A second brief tangent from sex and relationships, though I promise to post on my Valentine’s Day as well!
February 22-28 marks the Animal Legal Defense Fund’s first-ever National Justice for Animals Week, to raise awareness for those who are abused and neglected but can’t speak for themselves. Check out ALDF’s website for more information and activities being held around the country on this issue as well as updates on the good work that ALDF does on behalf of abused and neglected animals.
Image may be NSFW.
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Companion Animals
With the exception of one of my cats, which was a gift from my sister, all of the animals I’ve had as an adult have been rescued in one sense or another. In college, I rescued and kept a neutered stray (who unfortunately died of a heart defect 3 years later) and just this year I rescued and found a home for a neutered, declawed stray we found in our neighborhood (the height of cruelty, as we live in an area of the country where coyotes are common and declawed cats are at a severe disadvantage when defending themselves).
My kitty who just died, and whose sister I still have, were abandoned at the Humane Society because their owners decided that they wanted a child and couldn’t be bothered to relocate their cats of six and a half years to a friend or family member. We found our dog in a parking lot and the vet we took her to said she was so neglected that we shouldn’t even bother to try and find the owner.
Farm Animals
The BF and I are both vegetarians because of the cruelty involved in factory farms including inhumane living conditions, unnecessarily brutal methods of killing, and abuse at the hands of factory farm and slaughterhouse workers. Those who are into yoga are generally vegetarian/vegan because that belief system takes the idea “you are what you eat” to mean that when you eat the flesh of an animal who has been raised specifically to be slaughtered, you are ingesting the pain, fear, confusion, and cruelty that led to the meat’s arrival to your plate.
Not only is this food a product of cruelty, much of it is unsafe to eat. The presence of bovine growth hormone, bacteria, and pus in dairy products, for example, has been linked to Crohn’s disease. Mad cow disease is spread in part by cows eating infected meat and bone meal (i.e., eating other infected cows) which are then eaten by humans. And the other industries are just as bad.
As if compassion and health reasons weren’t enough, cutting back on your meat and dairy consumption is the number one way to go green. The meat industry is responsible for 18% of humankind’s carbon footprint – more than the entire transportation industry.
Learn more. Take action. Participate in National Justice for Animals Week.
If this post made you want to cry/throw up in your mouth a little/save the earth, you might also enjoy:
