Writer Jonathan Safran Foer's been getting a lot of media attention lately for the just published Eating Animals, his first book-length piece of nonfiction, which is very much against the eponymous activity. I haven't read it, and I don't expect that I (or most SuperVegan readers) will learn much from it that we don't already know about what's wrong with eating animals. This is not a book written for vegans. But it's a book that vegans ought to have some understanding of.

For better or worse, an established literary novelist like Foer can get people to pay attention to what's wrong with factory farming in a way that more academic or of-the-movement authors such as Peter Singer or Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson cannot. And Foer is relatively folksy and accessible (if not artless) compared to someone like J.M. Coetzee, whose arguments in defense of animals are unapologetically over most people's heads, and who isn't about to do a bunch of press interviews.

Foer finds lots of problems with industrial animal agriculture, and with eating meat in a general ethical sense, but he does not come down against non-meat or non-food animal products. This is a book about meat. That's got a lot of vegans understandably perturbed--an influential guy sets up a strong argument for many tenets of veganism, yet fails to go there. Mainstream media may not care, but it's important for us vegans to understand why Foer isn't vegan, and how he feels about veganism.

Josh Hooten of Herbivore attended a talk by Foer last night at Powell's Books in Portland, OR. Hooten is the right kind of vegan, and he wrote a great report/defense on the talk (which he posted on Facebook, and graciously allowed me to republish here.) Here's the first and last sentences, and you can read the whole thing below.

Foer isn't an animal rights person, he is coming from outside our community and perhaps that is why he is getting the attention he's getting for his new book Eating Animals.
...
As a messenger getting people to think about this stuff for the first time, I think he's amazing.

Today, after a long struggle, the European Union has finally voted to ban all seal products. This is a huge victory for the seals, and hopefully it will go a long way to ending the massacre of any more Canadian baby seals.

Even before it passed, it seems the threat of the ban already devastated the baby seal hunting industry. In 2006, seal pelts sold for $105, while this year they sold for $14 each.

The result being, Canada had a quota of 280,000 seals this year, but the sealers ultimately only bothered to slaughter 59,500. Longtime seal hunter and seal hunt advocate Jack Troake stated, "We just couldn't seal for those prices. The prices were too low."

Canada's government tried many things, including sending Inuit seal hunters to the European Parliament to plead Canada's case for them, before the EU finally voted in favor of the ban. Canada's great effort against the ban and the dramatic drop in seal pelt prices both indicate that the seal hunt will no longer be worth it post EU ban. Hopefully the permanent end of the hunt is now imminent.

Former Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker appeared on last night's Chelsea Lately to tout the benefits of his latest fad diet: freshly squeezed raw puppy juice.

Barker, a former vegetarian poster boy, ate meat for the first time in 16 years to speed the healing of a broken arm. He then gave up his vegetarian diet entirely after he was injured in a plane crash. Barker explained that his latest diet was inspired by the advice of his Los Angeles physician.

Puppy juice first made the news last month when former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin touted its age-defying powers on Oprah. According to Travis Barker, "Puppy juice is great for the skin. It gives my tattoos an awesome sheen, and it's totally worth the incontinence. Plus I haven't had a single herpes flare-up since I began using it."

Asked for his opinion, New York Times food expert Mark Bittman pointed out the environmental benefits of eating an overpopulated species, but added, "Puppies are cute. Why can't he just eat veal like everyone else?"

"It's cruel and barbaric to kill an innocent young puppy just for its miraculous healing powers," added celebrity chef Isa Chandra Moskowitz. "I'd only juice a puppy if I found one already dead, like on the street or something."

However, vegan expert Kathy Freston explained, "He only juices puppies that would be euthanized anyway. And if his doctors say it's necessary, well, who are we to judge?"

Just a month after the launch of BOCA-egg-facts.com and Compassion Over Killing, Mercy for Animals, and the Animal Protection and Rescue League's combined campaign to convince BOCA to remove egg products from its line, BOCA has announced that all of its products will be eggless by 2010.

A BOCA spokesperson told COK, "I am pleased to let you know the BOCA brand will be eliminating eggs in all of its products by the end of this year. We anticipate all BOCA products will be egg free in 2010."

E-mail BOCA to thank them for the change.

Craving a BOCA burger and can't wait till the new year? (Or just tired of checking the backs of packages at the supermarket?) These BOCA foods are vegan: Chili, Vegan Burger, Chik'n Nuggets, Chik'n Patties, Spicy Chik'n Patties, and Ground Crumbles in the regular line and the Vegan Burger and Ground Crumbles in the Natural line.

On Tuesday, March 3rd, a Canadian senator made the unorthodox move of proposing an end to the annual Canadian baby seal hunt. The proposal has been getting less than an enthusiastic response in the Canadian government, but it's the first step towards ending the largest annual slaughter of marine mammals in the world, and you can show your support for this move.

Canadian senator Mac Harb proposed to end the annual commercial seal hunt, which results in the deaths of over 200,000 seals in Canada annually (over a quarter of a million seals in 2008), although no one in the Canadian senate voted to second his proposal.

Despite a lack of local support, Harb's proposal is indicative of the entire world's growing disgust of the baby seal pelt industry. For instance, a day before Harb's proposal, the European Union's parliament (internal market and consumer protection committee) voted to support the ban of all seal products. Not only that, but even Russia has now banned its own baby seal hunt, as Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin stated that the "bloody industry" should have been banned long ago.

Once again, the Canadian proposal has lacked support in Canada's government. But you can show your own support for the bill. To send letters of support, the e-mail address for Senator Mac Harb is harbsealbill@sen.parl.gc.ca, and his postal address (free postage since it's to the House) is:

Senator Mac Harb: House of Commons
Parliament Buildings
Ottawa, Ontario
Canada
K1A 0A6

For more information on the Canadian seal hunt, the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd Conservation Society has a helpful page on hunt facts.

Take the tea or coffee. Tropicana is branding one of its orange juices as "healthy heart with omega-3." Translation? They're infusing it with fish oil. And they're not the only ones obsessed with omega-3s. Manufacturers are adding fish oils to their salad dressings, cookies (wha-what?) and even--get a pail and a paper towel--milk.

Though many organizations have tauted fish oil and shrugged at flaxseed oil and other vegetable sources of omega-3s, it looks like most agree that omega-3 fatty acids from flaxseed oil can be just as helpful as those from fish oil. In evaluating the two sources purely from a health perspective, it also makes sense to consider, as this article from Supplement Quality does, what the fish and the flax were exposed to before they were squeezed and poured into a bottle. Did the flaxseeds swim in mercury and hormones? Probably not. Some studies, like the one conducted by the British Medical Journal in 2006, suggest that fish oil offers no protection against heart disease.

So tell your bruch buddies there's something fishy in their orange juice. But more important, tell Tropicana to use flaxseed oil, because you don't drink your friends.

Thanks to Robyn for the tip!

Joshua Katcher of The Discerning Brute has started a video series called DBTV. The first episode, embedded below, features him wandering Soho interviewing fur-wearers about their garments. By pretending to have a purely fashion-oriented agenda (as opposed to an animal rights one), Joshua wins to confidence of his subjects before he starts to talk about where the fur comes from.

He plays it a little dumb and very friendly, but doesn't go full-on Bruno or anything. I doubt most of us could do something like this and keep our cool the way Joshua does!


I'm very much looking forward to the next episode!

While watching the inauguration with my own agenda, that of the millions of animals killed for their fur, I was shocked but very pleased to see that Aretha Franklin wasn't wearing ANY fur. Not a single tuft anywhere on her coat or hat, amazing. I once poked my head into her limo parked in Columbus Circle and explained to her why her wearing fur was cruel to animals...and offensive to me. So perhaps I should take full credit for her fashion choice today, ha! Though the coat she was wearing may have been wool. One step at a time I guess.

Michele Obama and Jill Biden didn't have a stitch of fur on either. Laura Bush wasn't wearing any fur and she looked quite sophisticated in her gray ensemble (which may have been wool). Her daughters, the Bush twins, had no fur on and were actually wearing quite sensible coats (ok, maybe I'll miss their shenanigans just a little bit).

Lynne Cheney had a big fur collar on her coat, figures. Her husband hunts (both animals and people apparently) fer christ's sake.

But the worst violation of decency goes to Spike Lee's wife, Tonya Lewis, who was wearing a big, grotesque fur. Spike's not off the hook either; he sported a fur collar and a Yankees hat with fur lining. Did they "Do the Right Thing" and have some consideration before flaunting their wealth--and bad taste--during this recession? Not by a long shot.

When, more than a month ago, Slate labeled the vampires of Stephenie Meyer's paranormal teen romance Twilight "vegetarian," I hoped that Slate was unique in publicly--and I say "publicly" because the term was first produced in the novel--misidentifying the vampires' "compassionate" diets. But a small newspaper in London, London!, picked up the misnomer as recently as yesterday morning.

So I'm thinking: Really. Really? Come on.

For those of us—and I include myself in this group—who have painstakingly, and probably unsuccessfully, tried to avoid every gaping cultural footprint of Meyer's novel, the story is one of a 16-year-old girl and a vampire named Edward who fall in love but have no outlet for their desire, since Meyer, a Mormon herself, has fashioned a Mormon-friendly, sexless (but maybe kind of erotic!) story. One of Edward's many points of appeal? He spares humans and drinks the blood of other animals instead. See? He cares.

That's the insult, and here's the injury: the term is being haphazardly vomited up all over the media. There's a Twilight fan club called Vegetarian Vampires. There's a wikiHow article, "How To Look Like a Twilight Vampire," that advises fans what color contacts to sport for true vegetarian vampire authenticity: "Put on gold contacts if you are a 'vegetarian' vampire. If you do not want to be vegetarian, put on burgundy/red contacts. This step is optional. If you're a hungry vampire your eyes should be a dark color." And, worst of all--because teen girls are always worst of all--there are girls everywhere swooning at the thought of an anemic-looking, long-toothed fellow sucking on rabbits because, you know, he's a nice vampire.

So next time you're hungry for, uh, vampires, watch True Blood, where the blood is as artificial as the breasts.

We blogged it a few weeks ago, but this is worth another mention. If you are anywhere near New York City, and you care at all about animal issues, you are a fool and a loser if you don't visit Banksy's "Village Pet Store And Charcoal Grill" at 89 7th Avenue between West 4th and Bleeker Street.

The shop touches on humans' exploitation of animals for food, chemical and behavioral testing, fur, and entertainment. I've never been a big fan of Banksy's drawing/stencil work, but this show is just great, conceptually technologically, and aesthetically. It's subversive and clever, sure, but also quite touching and unnerving.

It's great how it's just a store-front. I suspect most visitors stumbled upon the place, rather than seeking it out. Even if you don't think you like or understand fine art, you'll be OK here. It's just a mock store, with animatronics, just like at Disneyland.

The show closes on October 31st, Halloween. The price and the hours are friendly--free admission, open 10am-midnight. Go!

(There's lots more there than what's in the video.)