country becomes more conservative, more religious, more over crowded, and poorer. History repeats itself... far too often!

Philip:

Patty thank you so much for sharing your experience and thoughts. Are there any final thoughts you have?

Patty:

In closing, I just want to say thank you to everyone who is part of Animal Acres and who works to help animals in general everywhere. I'm sure everyone feels like I do- compelled to work on their behalf. Knowing what I know, I cannot turn my back, mind, or heart away from them- and I know you can't either.

As Isaac Bashevis Singer, a Holocaust survivor wrote- "There will be no justice as long as man will stand with a knife or with a gun and destroy those who are weaker than he is".

Just a few of Patty's rescued non human family members

Be A Sanctuary for others.....
Go Vegan.

And also go check out Patty's great website PattyShenker.com

Being Kind To Others For Ourselves

2010-08-03T01:43:00.000-07:00

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. ~Dalai Lama

Besides the undeniable way in which Facebook helps organize our personal communities, it's also a great place to read comments from people who have volunteered their time and energy helping others.

Whether they've been volunteering at a sanctuary like Animal Acres or have been rescuing homeless animals, their enthusiastic posts sound like they're coming from people flying high on ecstasy at a rave or a love festival. This analogy isn't so far-fetched when you consider that the similarities in responses are not just a coincidence.

Over the past few years a number of researchers in the fields of cognitive science and psychology have shown that the love, compassion and kindness we express to others are much more conducive to our own mental well-being than we ever actually imagined. (Note: At the end of this post, I will provide links to these studies.)

The connection between being kind to others and the flourishing of happiness, whether that happiness is personal or on a global level, appears to be quite obvious.

(Since happiness is a rather vague word I will use it here in this post to mean the state of well-being)

There is a chain reaction when we are kind to others; the recipients of our kindness in turn feel better and thus act kinder to others, and so forth and so on. Kindness does appear to make life worth living.

One known fact in this chain that links us all is that each of us who is alive and conscious wants to be happy. Non humans as well as humans.

Every sentient being moves toward happiness and away from the absence of it. The basic principle that everyone longs for happiness and freedom from suffering is what causes us -- humans and non humans alike -- to feel compassion for one another.

Whether we're conscious of this principle or not, it's what helps make empathy possible.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle. ~Plato

Put another way, the individual and collective goodwill generated by humans and other animals who are treated with kindness and compassion, and who pass this feeling along, becomes the greatest source of happiness that exists.

Simplified still more: To treat others kindly is to act out of concern for their happiness yet it also proves to be a path to our own personal happiness as well.

Although this is a bare-bones explanation of altruism and its consequences, it tells us that there is a clear connection between being kind to others and feeling better about ourselves.

We simply need to honor the fact that including other beings in our wish for happiness is actually what makes us feel better and is what brings about concrete benefits to everyone.

There is a beautiful, truthful, unified irony here in our being compassionate activists. For what we soon discover is that we can all benefit not only from our own kindness to others but also from observing another's kind deeds done for others. You could say that we can all band together to "selfishly" help those who cannot defend themselves or speak out. By "selfishly," we can say that as activists we all benefit from giving, nearly as much as our intended beneficiaries do.

photo:Cameron O'steen

This is not about so called positive thinking. This is about putting the Golden Rule into action and about actually doing something. Positive thinking never found a home for a shelter animal or rescued a dog from a busy highway.

The benefits of committing acts of kindness are backed up by scientific evidence. Computer studies have analyzed data showing the reactions of good deed doers. There has even been exciting new research done that involves studying the brains of Buddhist contemplatives with fMRI machines. The monks have spent decades meditating on compassion or sympathetic joy. Over the years, these people have actually enlarged the areas of their brains that are responsible for feeling love.

Results of diverse studies have also proven that people who volunteer, people who perform acts of kindness, and people who focus on love and compassion (that is, meditate) have all shown marked improvement in their physical well-being.

In addition, the studies have shown that engaging in acts of kindness brings about feelings of euphoria and joy, followed by periods of calmness.

According to Allan Luks, the former executive director of the Institute For The Advancement of Health who conducted research in this area, "These feelings involve physical sensations that strongly indicate a sharp reduction in stress and the release of the bodies natural pain killers, the endorphins." This initial rush, he said, is then followed by a longer-lasting period of emotional well-being.

photo:Cameron O'steen

So from this information we can hypothesize that whatever a person's current level of happiness is, it will generally improve when they are kind or help others in need.

Volunteering to help care for animals at a sanctuary or shelter, for instance, not only contributes to the happiness of the animals but also causes feelings of fulfillment and accomplishment and a stronger sense of love and compassion toward one's self.

These states of mind not only feel good and affect us, but they also spread to those around us. Love and compassion are seriously contagious

Although it is true that cruelty, hate, jealousy, spite and shame are also contagious, they merely promote and spread the same negativity which created them. And, importantly,

they are never sources of happiness.

Like the Buddhists who focus their attention with laser-like intensity on love for all beings, we, too, can also practice becoming specifically aware of our compassion for animals.

photo:Cameron O'steen

There is something about being purposefully aware of what it feels like to be compassionate that brings us closer to recognizing our own kindness.

Any skill requires that we practice and refine our technique if we are to become accomplished. The same can be said about practicing kindness; we need to payclose attention to our mind when it fills up with the desire to be kind. The more we perceive and recognize this desire in ourselves, the more effortless it might be to live compassionately more frequently.

Now, as readers of this blog know, the definition of being kind to nonhumans includes not eating them and not being complicit with their exploitation and their deaths, even indirectly.

Living vegan expands our thinking to embrace others' wants and others' happiness. When we begin to move toward this attitude and away from always thinking about what seems best for ourselves (the "me first" mentality), we actually walk right into our own happiness, sometimes not even consciously aware.

As an ethical decision that is based on compassion and kindness for others, veganism, when done mindfully, becomes a rational way to strengthen and reinforce our own happiness.

The entire notion of living vegan and becoming a sanctuary for others is simply about understanding that what would benefit ourselves, we simply do for others as well.

Live vegan, be a sanctuary for others.

It's easy and it's a beautiful feeling.

“What wisdom can you find that is greater than kindness?”-Jean Jacques Rousseau

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=meditate-on-this-you-can-learn-to-be-more-compassionate

http://www.mindandlife.org/collaboration.html

http://www.upaya.org/newsletter/view/2009/11/30#story6

http://www.crystalinks.com/medbrain.html

HELP US PLACE 114 GOATS WHO ARE NOW RESIDING AT OUR EVACUATION CENTER.

The animals rescued from a cruelty case in April are now healthy enough for adoption.

PLEASE POST ON YOUR FACEBOOK, BLOGS, AND OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKING VENUES THAT HOMES ARE URGENTLY NEEDED FOR OVER 100 RESCUED GOATS. WE NEED TO PLACE THESE ANIMALS TO ENSURE THERE IS SUFFICIENT ROOM AT OUR EVACUATION CENTER FOR THE SANCTUARY ANIMALS (IF WE NEED TO EVACUATE.

Please click here or visit our website for an URGENT ADOPTION ALERT to post and distribute.

http://www.animalacres.org/volunteer.html

http://www.animalacres.org/donate.html

A Sanctuary for Words

2010-07-22T10:15:00.000-07:00

Creature Quotes

Our ethical concerns are not merely just the products of what culture we were raised in.

Each one of us possess ethical and moral intuitions that have been hard wired into us.

Our concerns with right versus wrong are rooted in our biology. What is important to each of us in ethical and moral terms become massively empowered by our ability to speak, write and use language.

Whether we are the writer or the reader, the speaker or the listener, the vehicle of language, when operated intelligently, can drive us to expand our moral boundaries beyond our own family and friends and beyond our own species to embrace all other sentient creatures.

Cowboy at Animal Acres

Yet it is also language that empowers our hatred, prejudices, and ignorance. Sadly, when abusive thoughts produce abusive language, those who accept the words can be incited to demonize, to destroy -- even to murder innocent victims.

In other words, language can either be used to begin violence or to end it.

Most of the cruelty and killing we commit against the other animals is due to the speciesist vocabulary that we unwittingly employ every day.

Mere words can make nonhumans unimportant or invisible. Think of how often humans refer to nonhumans, whose gender we probably know, as an "it" instead of "him" or "her."

This is a simple way to reduce someone to an object rather than a person and to diminish who they are as living individuals. (All living animals are someones as well as persons.)

What does it mean when we call another human a pig or a chicken or a cow?

The mere fact that these names are considered deep insults when we use them in reference to human animals reveals a tragic insight into the way in which non humans are routinely perceived and treated through words alone.

But while language exposes severe prejudices, it also has the power to change peoples lives for the better.

Compassion and empathy can be deeply communicated through words which might enable people to feel love for others where they had shut down before.

Language written or spoken can be that external something that might provide insight in our minds and hearts. Words which are felt are like thoughts that find our emotions and can provide the opportunity to transform us forever.

Photo: Vanessa Woods. Lomela and Mwanda at Lolaya Bonobo sanctuary

Countless "Aha" moments that have changed our planet for the better have come about simply from words, spoken or written. From language properly used.

If you are an animal activist, there is no better way to share your wisdom and emotions with others than the words that fill this comprehensive new website....

Creature Quotes: Advancing Toward Freedom For All Species.

This compilation of moving and thoughtful quotes from deeply compassionate and deeply reasonable thinkers throughout the ages was edited and compiled by SBH Clay. It is a wonderful read and a powerful tool to reinvigorate yourself with brilliant words in the defense of freedom and equality for all species.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In that case, the plethora of photos of beautiful animals in this online book is the equivalent of 500,000 words. The vocabulary spoken by the animal's eyes peering out from these virtual pages is certainly capable of warming many frozen hearts.

I urge everyone who takes animal liberation and animal advocacy seriously to bookmark this page immediately.

Having a resource such as this at one's fingertips will no doubt aid you in reaching out and touching everyone around you...for the animals.

Blackie at Animal Acres

Be a sanctuary with your words.

Be vegan.

Click on link below to open the file and scroll to page 19 where you can read quotes from Vegan Sanctuary.

http://www.creaturequotes.com/PDFs/CHAPTER%2020%20COW-FOG.pdf

Melanie Joy Interview

2010-07-03T10:53:00.000-07:00

Vegan Sanctuary talks with Melanie Joy about her groundbreaking new book

Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs and Wear Cows.

An Introduction to CARNISM.

The belief system that enables us to eat some animals and not others.

Melanie Joy is a social psychologist, professor, author, and personal/relationship coach. She is known for her work transforming disempowering, dysfunctional relationships to empowering, functional ones. Her work addresses relationships at both the macro and micro levels, including:

*humanity’s relationship with animals and the environment

*relationships among social groups

*intimate relationships

Melanie has written numerous articles on psychology, animal rights, and social justice and is also the author of the activist handbook...

Strategic Action for Animals: Handbook on Strategic Movement Building, Organizing, and Activism for Animal Liberation.

Philip:

I'm really excited to have this discussion with you and I want to talk with you mainly about beliefs and specifically about the problems of human's beliefs regarding non human animals. However, before we get into all of that can you please explain to the readers Why we love dogs, eat pigs and wear cows?

Melanie:

That’s a great first question. When I say “We Love Dogs” in the title, I’m referring to people in U.S. and some other western cultures, since dogs aren’t beloved companions in all places in the world. However, the reason people love certain animals and eat others is similar among meat-eating cultures around the world: because there is an invisible, powerful belief system that teaches us to harbor very different perceptions of and behaviors toward different animal species.

Philip:

I was beyond thrilled when I read your new book which gave a name to the belief system of eating animals which you coined as carnism. Can you define the term and how, why you came up with the word?

Melanie:

Carnism is the term I use to describe the widespread, invisible belief system, or ideology, that conditions us to eat (certain) animals. It’s essentially the opposite of vegetarianism or veganism. Most people view meat eating as a given, rather than a choice. But when eating meat isn’t a necessity for survival, as is the case in the majority of the world today, it is a choice—and choices always stem from beliefs. We tend to assume it’s only veg*ns who bring their beliefs to the dinner table. But carnists (meat eaters) don’t love dogs but eat pigs, for instance, because they don’t have a belief system when it comes to eating animals.

I want to point out that “carnist” is not meant to be a pejorative term. It’s merely meant to be descriptive, just as capitalist, Buddhist, socialist, or raw foodist is. If we have a name for vegans and vegetarians, it only makes sense to have a name for those who act in accordance with the opposing belief system. And referring to a carnist as an omnivore isn’t accurate; an omnivore is an animal, human or nonhuman, that can ingest both plant and animal matter.

Similarly, a carnivore is an animal that needs to eat flesh to survive. And while it’s possible that humans are naturally omnivorous (though there’s plenty of evidence now surfacing to suggest we are naturally herbivorous), we certainly aren’t carnivores. But the problem goes beyond anatomy: omnivore and carnivore describe one’s biological predisposition, not one’s ideological choice. If humans are omnivores, then I (as a vegan) am as much an omnivore as a carnist. And referring to a carnist as a meat eater is also inaccurate; “meat eater” divorces the behavior of eating animals, or “meat,” from the belief system that enables such behavior. This is why vegans don’t refer to ourselves as “plant eaters;” we understand that eating plants is a behavior that reflects an underlying ideology.

I want to stress, though, that it’s important not to use the term carnist in a derogatory way and that we need to be careful in our use of it around carnists. Many carnists do perceive the term as offensive because—in my opinion—on some level they consider eating animals to be offensive. So referring to them as a carnist can cause them to become even more defensive about their meat eating.

Philip:

Do you think with this information we can come to some understanding that our world is not filled with all cruel people doing mean things to animals but rather a lot of good people who actually believe inaccurate things/ideas about animals. Wrong ideas or myths that have been drummed into their heads since they were children? And also that we as a species fail to criticize these beliefs the way we eventually have done about so many other myths about the world and others that we now realize are false.

Melanie:

Yes. In fact, a goal of my book is to help veg*ns and carnists alike realize that humane people can and do participate in inhumane practices without even realizing what they’re doing. We are so conditioned to eat animals that for most of us, the notion of not consuming them is absurd, an impossibility, a profound threat to our sense of self, belonging, and our core philosophical orientation. It’s so easy for those of us who are vegan to forget that—for most of us—we weren’t born that way. Once we come into this vegan consciousness—step outside the carnistic paradigm—we see the world through radically different eyes. It’s like we’re living on another planet, speaking a different language from carnists. But we need to remember what it was like for us, and we need to communicate with carnists in a way they can understand, from a place of common ground. For better or worse, we are ambassadors for the movement, and it’s up to us to reach out to carnists in a way that invites them into conversation. We can’t do that if we view them as selfish oppressors.

Understanding carnism can help us (and carnists) see that the system is comprised of a set of deeply entrenched, invisible, and quite powerful defense mechanisms that become internalized—that shape the psychology of carnists. The whole system is organized to maintain itself, to prevent people from making the connection between meat (and other animal products) and animals, between their values and practices, between themselves and other beings. When we talk to carnists, we often encounter such defensiveness and assume (understandably) that such a reaction is because the carnist doesn’t care, doesn’t want to change, prefers complacency over compassion, etc. And while in certain cases there may be some truth to this, the much more common reason carnists are so defensive is because carnism lives inside their minds and hearts; the invisible system shapes their perceptions, feelings, attitudes, and behaviors. Learning about carnistic defenses is essential for veg*n advocates so that we can speak to the carnist, rather than to her or his defenses, and so that we can have compassion and respect for people who are not (yet) vegan.

I wrote my book in hope that veg*ns would give it to the carnists in their lives. I wrote it to reach out to carnists and invite them into the conversation, and to help them understand why they do eat meat and other products procured from animals, rather than simply why they shouldn’t eat these products.

In answer to the last part of your question, yes, I do believe we’ve fallen into the trap of failing to recognize carnism just as we have with other oppressive ideologies, both historically and currently. My hope is that my book helps people to think more critically about all systems of which they’re a part; carnism operates in a very similar way to other oppressive ideologies.

Philip:

On page 60 in your book you explain how horrible ,cruel and inherent the suffering and death is that is completely inseparable part of the dairy industry. So, I'm wondering why you chose not to use the word vegan in your book?

Melanie:

I wrote my book to try to reach out to carnists, and the focus of the book was on carnism (rather than vegetarianism or veganism). So I rarely used the term “vegetarian” and avoided using “vegan” except for one or two instances. I didn’t want carnists to feel that I was pushing an ideology at them but rather exposing the ideology that’s been guiding their choices thus far, and encouraging them to step outside of that system.

I’ve been told by many carnist readers that they were open to reading my book because it didn’t feel “preachy” and it didn’t feel like it was about vegetarianism or veganism per se, but about the horrors of carnism. They said they didn’t get the sense I was trying to “sell vegetarianism” to them. And many of these same people told me that they stopped eating animals after reading the book.

The terms “vegetarian” and “vegan” immediately conjure images and feelings in carnists’ minds. I often do an exercise with my students asking them to “describe a vegetarian” and the list of adjectives they come up with is rarely, if ever, flattering. When I do the same exercise with “vegan” the students either don’t know what the term means or they have even more prejudicial ideas about vegans than they did about vegetarians.

“Vegetarian” and “vegan” have very different connotations for you and me than they do for most carnists. These are loaded words, immediately invoking imagery and feelings that can put carnists on the defensive. Having said this, I made sure to refer, at points in my book, to “meat and other animal products” and I also included fairly extensive descriptions of the dairy and egg industries, so that readers would be aware of the cruelty inherent in all animal foods.

Philip:

As a psychologist I'm wondering if you can explain how it is people can believe one proposition while at the exact same time successfully believing something completely different?

How do such cognitive gymnastics occur?

Melanie:

In my book I elucidate the specific mechanisms that carnism uses to maintain itself, mechanisms that exist on both social and psychological levels. These range from what I call the Three Ns of Justification (eating meat is normal, natural, and necessary) to de-individualization, not recognizing the individuality of members of species we’ve been conditioned to consume (a pig is a pig and all pigs are the same). All defenses are woven together to create “psychic numbing,” which is the psychological and emotional disconnect that enables people to eat meat and other animal products. Carnism is an illogical system that uses psychic numbing to prevent people from seeing the absurdities of carnistic beliefs and behaviors.

Philip:

I've always felt that eating animals was part of a belief system that we no longer needed to participate in. Yet it appears to be only an off shoot of a larger dogma we have about non humans.

Why do we drink the milk of some animals and not others? Why do we think it's ok to shoot wolves from helicopters but would never allow the same to be done to their domesticated ancestors?

Why do so many humans believe it's acceptable to imprison and conduct painful experiments on a chimpanzee for her entire life but think it's wrong to use human stem cells for medical research? There are, as we all know too well, horrible myths and beliefs being embraced that allow us to do so many cruel and unnecessary things to non human animals.

Do you imagine that carnism is but a small part of a much wider more encompassing erroneous belief system that we humans possess about the other animals of the world?

Melanie:

Yes. I see carnism as a sub-ideology of speciesism, just as anti-Semitism, for instance, is a sub-ideology of racism. The ethos, or ideological backdrop, of speciesism is what makes carnism possible in the first place.

But I do believe that we need to address carnism as a separate “ism” because even though it’s informed by speciesism, it has distinct features that make it unique. And my hope is that by understanding carnism, people will be less resistant to examining other expressions of speciesism, or perhaps speciesism as a whole. Also, I think it’s impossible to expect the average carnist to seriously consider their participation in the vast, all-encompassing paradigm of human supremacy (which is what informs the ideology we call speciesism). For those of us who have been exploring these issues, it simply seems logical—an ethical imperative—to examine our human privilege. But for most people in the world today, the notion of human supremacy is overwhelming, abstract, absurd, and so far outside their cognitive and emotional comfort zones that it’s deeply threatening and intellectually confounding to seriously consider this issue.

I’ve been criticized by some vegans for not “challenging” carnists enough, for creating a word—carnism—that can be what they see as a distraction from the broader issue of speciesism. But this criticism fails to take into account the psychological nature of human beings; it is based on the assumption that ideological purity will sell itself, that social transformation is simply a matter of educating people about oppressive ideologies. But as we know, more often than not, the facts don’t sell the ideology. We need to meet people where they’re at, and asking carnists to reflect on their carnism is, in my opinion, an excellent place to start encouraging conversations about human-nonhuman relationships in general as well as to reduce harm caused to animals by reducing carnistic consumption.

Philip:

When people truly believe something it changes everything about the way they behave in the world. Every culture it seems practices a form of carnism, but we know from spending time looking back at history that a deeply held belief system can be overcome and a conceptual or compassionate revolution which destroys that belief system can take place. What is the most efficient way we can advocate for veganism and to transform peoples beliefs about the other animals of the world?

Melanie:

I believe that raising awareness of carnism is vital to mobilizing the vegan movement. Understanding carnism enables us to radically reframe the issue of eating animals: if we see meat (and other animal products) consumption not simply as a matter of personal ethics, but as the inevitable end result of a deeply entrenched belief system, this can dramatically change the way we think and talk about the issue. Furthermore, by understanding the mechanisms and structure of carnism, we are at a tremendous advantage.

We can communicate and advocate much more effectively, as we navigate carnists’ defenses, and we can actually identify the structure of the system we’re working to transform. Because, in my opinion, veganism isn’t simply about abolishing the consumption of so-called animal products, but about transforming the very system that makes eating animals possible in the first place. Understanding carnism can help us focus on the cause of the problem, rather than simply on the consequences of it.

Philip:

Melanie, thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and your ideas with us.

For all the animals every where it is much appreciated.

For more information on Melanie visit her websites. Melaniejoy.org

Carnism.com

Become a sanctuary for others.

Go Vegan.

Who Are We To Judge?

2010-06-02T11:41:00.000-07:00

Medieval drawing of a cat being hanged after his trial.

The oppression, injustices and physical cruelties which humans inflict upon non humans throughout the world are without a doubt horrifying and deplorable. Yet, one of the most unjust and callous actions we take against the other animals is in how we judge them.

We commit the gravest form of discrimination and prejudice when we pretend we know what.... they don't think or what it is.... they don't feel.

And when we humans come to the short sighted conclusions about the other animals, we've usually arrived there without any sufficient evidence or real empathetic understanding.

We've raised the bar so high for the other animals to be considered persons with feelings and interests that even we ourselves cannot make it over such a high mark.

History proves that humans cannot live without illusion. We create false worlds to justify our behavior and fears.

Irrational faith and absurd belief systems seem to be our only way of coping with the reality that we are mortal beings, no different from the other animals of the world.

Like all the other animals we are born, seek mates (companionship) forage for food and then we die.

Just like the other animals we cannot control our own fate, yet we believe....

we can.

We judge the other animals as unaware and declare that they do not understand life and death. But the truth is we have no understanding of what happens to us after we die either.

We are like every other animal who has lived and died on this planet and like all other creatures, have no answer for why we're here.

Yet, we homo sapiens constantly pretend we know things we do not know and then judge the other animals as being ignorant of the world they inhabit.

In the big blueprint of life, we are no different than all the other animals.

Yet we humans still believe that we are different and somehow more .....important.

We imagine that a squirrel gathering nuts or a dove building a nest is doing trivial work.

We then go on to believe our shopping sprees, our sitting in traffic or meeting job deadlines are so much more important and substantial.

They are not.

In the big scope of being and existence it's all the same.

We've formed the notion that our consciousness and a concept of self is what places us above non humans.

We judge the consciousness of others so harshly while we fail to admit that we know very little about our own consciousness .

There are basic questions that no humans even have the answers to yet.

Yes, we know the brain is the source of mental life but we have no understanding of how it all happens. We merely recognize that the mind is what the brain does but we have no idea how it creates consciousness itself.

Yet, after all this we are still determined to claim that non human animals somehow lack this feature called consciousness. Which is something that we know so little about.

And all the while it appears obvious that the other animals brains create minds as well.

Where is our humility?

While we know many things about who we are as a species it's still a mystery of how our own thoughts and our moods can exist and become illuminated in a big clump of grey mass we call our brains.

The other problem, however, is we demand reportability about some one's subjective experience through words in order to declare such consciousness as real rather than allow for the simple observation that there is someone....there.

And while we do allow consciousness to be accepted on its outward signs for humans who cannot speak

(such as human infants)

most people will not grant the same for non humans.

Human beings also arrive at the judgement that the other animals lives are worth much less because their perception and thought go on without any consciousness.

Most humans believe non human animals don't think or understand what they're doing and therefore this somehow allows humans to feel justified in taking animals lives away from them.

But conscious perception is a very small part of what we ourselves experience. Here again we are to quick to judge the others when we ourselves live in a world that is nearly dream like and much more shadowy than we tend to admit.

Consciousness is variable for humans, it is not a constant state.

For instance the most accomplished musicians or athletes are usually not even aware of their own movements, they are usually not thinking about what they're doing....they are just doing and being.

Yet when we accuse animals of existing in this state.... it is somehow inferior.

Who are we to judge non humans so harshly and with such irrational arrogance?

The fact remains quite clear that we have been wrong about nearly everything in the past we thought we knew to be the truth.

In recent history for example, most people believed that the sun revolved around the earth and that the earth was stationary and the center of the universe.

Before Darwin's theory of natural selection was published humans believed they were created from dirt, with a divine breath in the image of a Father who lived in the sky.

Humans maintain that the other animals act merely by automated instinct.

Anyone who has spent time with a nonhuman knows this to be false as they can make decisions and choices where instinct could not be the main participant.

However, we ourselves realize that instinct when combined with raw emotions are the most intense and meaningful experiences we can have.

Our judgement that we are superior to animals because we operate with reason and rational thought has recently been proved to be false.

The brilliant neuroscientist Antonio Damasio has been studying humans who have brain damage either from strokes or other accidents...these humans cannot process their emotions or feel anything. These people cannot make decisions. He has shown that humans cannot think rationally without feeling a gut instinct or raw emotion first.

We've been wrong about ourselves, about our own minds and of course about our own place and importance in the universe. Through eons of our irrational judgments about animals we have misunderstood them completely.

Tragically, it seems true, that our judgment about the other animals has been and still is terribly wrong as well.

The consequences of making false judgments regarding non human animals is that it enables humans to murder them indiscriminately by the billions upon billions every year and thus bringing so much unnecessary violence and misery into their lives.

For thousands of years animals have been butchered, hunted and worked to death all because we have judged them unfairly and incorrectly.

It takes nothing away from us to end the false judgements we render against them. We lose nothing when we become more emotionally and intellectually honest when regarding who they are.

We do not become less alive or less human when we stop judging the other animals unfairly. In fact we know that by becoming more loving and compassionate toward the other animals it will inspire more kindness everywhere and bring about a much healthier, happier world.

This is a scientific fact.

We've taken away so much dignity from countless, magnificent, beautiful beings by judging them inaccurately.

If we can see ourselves in them, we can realize how much we all actually share.

If we can allow the other animals to simply live their lives without such negative judgement there would possibly never be a need for us to build sanctuaries for them.

They, like us, want to live a life that is free from suffering and filled with happiness.

Become a sanctuary for others.

Stop judging,

Live vegan.

Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

NINETY FIVE

2010-05-27T22:44:00.000-07:00

Ninety-five is the average number of animals spared each year by one person’s vegan diet.

Many people who have not yet ended eating and consuming animal foods often will after a visit to Animal Acres or another farmed animal sanctuary.

When a person can witness farmed animals-out of context- as always just property or as merely food animals but rather in context as real living persons who have a right to live their own lives, something shifts and a transformation occurs.

Over at the brilliant blog ChallengeOppression.com

(Animal Rights and AntiOppression)

Deb, one of the sites very talented bloggers has written a beautiful post about the new book titled Ninety Five.

Meeting America’s Farmed Animals in Stories and Photographs.

It is an anthology of photos and stories by No Voice Unheard which published one of the more powerful anthologies regarding non humans a few years ago,

One At A Time- A Week in an American Animal Shelter .

Sadly farmed animals are mostly forgotten about. They are always overlooked as individuals having any value or importance.

Their lives and deaths are never given any genuine or serious attention.

Yet, no caring, compassionate or moral person would ever agree that what is inflicted upon them should be allowed. But, this is exactly what happens because we never know them. We never see them for who they are. We never accurately look at their faces, hear their stories or ever know their names.

Besides visiting a farmed animal sanctuary Ninety Five may be one of the best places where people can discover the beauty, depth and personalities of the animals most people merely see as property to be turned into food.

Become a sanctuary for Ninety Five farmed animals a year.

Go vegan.

Ending Our Veganger

2010-05-05T01:06:00.000-07:00

We need only take a quick glance back through human history, watch any cable news network, tune into a reality TV show or read a few blogs and what becomes obvious are the ideas which divide people from one another will eventually unite them all...... in anger.

More than ever people today seem so angry, so ready to fight with one another, even when they're on the same team. Even when they share the same ideals and goals.

What is behind all of this anger? Why is there so much rage flying around everywhere?

Even in the vegan, animal rights community as well…people are so quick to attack, denounce and defame each other that it’s really quite troubling.

However, rather than focus on the obvious defects that make the species homo sapien so impossible to live with we can choose to investigate what may be at the roots of our anger in a deeper context.

We live in a very apprehensive time. On some days you can almost hear the ticking from the bombs of peoples hostility. You can read it in their eyes and detect it from the lines on their faces. Our world is simply burning up with bad tempers and free range...rage.

Anger is what people do with their fear.

It's much easier to react with anger than to admit we're afraid.

It appears that even in the insightful, mindful, compassionate, and empathy driven community of animal rights advocates it's so easy for us to translate our fears immediately into anger at one another.

Our situation is this: most of the people in the world are afraid of what they can not control.

What frightens most of us is when we lose the ability to control what happens with the most important issues and aspects of our lives. We are a species who become nearly phobic when we lose control or even the illusion of control.

It may even partially explain one of the core reasons many people want nothing to do with living vegan or gaining knowledge about animal rights issues. It might not be that they don't care, but rather they're afraid. Afraid of becoming burdened with the knowledge of so much suffering and death caused by the hands (and mouths) of other humans.

Afraid they are taking on something they cannot control.

This might also be the source of so much of the anger present among many like minded, caring, ethical vegans directed at other vegans.

The intensity of feeling and knowing there is so much at stake and no way to control or put an end to it.

Fear comes to us and is born from perceiving a danger which seen or unseen waits right around the corner. For the masses of non human life on this planet the world is without a doubt a horribly dangerous place and the small minority of humans who have a deep empathy for animals can be overwhelmed by it all. Our awareness of what happens to animals on fur farms, in research facilities or in slaughterhouses can generate an incredible sense of fear as well as a devastating anger in each of us.

There is already so much unconscious fear for most of us wrapped up in the knowledge of our own inevitable/personal deaths that it would not be the theory of some delusional mad man to suggest that for animal rights advocates there is an extra anxiety and fear caused by our awareness from so much animal misery and death. We often feel helpless because it all feels so beyond our control to do anything.

Yet we owe it to the animals of the world, the people in our lives and of course ourselves to drop the aggressiveness toward one another and attempt to be kind and remain calm. We need to be able to find those openings where understanding, empathy and cooperation can squeeze through so that we can move forward together.

It is neither in defeating each other nor in beating each other up; but through cooperation and experiencing unity where we will be able to reach our goals and achieve real victories for non humans.

Part of the solution might be in letting go of our anger at one another and looking for ways we can find solidarity.

One of the pleas we ethical vegans often make to other humans, who wrongly believe it does not matter what pain or death may be inflicted on other sentient beings, is that we humans are much more similar to non humans than we are different. Why do we forget that bright pearl of wisdom when it comes to other humans who are actually vegan for ethical reasons like we are? We have so much more in common than we have in disparity. Yet, most of the time we fail to notice our hypocritical reactions and irrational behavior regarding this point.

We're so few in numbers and so far between that it remains quite critical for us to unite rather than fight.... each other.

None of the ideas above reflect the notion that we cannot have minor or major disagreements with what might seem the best approach for achieving non human animal's rights. Nor does letting go of anger at one another mean that we should also refrain from critiquing tactics which many of us may view as producing more harm to the cause than good.

However, dropping the anger means ending the personal attacks, threats and non stop drama which seems to have become more important than saving animals lives or in educating other people about becoming vegan.

We all need to put an end to our having to be right all the time in our arguments about animal rights or in proving other vegans wrong in their ways. It's about time that we also recognize how foolish we sound when we claim we are better, bigger and bolder vegans than someone else.

We are the only voice the animals have and we are wasting it on overly dramatic, dysfunctional and useless infighting.

When we self destruct everyone loses.

If we can possibly acknowledge and wake up to the understanding that the majority of anger which is directed towards one another is merely based on our fear of what horrendous and unnecessary atrocities are being committed against animals by other humans. We all share this stress and hardship. Maybe we can attempt to be kinder and more accepting of one another. Maybe we can all learn to live together more successfully as we all live with the same thorn in our sides.

As cliche and overused as any quote might sound....

Animal rights advocates need to be the change we want to see in the world.

It's time we recognize that what allows humans to cooperate with one another is the ability to get past the tiny differences and to find those greater, more extensive similarities and to build and work from there.

There is of course no guarantee that even the most reasonable and like minded people are going to agree about everything. However, allowing fear and anger to control our interactions with one another and let it hold influence on the long struggle ahead for animal rights is certainly unreasonable.

We ethical vegans are an open minded creative group and we can surely devise better solutions for resolving conflicts than we have been of late.

The reality is that if we wish to transform our culture into one that views animals as persons whose lives deserve equal respect we need to learn to make the best use of our time spent interacting with one another.

We need to learn to be calm, cool and collective, so to speak, if we wish to have any influence on the speciesist attitudes of our fellow human beings.

Veganism is a compassionate and rational enterprise. Speciesism is not.

Living vegan is so much about empathy and the ability to feel what another being feels, and in it's more cultivated form the capacity to deeply understand another's point of view.

Dropping our anger at one another may seem low on the to do list of vegan activities, yet as proved time and again with our consideration regarding the importance of non human lives, the power of kindness is eventually what makes all the difference in the world.

Don't be vegangry...

Be a sanctuary for others.

Be vegan.

listen here Why Can't We Live Together?

A RESCUE FOR FARMED ANIMALS

2010-04-20T00:27:00.000-07:00

All across the world from small rural towns to enormous, urban, metropolitan areas.
From high rise apartments to dirt huts... billions of humans awoke on Thursday morning the 15th of April 2010 just like every morning on planet earth and began their day by eating someone's flesh or drinking another species milk.
Imagine however about 60 men and women on this very same morning waking up from a night of sleep, leaving their comfortable homes and driving hundreds of miles-----to rescue and save the lives of former food animals.

This is exactly what the many caring volunteers and committed staff from Animal Acres did as they rescued 150 neglected nearly starving farmed animals from a dilapidated property near San Diego.

The volunteers had to make a “human fence” to herd the animals uphill to the trailers.

The rescue – under the direction of the Shelter Manager, Frank Allen took four days in total.

Over 50 dedicated volunteers showed up for this effort and the rescue would not have been possible without their hard work and commitment.

But with all that said and done it does not seem out of place to also briefly examine what is at work here and to notice the compassion and commitment of people who care and act so much differently than most other humans do.

Most humans ignore altogether the plight of farmed animals in order to have an obstacle or a veil so to speak, remain.
Without an ignorance the complicity in killing would have to be faced head on which would be a far greater challenge than most people are willing to deal with.

Yet there are those people who care enough to find the strength... to do what needs to be done because they have also found a place in their heart to love. To care.
And in their capacity to act on this love and compassion what is given back to the world is multiplied ten fold. For what comes back to the farmed animals here for instance is not merely love and a chance for a new life but also their dignity as living individuals, which, when they were seen only as property, ceased to exist.

For everyone who volunteered, donated money and have gone vegan, you are a sanctuary.

Thank you.

EMERGENCY RESCUE ALERT

2010-04-12T10:48:00.000-07:00

150 Farmed Animals Need Sanctuary!

click here to watch VIDEO

Over 150 animals are needing to be given sanctuary this week - and we need you to make their rescue possible with your donation today. Currently, all available Animal Acres membership funding is used to provide quality care for the existing sanctuary residents. We are not a large, well funded group, we do not have funds "in reserve", and we simply cannot act unless you act, now.

Animal Acres will begin this Thursday April 15th rescuing goats.

(Here above) the Animal Acres goat resident in charge of new goat greeting committee.

Animal Acres will work through Sunday the 18th to bring all the animals from San Diego to our new evacuation site on our premises.

An Animal Acres security rooster (above)

watching over the new evacuation site.

Please click link Here

To donate to our rescue fund.

Thank You!

http://www.animalacres.org/rescues/rescue_pcs.html

MOIRA NORDHOLT-Food Activist

2010-04-01T18:23:00.000-07:00

If we slow down enough to take a moment and contemplate about what the majority of people are actually doing when they sit down to eat a meal (usually 3 times a day) it can be quite a sobering wake up call. For what appears to be an ordinary activity that most of us hardly acknowledge is actually a continuous source for cruelty, violence and death.

Many of us realize that providing the much needed education and information to others about what happens to farmed animals who are turned into food is sometimes an insufficient guarantee for changing peoples habits of eating animals.

We've also seen over the years that promoting the notion that animals are being treated more "humane" and killed more kindly on smaller farms does not result in people going vegan at all.

But a more profound truth is that nothing will promote veganism better than veganism itself.

There is an empowering effect when people assist the self promotion of veganism by showing how delicious, clean, exciting, healthy, compassionate, non violent and easy vegan food can be.

This is food activism!

This is activism with the winning argument in it's favor

and

flavor.

When someone cares about another and puts that consideration into action it has the ability to change the world for the better and for everyone. Cooking, preparing and creating food that is born from a place of compassion and kindness is an expression of the golden rule in action.

The world is designed by the decisions each of us make and we as individuals are defined by the choices we make. Showing the world that we can eat, drink and be merry without the misery and death lying on our dinner tables is an essential form of activism that is often overlooked yet extremely important.

Moira Nordholt is someone we would call a food activist. She is a self-taught vegan chef who stumbled into food activism as proprietor of Banff, Alberta’s first vegetarian restaurant, long before the word "vegan" was uttered in beef country. Her time is now split between Toronto, Venice Beach and the open road, where she cooks delicious plant-powered food, consults and develops recipes for some of North America’s top spas and wellness centres, and contemplates life while riding her motorcycle solo to remote internal and external territories. (firehorserider.com)

Moira is the founder of feelgoodguru.com, an online playground celebrating people, ideas and things that make the world a better place. As well as contributing original recipes to books on detoxing and plant-based diets, Moira has written and self-published an eBook series called “Feel Good Fast” and runs an online companion quarterly cleanse helping people learn for themselves the ease and pleasure of cooking with seasonal whole foods to lose weight and feel great.

Moira is the host and organizer of the very popular annual Animal Lovers Brunch.

Her food is featured in the upcoming documentary about plant-based diets, "Forks over Knives".

Vegan Sanctuary had the honor of chatting with Moira about her work, her life and her yummy activism!

Philip:

Moira, thank you so much for taking time out to talk with Vegan Sanctuary. When did you first make the transition to living vegan and what inspired you to become vegan?

Moira:

Thanks so much for bringing me in to your conversation, Philip! I became vegetarian at 17 while living in Paris after several months of eating horse meat. I was a "jeune fille au pair" and that's what the family I worked for fed me. One day I looked in the mirror and made the connection to the old adage "you are what you eat." No kidding, I'd begun to look like a horse. From there, it was a slow evolution. I flailed for awhile as an uneducated and unhealthy vegetarian, surviving on junk food that I wasn't allowed to have as a kid, but I took an interest in nutrition and gradually gained balance the more I learned to cook healthy foods for myself. When I opened Banff, Canada's first vegetarian restaurant, I was eating the best organic foods, and I began to feel the undeniable effects of a high quality plant-based diet. I was putting in insanely long days in the kitchen with no sunshine and no breaks, then going for a workout at night, feeling stronger and more energized than ever. The diet simply proved itself in my body. For me, long before it was an ethical choice, it was simply a healthy choice. Of course, the more I learned about factory farming, the less I wanted animal products on my plate.

Philip: Yes. And it's basically now a fact that a plant based diet is much healthier for our human bodies than a diet based or centered on animal products. So, we also can't deny the fact that happiness is related to kindness and vice versa. So, understanding this facet, it would seem quite obvious if our condition or well being will generally improve when we live more compassionately, wouldn't it make sense that a vegan diet adds this aspect to the whole health argument as well?

Moira: Some of the happiest, healthiest, most fully expressed human beings I know are vegans. Yes. I believe that happiness, health, kindness and compassion are inextricably linked. To me, being compassionate means first being compassionate with myself. We've become so disconnected that most people don't even know anymore what it means to be compassionate with themselves. When I listen to my body it tells me what the healthiest choices are; when I listen to my conscience, it tells me what the least harmful choices are. To me it's about honoring that innate wisdom we all have, to find and maintain balance in body, mind and spirit - whole health. I believe that all real and lasting change starts right here.

Philip: Taking time out and cooking a vegan gourmet meal can almost be a bit like a meditation or a healing yoga class or even therapy. I mention this and make those analogies here because it can be very difficult living as an ethical vegan in a world where most people chew animals up at every meal and they do this at least 3 times a day. The death of so many farmed animals can become a painful fact for many ethical vegans and increasingly a great source of suffering for the people who care about farmed animals. Maybe talk a bit from experience about how cooking and preparing creative vegan food oneself can actually help heal and create a more optimistic outlook for this dilemma that many animal rights people face.

Moira: We tend to want to find someone to blame for the madness - anyone. But let's not forget while we're practicing compassion for animals that our fellow humans, the ones who are overweight, undernourished, unconscious or ignorant, sick with diabetes and heart disease and cancers due to poor diet, they need our compassion too. We all hate to see any living being suffer, whether it's a cat with fleas, cows being trucked to slaughterhouses, or a whole country of human beings in warfare. It can be overwhelming when we allow ourselves to become aware of all the suffering that goes on in the world. Some people choose to remain blissfully unaware. We each have our way of dealing with our grief and anger over it. For some, it can spur great action; for others, it can be paralyzing. There are medical doctors out there now prescribing plant-based diets to alleviate human suffering. There's a new doc - Forks Over Knives - coming out in September all about this. I believe we're on an evolutionary path towards a more sustainable, healthier way of eating that will make all of us look back at eating animals as very unsophisticated or barbaric. Yes, for me, cooking is meditation in action. I believe that anything done with intention becomes a prayer and prayers have mysterious ways of manifesting. Taking the time to prepare a delicious and beautiful meal for yourself with the intention to nourish your own body is a powerful act that should not be underestimated. It's such a simple thing we can all do every day that potentially reduces suffering on so many levels, starting in our own digestive system!

Philip: Why do you think so many people fail to notice the fact that they've been indoctrinated into consuming animals almost like a religious belief? How is it that most people see eating animals as a choice they are making rather than what they've been told to do over and over and over?

Moira: I think we're all walking around at different levels of awareness. In many ways we're still cavemen. So much of our eating is done out of unconscious habit. It's very complex because food is so tied to our emotions and memories and perhaps even the memories of our ancestors. We're hypnotized daily by the food industry. There are very effective forces at work in the business of burgers and fries persuading the masses to hoover it up. It's a very difficult nightmare to wake up from... Yet there are clear indications that there is a food evolution taking place and it's picking up speed...

Philip: Yes it is and many people who have evolved and become vegan want to find effective ways to educate others on living vegan. Many of us attempt to reach peoples hearts and minds but often forget about peoples stomachs. I think your polenta pizza, your veggie sushi and your spinach empanadas for instance are sure fire paths to a vegan revolution. Why is it that so many vegans forget that great tasting, adventurous vegan food is just as effective in getting people to stop eating animals as lets say handing someone a pamphlet on the horrors of the modern slaughterhouse?

Moira: People can tune out to the pamphlets and demonstrations. I know I don't want to be solicited as I'm coming out of Whole Foods, no matter what the cause. But if someone invites me for a meal, I'm in. Every meal shared is an opportunity to create the world you want to live in. Great food can be a delicious and convincing introduction. If you can dazzle someone's tastebuds and make them feel incredible after eating your food, you've won a battle that didn't even exist. Food is the one place where, no matter what our beliefs or level of awareness or consciousness, we come together to share and celebrate. If you make the food special, you can see the lights going on. People start to ask questions and request recipes. The comment I get most often is "If I could cook like this I'd be vegan." So I show them how easy it is and encourage them to try it for themselves. When people have the right tools and the support of a community, they feel empowered to change. It's happening. There are so many resources available now for someone who wants to evolve to a vegan diet.

Philip: That's so true. It just needs to be demonstrated and people will see how amazing vegan food is.

OK, I'm going to get all woo woo on you here if you don't mind....

So, there are episodes with our own experiences and there are forms of well being.... that override all others and transcend the normal daily aspects of our regular experiences. What I'm getting at is I'm thinking of veganism here as an easy gateway to spiritual experience, to living what someone might call a spiritual life and to those types of feelings....of compassion, of love and kindness in general.

Do you think there is this specific perspective and awareness that seems to take place within us when we eat and fill our bodies with foods made from kindness and non violence?

Moira: You know I love the woo woo;) I can't claim with certainty that everything I eat is made in a non-violent way. I hope that the rice I eat was planted by happy California farmers and that my quinoa was grown on South American land that has been peacefully tended by generations of proud growers, and that no snakes, grasshoppers, butterflies or rodents were run over or ingested by harvest machines...But it would be naive of me to think that everything on my plate was obtained fairly, happily and non-violently. What I can claim with certainty is that everything is energy. We know that animals fear death and that animals in our food chain suffer intensely. This is the energy I choose not to put in my body because I can't imagine that energy to be nourishing in any way. On that level, we truly are what we eat. Imagine having the energy of the fear of a thousand cows inside your belly? That's what a hamburger is to me. But let's not assume that everything that's vegan is healthy and full of good vibes. There's the junk in boxes that comes off assembly lines around the world. I don't even consider that "food". It's filler. Crunchy, salty, sweet and fatty mouth amusement. Eating this industrial sawdust void of real nutrition and filled with chemical additives, even when free of animal products, is not conducive to a spiritual life. These are empty calories we consume out of boredom or lack of imagination. Eating this stuff fuels a toxic food industry, turns us into zombies and keeps us in the nightmare. I also consider not just the food I'm eating but who's preparing it. Nothing comes close to food you prepare yourself for healing energy. It's extremely rare in a stressful restaurant environment for the chef to be mindful, peaceful and joyful. Consider that the energy of the chef is always in your food. Let's hope he or she is feeling non-violent when you order your garden burger... But yes! At the risk of sounding completely woowoo, there really is a deep spiritual element that accompanies eating low on the food chain and high on energetics. I've seen people almost levitate after eating a plant-based meal made from real, fresh, whole foods prepared with intention:)

Philip: What is some simple advice for someone who wants to be a food activist and start utilizing food as a way to spread the vegan message?

Moira: Healthy is sexy. Everyone wants it. People are becoming more and more aware of what's in their food and making the connection to their health or lack of. They're looking for answers. Live by example. Get healthy yourself and when people ask how you keep your skin glowing gorgeous, why you never get sick, or how you still fit into your grade 10 jeans, give them your plant-powered secrets. Learn to make one or two show-stopping vegan dishes and share them widely. Take them to dinner parties or invite people over to dine. People will ask you for the recipe and be astonished there's no cheese or ground beef or heavy cream in it.

Philip: I like it. I think that's all so important. What was your motivation for creating Feel Good Guru?

Moira: I love to help people make simple changes in their lives that can have profound effects on their world. I wanted a brand that would reflect my passions for creativity, wellness and optimism. I miss the community of incredible healers, teachers, seekers, foodies, artists, entrepreneurs, humanitarians, animal lovers, activists, adventurers and world changers that sprung up around my restaurant and I wanted to get that back on a global playground to celebrate people, ideas and things that make the world a better place.

Philip: Moira, thank you so much for taking the time to talk, your support of Animal Acres and of course all the wonderful ways you help spread the vegan message and help humans and animals feel good. Everyone needs to check out your website too.

Moira: If any of your readers would like help getting cleaner, greener & leaner with their lifestyle, I'm launching my spring cleanse on April 11th - Feel Good Fast. Join in. It's free!

http://feelgoodguru.ning.com/

Feel Good Guru's Polenta Pizza

2010-04-01T12:17:00.001-07:00

Feel Good Guru's Polenta Pizza

It’s really hard to find a good prepared vegan polenta crust for pizza, yet it’s soooo easy to make. Don't be intimidated thinking you'll have to stand over the stove stirring constantly for an hour. With this easy-shmeasy polenta crust, you whip it up, cover it and walk away. The polenta takes the shape and size of the pan you cook it in and browns up in the oven on a cookie sheet. Simply top with your favorite sauce and toppings, or follow the recipe below for a perfect vegan polenta pizza!

Polenta Crust:

2 cups organic polenta or cornmeal
4 cups water or vegetable broth
1 tsp sea salt
tiny drizzle of olive oil

Bring water or broth to a boil in a 10 or 12-inch diameter pot with sea salt and olive oil. Whisk in polenta slowly until it’s all incorporated. Give it a stir for about a minute, then turn the heat to low, cover the pot and leave it for 40 minutes.

Turn off the heat and allow to sit for another 10 minutes. Turn the pot upside down, carefully dropping the polenta onto a cutting board, and slice it through into two equal round pizza crusts.

Bake on a cookie sheet for about half an hour at 350 or until crispy around the edges.

Heirloom Tomato Sauce:

This can be made in advance. Quarter a pound of heirloom tomatoes and place face up on a lightly oiled roasting pan. Drizzle with a tiny bit of olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Add 6-8 whole cloves of garlic and roast about half an hour or until lightly caramelized.

Pulse with an immersion blender or mash with a fork. Add your favorite seasonal fresh herbs.

Toppings:

Slice and chop any and all of your favorite seasonal market veggies and herbs and/or the following:
Maple Shiitakes - in a frying pan on medium, toss sliced shiitakes with a little splash each of tamari and maple syrup.

finely sliced red onions, zucchini rounds, Tofurky Italian sausages

Herbed Cashew “Cheese”:

1 cup organic cashews (you can used almonds as well, just soak them overnight in spring water)
1/2 lemon, juiced
1 tsp Himalayan sea salt
1 tsp fresh basil or your favorite seasonal herb
1/4 cup spring water

Blend all ingredients in a food processor and add water slowly until a thick, cream-cheese-like consistency is formed. You want to be able to form little “cheeseballs”, so careful not to add too much water.

Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking. (I enjoy a clove or two of garlic and sometimes more lemon juice, depending how juicy the lemon is;) Use a teaspoon to form little balls to arrange on your pizza.

Bake pizza for another 10 minutes just to heat toppings. Garnish pizza with whole fresh basil leaves.

moira nordholt
www.feelgoodguru.com

@feelgoodguru on twitter

LIVE VEGAN FOR THEM

2010-03-31T02:08:00.000-07:00

Go Vegan For Them