On Monday, July 26th, a low budget animal lib film screening at Anthology Film Archives became a fascinatingly larger phenomenon. Animal welfare personalities like Moby and Russell Simmons appeared, tons of disparate vegan groups showed up to table across the entire theater (the star being a rescued beagle from Azopharma's animal testing laboratory who tabled for W.A.R.), and AR legend Andy Stepanian gave a speech in full ski mask gear about compassion in the face of animal testing horrors that made people weep openly. Needless to say, this type of thing doesn't usually happen when a low budget, non-distributed, independent film about animal rights screens in the East Village. So why did it happen this time? In a nutshell, people flocked to the sold-out show because they heard it was excellent enough to warrant such a turnout, and they realized it was way past due for a film like it to be made and seen.
Interestingly, there was never before a professionally-made narrative feature film about the growing world of animal liberation groups. Despite the sheer amount of political attention and defense budget that the Bush administration devoted to animal welfare groups, and despite the impressively unconstitutional nature of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act passed during the Bush era, scifi/horror movies like 12 Monkeys or 28 Days Later were the closest anyone's come to an ALF movie. Enter Bold Native.
This weekend's going to rock your veggie world, if you're into that sorta thing! Veggie Prom is tonight, followed by a post-prom potluck picnic at Central Park. Finally, the Veggie Pride Parade rounds out the weekend Sunday starting at 11 a.m. in the Meatpacking district.
Hungry after all the parading, yes? Z Pizza's got vegan slices this weekend, starting today! That means no more staring in their window wishing you had friends to go in on a pie with you, and no aging pizza in your fridge. (But leftover pizza is the best, no joke!)
Jonathan Horowitz's art exhibit at a former meat locker in the Village called "Go Vegan!" looks brilliant. Have you been? What'd ya think?
At least two carriage horses have crashed in the last two weeks, Gothamist reports. It's been just a month since the City Council approved changes to the carriage horse industry that support more humane treatment of the horses, but the new legislation does nothing to protect horses from injury due to crashes. Hey, it looks like you can't make carriage-hauling safe or humane for horses unless you eliminate it entirely. News. Flash.
The LA Times blog's "L.A. Unleashed" column has a snappy animal round-up of its own: Labradoodle breeder's regrets, gray whale in Israel, and researchers hurt mice to see the looks on their faces. Guh.
The Humane Society of the United States gives us a peek into Richard Berman's absurdly shady lobbying tactics and how they threaten animals. You wanna read this!
Remember when Compassion Over Killing encouraged us to enter Dunkin' Donuts's "Create Dunkin's Next Donut Contest," and asked us to share our vegan creations with them? They've picked their favorite 12 contestants' dreamed-up sweets and will make one of those dreams come true! Vote for your favorite by next Friday, May 21 (and you'll be entered to win one of 10 prizes, too). Vegan Treats will produce the winning doughnut, which will be announced in June. I will take a box of each!
The Supreme Court today struck down a law against selling videos that show animal cruelty, voting 8-1, the AP reported.
"The justices threw out the criminal conviction of Robert Stevens of Pittsville, Va., who was sentenced to three years in prison for videos he made about pit bull fights," an AP reporter writes. "...Stevens ran a business and Web site that sold videos of pit bull fights. He is among a handful of people prosecuted under the animal cruelty law."
According to the AP's report, the assenting justices voted in favor of striking down the law, which was enacted in 1999 to prevent the making and selling of crush videos, to avoid limiting free speech. "[Chief Justice John] Roberts said the law could be read to allow the prosecution of the producers of films about hunting. And he scoffed at the administration's assurances that it would only apply the law to depictions of extreme cruelty."
Does it not violate the spirit of the constitution if free speech comes at the expense of life? And perhaps a ban on videos that glorify the cowardly practice of shooting an unarmed, unassuming creature with an automatic weapon is, in fact, a positive, if unpopular, application of the law.
The single dissenting judge, Justice Samuel Alito, told the AP that the ruling might spur a new wave of crush videos because it has "the practical effect of legalizing the sale of such videos." That is not to mention the sale of dog-, cock-, and bull-fighting videos, all of which promote cruelty as sport.
Roberts implied that this might be an opportunity for lawmakers to draft new legislation that will specifically ban filming and selling crush videos and other depictions of "extreme" cruelty. But who decides what amount of cruelty is acceptable? To me and many readers of this blog, hunting, fishing, and even butchering and some cooking videos constitute irresponsible depiction of extreme, unnecessary cruelty and exploitation. As god-awful annoying as those Got Milk? commercials are insomuch as they bring to mind the miserable lives of dairy cows, I'm willing to concede that those less direct implications of animal cruelty needn't be banned. But why must we recoil at the broader applications of a law that was apparently pointing us toward more aware and rational conclusions?
As of this decision, there is no protection for animals filmed being brutalized, and no punishment for those who profit off filming the brutalization of animals. Contact your representative to politely and firmly ask for a law that protects animals from starring in "films" depicting their own cruelty.
"This is the book I wish I had had to give the meat-eaters in my life so they would understand me, and how they and I could have such a different perspective on the same issue." This statement from Melanie Joy about her new book, Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows: An Introduction to Carnism, might seem a little forward, but she's right.
Before you roll your eyes and shrug carnism off as another "ism," let Melanie explain it to you, which she does so eloquently in the interview below.
I will tell you that almost ten years ago, while I was editor of Satya Magazine, Melanie Joy submitted an article introducing the concept of carnism. She was working on her Ph.D. in psychology at the time and it was a little earnest and ambitious. Still, the editorial staff was intrigued and persuaded by her argument and we published it. I really wasn't sure where the idea would go from there. Back then, she was arguing to restructure language. Now she's talking about transforming our culture. And, again, she's right.
Why We Love Dogs, Eat Pigs, and Wear Cows is an elegantly-written description of why people eat meat. The argument is subtle but her writing is very approachable, with a friendly tone and low on the use of academic jargon. For me, it's the most thought-provoking book about how animals are perceived culturally since The Sexual Politics of Meat by Carol Adams (which had a big influence on me). I will leave it at that and let Melanie take it from here...
SV: Have you had any really surprising responses to your book so far?
MJ: Yes. I've been on a couple of radio shows in the Southwest--"cattle country"--and the reception has been surprisingly positive. Carnists and hunters have called in saying they agree with the precedent of the book. They care about animals too and are against factory farms. A lot of mainstream meat-eating readers have responded positively.
Why DO we love dogs, eat pigs, and wear cows?
Because the invisible system that I call "carnism" conditions us to love certain animals and eat others. Carnism teaches us not to feel when it comes to the animals we consume. Our natural way of responding to other animals appears to be based on empathy. One way we can see that: meat-eating societies around the world eat only a handful of species and find the idea of eating others disgusting. This is because carnism blocks our awareness and empathy when it comes to the species we have deemed edible.
Tonight I bring to your attention Brendon, your bunny friend! He's a three-year-old brown and white lop whose temporary home is Animal Care and Control of NYC in Manhattan, where he's been living since March 9.
Lots of families adopt bunnies, especially around Easter, not realizing how much care they need. An ASPCA Animal Watch article on bunny care (PDF) recommends at least 30 hours a week of exercise time, not so different from dogs. Also like dogs, bunnies bred as companion animals have personalities, don't necessarily like to be handled, and enjoy the warmth of a home. Misconceptions around those facts lead to many bunnies being abandoned at shelters this time of year.
Guys, a penis fact! Vegan Porn compared Condomania's recently published penis size rankings to the population of vegans in U.S. cities, and GUESS WHAT THEY FOUND?*Vegan men have bigger cucumbers! THIS IS A TOTALLY ACCURATE, MATHEMATICAL, BIOLOGICALLY POSSIBLE CORRELATION SO STOP TELLING ME IT ISN'T TRUE/NOT REALLY WHAT THEY FOUND. Men: go vegan and your penis will grow. (Could it hurt? No. So DO IT.**) And I mean, who wouldn't rather take it from a vegan, AM I RIGHT, LADIES?
Also in the long, enormous (can't help myself) category of Environmental Consciousness Is Good for the Earth and My Sex Life and Your Bank Account and Kitties: Y'know how Nadya Suleman (God I hate to say it but you won't know who I'm talking about unless I say it so I'm going to say it), Octomom, hasn't paid for her house and faces a foreclosure lawsuit? And how EVERYONE and their DOG is offering her, uh, unconventional opportunities to earn some cash? Well! Thursday she accepted one such offer from PETA, who basically said, "Put this sign on your lawn and we'll give you $5,000 and a month's supply of veggie burgers and hot dogs. WIN-WIN!"
Now this woman is literally a postergirl for NOT reproducing. I just love when the figurative becomes the literal.
*OK, so really they said they couldn't find a trend, but then realized most vegans are women, so: inconclusive project. But MAYBE!
**It's not about the size of the tofu, but what you bake with it. NOW GO BAKE ME SOME SWEET, SWEET LOVIN.
When Andy Stepanian and Dara Lovitz gave a talk on SHAC7 and the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) at NYU Law School on Tuesday, most of the audience came half-expecting to hear a legal seminar (Lovitz is the author of Muzzling a Movement). Almost no one expected to laugh or cry with inspiration before the talk ended, although almost everyone did. (We interviewed Andy before this event.)
This was not a speech or a classroom teaching. Dara spoke so candidly about the absurdities of animal enterprise terrorism laws that even the law students had to start laughing with her. Andy spoke so painfully earnestly to everyone that few had dry eyes by the end of the talk. No one walked away depressed, though, as the duo were determined to show everyone exactly how much potential we all have to effect positive change, despite how much money and effort the animal enterprises dump into making us feel powerless and small.
Dara, the lawyer, spoke first. And the takeaway of her talk wasn't "the history and overview of AETA," but rather just how impressively unconstitutional the AETA is, and how it managed to be drafted anyway. She explained very frankly how a series of unconscionably illegal laws culminating in AETA were pulled over everyone's eyes through passionately written passages. Passages about how animal activists victimize dying people who can only get a cure through animal testing. Passages that literally say that we owe so much of our lives to the selfless people in charge of the factory farm industry. And she put us face to face with how so many of our senators and policymakers are CEO's and beneficiaries of devastating animal enterprises.
Muggsy is a 10-year-old pit bull who's never had a permanent home. She spent the last nine years in an office on Long Island, but the company is moving to a new location where Muggsy can't follow. The company owner is going to put her down if no one takes her in, said Paula Monzolino, a letter carrier on LI who hears Muggsy cry when she delivers mail to the old building. FUCK, THIS IS SAD. I CAN HARDLY GO ON. For the love of puppy, please e-mail Paula if you can take Muggsy in. Paula's tried LI shelters, but they're all overwhelmed with dogs and cats.
New York State Humane Lobby Day is upon us, March 24, people. This is our chance to talk about legislation that will directly and significantly affect the nonhumans with whom we share the state. Want to go but don't have a ride? Chartered buses will leave from Water Street and Midtown West the morning of. $25 pp.
In the Awesome Vegan Shit on Etsy department, there's this (maybe NSFW?) Vegan Vulva Lip Balm, for the, uh, lips on your face. VulvaLoveLovely's store totally cracks me up with its vagina pendants, uterus plush dolls, breast pillows, and other assorted vag trinkets.
And how's about these super cute handmade vegan flats?! Vegansaurus pointed these out earlier this week, but I can't not direct you them again cause I loves me some sustainably-made shoes!
Speaking of shoes, we went to the opening of Melissa Shoes's pop-up shop at Kaight this week. Ooooh, shiiiiny.
Discerning Brute founder Joshua Katcher will give a vegan cooking demo TOMORROW, hear me?, at JivamukTea Cafe 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The event costs $75, and you can sign up here by going to the special events tab on the upper right and clicking "signup now!" next to Joshua's photo. (Pssst, you can check our NYC events calendar for more vegan happenings in the area, too!)
TeaNY is reopening, say some news-rumors. Alas, the LES restaurant, which has been closed since it lost to an electrical fire in June '09, isn't answering the phones or opening the doors, so I have no real live dates for you at present. TeaNY, answer my calls, open up, and bring back your sweet, sweet, frothy almond milk tea lattes. I still love you.
'sNice is opening a new location at Sullivan Street between Prince and Houston, sooort of near TeaNY. Some time this month they will fill the sandwich and tea chasm below Houston. So, TeaNY, whatever with you. Oh, consumers are so fickle. (Just kidding. More is more. Give me my lattes.)
