Don’t Say ‘Meat’; Say ‘Protein’
The $325,000 Burger
Soy – the Good, the Bad and the Poisonous
Blessings Galore at St. John the Divine
Poland’s top court has ruled that ritual slaughter of animals according to religious requirements is illegal. Specifically this means that the kosher and halal method of slaughter, by which a conscious animal is held upside down while her throat is slit, cannot be continued.
Who will be the new chairman of the Congressional Science Committee in the House of Representatives? Someone who believes what science tells us? Or perhaps one…
With animal protection groups raising holy hell over Green Mountain College’s (GMC) plan to kill their two old working oxen and serve them up in the…
The Israeli government is considering pleas from wildlife groups in Israel and Palestine to do something that will give local wildlife a way through the separation barrier between the two countries that’s now approaching it’s tenth anniversary.
The impassable barrier, part wall, part series of barbed wire fences, that stretches for 490 miles, was designed to keep Palestinians out of Israel. But like so many other separation barriers that nations have erected against each other over the centuries, it’s devastating to the other animals for whom these boundaries are meaningless.
In a loose comparison of President Obama to the legendary King Canute, who was expected by his courtiers to be able to turn back the tides,…
How do nonhuman animals vote for which direction to go in? The animal “kingdom” turns out to be much more of an animal democracy – and, in many respects, a lot more democratic than most human so-called democracies.
The evidence that dairy products are actively bad for you just keeps mounting. A 2009 study linked them to breast cancer. Another study has linked them…
Bill and Lou still enjoy the sunny fall afternoons at Green Mountain College, a Vermont school that teaches sustainable farming to its students. The two elderly…
Although President Obama, Gov. Romney and the debate moderators all chose not to raise the topic of climate change, Mother Nature may get the last word.…
As an unprecedented political drama continued to unfold outside London’s 10 Downing Street, police had to be called to break up the catfight over who should inhabit the Prime Minister’s official residence.
An eight-year-old girl, dressed in a skunk costume for a Halloween party, was in critical condition at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh after being shot by her cousin, who thought she was a skunk.
Kidnapped by human traffickers at age four, Marina Chapman woke up to find herself abandoned in the rain forest of Colombia. She spent the next five years living with Capuchin monkeys – like a female Tarzan.
Now in her 60s, she’s finally telling her story.
Proverbially, the world ends either with a bang or with a whimper. But last night we learned that it will end, instead, in silence.
In a debate that was all about how we relate to the rest of the world, neither President Obama nor Gov. Romney ever mentioned the global devastation being wrought by climate change, the mass extinctions that are unfolding, the multiple pandemics that can break loose at any moment, the poisoning of the land, the oceans and the air we breathe, or any of the other enormous threats we face.
Last month, I wrote about my friend Tom, who, after doing much to bring an end to the killing of homeless pets, finds himself involved in horse rescue and rehab – one horse at a time. Last month, Spartacus, an 18-year-old Peruvian Paso who had had a horrible life, had just had a visit from the chiropractor. Here’s an update from Tom on how Spartacus is doing a month later:
In order to get rock star Morrissey to appear on his show, Stephen Colbert had to agree to his entire studio being free of animal products…
We are not humans as something separate from other species, says India’s former Environment Minister Maneka Gandhi. You can only love yourself if you love all the other kinds of animals. “I love them because all of them are me and it is the ultimate self-love to see myself in every blade of grass and therefore to be respectful of it.”
Carmina was a stray, struggling to care for her newborn kittens in a deserted parking lot in Washington, D.C. But on Sunday, October 3, 2010, she began her new life as the official Cathedral cat of the National Cathedral.
Thoughts for St. Francis Day. On Capitol Hill in 2007, Christopher Shays – who was then co-Chair of the Congressional Friends of Animals Caucus – spoke of the need for the faith-based community to play its part in the work of animal protection. These are his remarks.
Inside Manhattan’s Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, the pews fill quickly, and the air thickens with anticipation. As people await the Blessing of the Animals service, the hush is broken by music, whispered conversations and the occasional bark. Here and there, someone leans over to murmur a few words to the dog by his side, or to the cat or rabbit in a carrier at her feet. Soon, the clergy begin to offer communion to the faithful. Songs and prayers follow. Finally, the cathedral’s massive front doors swing open.
I’m sometimes a bit suspicious of people who call themselves animal lovers. “Loving” animals can mean all kinds of things. And while most of the people…