For the story so far, click here 🙂
to be continued …
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😉
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vegan, vegetarian, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, children’s story, vegan children, aquariums, animals, animals in captivity, animals for entertainment, marine animals, fish, crustaceans, art, comics, juvenile fiction, watercolour
For the story so far click here 🙂
“Ok, well,” Carolyn smiled, “while we’re up here I want to show you the top of the tank where the divers, and the fish, go in.”
Venus could see and hear William’s distress. She could only imagine the misery he went through every time he was transported from Scotland to the south coast and back again. But she couldn’t help him. Carolyn was soon ushering them on.
When the fish container was pulled out of the lift, Carolyn, Katie and Venus descended to the viewing gallery:
to be continued ….
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vegan, vegetarian, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, children’s story, vegan children, aquariums, animals, animals in captivity, animals for entertainment, marine animals, fish, crustaceans, art, comics, juvenile fiction, watercolour
For the story so far click here 🙂
to be continued …
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vegan, vegetarian, vegan comic, vegan comic for children, children’s story, vegan children, aquariums, animals, animals in captivity, animals for entertainment, marine animals, fish, crustaceans, art, comics, juvenile fiction, watercolour
The story continues from yesterday:
He wondered what on Earth he’d done to deserve such a reception as he stood, with muddy face, muddy hands, muddy knees and muddy shoes, at the end of the trail of muddy footprints on the tiled floor.
Being considerate in all things, Luke complied with Mum’s vehement suggestion that he wash more than just his hands, and came to the table in clean clothes. Jared, his older brother, looked at him curiously as if wondering what he’d been doing and Luke returned the look without enlightening him. Mum served up their tea but, as usual, didn’t sit down with them. She would wait for Dad to get home and eat with him.
Luke was dismayed to see bacon on his plate again. He had recently discovered what bacon really was: not food at all but slices of dead piglet. He was horrified. The fact that his parents, who had always told him to be good and kind, would choose to eat it was very confusing. He thought at first that they must not be aware of what it actually was, but when he explained it to them they were not surprised. They told him that people need to eat meat but that he shouldn’t worry because the animals were killed humanely (which they said meant ‘gently’ ). Luke was unconvinced.
“Killed gently! So they don’t mind you killin’ ’em then, is that what you’re sayin’? They like it do they? They look forward to it I suppose because their murderers are so gentle!”
After some lengthy discussion in this vein, during which Luke’s parents failed to persuade him to see reason, his mum effected his silence by sternly insisting that she knew best and Luke must eat his meat. Luke said no more at that time but was determined not to.
Again faced with the need to be rid of his bacon, Luke discreetly took a rasher and held it below the table for Dudley. Dudley, his dog, very obligingly took it from him. At that moment Mum reappeared in the doorway.
“What did you just do?” she demanded angrily.
“Whaaat? Nothin’. I dint do nothin’.”
“Luuuke.”
“I was on’y feedin’ someone what was hungry,” Luke explained innocently, “jus’ bein’ generous, that’s all.”
“You know very well that Dudley has already had his dinner and if you keep giving him yours he’s going to get fat!”
Dudley ate fast. Mum went on.
“Don’t ever do that again! You’re a growing boy Luke, you need to eat your meat!”
Luke stuck to his guns.
“I don’t want it! I’ve got Prince Pauls!”
He’d heard the vicar talking about living by one’s principles in the school assembly that morning. It meant having values and putting them into practice; it meant actions speak louder than words; it meant if you love animals you don’t eat them. Luke had never heard of Prince Paul before but knew he must have been a good bloke.
“Prince who? What on Earth are you on about?”
Mum had obviously never heard of him either.
“I’ve got veggietarian Prince Pauls.”
Mum was not impressed.
“Oh give me strength!” she said, “well, you can explain that one to your Dad.”
“But he won’t be home ’til after bedtime right?” asked Luke, hopeful that he wouldn’t have to have that conversation tonight.
“He’s already home. I just saw him walking down the garden. Checking on his lettuces no doubt.”
Luke, suddenly not so confident that he’d thought of everything, became pale as it dawned on him that Dad might not understand that it was a good idea for the damsons to live in the veg patch. He felt sure that, in time, his new friends would be welcome additions to the family, but knew that his dad was not one to take to something right away and it would be better for everyone if they did not meet just yet.
“LUKE!” His dad’s booming voice reached the house before he did.
“How did he know it was me?” Luke wondered.
********
You can read the whole chapter here.
Stay in touch for Chapter 2, coming to this site sometime, or buy the first eight chapters in paperback if you can’t wait that long 😉
He’s acts gruff and I’m so dainty
But we seem to get on quite well.
He pretends to be tough but he’s soft really
And he likes me, I can tell.
****
He likes his space and I like to snuggle –
He lets me, not often, but sometimes.
I wouldn’t go so far as to give him a cuddle
But he’s my best pal for all times.
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home – the best Star Trek movie ever! We love this film and watched it again last night. If you haven’t seen it, or even if you have, you should watch it at your first opportunity and witness Kirk, Spock, Bones, Scotty, Chekov, Uhura and Sulu go back in time in a Klingon vessel (complete with cloaking device) to save the whales. In spite of its serious message it is full of humour and is a fast-paced, entertaining, well-told story. Highly, highly recommended 😀
THE PETITION STATES:
Britain has been struck by a succession of Atlantic storms accompanied by very heavy rain. In early December Storm Desmond saw 5,000 people flooded out of their homes in Carlisle in spite of £38 million of flood defences recently installed by the Environment Agency. More recently, Storm Frank has caused similar havoc in the Southwest, Lancashire, Yorkshire, the Scottish borders and Northern Ireland.
We demand that a major national tree planting effort is implemented, to build our national resilience to future flood events, and that the shooting of beavers is halted immediately!
The key to reducing the risk of more floods is to realise that conventional ‘flood defence’ can never provide security against the ever more extreme weather events that global warming will bring. The storm waters must be held back into the moors, bogs, fields and headwaters, so that they are given the chance to replenish soils and aquifers, and are released only slowly into the main streams and rivers.
We need more trees: it’s no secret that just having trees in the landscape helps rainwater to infiltrate into soils.
Sign the petition for tree planting to prevent floods!
Next, beavers: trees are food for beavers, and beavers use them to build their dams. And that’s absolutely key to restoring landscapes and making them water retentive. We should select water–loving tree species that are palatable to beavers — like poplars, willows, sallows and alders — and establish them along watercourses, ditches, streams, ponds and eroded upland gullies.
Unfortunately, beavers are actually being shot in Scotland. Scotland needs its beavers as much as England does – and for exactly the same reasons.
Sign the petition to stop beavers being killed in Scotland!
By: Oliver Tickell
Editor of The Ecologist
To: DEFRA
Once upon a time there were two beautiful girls called Snow White and Rose Red. They were very unhappy because they were imprisoned in a large windowless shed with thousands of others like them. They were cramped and miserable; they never saw daylight or felt the wind on their faces; and the prison guards were rough and cruel. Then one night, everything changed.
As the wind blew and the rain poured down, someone came and lifted them out of their prison and carried them out into the night.
The beautiful girls were scared at first. They tried to shelter their heads from the wind and rain, instinctively ducking under the chin of the person carrying them. What was this cold, dark, wet outside world? They had never seen it before and didn’t know what to think.
After hours and hours of jostling and jolting in the wind and rain; after feeling cold and wet and very very nervous; they arrived somewhere. Somewhere new. Somewhere unfamiliar.
They explored with care. They didn’t know what to make of it. They didn’t know who to trust. But they were curious. They weren’t so desperate to get away anymore. They started to wonder if this was, after all, something good.
As they settled in to their new surroundings they were approached by other individuals. One of whom in particular, Mrs Teapot, became their devoted friend.
And so they lived happily ever after 😀
The lucky winner of our 3rd Honestly Books giveaway, What’s Good For The Goose Is Not Good For The Panda by Lavender Laine, is B Mackela
Congratulations Bill 🙂 Give us your address via our contact form on the About page and we will get the book to you as soon as possible.
There now remains only one more chance to win! The final book of our Honestly Books stash, the little Bibbolybob book, will go into the draw next week. Look out for Monday’s post to enter 😀
Note that Naomi was rescued from a “natural” free range farm. There is no such thing as humane meat.
Russian Academy Of Science training four rhesus macaques to travel into space and land on Mars.
Please sign the petition NOW to stop them.
Thank you.
Support this fantastic Florida group, Eco-Action, and maybe start one in your area 🙂
Look at these fantastic real-life Venus Aqueouses 😀
Save the Planet Associate – a community organisation in Thailand. Support and share their work and like their page 😀
For the story so far, click here 🙂
When the lights came back on, Venus, Adi and Jean took to the stage.
After an encouraging response from the crowd, the girls exited stage right, and Venus bumped into someone less encouraging.
To be continued …
For the story so far, click here
To be continued …
(Music: cover of The Cure’s A Forest, by Ping Trace)
Catskill Animal Sanctuary rescues farmed animals, ignites social change to end their exploitation, and champions vegan living. Subscribe to their e-news, Herd Around the Barn: casanctuary.org/herd
Two best friends, Tillie and Phoebe, had a brilliant time, sneaking off to play when someone left the door open at their guardian’s house party. But it all went horribly wrong when 4 year old Phoebe got stuck in a hole she couldn’t get out of.
She might have known she would be ok though, since 11 year old Tillie was with her. Tillie stayed by Phoebe’s side for a week, leaving only for a quick runs to look for help each day before coming back to wait with her friend.
Residents witnessed Tillie running through a back yard several times over the course of the week, but they didn’t realize what was happening until a volunteer group called Pet Protectors put out a distress call on Facebook. Pet Protectors soon received a lucky tip from someone who had seen Tillie several times.
Read more here, including the wonderful happy ending as the girls reunite with their guardian: http://www.care2.com/causes/old-dog-watches-over-trapped-buddy-for-a-week-until-help-arrives.html#ixzz3mYwGGtc5
Zoo noun
Oxford Dictionary definition: zoological garden: public garden or park with collection of animals for exhibition and study.
Our definition: Place where wild animals are kept and/or bred in captivity. Zoos are prisons. Prisons in which innocent individuals are kept incarcerated for their whole lives, though they have committed no crime.
Elephants, for example, in the wild, are used to travelling many miles a day in herds of about ten related adults and their offspring. They are very social animals.
In zoos, elephants are usually kept in pairs or even isolated. Their enclosures are incredibly small, compared to what they are used to in the wild, and as a result they often show many signs of being stressed out or bored, like engaging in repetitive movements. Stress behaviours can include repetitive movements, pacing back and forth, head bobbing, rocking, repeatedly retracing their steps, sitting motionless or biting the bars of their enclosure or themselves.
What makes life so difficult for zoo animals is that they hardly have any privacy and lack mental stimulation and physical exercise. Even though you might think that zoo animals would get used to a life in captivity, they really don’t. Even animals that are bred in zoos still retain their natural instincts after many generations of captive breeding.
Animals like polar bears or felines are used to hunting; this habit is replaced by the zoo with regular feedings. Most animals kept in zoos would naturally roam for tens of miles a day.
Zoos claim to help with conservation. However, hardly any zoo registers their animals on an international species database and most zoo animals are not endangered at all.
Even though there are thousands of endangered species, zoos have only been able to return about 16 species to the wild with varying level of success. Most zoo animals released in the wild don’t survive. This is because zoos don’t provide the right environment for a successful captive breeding project. The animals would need to live in habitats resembling their natural ones, especially in terms of climate and fauna. The animals would also need to be raised with minimal human contact and in populations large enough to provide a natural social balance and a suitable gene pool.
Surplus animals are the unwanted animals for whom there is no more space, when zoos have bred yet another cute little baby to attract visitors. They can even be the cute babies themselves when they’ve stopped being cute at the end of the season. Zoos have a systematic “overproduction” of animals. These surplus animals are either killed – and sometimes fed to their fellow zoo habitants – or sold to other zoos or dealers. Selling animals is a profitable way for zoos to dispose of them. Dealers will sell them to hunting ranches, pet shops, circuses, the exotic meat industry and research facilities. Surplus animals are also found for sale on the internet.
To sum up: DON’T GO TO THE ZOO! If a school trip is being organised, tell your teacher why you don’t like zoos and ask them to take you somewhere better. If they won’t listen, explain what zoos really are to your friends and then get together to petition the school. If they still won’t listen, just ask your parents to let you stay home from school that day. Maybe they could take you on a better trip instead, such as to a museum or art gallery.
That reminds me – see what Luke Walker, ‘animal stick up for-er’, did when he was forced to go on a trip to the zoo – now that’s a boy who acts on his conscience! (Though he is sadly unappreciated by those who know him 😉 )
Winkle noun
Oxford Dictionary definition: edible sea snail.
Our definition: A winkle is a small herbivorous shore-dwelling mollusc with a spiral shell. Winkle is also a common name applied to numerous different species of small, round snails. These are often species of sea snails, but also some small round freshwater snails, and even some land snails that have an operculum (a secreted plate that closes the aperture of a gastropod mollusc’s shell when the animal is retracted).
Click here for the W page, and here for the rest of the vegan dictionary 😀
Whiting noun
Oxford Dictionary definition: small edible sea fish.
Juvenile-whiting
Our definition: Whiting (Merlangius merlangus) fish are similar in appearance to their larger relatives, cod, haddock, coley and pollack. They have three dorsal fins separated by small gaps, the third fin extending almost to the tail fin. The tail is not forked, having almost a square end. The two anal fins are very close together, nearly touching one another and, together with the anterior fin, are elongated. The pectoral fin is also long and projects beyond the base of the anal fin. A whiting’s upper jaw projects slightly beyond the lower, and the lateral line is continuous along the length of the body. In colour, individual fish vary quite a lot, and there is often a small dark blotch at upper base of the pectoral fin. They can grow to up to 50 cm long.
Whiting matures at between three and four years of age, and spawning takes place at a depth of 20 to 150 m. The time of the spawning varies from location to location: from January to spring in the Mediterranean; from January to September in the area between the British Isles and the Bay of Biscay; and throughout the year in the Black Sea. A large female can produce up to one million eggs. The eggs float in the open ocean and the larval whiting swim with other sea plankton until they have attained a length of around 10 cm. The fish grow quickly, with females growing faster than males, and can live to about ten years of age. The diet of the whiting consists of bottom-living organisms, such as crabs, shrimps, small fish, molluscs, worms, squid and cuttlefish.
The biggest threat to whiting is “over-harvesting” (euphemism) by the fishing fleets of many nations (of course).
Click here for the W page, and here for the rest of the vegan dictionary 😀
Rat noun
Oxford Dictionary definition: 1. large mouselike rodent. 2. colloquial unpleasant or treacherous person. verb 1. hunt or kill rats. 2. colloquial inform on.
Our definition:
Click here for the rest of the Rr page, click here, or go to the sidebar on the right, for the whole dictionary 😀
Nutria noun
Oxford Dictionary definition: coypu fur
Our definition: Nutria (also called coypu) are large, rodents who are more agile in the water than on land. They live in burrows, or nests, never far from the water. Nutria may inhabit a riverbank or lakeshore, or dwell in the midst of wetlands. They are strong swimmers and can remain submerged for as long as five minutes. Their average lifespan in the wild is eight to ten years. They are varied eaters, most fond of aquatic plants and roots, and are very very cute. Quite beaver-like 😀
Nutria can be rather social animals and sometimes live in large colonies, reproducing prolifically. Females have two or three litters every year, each consisting of five to seven young. These animals mature quickly and remain with their mothers for only a month or two.
Tragically, many misguided humans have cruelly exploited nutria on fur farms (“Originally native to subtropical and temperate South America, it has since been introduced to North America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, primarily by fur ranchers“) and, when these ventures failed and the captive animals escaped or were released into parts of the world where they didn’t belong, they bred fast and caused a lot of damage to wetlands. This has resulted in many attempts to cull them worldwide including, in the US, incentives being paid to people to hunt and trap them. They get $5 per nutria tail handed in to a Coastal Environments Inc. official.
Click here for the N page and here for the rest of the vegan dictionary
“Thou shalt not steal!”
Said Sam to Neil,
“You should not lie,”
Said Jane to Si.
“It’s wrong to kill,”
Said all to Jill
As she ate her big pork pie.
***
“I’d never steal!”
Replied cross Neil,
“I do not lie!”
Outraged was Si,
“I would not kill!”
Snapped back young Jill
As she swallowed piglet pie.
Thank you to everyone who entered our prize draw to give a home to our cute but nameless bunny.
The winner is Suzie Peron who came up with the name Cornball.
So let me know your address through our contact form Suzie, Cornball can’t wait to meet you 😀
Rescue rabbits
Rescue rabbits
Lovely rabbits
With natural habits
Need spacious homes
With other rabbits.
If you’ve got love
And space for rabbits,
Don’t pay breeders
Hell no! Dagnabbit!
So many need homes,
Save rescue rabbits!
At Raystede Animal Welfare Centre in East Sussex they take in around 1500 animals every year who need to be found new homes. They work hard to make sure that each animal is matched up with the right family to give them the best new chance in life and they provide advice on how to take the best care of the animals.
This is undoubtedly the case for so many animal rescue organisations which is why it’s so important, if we are able to provide a happy home for a companion animal, that we rehome abandoned, neglected, rescued animals rather than buy from breeders and perpetuate the problem.
The chap pictured at the top of this post is, like other rabbits rescued by Raystede, looking for a new home.
He is such a sweetheart and anyone from the UK wishing to adopt him should comment on this post suggesting a name for him. Then, on Friday, we will put all the suggested names in a box and draw out a winner. The rescued bunny will be trusted to the loving care of the lucky prize winner to whom he will be promptly delivered 😀
Tower Hill Stables Animal Sanctuary
Fiona Oakes – International marathon runner, fire fighter, provider of sanctuary for animals.
You’ll need tissues for this one but you’ll love the fairy tale ending 🙂
And the best and most productive way to stand for trees is to adopt a plant-based diet. These forests are being felled at an alarming rate to provide grazing land or grow fodder crops for farm animals.
If everyone ends their dependency on animal foods, the forests could be left in peace.
It’s that simple 🙂
These guys are amazing. Not only do they provide sanctuary for over 2000 rescued animals, they also do undercover investigations into farms which lead to the exposure of horrible cruelty and the prosecution of the perpetrators. Take a look at what they’ve accomplished over the last 20 years and support them if you can 🙂
Click here for info about how you can help 🙂
10 acres of land will support:
61 people growing soya
or
24 people growing wheat
or
10 people growing maize
or
2 people raising cattle.
****
“The world’s cattle alone consume enough food to sustain nine billion people, which is what the world’s human population is projected to be by 2050.”
“Hee hee” said the cow,
“Woo hoo” said the hen
“Hurrah!” said the sow
And the sheep cheered again.
“He did it!” they cried
As they skipped and they ran,
“Farmer’s eyes opened wide,
And he became vegan!”
And it’s true! It’s happening again and again!
Click here for some wonderfully moving true stories of animal farmers who awoke to the reality of what they were doing and completely turned things around 🙂
Violet's Vegan Comics 