New Years Resolutions

Happy 2012 everyone!

Here are some ideas for some animal-friendly new years resolutions!


1. Pledge to be Veg
Being a vegetarian is one of the best things you can do do help animals. You can start slowly by cutting out red meat first, then moving on to other meats. Being a vegetarian ensures healthier, guilt free meals, and you can save over 100 animals a year!



2. Go vegan!

If you've been a vegetairian for a long time, maybe it's time to cut out all animal products. I haven't yet got there but I know I will someday and I'm really looking forward to having absolutely 0% cruelty in my life!



3.Clean out your closet
Animals fur, wool and skin is for them to wear, not us! If you have any clothes that required an animal to die or suffer, maybe it's time to get rid of it.


4. Start a campaign
choose anything that you're passionate about and just go for it,  and don't give up! If you're looking for ideas, I recently got one of the restaurants at my school to start serving vegetarian alternatives, and I'm planning a campaign against Nestea's animal testing!



5. Tell someone
This is probably the easiest one to do. Tell someone who seems generally interested about animal rights about becoming a vegetarian and it's amazing benefits. Dont be discouraged by all the people who will dissagree, believe me, I've met A LOT. just stay strong and you might change their minds!




6. Boycott animal testing
If you know a company tests on animals, don't buy their products. And tell your friends and family not to buy them either! (I'm still trying to convince my brother to stop using Axe :) You can even send an e-mail to the company directors or post it on their facebook page!



7. Cut out dissection
If you're in school or university, you really don't have to cut up that cute dead mouse, and maybe, like the awesome people at Conneticut University, you can persuade your school to stop it completely.
Check out this video about the horrors of dissection: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNLEsDcNTPM



8.Skip a visit to:
The Ringling Bro's Circus - where elephants are beaten, hit, poked, prodded, and jabbed with sharp hooks, sometimes until bloody. Ringling breaks the spirit of elephants when they're vulnerable babies who should still be with their mothers. Unsuspecting parents planning a family trip to the circus don't know about the violent training sessions with ropes, bullhooks, and electric shock prods that elephants endure.
www.RinglingBeatsAnimals.com
Seaworld- Sea World has been involved in illegal and unethical actions to assure their parks are well stocked with killer whales-who die younger and more frequently than they do in the sea. They are kept in cramped spaces with baarely enough space to turn around- and stolen from oceans where they can swim and live like they should

Horse Races- Horse racing is a world of injuries, drug abuse, gruesome breakdowns, and slaughter. Animals are force fed steroids to make them grom bigger than natural, whipped repeatedly and, over 10,000 of these horses in the USA alone, are slaughtered each year, when they are "past their peak" 

9. Pet Matters
If you're thinking about getting a pet this year, please adopt. There are millions of animals that are killed in shelters because they have no home. You can save one of them.The pet trade treats animals as mere moneymaking commodities to mass produce and peddle for profit. Animals are routinely denied socialization, exercise, and even basic veterinary care in this cruel, money-hungry industry. Please dont cage birds- birds long for freedom and flight- caging birds is denying them their most basic instincts
Do not chain your dogs, thisis one of the cruelest punishments imaginable for social animals who need and deserve companionship, exercise, and mental stimulation. It can also turn dogs into ticking time bombs: Many people, especially children, have been bitten, mauled, or killed by chained dogs 
Declawing, shock collars, ear cropping and tail docking are all cruel unecessary practices that need to be stopped.
And finally, neutering your pet prevents more animals ending up homeless. Its as simple as Animal Birth Control!

10.  Love all animals, equally
Whether it's a dog or a pig, a cat or a chicken, all animals feel, love, and deserve to live. Just because an animal is not a pet, doesn't mean it should end up on a plate, in a laboratory, or being forced to entertain us. Stand up for the animals you love, and maybe the ones, like snakes, that maybe aren't so easy to love- because they all deserve a chance.

                                                            
Have a happy and animal-friendly 2012!
xxx Cynthia

Be an Activist- With Free Supplies!

"Never be silent

Because if you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem

Speak up! Just because animals can't say what they are feeling, doesn't mean they don't feel at all.

Tell someone, show someone, educate someone

Because once they know, they can never not know

And they will have the burden of the cruelty they carry

Until they stand up and do something about it." - Me :)

Slide-shows: If you would like me to send you a slideshow on Vegetarianism, Animal Testing, Animals used for entertainment or The Fur Trade, please comment below and I would be happy to e-mail one to you.

Posters: I have made 3 posters about Life in a Slaughterhouse, Benefits of Vegetarianism and Common Myths,. If you would like one please comment below.

Videos: There are many passionate and thought-provoking videos out there. I have yet to make one, but I am planning to very soon. Comment and tell me what you would like to see in it, and I will try my best to include it.. So far I've decided to try and expose myths about the meat industry by vising a slaughterhouse and videotaping the horrors inside. Once I'm brave enough to do it! 

If you've made any posters, videos, slide-shows or anything to show the cruelty animals face- that is too often ignored, I would absolutely love to see them!

Peace, Love, Paws.

Inspirational Celebrity: Sir Paul McCartney

Sir Paul McCartney has been vegetarian for 34 years

He speaks about his being a vegetarian:

One day we were having Sunday lunch - we were still meat-eaters, just building a home with the kids and that - and Linda was a really good meat cook.

We were eating roast lamb for Sunday lunch and it was the lambing season and there were all these beautiful little lambs gamboling around.

Then we just looked at the lamb on our plate and looked at them outside again and thought "we're eating one of those little things that is gaily running around outside". It just struck us, and we said "Wait a minute maybe we don't want to do this".

And that was it, that was the big turning point and we said we'd give up meat

You see these signs in America saying "real meat for real people" but I think that's just funny.

I notice those sort of campaigns and I notice it implies that people like us are wimps - which I pretty much know I'm not. I remember James Garner did a series of commercials saying "real men eat real meat", doing the "rabbit food" joke. And a while after that campaign ended he had a heart attack. But to give him the benefit of the doubt, I'm sure he didn't know what he was doing.

 I don't think people realise that when they're eating meat they don't want to think that this animal you're eating has had its throat slit, or that it's died in pain that it's been hung upside down and bled. When people start talking about that at meal-times you say, "oh come on, leave it out

".

You want your chicken pre-packed and clean; women do not want to stuff their hands up into a chicken and pull out the giblets. People try to hide the fact that they are actually eating something that had a face and a heart, something that had a soul.

In most of the books you read it holds that animals don't have souls - that's something I don't agree with. I think it's so pompous of mankind to pronounce that. What? Has somebody got inside an animal's head and found out?

You see my point is that we've won the race on earth. Humans have won. There's no other animal, no species, is ever going to give us a problem. No race of spiders could ever take us over. We could zap 'em we've got the gear. There's no elephants ever going to rule us, we've got guns for them - we've got atomic bombs for God's sake. Any time we want to lose a species, we are the winners we can do it.

But we're not noble in our success - and I think this is going to be the interesting new phase. That's what we've got to look forward to: a nobility in success.

It's not "be a good loser, son", it's "be a good winner now".

I look forward to the time when we can suddenly think, "hey, we can relax a bit, we don't have to keep hating these things".

People say fish don't have feelings. Come on! The human race really is the most pompous thing going; it's funny, it's amusing. It's definitely not serious - it's too wild to be serious.

It's very convenient, I think, to hide it all away. We want our meat clean, we want it pre-packed, no giblets, from the supermarket and all that. We want clean meat - but unfortunately there's no such thing...

But I have faith things will change.

Lets Take a Lesson from Charlottes Web

Charlotte's Web is an award-winning children's novel and movie by acclaimed American author E. B. White, about a pig named Wilbur who is saved from beingslaughtered by an intelligent spider named Charlotte. 

The novel tells the story of a pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages praising Wilbur (such as "Some Pig") in her web in order to persuade the farmer to let him live.

When the old sheep in the barn cellar tells Wilbur that he is going to be killed and eaten at Christmas, he turns to Charlotte for help. Thanks to Charlotte's efforts, and with the assistance of the gluttonous rat Templeton, Wilbur not only lives, but goes to the county fair with Charlotte and wins a prize.


Charlotte, a tiny barn spider, saved the life of a pig who would otherwise have become someones Christmas pork. This heartwarming tale really moved me and got me thinking, why cant WE be more like Charlotte? Why cant WE stand up for the millions of animals being killed every year, why cant WE help save their miserable short lives and instead turn them into prize-winners with full and happy lives?

Pigs are intelligent, inquisitive, funny, happy and humble creatures, just like Wilbur. But we don't WANT to see that do we? Does it comfort us to put it out of out minds while we eat that pork chop? The reality is that pigs do not deserve to be eaten, they deserve to live full and fulfilling lives with their families and friends.


It may seem idealistic, but why not? The easiest way to do this is to stop eating them, spread the word about how amazing these creatures are and how their lives are being WASTED.


Why can't we be like Charlotte?

September 30th is Hug a Vegetarian Day

C'mon guys, get your hug on! Being a vegetarian is all about the love of other animals, so spread the love with all your vegetarian neighbours, friends and even strangers! :)
Here are some adorable pics of animals spreading the love