Posts tagged with animal welfare:
Krže Studio: My New Cruelty-Free Fashion Obsession!
Today I ran around with my new “Claire” bag from Krže Studio, and it’s safe to say that I’m in love. I met the fabulous designer Leila at this year’s Genesis Awards, and within seconds I was hooked on her vision (and her!). All of her items currently in production are made in Italy out of the highest quality vegan materials available.
When I received this bag in the mail yesterday, the first thing I noticed was how soft it is! Unfortunately, I don’t know what else to compare it to other than calf skin (you know when you accidentally touch something in a store and you can immediately tell it came from a baby animal?). The second thing I noticed was the excellent craftsmanship that went into it. I feel 100% confident that I could travel the world with this bag (and abuse it like I normally do) and it would survive beautifully.
The high fashion industry is sadly a major contributor to unnecessary animal cruelty, so I believe it is very important to support new, cruelty-free, small businesses! Right now, you can shop the Summer Sale (and get 30% off of this bag!), but don’t forget to look out for the presale of the upcoming line, which should be launched no later than July 1st.
(also, the shoes I’m wearing are by another lovely vegan brand, Cri de Coeur!)
Don’t you love it when fashion doesn’t have to hurt animals or the planet?
“Just give me the next one you’re going to kill.”
A few months ago, I saw a story on Facebook about a friend who, after unexpectedly losing her father, sought out healing by visiting a local shelter. She decided to deal with her father’s death by giving the gift of life. She walked into her local high-kill shelter and said to the first employee she saw: “Just give me the next one you’re going to kill.”
The employee went back into the rows of cages and brought out a pit mix; he wasn’t aggressive, he wasn’t elderly, he wasn’t sick. He just wasn’t a puppy, he wasn’t a purebred, and his time was up. If this friend of mine hadn’t shown up, he would have died within the hour. His story isn’t unique, American shelters kill a pet every 10 seconds.
I understand that it’s not feasible for every person to walk into a shelter and commit to saving the next red-tagged animal. Many of us have to at least have some plan in mind for the size, age, and approximate breed of animal we want to adopt (yard space, free time for training, allergies, and building requirements are real life variables most people have to consider).
That said, it is not unreasonable to think that when bringing a new family member into the home, we can at least make an effort to adopt the less easily-adoptable angels: the elderly (it’s nearly impossible for a dog or cat more than 8-years-old to get out of a shelter alive), the disabled, the ones with personality issues (our rescue chihuahua Jimmy was rescued on his last day before euthanasia; his abusive former owner intentionally broke his front leg, so of course he was a biter; after some TLC he turned into the sweetest, most grateful little love bug), or the overlooked ones who, for no obvious reasons, have been in the shelter long enough to be approaching their euthanasia date.
The pups pictured here are currently stuck in the high-kill Orange County Animal Shelter, and were photographed by an incredible volunteer who posts beautiful photos of all adoptable OC dogs on her Facebook page. If you’re local to Southern California, please take a look. Far too many animals lose their lives behind those walls every day.
Please consider making room in your heart & home for an animal that may, if not for your action, lose their life very soon.
You could be their hero. They’re waiting for you, and hoping you see them.
I cannot wait until every person in the world is able to see this incredible new documentary, The Ghosts In Our Machine, which features the life, adventures, and struggles of (my hero) Jo-Anne McArthur, who dedicates her life to photographing reality on factory farms, “family” farms, and farm sanctuaries across the world. Her work is mind-blowing and the film is hauntingly beautiful.
Check out the trailer now at www.theghostsinourmachine.com, and follow their progress on Facebook for information & updates about screenings and distribution.
We eat a LOT of vegan burgers around here, so we’ve gotten pretty ridiculously good at it. Because we’ve had such success, I feel it’s only right to share my tips with the world. Here’s what we do:
First, marinade a package of Gardein beefless burgers in a mixture of apple cider vinegar, vegan Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, a dash of liquid smoke, diced shallots and a LOT of minced garlic for about two hours. Keep them on the counter so the frozen burgers can thaw.
Once the burgers are soft and juicy, use your hands to roll them into round balls (make sure you get some onion and garlic chunks in there!) and then flatten them out into patties. Grill (ideally) or sauté in olive oil (and, if you wish, additional Worcestershire sauce & liquid smoke).
My preferred toppings typically include vegan mayo, ketchup, mustard, red onions, cilantro (or basil, as shown here), tomato, and avocado. The cheesy sauce in my bottom photo has a Dairy Tree base (products launching soon!) with added cashew cream, Daiya cheddar shreds, and nutritional yeast.
It’s summer, get grillin’! And let me know what you think :)
It absolutely breaks my heart to think of all the families torn apart by human gluttony. It’s ridiculous. We should be so much better than this. Please choose a cruelty-free lifestyle, for the mothers’ sake!
(Photo by my hero Jo-Anne McArthur for We Animals)
I’m pretty obsessed with my new OlsenHaus vegan shoes! Not only are they fun and fashionable (and perfect for summer!), but they are also made out of recycled, eco-friendly, plant-based materials.
(and yes, my dog has absolutely peed on the fire hydrant I’m sitting on)
You can buy through their website or (as I usually do) on Amazon!
I’m so impressed by the passion and bravery of the Italian activists who freed 30 beagles from Green Hill, a massive, hellish breeding farm that supplies dogs to vivisection labs.
Because of their loving and forgiving nature, beagles are commonly tested on all across the world (notoriously by cigarette companies, with the exception of American Spirits). Unfortunately, a few of the beagles were confiscated and returned to their prison, but they will not be forgotten. My hope is that their story and their sacrifice will be shared and publicized so that people will open their hearts and eyes and stand up against unreliable, unjustified animal testing.
Keep being awesome, Italians.
In case you missed it, this past week an incredibly brave activist, Jacqueline Traide, endured painful and humiliating tests in the storefront of LUSH Cosmetics (one of my absolute favorite companies, which I now love even more!), to call attention to the millions of animals poked, prodded, caged, abused, tortured, and killed all day every day across the world, in the name of “science,” or worse, vanity.
LUSH (partnered with Humane Society International) continues to be a leader in the global campaign against unnecessary animal testing for cosmetics.
Please join them by supporting their work (shop with them!), boycotting companies that DO test on animals, and especially signing their online petition!!!
As a lifelong lover of pigs (the film ‘Gordy’ turned me veg at 8 yrs old), gestation crates are, for me, one of the most heartbreaking elements of the factory farming system.
More than 6 million pigs in the U.S. are kept as breeding sows on factory farms…For a 400-pound sow, it’s such a tight fit that she can’t turn around, lie down comfortably or take more than a step forward and back for most of her life.
Because most humans prioritize a momentary experience of gustatory pleasure above not only animal welfare but also their own health, mama pigs are subjected to a lifetime of loneliness, discomfort, and confusion.
We can fight this by choosing and promoting a cruelty-free lifestyle (it’s fun, I promise!).
I may be about 2000 years late, but I’m kind of in love with Plutarch.
“Can you really ask what reason Pythagoras had for abstaining from flesh?
For my part I rather wonder both by what accident and in what state of soul or mind the first man did so, touched his mouth to gore and brought his lips to the flesh of a dead creature, he who set forth tables of dead, stale bodies and ventured to call food and nourishment the parts that had a little before bellowed and cried, moved and lived. How could his eyes endure the slaughter when throats were slit and hides flayed and limbs torn from limb? How could his nose endure the stench? How was it that the pollution did not turn away his taste, which made contact with the sores of others and sucked juices and serums from mortal wounds?… It is certainly not lions and wolves that we eat out of self-defense; on the contrary, we ignore these and slaughter harmless, tame creatures without stings or teeth to harm us, creatures that, I swear, Nature appears to have produced for the sake of their beautyand grace. But nothing abashed us, not the flower-like tinting of the flesh, not the persuasiveness of the harmonious voice, not the cleanliness of their habits or the unusual intelligence that may be found in the poor wretches.
No, for the sake of a little flesh we deprive them of sun, of light, of the duration of life to which they are entitled by birth and being.”
- Plutarch, 46-120 AD
Do Plutarch a favor and check out Mercy For Animals.
