Dear vegans of today: Thank you for being awesome. This is so incredibly far beyond anything that was happening when I was an 18-year-old baby vegan. How far we’ve all come!
1st Annual Conference “Engaging with Eco-ability”
Binghamton University, New York
April 27 and 28, 2013
Theme: A Politics of Disability, Animal Liberation, and Queering
The 1st Annual Conference “Engaging with Eco-ability” will be hosted at Binghamton University April 27th & 28th, 2013. The conference will be organized and moderated by Anthony Nocella II and JL Schatz. The goal of this conference is to lay the groundwork for an edited book that’s part of the Critical Animal Studies series published by Lexington Books.
Sponsors include Binghamton University English Department, Binghamton University, Institute for Critical Animal Studies, and Students for Critical Animal Studies.
Karyn Zoldan says yes; the facts may astound you. Sometimes things that seem like they must be really fun are actually hiding a lot of violence and exploitation. Read for yourself to see if you agree.
“I Am Not an Animal”: “This project explores how the psychological dynamics of our fear of death shape our relationships with other animals, leading to our need to claim superiority over them in ways that are often exploitative and abusive.” (Via The Ghosts in Our Machine)
Emotion Work in Animal Rights Activism: A Moral-Sociological Perspective: “While participation in the animal protection movement can impart a deep sense of purpose it can also involve navigating a host of emotions on a near-daily basis… It is important for advocates to recognize these emotional costs and look to self care when needed. This will not only strengthen the individual but the movement as a whole.” (Via Carnism Awareness & Action Network)
Law Enforcement Today article warns police not to kill family dogs: “Law enforcement officers have now officially been warned in a trade publication not to shoot family dogs… What was acceptable behavior for an officer ten years ago may be considered entirely unethical in this period of time. This includes how the family dog is to be treated.”
Does Wearing Vintage Fur Instead of New Fur Make You a Better Person?: “Like, say, a vegetarian who occasionally eats chicken, the capacity that we have to trick ourselves into thinking that we’re sticking to our moral code—even as we deviate from it—is astounding. As usual.”
I read Lindy West’s F*ck Yes, I’ll Eat Some Horse Meat. Give It to Me. I Love It. on Jezebel with amusement and… shock? I’m not used to seeing things like this in mainstream media. It’s just so conscious, calling humans on our speciesism so clearly and bluntly and irreverently: Humans know that all animals are made of meat, she writes. (She doesn’t touch on the fact that humans are also animals, and also made of meat, but okay.) So if we eat cows, what business do we have being all upset when we accidentally eat a horse? Good point.
Back when I was 17 I went to Japan on a scholarship and resolved I would try to be really open, and would try any food that came my way. I was an enthusiastic omnivore then, comfortable with myself as an animal that had evolved to eat other animals (I, um, hadn’t read enough yet), and I was ready for anything. I ate a lot of flesh from members of species I never eaten before: octopi, eels, lots of unfamiliar fishes. No turtles. I had a ban on turtles and rabbits because I had had them as pets.
I had met a horse many times, a horse who was deeply loved by someone in my family, but I hadn’t ever gotten really close with horses. So on this trip, I ate horse. Raw, actually — there was a big plate of horse sushi at the reception the Japanese government folks held for us exchange students. I didn’t want to be rude, and I kind of wanted to show off how brave and culturally open I was, to defy some stereotypes about Americans. So I ate some. It tasted a lot like all the other sushi: Soft and chewy and kind of slimy. It was fine, but I didn’t enjoy it. And now, years later, when I’ve come to the realization that horses and cows and humans are all the same, I regret that I made the choice I did then. I have to live with that regret for the rest of my life. I wish that I had seen it then: If animals are all made of meat, what do we do? Eat all of them indiscriminately? (Why not humans then?) Or stop eating all of them, because we’ve realized that all the other meat is just as autonomous as we are?
For more on humanity’s apparently willful ignorance about our food choices, watch this clip from Real Time With Bill Maher, Episode 273 (wherein he says a number of insensitive things as he is wont to do, sorry):
It’s perhaps worth noting that despite his apparent grasp of the consent issues relating to animal exploitation, Bill Maher isn’t vegan.
I’m curious if human beings will always try to hold onto the idea that we’re somehow so special we should be allowed to treat every member of every other species on this planet like they’re property.
Huffington Post writes about Bear Dog, a canine resident of Castle Rock, Washington:
One black Lab mix is so popular that he has become the exception to his town’s “no pets allowed” rule… According to the Longview Daily News, locals love him so much that he’s been written into posted signs barring animals… The town will likely erect a monument when Bear Dog passes away, Mayor Paul Helenberg told the paper.
Do we love them or hate them? Do we respect them or not? Are we troubled enough by the inconsistent and sometimes exploitative and violent ways we treat them, to change our actions? Read the rest of this entry »
Last week a man named Michael Upchurch was doing his route on the back of a garbage truck in Muncie, Indiana, when he heard someone crying. He found a six-week-old puppy in a recycling bag: “This ole’ doggy here hollering, ‘Save me.’ I guess in doggy talk.” Read the rest of this entry »
Ah, humans. We’re always up to something.
