Shop According to Your Values This Christmas

It’s the holiday season again where we think about those dearest to us and buy them a little gift to show our appreciation, but how do you know the companies you are buying from aren’t working against the causes you support? Well, here are some ways to help you make more ethical choices this Christmas:

 4 Ideas on How to Shop According to Your Values This Christmas  

The 3 Top Misconceptions about Veganism

I have been a vegan since 1983. And through those years, I have met many vegans and most of them are making erroneous statements about what it means to be vegan. I notice it's getting worse and worse as the years go by as the definition of veganism gets unethically watered down more and more...It's very disconcerting. These same "vegans" are also making things even more worse by teaching non-vegans incorrectly about what it means to be an animal rights activist.
So let me give you the facts if you have believed any of the following misconceptions:


#1. VEGANS MUST LOVE ANIMALS.

Nope. Even though most vegans do love animals, you don't have to love animals to be a vegan. I don't know of any person who honestly loves every single animal on this planet--and I don't think anyone does. I certainly don't! Liberating animals has got nothing to do with loving them. Animal liberation has everything to do with justice and freedom to allow sentient beings to live as they want in peace.


#2. VEGANISM MEANS BEING CRUELTY-FREE.

Nope..not exactly. Sure one must be cruelty-free to be vegan but that isn't the main reason to be vegan. Veganism is about being exploitation-free. There's a difference. One example is using service animals. Service animals, be they being used for a business or privately--even treated very well physically--are still animals being used; it is still exploitation and exploiting any being is unethical and not vegan. So just because animals are not being treated cruelly--in the sense that they are not being beaten, starved, or killed, the fact that they are being used in any way is exploiting them. Regarding keeping animals as companion animals, we only do this because humans unethically forced animals to be kept to serve or to be used as companions many generations ago, domesticating them to the point where they have lost most of their natural wild instinct to survive in nature. It's now pretty much a fait accompli where we have no choice but to keep them as "companions" otherwise they would die very quickly in the wild, at a great unjustly disadvantage.


#3. NOT EVERYONE BECOMES VEGAN OVERNIGHT, SO VEGANS MUST NOT TRY TO PERSUADE EVERYONE TO GO VEGAN IMMEDIATELY. EVERYONE HAS THEIR OWN JOURNEY AND STILL CAN BE CALLED, OR CONSIDERED TO BE, VEGANS.

False and totally missing the point of being a vegan. We must teach people the truth and nothing but. They must know what being vegan means, and let them decide on their own whether they want to become vegan immediately or sometime later, but we never give them suggestions (different ways of still exploiting an animal in their journey) of how to get there--and as they go on their own journey, they are not vegans. That is their decision, and one they have to live with if they choose to be vegan later. They must know being vegan means one does not eat, drink, use, or wear ANY animal product item, nor is tested on animals.

No, there is no such thing as a perfect vegan but if one strives daily and honestly to remove as much animal products from their life as possible, this is what it means to be a vegan. I am constantly researching to find exploitative-free items to replace things in my house that is from an animal--or tested on animals. And with SO MANY vegan things around in this day and age--from expensive to free; from intentionally to unintentionally--vegan, there's no excuse to wait to be vegan.

It's devastatingly sad that many known vegans are teaching falsehoods like the above to non-vegans. Just speak the truth in love. Don't insult people by hiding the facts or saying things just to make them feel less guilty. If, for instance, they choose on their own to start with being vegetarian, just encourage them to become vegan from time-to-time and show by example the vegan life.

Be Your Own Animal Rights Group!

Instead of writing out a check and giving it to multi-million dollar groups like PETA or places where you really don't know how they are using your money when you give it to them, you can buy food, toys, and/or bedding and give them to your local animal shelters and while there if you can, spend some time with these animals by petting them and just showing them love as they are often times in shelters for so long they become anti-social thus harder to adopt. Try and help to keep them friendly and approachable. If someone is ill in the hospital and has a companion animal at home with no one to care for the animal, volunteer to take care of the companion animal, either by stopping by the house to care for them or taking the animal in until the person is released from the hospital (if you have that kind of trusting relationship with the person). Also, times are still tough for many people financially so if you know someone who is struggling to pay vet bills or struggling to feed their companion animals, you can help them pay for these needed things. 

I have always stated the best way to be an animal activist is by being your own animal rights group--instead of paying other animal people/groups to directly take care of animals (do you really know how they are using your money?), start doing it yourself, and in this way you know where your money is going and you are really a part of seeing it help the animals. 

Horseback Riding Cruelty: Part 2

More information on horseback riding cruelty.

A Cruelty-Free Guide to Thanksgiving

Examples of cruelty-free commercial alternatives for the holidays--and any day!

A week from today is Thanksgiving and some of us vegans try and simply avoid thinking about the impending massacre of turkeys around Thanksgiving, preferring to ignore it altogether, and some use the date as an opportunity to educate people on the reality of what Thanksgiving means for those whose bodies are to become centerpieces on the tables of over 45 million American homes.

Turkeys are social beings who nurture and protect their young and thrive in their natural habitat. Even when they are stressed and confined (whether “free-range” or otherwise), they have an amazing will to live, as do all sentient beings.

The photos above show the easy alternative way for having a cruelty-free Thanksgiving. But if you want to make a homemade Tofurky roast and gravy, here is a recipe link below to do that:

Homemade Tofurkey with Brown Rice Stuffing

Vegan Mushroom Gravy

At the link below is a collection of Thanksgiving links to look at and make your own Thanksgiving experience more meaningful and hopefully to share with others the truth about who turkeys could be to us if we would only open our hearts to them.

A Vegan Guide to Thanksgiving

Steve Best: The Politics of Total Liberation

Steve Best is an associate professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at El Paso, but he’s perhaps best known as an advocate for the liberation of the earth and all who live on it--humans as well as other animals.

Dr. Best has published 13 books and hundreds of articles and has been active nationally and internationally for more than 3 decades, challenging the conventional wisdom. He speaks about his new book, The Politics of Total Liberation: Revolution in the 21st Century. Audio podcast, Approx. 65 minutes.

Steve Best: The Politics of Total Liberation

Horseback Riding Cruelty: Part 1

Information regarding horseback riding.