All posts by spiderthoughtwoman
ONE IS FOR EASTER, ONE IS FOR LIFE
Rabbits are the 3rd most abandoned animal in shelters frown emoticon
PLEASE DO NOT BUY THEM AS #EASTER GIFTS.
SHARE to remind everyone!
THINK OF ME NEXT TIME YOU EAT
SOMEONE NOT SOMETHING
BEAUTIFUL INNOCENCE
I dream that one day I run in fields with bestie Kevin
Www.calfsanctuary.co.uk
FRIENDS NOT FOOD
“This is not right” Former SeaWorld Trainer recalls killer whale treatment
John Hargrove can clearly recall the moment in 1980 when, as a wide-eyed six-year-old sitting with his family in the audience at a SeaWorld show in Orlando, he fell in love with killer whales. Harder to pinpoint is when his relationship with his dream job, training orcas for the theme park giant, finally turned sour.
It began with little things he says he started to notice about how SeaWorld treated its captive sea lions, dolphins and whales, and the trainers who would showcase them to the public. He says he saw cramped holding pools he believes were filled with too much chlorine; animals going blind or developing arthritis prematurely; and senior trainers banished from working with their beloved whales because they dared to speak out.
Later in his 14-year career, which is chronicled in his new book, Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, SeaWorld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish, he says he witnessed incidents that broke his heart: whales becoming aggressive towards trainers because of frustration at being confined in tiny pens for hours on end, or the anguished cries of whale calves forcibly separated from distressed mothers, against SeaWorld’s stated policy.
Then, just 60 days apart, came the deaths of two friends and fellow trainers, Alexis Martinez and Dawn Brancheau, both killed by whales owned by SeaWorld.
The death in Spain of Martinez, in the jaws of a 14-year-old male named Keto on loan to Tenerife’s Loro Parque, alarmed Hargrove and his fellow trainers, he says, not least because it was presented as a tragic drowning before the autopsy report revealed the extent of the violence Keto had inflicted
But when Brancheau was killed horrifically in February 2010, her body torn apart by an adult male named Tilikum at a public dinner show at SeaWorld Orlando, the company came under unprecedented scrutiny over its policies and safety procedures, leading to a $75,000 citation from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and a ban on trainers working with whales in water.
Meanwhile, SeaWorld’s attendances, earnings and share price have slumped. It has appointed a new chief executive and launched a major public relations offensive, designed to counter the fallout from the highly critical 2013 documentary Blackfish, which looked into Brancheau’s death.
As for Hargrove, it was the deaths of his friends, he tells the Guardian, which probably tipped the balance. The trainer, who details his own near-fatal encounter with an aggressive whale called Freya in the opening pages of his book, weighed everything up and decided, in August 2012, that it was time to quit.
Yet the man who is now one of the company’s most vocal critics says that for years, following the day in 1993 when he started as enthusiastic young apprentice cleaning out buckets at SeaWorld’s San Antonio park, he firmly believed he was working for the good of the animals.
“It took a while,” he says. “You had to learn what was healthy and unhealthy, what was normal and abnormal, because you don’t know in the beginning. They taught us and we spouted it to the public.
“Then the company would make these decisions to strip calves away from their mothers and you would look at them in a different light as they tried to explain it away. They’d say it has to be this way and this is the reason why, and you’d truly believe it; then they’d change their story.
“When there was a need, the protocols changed, the rules changed. You start to see cracks in the armour, and eventually it registers: this is not normal, this is not right.”
SeaWorld accuses Hargrove of sensationalism. “We do not separate killer whale moms and calves, and in the rare occurrences that we do move whales among our parks, we do so only in order to maintain a healthy social structure,” says a rebuttal on its website seaworldcares.com.
Chuck Tompkins, SeaWorld’s curator of zoological operations, said Hargrove was mistaken to say the whales were distressed. “We’ve trained them to be relaxed during that move,” he told NPR in a recent interview. “To say that they’re uncomfortable or stressed, that’s just not the way we do our business.”
But Hargrove is adamant that he is aware of at least 19 calves being separated from their mothers, and says any dissent is quickly quashed by SeaWorld’s “cult-like” attitude.
“The way that it works is you keep your mouth shut. If you don’t, there’s a price to pay,” he says, adding that punitive measures include being moved out of the whale stadium or, if a trainer leaves SeaWorld on bad terms, being blacklisted.
Hargrove admits that his resignation was partly caused by his physical condition. Years of working with the whales in the water left him with a “laundry list” of injuries including broken ribs, fingers and toes, serious sinus issues and wrecked cartilage. “For the last three years, my doctor was telling me I needed to quit now,” he says.
Ultimately, though, he says he stayed on because of his “spiritual connection” to the whales, and his mistaken belief that he could improve their circumstances.
“I’m conflicted about my career because I have memories I’ll cherish for the rest of my life, memories that most people never have the opportunity to have. These whales gave me my childhood dream,” he says.
“But I was also part of a system that did this to those animals. I was the one treating sunburns because their skins were drying out because they were lying motionless on the surface of the water with no shade for hours, and on and on.
“I was able to leave and go on with my life, and they’re not. For everything they gave me, the least that I can do is take some criticism from boardroom cowards, the SeaWorld people sat behind a keyboard; weather that storm, and go out there and tell the truth.
“I was a killer whale trainer for 14 years and this is what I saw, the good and the bad.”
Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, SeaWorld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish, by John Hargrove with Howard Chua-Eoan, is published by Palgrave Macmillan Trade.
SOURCE http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/28/seaworld-trainer-john-hargrove-killer-whale-treatment
WORDS OF WISDOM..
“Learn to get in touch with the innermost essence of your being. This true essence is beyond the ego. It is fearless; it is free; it is immune to criticism; it does not fear any challenge. It is beneath no one, superior to no one, and full of magic, mystery, and enchantment.”
If you want to reach a state of bliss, then go beyond your ego and the internal dialogue. Make a decision to relinquish the need to control, the need to be approved, and the need to judge. Those are the three things the ego is doing all the time. It’s very important to be aware of them every time they come up”
Deepak Chopra
I AM NOT A WASTE PRODUCT…
Seconds after this picture was taken this baby fell into a grinder and died an agonising death as his body was torn to shreds. He was killed like this because male chicks are worthless waste products to the egg industry and are disposed of as such. Do not buy into the “happy egg” propaganda. It’s all lies. Eggs are the product of the most horrific suffering. This cruelty happens worldwide regardless of the kind of eggs you buy. Free range, organic, cage free buying ANY eggs supports the murder of MILLIONS of these babies every year.
See for yourself: http://po.st/h9VJn7 The reality of the egg industry: http://youtu.be/HN0g13kMk6shttp://youtu.be/OVxh3ZFSslg & http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1326168/Secret-footage-shows-millions-British-chicks-killed-year.html
Want to help stop this? Please stop supporting industries that massacre babies because of their gender. Please go Vegan. http://vegankit.com/
A MARRIAGE OF FASHION AND VEGAN IDEALS..
‘I am an all-or-nothing person if I decide I want to do something. There is no compromise,” says Derry-born vegan Aine Carlin, who brings flair and imagination to food and fashion. In doing that, this talented woman, with her cute hairbands and Breton stripes, is transforming the image of veganism.
The founder of food blog PeaSoupEats and author of the best-seller Keep it Vegan has just been named Most Stylish Vegan 2015 by Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), another string to her bow (speaking of which, she is also a trained violinist).
So how did she become a vegan? It all happened when she moved with her Cornish-born husband, Jason Robbins, an animator, to live in Chicago six years ago. She had completed her music studies in London and a postgraduate degree in acting when the couple met in Camden.
“In Chicago we just saw our health declining; we never felt our best. I had always had an interest in cooking and decided to take a closer look at what we were eating and investigate what dairy and factory farming does to the body. I got in to wholefoods and that started our vegan journey.
“So all animal products went out of the fridge and we started afresh.”
The effect on their health was immediate and positive, she says.
It has been estimated that there are seven million vegans in the US, and the trend is steadily moving from the margins to the mainstream. Vegans eat plant-based foods, avoiding all animal products. Many, including Carlin, extend ethical principles to clothing as well. Carlin’s ability to make vegan food appealing, full of flavour, simple to make and with only easy-to-find ingredients has been central to her success.
“The book was aimed at non-vegans as well as vegans; like mothers of teenage vegans who don’t know what to cook for them. The idea was to give them more ideas and variety.”
One of her most popular recipes is an alternative to macaroni and cheese made with butternut squash and coconut milk.
Vegan beauty products
How did she extend her principles to cosmetics and clothes? For a start, she sourced vegan beauty products and provided DIY tips for her followers.
“People are more aware of products tested on animals,” she says. “L’Oréal, for example, has committed to stopping animal testing by 2016. Mac used to be bought by vegans, but now, because Mac sells in China where it is mandatory to have cosmetics tested on animals, it is no longer vegan.”
Her girlish, colourful appearance and fluent, easy chatter have made her quite a star among followers of her YouTube channel. In London she had a brief career in the fashion world, working for a while in Matches boutique, followed by an internship on the fashion pages of the Financial Times. She also wrote for Rankin’s Hunger magazine “on art, fashion, food, music, anything they threw at me”.
Being a vegan means that she pays close attention to clothing labels. “You have to be aware of what you are buying, although it can get complicated. My budget doesn’t stretch to Stella McCartney, ” she says, adding that sales of angora, for instance, have dropped since people realised it came from rabbit hair.
She wears a lot of second-hand clothes and vintage, mixing such items with high-street fashion, “but I am super-aware of not contributing to fast fashion either, and I try not to buy too much. I hate waste in general and tend to go down the timeless route with things that don’t date.”
She wears linen, cotton and synthetics but not wool. She says it took time for her to transform her wardrobe.
“I didn’t throw everything out overnight . . . and kept my leather shoes until I could afford a new pair of alternatives.”
She now lives in the pretty Cornish fishing port of Mousehole. Her daily uniform comprises jeans, a Breton top and headscarves (most of which are from charity shops or by SeaSalt, a Cornish brand). For a recent wedding she wore a midi-skirt with a simple jumper and vintage jacket. “I am quite casual and need to feel comfortable. Style is about the ease with which you wear clothes and not about how expensive they are.”
She obviously doesn’t wear fur, although she has one fake-fur jacket and mentions the supercool fake-fur brand Shrimps as being the most popular among the fashion set at the moment.
“In general I would rather stay away from fake, because I don’t feel comfortable about wearing it.”
Her second book, due out next year, will cover food and fashion. In the meantime her first, a best-seller in Eason at Christmas, has been reprinted three times and is being published in Germany, Italy and Brazil this year, with further interest being expressed from other countries.
Although dedicated and passionate, she avoids arguments about her beliefs. “I am not a confrontational person at all. I live my life the way I think is right for me and I don’t make judgments on others. If I come across as down-to-earth, that speaks more volumes than having an argument with people about what they are wearing.”
SOURCE http://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/fashion/a-marriage-of-fashion-and-vegan-ideals-1.2153097
spiderthoughtwoman 