Doing Right Can Cost You

I'm running out hair conditioner and face moisturizer and I can't buy anymore Herbal Essences after reading about them and their animal testing practices. If they and Proctor & Gamble can't get on board with cruelty-free products, I'll have to abstain from purchasing them.

This is the beginning of the revolution.

It's not as simple as that, though. During my toiletries run to Target with Noah, I was frustrated to find limited products that have this symbol

Target carries Burt's Bees, Say Yes To Carrots and Shea Moisture products in their Natural Beauty aisle that have this symbol, but are really expensive! A face cream from Burt's Bees can cost $17. Body lotion from Shea Moisture can cost $10 for a 8oz bottle and is not a purchase I can continually make.

So I ended up getting a $15 bottle (1.7oz) of moisturizer from Say Yes To Carrots. I also found an $8 bottle of organic argon oil conditioner that promises to be cruelty-free. I came away from Target feeling like a chump. This is a lot of money to spend on taking care of my skin and hair, but if this continues, I will have to start making my own concoctions.

What I don't like is that people with a lot less money than myself can't even worry about this if they wanted to. If you need soap, you buy the cheapest and spend the rest of your money on the necessities like rent, food, and utilities. Buying expensive stuff draws a clear line in the sand. I can afford to live a heath and environmentally conscience life while someone else can't. 

Class division is not something you should ignore. It should be known that there are better products available. Companies are making organic cruelty-free products but not everyone can afford them. And really, it's not even in my budget to continue to buy high-end beauty products.

In a country where there is so much, there shouldn't be a reason for people to have sub-par products that are tested on animals. I don't believe companies have our interests in mind when they make shampoo with ingredients we can't pronounce and test them on rabbits and mice. I believe they are cutting corners, saving themselves money and keeping stockholders happy.

We shall see how February goes. Protest is harder than it looks and for now, it's a little hard on my purse.

Depressed About Eating

I'm feeling really bummed out about eating meat and eggs after reading and watching so many videos. Pigs lying in a grate for months at a time, babies being taken from their mothers as soon as they're born. All of the neglect and lack compassion is making me sick.These animals who trusted us to keep our word.

What was our word? I don't know because everyone has different ideas on what makes us relate to animals, I'm still trying to find where that line is. I also feel like I'm already standing on top of that line

I'm concerned that I'm going to stop eating meet and eggs all together

Feeling Chicken About Eating Eggs. . .

I'm in the middle of reading a book I borrowed from my friend Holly Diet For A New America and it's bumming me out. Don't get me wrong, I'm enjoying what the author, John Robbins, has to say about animals. He started out with wonderful stories about animal compassion, bravery and intelligence. Remember my earlier post about Anecdotes and Science? Scientists would have a problem with Robbins' writing because its full of anecdotes on animal behavior. I like reading them though. We're not the only species with extraordinary stories.

But I am getting to the point of the book where the horror stories begin. Chickens being locked in small cages unable to move, scratch or spread their wings. I've also read about debeaking chickens, so they don't peck each other to death. The book points out that this would be a loss of profit for the manufacturers.

I say manufacturers and not farmers because that's what it has come to. Apparently, the manufacturers of chicken flesh and eggs don't even see chickens as chickens. Instead, they call chicken bred for flesh, broilers and chickens bred for egg laying, layers. Did you know that male chickens have no place in the industry and as soon as they are hatched, they're killed? I didn't. I can't imagine breaking out of the egg only to be thrown into a plastic bag with my chicken kin to suffocate to death.

I eat eggs all the time. My favorite breakfast/snack/dinner is fried ramen noodles and eggs. (I really am an adult, I swear.) My husband Noah and I buy eggs once a week and we're careful about what we buy. We've at least been trained to pick out Organic, Natural, Cage-Free, or Free Range eggs that cost $3-4 a dozen.

Well I wonder if that's even vigilant enough? In this book that was written in the 80's, Robbins says there isn't enough USDA regulation over the rhetoric used on egg cartons, so words like Natural or Cage Free could mean a lot of different things to different manufacturers. To see if that's true today, in the 20-teens, I went to the internet.

On a website called Egg Industry.com, they explain what these comforting consumer words can be confusing and deceptive. Just because your carton say's Cage Free, doesn't mean your eggs came from a comfortable chicken that had enough space to move. Lots of chickens are kept in windowless barns or warehouses, hundreds of them piled upon one another. They are still manic under such close quarters and still pecking at each other.

I also found a link to The Humane Society of the US. They want to push for legislation that regulates the treatment of egg laying hens. It's a great step in the right direction. I think I'm going to book mark it for February's protest. If you're in the mood to protest now about your eggs, visit this link: 
The Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments of 2012

Squirrels at My Patio

I have a tenuous relationship with the squirrels in my back patio. They raided the pumpkins that I put outside for the fall. They literally drilled holes in them and ate all of the seeds. It ruined the overall look of my patio, but they seemed happy.

Now that the pumpkins are completely deflated and snow is on the ground, there is less and less for them to eat. I felt sorry for the little guys and started throwing nuts at them. They seem to really appreciate it. They're coming a lot closer to me and exhibiting a lot less nervous vibes.

On the days that I forget to throw peanuts on the ground, I can see their frantic footprints circling in the snow and feel awful. Am I tampering with their natural abilities to survive in the winter? Should I stop enabling them? I threw down some more peanuts this morning during my smoke break, just in case anyone should come back looking for treats. Does this mean I'm grocery shopping for squirrels and my pet rabbit.

Maybe. I don't see how a little treat hurts. People do it all the time with bird feeders and that hasn't destroyed the ecosystem of North America.

No Hopping Rabbit?

While conditioning my hair in the shower, I used my favorite Herbal Essences conditioner, it looks like this:

And the back of the bottle DID NOT have either of these signs:


 










Now I'm a little concerned because I use this product often. It's owned by the company Clairol, which is owned by Proctor and Gamble. P&G are well known for all of the products they manufacture, but even more, they are well known for their animal testing. They are still on PeTA's list of Companies That Do Animal Test.

I also found this website from the UK, where the people there are protesting Herbal Essences products. They call their protest Hurtful Essences. They claim that the haircare company has been force feeding their products to pregnant rats even though the ingredients in their shampoo are supposedly not harmful to human.

This makes me wonder about the reason for testing cosmetics on animals. Does your product have ingredients so suspect that you can't test them on me, the person who will eventually use it? And force feeding rats shampoo? I'm not sure how necessary that is and would like a researcher to explain this to me.
I will investigate the matter more and it might be a future protest. But for now, I'm trying to be mindful of all the products I use.

Anecdotes and Science

 I read parts of an interesting book called When Elephants Weep (1995) by Jeffrey Moussaiff Masson.

It has helped me understand how we study animal behavior and emotion. Or in some scientific communities, how they make it a point not to study animal emotion purely on the basis that animal emotions don't exist. It is believed that through special animal stories or anecdotes, science is colored by our emotions. Another way to say we transfer our human emotions unto animals is through anthropomorphism. 

As a pet owner, it's very difficult not to look at my rabbit Dobbie and see my "baby" rabbit. She's so full of personality and life, that counts for something doesn't it? Or because she's a pet, does that change things? She's not from the land of survival anymore and no longer has priorities the same that wild rabbits have.

As far as Dobbie's emotions? I can see them clearly. When Noah leaves the living room to go to the bathroom, Dobbie follows and stands at the doorway waiting. When he reappears, she follows him back to the couch, then finds her place on the floor where she was before. What does that mean? She misses Noah? Can a rabbit miss someone?

The squirrels on my back patio are clearly wild ones. They've torn apart my Halloween pumpkins and eaten the seeds. Yes, I could call them little savages. But they also exhibit interesting characteristics that I associate with humans. The curious look they give me when I sit outside and smoke with them. The rollicking good time they seem to have chasing each other around my patio. Is it territory protection or fun and games? When they've finished chasing one another, they all settle down and eat the sunflower seeds I've thrown for them.Are they sharing their loot with one another?

I'm not done with the book and this is by no means a review of it. I couldn't buy it because I was in Barnes and Noble loitering. I did take some interesting notes on what I learned from it:

• Anthropomorphism is a sin in the scientific community.
• Funktionslust: A German word referring to the pleasure taken in what one can do best. For example, Dobbie is really good at destroying my carpet by pulling it up at the edges, I can only assume that she enjoys doing it as well has being good at it. Because she won't stop. This suggests that animals do things for pure enjoyment and not always out of practicality. Her gnawing on the card board box that hold my Christmas decorations might not just because she has to wear down her teeth. We've set down a hay block next to the box for that very purpose, but she ignores it. Perhaps destroying that box is her joyful activity.
• Could evolutionary terms in research possibly sidestep emotions that animals might have? "The squirrel subject is becoming aggressive towards human contact." This could mean. "The squirrel is angry or afraid of human contact."
• Rene Decartes was famous for saying: "I think therefore I am." He also said of animals: "The reason why animals do not speak as we do is not that they lack the organs, it's that they have no thoughts." Apparently he was also famous for kicking his own dog because he believe it's yelps were nothing more than predictable clock work function, making the animal more mechanic. Weirdo. 
• Later on Voltaire criticized Decartes of being an idiot, my words not his. But he maintained that animals were more than machinery.

Animal Experiments for Medicine

In this documentary, Monkeys, Rats and Me: Animal Testing

Filmmaker Adam Wishart investigate both sides of the controversial animal experiment debate. Scientists who feel persecuted for the work they do in improving the human condition, finally speak out in the UK. Their opposition is a group named SPEAK- The Voice For the Animals.

The film asks us to think about the medical advances made my animal experimentation. Scientist say: Don't stop progress, while animal rights activists ask: Progress at what cost?

While it was an interesting debate, I feel like I sided with the scientists. This could be one part of animal experimentation that works and perhaps it is worth it. I saw the patient in the film who really benefited from this medical advancement and it seemed worth it.

The patient had been dealing with muscular problems all of this life and a surgery preformed on a monkey was used on him. The results were amazing. Although he was confined to a wheelchair and probably would be for most of his life, he was about to gain more control over his muscles. After six weeks post surgery, he was able to sit up straighter, gain more use out of his hands and speak clearer. It's hard to say no to those results.

Please watch this documentary when you can and let me know where you stand. Did you have a problem with the representation? Does it answer your questions about animal experimentation or raise new ones?

Why Stand For Animals

Why should the rights of animals be acknowledged?
For me, I cannot pretend to know all the variables that effect animals today. Off the top of my head, I can imagine that animal testing, destruction of animal environments, and puppy mills are potentially harmful to non-human species.

In the coming weeks, I plan to research and investigate the facts and stats on how animals are treated throughout the world. I have quite a few questions about the treatment of animals. At what rate are we losing species? Are corporations being ethical in their treatment of animals? Are more dogs being bought at pet shops than at shelters? What about euthanasia for animals? Is it population control or wrongful execution for creatures who have no voice? More importantly, should animals have a voice? Are they important enough?

What's my proverbial dog in this fight?
I own a rabbit. She's my first pet ever and I love her very much. Her name is Dobbie. My husband and I bought Dobbie from a Petland in Columbus, Georgia in 2009 when she was about eight weeks old. Here's a young bunny picture of her:

My husband was hesitant about my pet choice, stating that rabbits are definitely not dogs. Meaning they lack personality and seem boring. I scoffed and said that squirrels have personality, why wouldn't rabbits? He also doubted this.

When we went Petland to look for rabbits, Dobbie was sitting in a pin with what I assume was her kin. When I put my hand down to pet one of the rabbits, she was the only one to bounce over and give me a sniff. When she gave me a friendly lick on my fingers, I was smitten. She did the same for my husband and he melted. We couldn't get her that night, not without doing my research on rabbits and prepping our apartment. So we went home with her on our minds.

After I did my homework I was ready to be a Bunny Mom. We went back to the same Petland, hoping to find Dobbie. Sure enough, I saw the same panda-looking bunny and when she returned to me, she sniffed and licked my hands. We took her home.

Now Dobbie is about two years old. She's a fun animal, full of personality. I can tell when she's happy, excited, frightened and sad. It's not too hard if you do the research on rabbits.

Having Dobbie in my life and being her caretaker, has given me new perspective on the lives of animals. Sometimes I look at Dobbie, sunning herself in the middle of the living room and wonder if she has important thoughts. What is she thinking? Does she have hopes and dreams? Or is she just waiting for next banana chip? People might think me odd for wondering, perhaps siting that animals even don't have souls.

Souls or not, how do we put animals into categories of Pet, Food, and Other? Killing dogs or testing cats for science seems obscene to most Americans. But what's the difference between a dog and a Rhesus monkey? Personality? Dobbie disproves that for me. I suppose she is my reason for staking claim to the animal treatment dialogue.

Expect more thoughts on Dobbie and other animals this month. I plan to research heavily and talk to people who have also taken part in the dialogue that is Animal Rights.

The Six Protests

Good things come in sixes, right?

I picked six issues that feel dear to my heart. These issues will have sub-issues. Issues within issues, if you will. I will give you more details as time progresses. But for now, here are THE ISSUES:

• Infringing on the rights of women
• Infringing on the rights of animals
• Infringing on the rights of the laborer
• Those who attack education
• Extreme consumerism
• Poor health care

Why only six issues for twelve months?
This was an idea from my friend. He suggested that I use one whole month devoted to research and the next month for execution. Six months for research, six months for execution. Got it?
This is the plan. . . so far.

How will I kick off the year? 
I couldn't decide objectively, without picking my issues out of a hat. And that's exactly what I had to do.

Halloween Cowboy Hat

I picked: Infringing on the rights of animals.
There.

So Here's the Plan

"So here's the plan," she's says more to herself than to her husband. "I need to start a revolution." Even as she said the words, it was glaringly apparent that she had no real plan. Her husband knew this but humored her.

"I want to. . . tackle. . . all of the things I don't like about the world in one year. One month could be designated for one cause. Another month for another month. So on, so on. What do you think?"

This got her a raised brow. "That's an interesting idea," her husband replied. "What will you protest?"

She was stumped.

"Because you can't protest for the sake of protesting," he told her. "Nothing gets done if you don't know what you're fighting."

So she thought and came up with this.

"Now," she said with a smile, "now I have something."