Vegan Bites: Juice And Prejudice
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Vegan Food:
Vegan News:
- The European Union bans seal fur. Sadly across the pond, “More than 200,000 seals have been killed in Canada this year – 98 per cent of them pups between two weeks and three months old.” Read more here >>
- “Home Shopping Network (HSN)—which reaches 90 million U.S. homes—has adopted a permanent fur-free policy.” via PETA.
- “Contaminated Veggies Are the Meat Industry’s Fault” is the title of an excellent pro-vegan article that says, “The latest salmonella scare shows that even vegetarians are still at the mercy of the meat industry.” and “It’s not the veggies that are to blame. The problem is the meat. Salmonella is an animal pathogen, so it doesn’t originate from tomatoes. Most experts agree that the bacteria probably come from groundwater contaminated with animal feces. You read that right: Cow sh*t is in your tomatoes. Actually, cow shit is in everything: the water, hamburgers, other plant life,” Read it at AlterNet >>
- “Thirteen people were taken to hospital, one of them seriously injured, on the first day of the annual bull running festival in the northern Spanish town of Pamplona,” source: Washington Post. Duh, bull runs aren’t safe for bulls OR humans. It’s a stupid, cruel tradition that MUST end. (Hat tip to Ryan)
- High cholesterol kids being put on statins as young as eight years old. Bean Diet comments: “Anyone else thinking, “Instead of giving kids cholesterol-lowering meds, why not change their diet? I mean, why not change the root cause instead of treating the symptom????”" Chicago Tribune writer comments, too: “Cholesterol-lowering medications have the ability to alter your genetic structure and deteriorate your muscles [...] I walk now with a cane, because of the damage that was done to my muscles.”
Vegan Activism:
- SuperVegan has a collection of activism going on right now to help animals, including Farm Sanctuary’s pig rescues in the Midwest. More pro-animal news and activism at SV >>
- More action alerts from Easy Vegan >>
Vegan Theory:
- Eric Prescott discusses the Great Ape Project: He’s worried about the precedent set by Spain’s recent decision to allow some primates some legal protections because of their high cognitive abilities. “Do we protect humans from torture, death, and restriction of liberty based on cognitive capacity? No, we legally protect all sentient humans with rights. Of course, this protection is generally exclusive to our own species, an arbitrary distinction when it comes to determining which beings merit legal protection for their moral rights.” He’s right in theory. Practice is a different matter entirely. For proof, check out how Americans apply the death penalty and our unfair history of sentencing death to some people more than others because they are mentally handicapped, minors, poor, or people of color. So, while I agree with him that our application of rights theory for some sentient beings and not for others is based upon irrelevant differences, I don’t agree that we humans actually have a coherent system of human rights that isn’t based on prejudice and privilege. Our notions of rights have been historically based on irrelevant differences like skin color, sex, age, and yes, cognitive ability. For example, women were denied the right to vote partially on the premise that women weren’t as smart as men. And literacy tests have been used to deny people voting rights as well as the human rights afforded by legal immigration. So, it seems to me as though the evolution of animal rights theory is following the precedent set by human rights theory. Thoughts?
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