Funny, exciting and sometimes action-packed vegan-friendly children's comics, stories, picture books and nursery rhymes, FREE TO READ HERE and available in paperback from our bookshop.
There are certain things that we’ve always been able to get without plastic. Yes, it takes a bit more time, a bit more effort, but you find the time and you make the effort because you care. I’m talking bread in a paper bag from the bakery, and loose fruit and veg from the market. But there were some things that have made it very difficult to live completely plastic-free. Not anymore 😀
Okay, this is it, quick and easy – where to get all the plastic-free everyday stuff you need:
Cleaning supplies
Mack! Keep it Mack with vegan, plastic-free sachets (biopods) of soluble detergents to which you add water. Everything you need to clean toilets, sinks, floors, hard surfaces, drains and to get rid of limescale. No need to buy any more plastic bottles BUT save the ones you’ve already got for refilling with these lifesavers! Also these products smell great and they’re easy on your wallet.
Washing up POWDER
Add a heaped teaspoon of this citrus-smelling powder to hot running water et voila! Your dishes will shine in no time without hurting the planet or any of its inhabitants. Available from Planet Detox 🙂
Plastic-Free Margarine
Actually, it’s not margarine, it’s vegan butter! Mergulo Plant-Based Butter that comes in a cardboard box! This is a life-changer! For a long time now I’ve had to simply go without margarine, substituting peanut butter or simply straight on with jam. Which was ok. But not as good as a slice of hot toast with delicious melting fatty goodness!
Made with coconut oil and cashews, this is absolutely scrummy and we found it at Holland & Barrett! Google a supplier near you.
But if you can’t find any Mergulo near you, all is not lost because Flora have come out with not one but two vegan butters: salted and unsalted. Find these at your local supermarket and here’s a tip – the unsalted one is just as delicious as the salted so don’t be afraid to give your heart a break 😀 They’re wrapped in plastic-free biodegradable grease-proof paper.
So get yourself an old-fashioned butter dish – these aren’t spreadable from the fridge 🙂
Dental Hygiene
Simple: Go to Georganics 🙂 a one-stop online store for all your dental needs. Or – if you’d rather shop locally, it’s not too difficult nowadays to get toothpaste tablets in glass jars, and bamboo toothbrushes at supermarkets, health food shops and chemists. But my favourite tooth-tabs (and the cheapest I’ve found actually) are Denttabs which you can get from anythingbutplastic 😀
Rice? Pasta? No problem!
You can get pasta in paper bags from the Northern Pasta Co. – they’ll tell you where you can buy it online and in actual shops.
And you can buy rice in paper bags from Marks & Spencer’s!
I’m sure you can find other manufacturers and retailers but these are just two examples I found easily.
And last but absolutely not least – Chocolate!
You can’t go wrong with Prodigy, Plamil and Vego for vegan, organic, fair trade delicious chocolate that’s NOT WRAPPED IN PLASTIC. Available in health food shops, some supermarkets and online. Click on the pics! 😀
Just stumbled across this great article from The Guardian website. It’s very inspiring and uplifting so I had to share it with you because I know you’ll love it too. If you don’t have time to read the whole thing right now (it’s not very long actually), here’s a few quotes from Ellen Miles:
“Guerrilla gardening is the practice of planting in public spaces in your neighbourhood” she says on a humid summer afternoon, walking between outlaw flower beds in Hackney, east London.
“And that’s how I define it … because, for me, it’s all about community ownership and belonging, and I think we have a right to cultivate these spaces in the areas we call home – and a responsibility to, as well.
“So-called public spaces have been really privatised, and communities actually don’t get a chance to interact with them often. So I think we do have a right to do that in the places we put down our roots, where we live.
“… for me guerrilla gardening is the Trojan horse into anarchist ideals.
“It’s wholesome, but that’s the thing: [anarchism] is not about violence and hate, it can be wholesome. And it’s fundamentally about bringing people together to shape the places we live. We shouldn’t be prevented from improving our neighbourhoods by powers that don’t really live here or care.”
Photo by David Levene/The Guardian
“Guerrilla gardening is like the ground up, grassroots way to make neighbourhoods greener and connect people to nature, and thenature is a human rightcampaign is the long-term, top-down way to do it,”
“I see it all as fighting for the same kind of thing really: a world where human habitats are more filled with nature than they are deprived of it, and where there’s equitable access to nature.”
“I do think there is an issue in society at the moment with the lack of agency and autonomy for people,” she says. “Guerrilla gardening, even if it is just sowing something in a tree bed, it might not change the world – you might help some bees, you might bring joy to someone walking down the street – but you’re also reminding people, or awakening something that is like ‘Maybe this is how it should be.’
“We know now that we can’t trust the government to do this stuff. We have to take it into our own hands.”
If you haven’t already you’ve got to try Prodigy chocolates! There is no bad here. They are delicious – my favourites are the coconut one and the peanut butter one – they are recommended on the Food Empowerment Project‘s ethical chocolate list and they are PLASTIC-FREE!!!!
Nuf said, right? Help the planet, help the animals (yes, of course they’re vegan), help the cocoa growers, and help yourself! You won’t regret it 😀
So what are you waiting for?! Get yourself a Taster Box, or a Family Bundle, or Value Bundle, or a big box of chocolate biscuits or …. you get the idea with that: there’s a lot to choose from 😀
Prodigy – Chocolate, only better
Oh, I almost forgot – they don’t contain refined sugar either!
Make the world a better place with plastic-free chocolate ❤
ps We’re not getting anything for this you know, so you can trust us. We say it because we mean it 🙂
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Violet’s Vegan Comics – making funny, exciting and always entertaining vegan-friendly children’s books since 2012.
How many times have so many of us said it – stop littering! End plastic!? So many websites and well known organisations have shown photos and footage of the devastating suffering caused by litter and fishing paraphernalia, for so many years. And, though many good people work hard to campaign, educate and do the actual cleaning up, there is no change in the practice of producing more single-use plastic. The government has made no effort to actually stem the tide of new plastic production. Our plastic waste, collected by people with good intentions, continues to cross the globe for recycling, regardless of the discovery years ago that much of it will end up in the ocean. Why isn’t the government forcing snack companies to stop using plastic? Why isn’t the government setting up recycling facilities in this country so that we can deal safely deal with our own waste? What hope is there for wildlife if they don’t?
“Steve Jobs once said the most powerful person in the world is the storyteller. Abraham Lincoln credited Harriet Stowe when she wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin – this powerful story inspired millions to rise up and fight against slavery,” said Jim Caviezel. “I think we can make Sound of Freedom the Uncle Tom’s Cabin of 21st century slavery.”
I was very apprehensive when I went to see the film last night but I know that, as with slaughterhouses and animal abuse, unless people open their eyes to things they don’t want to look at, nothing will change. This is a powerful film that every decent person must see. Brilliantly written and acted, Sound of Freedom will keep you gripped from beginning to end. I was riveted. The entire two hours and ten minutes went by in what seemed like a fraction of that time. If there is to be an end to slavery and sex trafficking (a multi-billion dollar industry) we all have to face it head on.
This film was actually made five years ago but it has faced every possible road-block to getting it in the theatres because, as we might realise from the fact that this abominable trade has not been shut down, there must be some extremely powerful people involved in or profiting from it.
Please go and see it so that you can share its message – watch to the end of the credits for a powerful plea from Jim Caviezel who says that there are more humans kept in slavery than at any other time in history, including when slavery was legal, and millions of them are children.
Even if you can’t afford a cinema ticket, you can claim a free ticket from the Angel film studios who have persuaded those who can afford it to buy a ticket for someone else by paying it forward. Go to angel.com/freedom
Please don’t look the other way. Watch Sound of Freedom.
“We cannot wait for governments – we must act immediately – and moving to a plant-based diet is the most impactful thing any individual can do”
Dr Richard Nicholson, Councillor for Haywards Heath
In July 2022, Haywards Heath Town Council became the first town in Europe to endorse the Plant Based Treaty, this was later followed by the City of Edinburgh Council in January 2023.
Dr Richard Nicholson, Councillor for Haywards Heath says, “The South East of England has endured the highest ever summer temperatures in history and people’s properties have been destroyed by fire and flood. We cannot wait for governments – we must all act immediately – and moving to a plant-based diet is the most impactful thing any individual can do to help address the grave situation we face. I’d encourage all Town, District, County and Metro councils to sign the Plant Based Treaty immediately.”
A coalition of groups is urging town and city councillors up and down the country to support sustainable diets by signing the Plant Based Treaty.
You can read the Plant Based Treaty in full here but, in a nutshell, it is a promise from the towns and cities who sign, not to build new or expand existing animal farms; to promote the benefits of plant-based diets in hospitals and schools; to teach farmers how to transition from animal to arable farming; and to redirect subsidies to fruits and vegetables growers so that everyone has access to healthy food.
Twenty cities have so far endorsed the Plant Based Treaty – in India, Turkey, the USA, and the UK – have you written to your town council? It’s easy to do. The nice people at the Plant Based Treaty have written the letter for you (which you are free to personalise) and have already worked out who the councillors are for each town so all you have to do is add your name 😀
It’s that time of year again and, for those who haven’t read it before, here begins our Christmas Story: Big Blue Sky. I will share a little of it every day this week, but if you want to read it all at once, here it is 😀
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Story continues tomorrow ❤
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Violet’s Vegan Comics – creating funny, enlightening and sometimes action-packed vegan children’s books for readers of all ages since 2012.
I was so moved by a post I read this week that I wanted to share it with you. Since there was no reblog button I am copying and pasting, so please go over to Marie’s site to LIKE and comment on the original post, it’s such a … what word am I looking for? I am lost for words. All I will say is that I’m so grateful to Marie for sharing her experience and lighting a fire under me. The following are all Marie’s words (and photos):
On Tuesday last week, in the pouring rain, I headed to Manchester for a peaceful vigil outside a slaughterhouse. I have never been to one before, and honestly, I never believed it would be something I could manage. But recently I’ve felt ready to step forwards much more with my animal activism.
The slaughterhouse is in Ashton-under-Lyne and activists there have been peacefully protesting for years. Animal Saves are done in cities and towns all over the world. After some time the activists here have developed a good relationship with the security guard who allows the trucks to stop for a few minutes before going in.
I pulled up right in front of the group to ask for directions of where best to park and saw a slaughter truck at the gate. I had been feeling strong but immediately felt myself break. After I parked up I walked to meet the small group. The last slaughter truck had gone in. Annoyed at myself I didn’t even manage a hello before becoming upset. Thankfully this didn’t seem unusual behaviour and everyone welcomed me with open arms.
Another slaughter truck pulled in. The driver stopped at the gate. The activists moved forwards to the truck. Many had bought stools to stand on as the open section is quite high. Someone kindly offered me theirs. I stood on it and looked into the truck. It was crammed with young pigs. The heat and the smell was intense – I know they could have been in that truck for hours without food or water. They were very quiet and barely moved. I didn’t want to look in their eyes but I made myself. I could only see fear and it was beyond intolerable to see an animal that frightened. The driver beeped his horn. We all stepped back. The truck drove into the slaughterhouse. Just before we did I managed to stroke one of their ears with one finger peeking through the bars and tell them it would all be over soon.
This process repeated itself I think 7 more times in the 2 hours I was there. I can’t say it got any easier. The other activists told me about themselves, everyone introduced themselves to me, someone bought a bunch of vegan snacks. I politely nibbled mine, I couldn’t stomach it. I was struck by their friendliness though. Occasionally while you were chatting you could hear screaming in the background. I declined to go closer to the area where the animals are killed to be a witness to the screaming. But maybe I will be ready for that another time.
It may seem like quite a pointless thing to be doing for some of you reading. As of course you can’t stop what is happening to those animals you lock eyes with. You just have to step back when the driver beeps his horn and let the animals go in. The answer to why is to simply bear witness to an injustice, to document it and to share it. With the hope that this may help more and more people connect with farmed animals and consider to not be a part of their exploitation. This blog post explains what you are trying to achieve way better than I am as well as providing self care to activists and is well worth a read – https://www.dominionmovement.com/self-care
For myself – although I know what happens to animals in animal agriculture and am horrified by that – seeing part of the process was another level of knowledge. It was obviously extremely tragic and upsetting. But I know now that I can be extremely upset and act at the same time. I feel like the least I can do is look into their eyes and acknowledge and witness what is being done to them, even if I can’t stop it.
I am still processing that day, thinking about the pigs I met, the ears I stroked and the backs I rubbed. I hope they’re at peace now. I’m grateful for the kindness of the other activists, how gladly they welcomed me. Many cars beeped their horns and waved as they drove by seeing the signs – it feels like all hope is not lost.
The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has been working for years to end the use of animals in “terminal” training exercises at veterinary schools—in which students perform procedures on otherwise healthy animals, who are then killed. Today they are happy to report that one of the nation’s highest-ranked vet schools, Colorado State University, has officially ended the use of terminal labs!
The PCRM first became involved in this issue in February 2020, when a CSU vet student contacted them. The student was shocked to learn that the curriculum included courses in which students would perform invasive surgical procedures on sheep, pigs, and horses. At the end of the training exercises, the animals were killed.
After receiving documents from CSU through the state’s open records law, the PCRM reached out to the dean of the veterinary school and were happy to hear that they were “also committed to the goal of eliminating terminal procedures.”
Over the last two years, the PCRM have worked closely with CSU leaders, alumni, students, and faculty at other veterinary schools to provide useful information and support as the university has made this transition. CSU leaders deserve immense credit for this change: To replace terminal labs, they have increased student exposure to surgical skills that are foundational to veterinary medicine, provided greater opportunities for repetition and practice, and expanded student access to real-world surgical experiences involving animals in need of procedures. This will make CSU graduates not only more compassionate but also more skilled.
CSU’s decision follows the elimination of terminal dog labs by Tuskegee University and Auburn University in 2021, which came about following work by the Physicians Committee. We hope this trend will send a clear message to vet schools elsewhere that terminal training labs can and should be replaced.
The Physicians’ Committee give special thanks to their Remembering Rodney Society members for this victory. Like the countless dogs, cats, pigs, and other animals used in terminal labs, Rodney was a sweet and loving dog who suffered through multiple painful veterinary training procedures before being killed. Members of the Remembering Rodney Society keep his spirit alive by providing the monthly support that allows the Physicians Committee to save animals day after day. You can help them save the “Rodneys” who still suffer in research, testing, and training programs by joining the society today.
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Want to know more? Read about Hugo’s lucky escape from a laboratory breeding facility in Let the dogs out, a graphic novel (with a happy ending) on our stories for teens and up page.
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Violet’s Vegan Comics creating funny, enlightening and sometimes action-packed vegan children’s books for readers of all ages, since 2012.
Animal Resistance in the Global Capitalist Era is an academic text book filled with examples of animal resistance. These individuals’ stories will profoundly touch the reader’s heart and prove that the billions of people* kept by mainstream society as slaves, and murdered when they are no longer useful, are as desperate to escape their bonds as any of us would be in their situation.
* I define the word people as anyone with an individual personality.
This is a fantastic book, though hard to read at times. It is an invaluable resource for writing letters which demand change to the government bodies and animal welfare establishment who remain stubbornly, and criminally, resistant to it.
The stories shared in this book of individuals who escaped their cages and, in some cases, went back later and risked their lives to release others, are stories that will be with me forever. I see them in the eyes of the adolescent calves in the field, torn from their mothers and looking for comfort. I see them in the eyes of the sheep, steadfastly guarding her lamb, insisting that I do not approach. And every time I see a film with Clint Eastwood in, I remember Buddha, the orangutan.
“When the orangutan, who had once co-starred with Clint Eastwood, stopped working on
a Hollywood set in 1980, he was repeatedly clubbed by his trainer. The crew witnessed Buddha
being beaten with a hard cane, yet he was still forced onto the set and expected to perform. One
day, when Buddha helped himself to some doughnuts on set, his trainer beat him to death with
an axe handle. These last moments were in his cage. The film left Buddha out of the credits.
Buddha deserved better than these atrocities during his life and his final moments.”
Animal Resistance in the Global Capitalist Era by Sarat Colling, page 68
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This book demonstrates why most humans are so blind to the institutionalised exploitation and extreme cruelty to other animals. Animal exploitation industries not only hide their violence, but also somehow manage to cash in on their hypnotised customers’ affection for the ones who get away.
“When a pig’s escape from a slaughterhouse made headlines in the city of Red Deer, Alberta, his infamy was not only used to promote tourism, but also to symbolize the “importance” of animal agriculture in the city. In the summer of 1990, at the time known only by his captors as “KH27,” Francis made his exit from the C/A Meats slaughterhouse. As Francis was being forced towards the kill floor, he turned and fled. He jumped a fence nearly four feet high, snuck through the processing area, and pushed through the back door. He then took off running towards the parklands of Red Deer River Valley.
“For several months, Francis lived alone in the forest, sheltering in dens and foraging for grass. He was also known to emerge from the forest to rummage through neighborhood garbage cans. As a descendant of the European wild boar, he had the ability to thrive in the wild. Once free, his resourceful nature shone through. Like his ancestors, who could live in harmony with nature for twenty years, Francis possessed the ability to reason, sense danger, understand his environment, adapt to change, and travel long distances when necessary. When the media caught on to his escape in late October, after he was regularly sighted in park areas and bike trails, Francis became a household name.
“Citing concern about Francis’s ability to survive the cold weather, the slaughterhouse sent a hunter to track him. Yet, Francis was cunning; he eluded capture by never returning to the den that the farmer had discovered. One time the man came close, but Francis took off again, despite having been hit with a tranquilizer dart. On November 29, the hunter located Francis again and shot him with three tranquilizer darts. Unfortunately, one of them injured his bowel. Francis died two days later. C/A Meats, which slaughters countless pigs, had likely been more concerned about liability due to potential injury to humans (or property) than Francis’s ability to survive in the cold.
“After his death, Francis was memorialized as one of the seven bronze statues in the Red Deer Downtown Business Association’s Ghosts project, which pays homage to individuals, actions, and events that have shaped Red Deer. The sad irony of this story is that, after his death, the city used Francis’s bid for freedom to promote tourism and animal agribusiness. Relying on cognitive dissonance, the Downtown Business Association stated in the write-up about the statue: ‘Francis reminds us that hog production and processing are important parts of the Red Deer economy.’ Thus, the statue was a Potemkin gesture: it performed a deceptive function as propaganda that capitalized on the citizens’ love for animals and the escaped pig, while trying to profit from Francis’s notoriety. Neglecting the suffering of pigs killed for their flesh, the industry that caused and profited from Francis’s misery appropriated his struggle.”
Animal Resistance in the Global Capitalist Era, by Sarat Colling, page 95-97
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This book is not cheap. Sadly at the moment it’s only available in hardback at £47.24, although there is a Kindle version available for £26.53, but I strongly recommend you ask your local library to buy a copy. Everybody should read this book. Everybody needs to understand the individuals whose stories are shared here so that, in the future, they will understand the billions of animals who were born to fill their plates, and know how abhorrent it is that this horrific trade is allowed to continue in our global capitalist system.
Will you continue to congratulate the emperor on his magnificent garments, or will you join us and tell him he’s naked?
“Today is World Animal Free Research Day. This day highlights the importance of developing animal-free research techniques and protecting animals during scientific studies.
Decapods in Science
Decapods, like crabs and lobsters, are used in science, but because they aren’t protected by laws that monitor experiments, there’s currently no way of ensuring their welfare in labs. They could be used for any experiment, as well as being handled and kept in ways that are harmful to their wellbeing.
We’re working to change this.
Science in Legislation
A law exists called ‘Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act’, also referred to as ‘ASPA’. This piece of legislation regulates the use of animals in science to ensure welfare is considered. Studies using animals that are protected by this law must justify why they are conducting that study, and how they are respecting the welfare of the animals used. It also means the number of animals used must be reported, so there are records to gauge the scale of the issue.
Now that their sentience has been officially recognised, we’re calling for decapods to be added to this law so that they are protected in the same way as other animals during experiments. One of the first things we’ll be doing is arranging a meeting with the Home Office to discuss expanding ASPA to cover decapods too.
We also published a press release with the RSPCA on World Day for Laboratory Animals, calling for the protection of decapods in science. The story was covered by The Guardian and Independent, and Animal Journal.
Make sure to keep up to date with the campaign to see our next steps in getting decapods protected in laws such as ASPA.
“I believe I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn’t. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity towards it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further.” Mark Twain in a letter to the London Anti-Vivisection Society, May 26, 1899
Restoring Hope MAY 25 “This cute dog got caught and spent 3 days on a snare. The left hand got damaged and the owner was only applying herbs that finally damaged the hand. The owner lost hope. However, the owner’s son, John heard about LAWCS from his friend and he ran to our office to help their family dog from dying. Our Animal Healthcare Officer immediately went to the village to save the dog. The hand was amputated and after intensive care, the dog has recovered and looks so happy.”
“We have great news! Government report confirms decapods can feel pain
A year ago, in response to our campaigning, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) commissioned an independent piece of work, looking into whether or not animals like crabs, lobsters and prawns (decapod crustaceans) are sentient animals and can feel pain. After numerous delays, and much chasing by Crustacean Compassion and our wonderful supporters – the report has finally been published! We may have waited a year… but the findings are well worth it! An expert team of scientists, led by Dr Jonathan Birch, at London School of Economics (LSE) reviewed all available evidence, and concluded that decapods are capable of feeling pain and must be protected. The wealth of scientific evidence confirmed what we knew already – these animals are sentient beings! Here’s a quote from the report: “We recommend that all cephalopod molluscs and decapod crustaceans be regarded as sentient animals for the purposes of UK animal welfare law. They should be counted as “animals” for the purposes of the Animal Welfare Act 2006 and included in the scope of any future legislation relating to animal sentience”The government’s plan to protect decapods.
In light of this, the UK Government are planning to amend the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Bill to protect decapod crustaceans alongside vertebrates. The inclusion of decapods in this legislation is ground breaking! The legal recognition of their sentience means their welfare must be considered in policy making decisions and will influence how they are handled and treated. At the moment, decapods have no more protection than vegetables. They are boiled alive, chopped up alive, sent live in the post… This legal protection is long overdue! What happens next?
The Sentience Bill is due to continue its passage through parliament to become law. The next step is Report Stage in the House of Lords, taking place Tuesday 30th November. On this day, we expect the government’s amendment to include decapods to be confirmed and put into print! Make sure to stay tuned as we’ll be sharing updates on our social media, website and by email. Thank you!
It has taken us years of work to get to this point, and we couldn’t have done it without you all. Every action taken has brought us one step closer to protecting these vulnerable and overlooked animals. Thanks to all of you, we are changing animal welfare history. Thank you for your ongoing support.”
Maisie, Claire, Jules, Laura, Ann Crustacean Compassion
Thank you so much to everyone who signed the petition, shared the campaign, wrote to their representatives, and helped make this happen. Thank you so so much. xxxxx
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Violet’s Vegan Comics creates funny, enlightening and sometimes action packed vegan children’s books for readers of all ages, which are free to read online.
“We’d like to thank you for sending in your wonderful selfies…We received hundreds!
By signing our petition and writing to your MPs, as thousands of you have, the government have heard your voices. But we wanted to go one step further and provide the opportunity to show your faces too.
We wanted to use your faces to demonstrate visually how much support there is for the legal protection of vulnerable animals like crabs, prawns and lobsters. To do this, we’ve used every selfie to create a ‘welfare mosaics’; images of these overlooked animals, made-up by the faces of the people standing up for them:
We have been sharing this mosaic all over social media and are continuously reminding Defra of the deadline they have promised to ensure the review of decapod sentience is published before the Sentience Bill’s next step through parliament. We expect this to come very soon and will keep you updated!
Show your face and show your support.
In the meantime, let’s get the message out there. Join Michaela Strachan and our other amazing supporters by sharing our mosaic far and wide on social media! Don’t forget to tag @Defra too if you can!”
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I’m sure, like us, you would like to take a sledgehammer to the doors of all seafood restaurants and rescue the still living sentient beings who are yet to endure horrific abuse. But we would not likely get away with that for long and even if we were successful for a while, those rescued animals would simply be replaced with other victims. Crustacean Compassion’s campaign is our best hope of permanently preventing the unimaginable cruelty suffered by crustaceans. Please share their work on social media, whether you’re from the UK or not, and inspire some morality amongst the decision-makers.
Thank you.
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Violet’s Vegan Comics creates funny, enlightening and sometimes action packed vegan children’s books for readers of all ages.
Vegan children’s comic, The English Family Anderson chapter 4, continues. For the story so far, click here 🙂
(NB Our comics were designed to be viewed on a laptop or desktop, but if you are viewing this on a phone and the pictures are too small to read the text, any Android smartphone has the ability to enlarge any part of the screen according to Technolong. They say this feature is located under Accessibility and is called Zoom Gestures. To turn on the zoom mode, go to the phone settings, select “Accessibility”, and then “Gestures for zoom”.
After turning it on, if you tap the screen three times and do not release your finger, the image will enlarge and you can move it by moving your finger across the screen. As soon as you release your finger, the magnification turns off.
The second option is to tap and release your finger three times, then the image will enlarge and remain enlarged up to three repeated taps. You can move the enlarged image with two fingers, and zoom in and out by pinching and spreading your fingers.)
[The fictional Turning Tides: A Strategy for Scotland’s Seafood Industry is based on the real strategic report of Seafood Scotland, Changing Tides – a strategy for Scotland’s seafood industry. I have included paraphrased sections from the genuine report and a couple of its photos/graphics (this is permitted under copyright law as it is done for criticism and the report is already available to the public). You can download the whole shocking thing here.]
Join us on Monday to find out what the Andersons plan to do about this! xx
Balloons Blow is dedicated to educating people about the danger and destruction that released balloons can cause.
“Balloons Blow…Don’t Let Them Go! That’s the message we’re trying to get out. When we first started cleaning Florida’s beaches over 20 years ago with our parents, we would never find balloons. As the years went on we would find a few more here & there. Now, both in our 20’s, we continue our weekly beach cleanups & every year we find more & more balloons. Of course we collect much more washed up plastic than ever, which has caused us to eliminate wasteful plastic from our lives & try to encourage others to do so as well. But the disturbing thing about balloon pollution is that it is “celebrating by littering.”
We have collected thousands of balloons since we started keeping track in 2011. Although the Mylar balloons are more visible, we find many more latex balloons, perhaps because the balloon industry spends millions of dollars falsely marketing latex balloons as “biodegradable,” “environmentally friendly” and “safe to release.” However, it is these latex balloons that are especially deadly as their burst remnants actually mimic the food of many creatures.”
“It is very alarming, the amount of trash that gets washed ashore on our beaches, but it is particularly troubling that people release balloons on purpose to celebrate, to honor loved ones, or to just mindlessly watch it float away. This is the reason we had to create this website. It is dedicated to educating people about the danger and destruction that released balloons can cause.
Animals – marine & terrestrial, wild & domestic – commonly mistake them for food causing intestinal blockage, or get entangled in any attached strings, both leading to a slow and agonizing death.
Dangerous & costly power outages caused by Mylar balloons contacting electrical power lines effect hundreds of thousands of people each year. Helium is a nonrenewable resource critical in the science & medical fields.
There are countless websites & Facebook pages promoting balloon releases. Balloon sellers actively continue to deceive the public, pushing the sale and release of this wasteful, single-use product – resulting in the intentional release of millions of balloons. The industry falsely claims that balloons are harmless in the environment, but we show proof their claims are not true: Balloons Blow photo gallery.”
“There are laws prohibiting balloon releases in several states in the U.S. and many countries around the world, yet many unknowing celebrators, grieving groups, and others, are arranging balloon releases worldwide. Honoring a loved one or celebrating by releasing balloons is irresponsible – like littering, it should be discouraged (including sky lanterns).
We are hopeful people will begin to understand the hazards and get creative & Earth-friendly with their celebrations, like these environmentally friendly alternatives, and we will keep trying to get the word out that: Balloons Blow…Don’t Let Them Go!“
If you know of anyone planning a balloon release, or if they’re intending to buy balloons at all, get over to Balloons Blow for advice on how to persuade the organisers to choose an environmentally-friendly alternative, (I will put a permanent link to them in our sidebar). Most people who do these things have absolutely no idea of the damage they’re causing, so be gentle, be kind, and hopefully when they know the truth they will do the right thing.
Stop lobsters, crabs and other shellfish being boiled alive by uploading a selfie to show the government you support Crustacean Compassion’s campaign.
The government is still undecided about including crustaceans in the new Sentience Bill, so please, no matter where you’re from, upload a selfie to tell the British government to do the right thing. This is an opportunity we’ve never had before. Thanks to Crustacean Compassion we are closer than ever to getting some protection for these horrifically abused animals. Don’t let it slip through our fingers. Add your picture to Crustacean Compassion’s selfie wall now!
Crustacean Compassion is an award-winning animal welfare organisation dedicated to the humane treatment of decapod crustaceans. They are a group of animal welfare professionals who are shocked by the inhumane treatment of crabs, lobsters, prawns and crayfish, particularly in the food industry, given what is now known about their sentience. They founded the organisation when they heard that crabs were being sold alive fully immobilised in shrinkwrap in UK supermarkets, and that the RSPCA were powerless to act as the animals are not covered by the Animal Welfare Act 2006. It is also legal, and commonplace, in the UK for crustaceans to be boiled or dismembered/cut while still alive.
Inhumane Slaughter Methods
All of the following methods have been described as inhumane by the EU’s Animal Health and Welfare Scientific Panel:
Live boiling. During this process lobsters and crabs thrash, try to escape, and shed their limbs, known to be a sign of stress. Crustaceans, unlike us and other animals, are not able to go into shock and lose consciousness to protect themselves from extreme pain. A crab can take 3 minutes to die in boiling water.
Chilling in the freezer/ice slurry before live boiling. There is no evidence to suggest that this induces anaesthesia rather than just paralysis. Roth and Øines find that chilling is often slow and ineffective. Keeping live lobsters on ice has been banned in Switzerland and Italy. (Roth, B. and Øines, S., 2010. Stunning and killing of edible crabs (Cancer pagurus), Animal Welfare, Volume 19, Number 3, August 2010 , pp. 287-294(8). Universities Federation for Animal Welfare)
Live carving / dismemberment. Whilst some uses of the knife may be more humane than others (see the RSPCA’s guide), it is vital that the correct nerve chains are severed quickly. In particular, lobsters must be severed lengthways all the way down the body. All too often this is not the case, with chefs claiming splitting the head of a chilled lobster kills him instantly. This method is highly likely to cause pain – even if the animals have been previously chilled to a torpor.
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Crustacean Compassion engage with legislators and policy makers to strengthen and enforce animal welfare law and policy. They work to persuade and enable companies to sell higher welfare products across their shellfish product ranges. And they seek to educate both the public and policy makers on the science of decapod crustacean sentience and on their humane treatment and care.
Sign Crustacean Compassion’s petition to get crustaceans included in the Animal Welfare Act 2006! This would mean that anyone farming them, storing them or slaughtering them must abide by basic animal welfare rules – providing enough food, decent water quality, protection from pain and suffering, and humane slaughter methods.
Other countries including New Zealand, Austria, Norway and Switzerland include decapod crustaceans in their animal welfare legislation in the food preparation and restaurant trade. Their decisions are based on scientific evidence of the animals’ ability to feel pain and suffer, dating as far back as the 1990s; and they have largely taken a common sense approach to prevent unnecessary suffering where doubt still exists. For example:
the sale of live creatures to the general public is prohibited
chefs or other slaughterers must have a certificate of competence and prevent unnecessary suffering
decapods must be appropriately housed, in good quality water
they must be cared for in a way which prevents injuries and disease
their conditions must allow for ‘species-specific behaviour’
Until decapod crustaceans are included under the definition of ‘animal’ in welfare legislation, the UK government is not obliged to draw up guidelines for their humane slaughter. This means that even where restaurants and supermarkets want to do the right thing*, it’s not easy to find guidance.
UPDATE: The result of Defra’s independent review of decapod sentience is due imminently, and the outcome will be crucial for moving towards legislation. Crustacean Compassion are working hard to prepare. The best thing you can do right now is make sure you’re following their social media channels, like and share their posts (Crustacean Compassion Facebook and @crab_welfare Twitter) and are subscribed to their emails (sign up via their website) so that as soon as they release their action you are ready to take part! Keep an eye out as once Defra release their outcome, they’ll need you immediately!
Until we, the human collective, fully awaken–from within our hearts–to acknowledge the Absolute Truth that we are One with ALL Life, ONLY then can we ensure the survival of Mother Earth and her Universal Family.
To evolve to the inner consciousness of ONENESS means living with the full understanding that ALL Life is sacred and must be treated that way.
ONLY then can we bring our normalized violence–which separates and targets any being, human or nonhuman, deemed “NOT LIKE US” and therefore, “LESS THAN US” – to an end.
ONLY then can sustainable social change take place – in our outer world – to ensure that institutionally oppressed INDIVIDUAL lives matter. To transform systematic racism, sexism, heterosexism, speciesism, transphobia, etc., we, the human collective, must now awaken within us a new COMPASSION for ALL that will reflect an inclusive culture, honouring the interconnectedness of life.
“The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world.” Paul Farmer
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. ” Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
ONLY Compassion for ALL Beings can create a culture of Peace on Earth.
Compassion means, literally, “to suffer with.” The State of Being Compassionate involves allowing oneself to be moved by suffering, so that we experience the motivation to help alleviate and prevent it.
Compassion can ONLY be manifested by daily NON-VIOLENT choices and actions. And that includes standing up against ALL Injustice.
In Dr. Will Tuttle’s book, The World Peace Diet, he reveals the invisible attitudes we ingest at every meal by the relentless and routine killing of animals for food. Our inherent wisdom and compassion, he says, is brutally suppressed as our culture’s mentality of violence and disconnectedness is injected into our meal rituals of animal-derived food.
If we, the human collective, continue to live much of our daily lives by rote behaviour passed down through the ages, from parent to child, disconnected from our True Nature as we separate ourselves from the diversity of Life – which includes other human and nonhuman animals alike – and abandoning Mother Earth herself, our compartmentalized existence will NEVER sustain a world worth living in for ALL.
Until we choose to awaken our hearts to the INTENTION of Compassion for ALL who share our Home [Planet], with daily NON-VIOLENT actions aligned to that conviction, ONLY then will our chaotic, violent culture slowly begin to change our current reality.
Therefore, Veganism must be the necessary FIRST step to deprogram ourselves from centuries of archaic human conditioning that has indoctrinated us to believe in, and fully accept, the Paradigm of OPPRESSION in our culture.
“A revolution of the heart,” says Gary L. Francione, is required. “What I mean by that is that we must reject all ideologies of domination and power, whether religious or secular, that allow us to transform sentient beings—human or nonhuman—into the ‘other,’ thereby allowing us to ignore their moral value and to treat them as things. We must embrace nonviolence as a basic normative principle—a principle that we see as reflecting a moral truth.”
Compassion for ALL understands that “Thou Shall Not Kill” means ALL sentient beings, for we are all valued members of Mother Earth’s Universal Family. “FARM” ANIMALS ARE SENTIENT BEINGS. FISH ARE SENTIENT BEINGS. RATS AND MICE ARE SENTIENT BEINGS. PITBULLS and “RACE” HORSES ARE SENTIENT BEINGS. WILDLIFE ARE SENTIENT BEINGS. THE HOMELESS, HUMAN AND NONHUMAN, ARE SENTIENT BEINGS.
And YOU and YOU and YOU across the globe, no matter the body you live in, no matter the skin color, the age, the race, the nation, the culture, the economic class, no matter the sexual orientation, the gender, the physical or mental disability, the spiritual or religious belief. And no matter the species. For here is the diverse beauty of our interconnectedness.
Bright and early on April 28, 2019, Amy Soranno and around 200 other activists stormed Excelsior Hog Farm in Abbotsford, BC, Canada. They occupied the farm, sitting with the caged pregnant pigs, for approximately 7 hours. Eventually they successfully negotiated with the farm to allow the media inside and documented the realities farmed pigs are forced to endure. This was Canada’s first Meat The Victims action.
What the activists saw will haunt them forever. The distress, the sounds, the stench, and the suffering was unlike anything they had witnessed before. The pigs, who had never experienced fresh air, grass, or sunlight, were confined in a dark, dirty, concrete dungeon, unable to move or do anything that comes naturally to them. There were dead bodies scattered throughout the farm, and dumpsters full of dead pigs and piglets outside of the barns. The psychological distress the pigs exhibited was obvious, and the physical pain was overwhelmingly apparent. Blood, cuts and open wounds were seen everywhere.
As you might expect, the Abbotsford Police Department took action. But not against Excelsior Hog Farm. Despite documented criminal animal cruelty taking place there, including footage of workers kicking pigs, using electric prods on the faces of pigs, and tail-docking & castrating distressed piglets without anaesthetic, the Abbotsford PD were only interested in going after the activists who exposed the hidden cruelty.
On November 2, 2020 – The Excelsior 4 attended their second court hearing. Amy Soranno, Nick Schafer, Roy Sasano, and Geoff Regier are facing an outrageous 21 indictable offences of Break and Enter and Mischief. They pled not guilty to all charges. If convicted, they could face years in prison, with each Break and Enter carrying the potential of 10 years in jail.
“No legal repercussions could ever compare to what farmed animals endure – including the pigs who were repeatedly hit, kicked, brutally mutilated, and so much more at Excelsior,” said Amy Soranno.
The Excelsior 4 want to use their prosecution to raise awareness. They are taking every opportunity to challenge public perception, and the legal system, surrounding farmed animals. These activists are challenging the lack of transparency and accountability within the animal agriculture industry, and hope to generate much-needed positive change for exploited animals. This is a huge opportunity to bring these issues to the forefront and they urgently need our support.
Share their story far and wide, and click here to support the four activists’ legal defence.
I’m thrilled to tell you that issue 3 of the LUV4All (Love Unity Voice) magazine is out now and free to read here. It’s full of wonderful articles by wonderful people and I’ve been given permission to share it with you. First up is something by Dr Will Tuttle that’s right on the money!
“Everybody, soon or late, sits down to a banquet of consequences.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
The spinning fury at the core of our culture, animal agriculture, not only exploits and destroys the lives and purposes of animals, it does the same to humans as well, and we see this playing out now with this draconian lockdown of healthy people, eroding mental health, human rights, and economic independence, and destroying countless small and medium businesses (including vegan ones).
In my lectures over the years, I’ve described animal agriculture as a Trojan horse: on the surface it appears to be a helpful gift, but on closer examination, and with deeper understanding, we see clearly that it is an utterly harmful force in our individual and collective lives, incessantly damaging the health of our ecosystems and society, as well as our physical, psychological, and spiritual well-being.
Animal agriculture is also the hidden cause of the COVID pandemic, and of the dominant narrative that is imprisoning billions of people in fear and confusion in their homes, and eroding our capacity to speak up and defend our basic freedoms. We are reaping the harvest that we have been sowing for decades and centuries. This is our banquet of consequences. Our culture has created a vast system of animal enslavement that heartlessly condemns billions of sentient beings — whose interests are as significant to them as ours are to us — to lives of misery, terror, and pain. Their purposes are stolen and they are reduced to mere material units of production in a rapacious economic system that sells them by the pound. They are impregnated on rape racks, their offspring immediately stolen, exploited, and killed, and all are forcibly vaccinated and drugged, tracked, microchipped, mercilessly mutilated and oppressed, and brutally killed in an unnecessary, ugly, surreal prison-world devoid of meaning and respect. Animal agriculture defines our society.
Those of us who purchase the flesh and secretions of these unfortunate beings, which is most of humanity worldwide, are the causal forces propelling this system ever onward with the flood of money we spend — votes we cast — driving its ongoing and reckless devastation. Thus, as we persist in engineering and imposing a dystopian future on billions of beings, we now see the gaping maw of a dystopian future looming before our eyes. Mandatory confinement, separation of family members, loss of basic freedoms, forced vaccinations, routine microchipping, mass tracking and surveillance: all these standard factory-farm practices are now being openly discussed and planned by health officials, pharmaceutical representatives, and government agencies. What we relentlessly inflict on farmed animals we see manifesting in our human world, and, ironically, we seem powerless and strangely uninspired to stop it.
Why is this? Why are we so unable to see the obvious and respond with clarity, vitality, and solidarity to these insidious existential dangers to us and to our children? Why are we immobilized by fear and mesmerized by the voices of authority, unable to connect with either our intuitive wisdom or to think critically about our situation? Why the nearly-blind allegiance to mainstream media narratives and medical-pharmaceutical forces that we should by now have learned to question? Why do we find those relative few who dare to speak up and question the dominant COVID narrative to be so threatening?
It is because animal agriculture not only exploits animals, it exploits us. As we exploit and abuse, we will be exploited and abused. Each one of us, as we purchase meat, dairy, or egg products, becomes an invisible killer to the cows, pigs, hens, and fishes we are exploiting. We directly but invisibly cause terror, pain, and death, and we compound it further by eating it and feeding it to our vulnerable and innocent children, ritually indoctrinating them as we were. We are the invisible killers, but we repress this awareness, and project it outward, impulsively terrified of invisible killers, which seem to be everywhere.
We spend billions on military defense to protect ourselves from lurking terrorists, and now are even more frightened by microscopic enemies, the hordes of viruses, pathogens, and other unseen agents of death arising and projected from our unfaced violence.
This is our shadow: our repressed awareness, guilt, and shame, propelling us to give our power away to authorities in the vain hope they will protect us. At war with animals, nature, and each other, we make war on invisible viruses as well, completely failing to understand them in our fear-based materialist delusion. We see and suspect enemies and threats everywhere because we are the enemies and threats, and our fear sends us into the waiting arms of the merciless global conglomerates, who provide both the narrative and the toxic “solution.” They will profit from us more in power even than in dollars. They have purchased both media and government, and we find ourselves, the wounded and programmed dominators of animals, increasingly dominated by impersonal forces beyond our control.
There is but one way to human freedom, and to a world of health and harmony, and that is the way of ahimsa — non-harmfulness to other beings — a vegan world of respect for all. We will be worthy of understanding and appreciating ourselves and everyone on this beautiful and abundant planet when we dismantle the entrenched narrative of human superiority and entitlement. A new story is yearning to be born in our human culture. It has ancient roots, and this current emergency (emerge-and-see), if we respond appropriately, can put us on a higher path of liberation and healing.
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Click here for the conclusion of this article and links to more of Dr Tuttle’s writing.
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Despite the fact that animal farming is the cause of COVID-19 and a myriad of other preventable infectious diseases; despite the fact that animal products weaken the body’s immune system; and that deficiency in the intake of whole grains, fruits, nuts, legumes, seeds and vegetables leads to degenerative diseases, we see daily, evidence that the general public have not been told how to protect themselves against the pandemic. My jaw drops as I pass the long lines of cars – people exercising their right to shop for basic necessities during lockdown – queuing to order ‘food’ at the McDonald’s drive-thru. It’s so long it goes all the way across McDonald’s car park and that of the neighbouring superstore, out onto the road and right up to the roundabout where it causes a traffic jam. It’s like most people are in The Matrix and they don’t want to take the red pill.
Liberia faces many challenges after the terrible civil war that ended in 2003. It is considered one of the poorest countries in the world. The country recovering process is faced with high unemployment rate, poor infrastructure, low literacy rate, and the Ebola crisis in 2014/2015 that killed over 4,000 people nationwide and further affected every sector of the country. Amidst all of these enormous challenges to national stability, animal protection is not considered as a priority issue. The animal protection issue is seen as a new concept and as a result many animals suffer needlessly.
The UK government has unveiled plans to ban the export of live animals for slaughter and fattening.
The proposals form part of an eight-week consultation, launched by Defra secretary George Eustice in England and Wales on Thursday (3 December 2020), seeking views on how to better protect animal welfare during transport.
“We are committed to improving the welfare of animals at all stages of life. Today marks a major step forward in delivering on our manifesto commitment to end live exports for slaughter,” said Mr Eustice. “Now that we have left the EU, we have an opportunity to end this unnecessary practice. We want to ensure that animals are spared stress prior to slaughter.”
This is ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC NEWSbut we must remember that nothing is definite yet. This is just a consultation and the government is also consulting on alternative proposals to further improve welfare for all animals in transport. These include:
Reduced maximum journey times
Animals being given more space and headroom during transport
Stricter rules on transporting animals in extreme temperatures
Tighter rules for transporting live animals by sea.
That’s why it’s vital we act now!
We have to let the government know just how much support there is for an outright ban of live exports.
The National Farmers Union (NFU) are saying that live exports are an “important trade option for farmers” and wants Defra to consider its alternative plan for an assurance scheme to “ensure all animals travel in the best possible conditions and that they arrive at the approved and final destination in the best possible health”.
If we don’t shout louder and harder than those farmers, we could miss out on this amazing and unprecedented opportunity.
TELL THE GOVERNMENT THAT NOTHING SHORT OF AN OUTRIGHT BAN IS GOOD ENOUGH!
Trawling for prey at more than a thousand feet under the surface, scalloped hammerhead sharks rely on a special oil in their livers to survive the crushing pressures of the deep.
Shark liver oil, or squalene, is a fatty substance that provides vital buoyancy for this critically endangered species and many others. But it’s also used by humans as a boosting agent in vaccines, called an adjuvant, that improves the immune system and makes vaccines more effective.
As the world’s pharmaceutical companies scramble to create a vaccine for COVID-19, at least five of the 202 vaccine candidates rely on squalene sourced from wild-caught sharks.
One candidate is a vaccine developed in Australia by University of Queensland, in partnership with the Australian biopharmaceutical company CSL and its subsidiary Seqirus. The as yet unnamed vaccine contains the squalene adjuvant MF59, which is sourced from a variety of shark species. It entered human clinical trials earlier this year and, if successful, will result in an initial production of 51 million doses.
Tens of millions of sharks are caught and traded internationally each year—both legally and illegally—the majority for their meat and fins but roughly three million or more for their squalene. It takes the livers of between 2,500 and 3,000 sharks to extract about a ton of squalene.
Conservationists fear that increased demand for squalene for vaccines, among other uses, could further imperil shark species, a third of which are vulnerable to extinction.
“This is an unsustainable demand to place on a finite natural resource like sharks,” says Stefanie Brendl, founder and executive director of Shark Allies, a California-based conservation non-profit.
Only about one percent of squalene ends up in vaccines, and most goes into cosmetics such as sunscreen, skin creams, and moisturisers. Even so, as the global population booms, the need for vaccines will only increase in coming years, Brendl notes, adding that some medical experts suggest that people will require multiple doses of vaccines against COVID-19.
“We’re not saying that vaccine trials should stop, but if we keep viewing sharks as an easy solution and don’t consider the alternatives that exist, then we’ll just continue to use [squalene] as a template for vaccines,” Brendl says.
In light of declining shark populations, some biotech companies are looking for other sources of squalene. Plants such as sugarcane, olives, amaranth seeds, and rice bran, for instance, all contain the substance. While plant-based alternatives are being tested in studies and clinical trials, regulatory agencies such as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration have yet to approve them as part of a final vaccine product.
Brendl says the onus is on pharmaceutical companies to begin developing viable alternatives to shark squalene to present to regulators. She points out that Novavax, an American vaccine-development company, is already using an alternative squalene adjuvant, Matrix-M, in clinical trials for its experimental COVID-19 vaccine. Matrix-M is made from the bark of the soapbark tree, which is abundant in Chile.
Though the company has deemed the soapbark adjuvant as safe, it has not yet been evaluated as part of a final product submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
However, the Infectious Disease Research Institute found that pharmaceutical-grade squalene produced by the American biotechnology company Amyris met, and in some cases exceeded, the safety and purity profiles of shark-based squalene, according to Chris Paddon, Amyris’s lead scientist.
Amyris is banking on sugarcane as a solution to shark-based squalene, he says. In southeastern Brazil, the company is growing thousands of acres of the bamboo-like sugarcane to be processed into squalene. Just 24 acres of sugarcane could, in theory, produce enough squalene to support one billion COVID-19 vaccines.
Because growers can control the way sugarcane is grown and harvested, it’s possible to ensure the quality of the squalene, Paddon says. “When you use animal products, there are impurities that come with them because of the environment they’re raised in and the places where they’re processed.” Furthermore, Paddon says, growing sugarcane is also cheaper than catching sharks and removing their livers.
Sign this Shark Allies petition demanding that the US/FDA (Food and Drug Administration of the United States of America), the UK/MHRA (The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency of the United Kingdom), the EU/EMA (The European Medicines Agency), the National Medical Products Administration of China, and all vaccine producing companies use non-animal squalene in all vaccines.
It’s easy to feel hopeless with the state of the world as it is. Every year it gets hotter, animal suffering increases, and the powers that be do nothing to address it. In fact they continue to subsidise it.
But then something comes along to really lift your spirits.
Refarm’d is a new plant-based drink subscription service, sourced lovingly from ex-dairy farmers.
They say:
WE HAVE THIS CRAZY IDEA
We want to turn all dairy farms into animal sanctuaries and we need you to convince these farmers to join the movement.
We work with farmers to transition from milk production to focus on producing plant based drinks and convert their farmland into an animal sanctuary.
We believe that by uniting together with farmers and providing them with the tools they need to move away from the dairy trade, we’re offering a viable new opportunity for their businesses to be part of the growing plant based movement.
We will assist the ex-dairy farms to sustainably and locally source the ingredients to produce plant based drinks on their farms. The farmers’ land will be converted into an animal sanctuary for their cattle that are no longer being used for dairy farming.
Show your interest (no payment, no commitment) in buying fresh plant-based drinks from them and let us do the rest!
As much as the animal agriculture is terrible on multiple aspects, – [the animal suffering, the environmental destruction, the damage to human health] – we cannot forget the farmers in these industries as well.
We believe the big majority of farmers are good people, that do care for their animals, but have just grown in an environment that normalizes animal exploitation so it has become a part of their identity, making it hard to take a step back and make changes.
The industry is in danger and most big companies have noticed it and adapt to the new market in order to survive. Small companies, family businesses however are the ones suffering the most. Lack of money, lack of time and lack of information make it hard on them to go in the right direction. The pressure, the insecurity as well as the very low buying prices (often selling for less than production costs) make for very uncomfortable living conditions.
We want to include helping the farmers in our mission to create the future of farming.
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ANIMAL SANCTUARY
Farms are actually ideal places to become an animal sanctuary. They already have the land, the animals and the people that care for them [they wouldn’t be short of volunteers – I’d love to help look after the cows!]. No need to move animals, they can stay as a herd, nor to use more resources like land to create a new sanctuary.
Farmers joining our program have to give up any form of animal exploitation totally and to fully transition to an animal sanctuary.
Animals are put under legal protection and farmers under contract. Regular inspections and veterinary checks are performed to make sure of the animals’ well being.
The sanctuary is not working with donations. Instead, a part of the plant-based drinks price is dedicated to sustain these animals.
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So what Refarm’d need is enough people to tell them they’re interested so that they can go to the farmers and say – look, if you convert to plant-milk production, we’ve got the market ready and waiting for you. It’s scary for farmers to take the plunge, they need to know they can make a living from plant milk.
They need us to tell them “If you make it, we will buy.”
So go on, get over to Refarm’d and tell them you’re interested (there’s a button to click if you scroll down the homepage). Then you fill in a short questionnaire. It asks you what country and town you live in, and how much milk you would want to buy per week, and whether you would want it delivered, or whether you’d pick it up from the farm. Added bonus: it comes in refillable glass bottles! NB VERY IMPORTANT: when filling in the questionnaire you have to click NEXT and it takes you to what looks like a blank page, but it isn’t blank. You have to scroll up to find a couple more questions including name and email address and you can leave a comment or ask a question. Make sure you finish it otherwise they won’t be able to get back to you 😀
Help us out – put some of our books on shelves in your town. Could ya? It won’t cost you nuthin’ 😀
We like to leave our books wherever we think children might find them – in libraries, charity shops, cafes, railway stations, doctors’ waiting rooms. We leave them in charity shops so children can buy them for pocket money prices, but when we leave them on bookshelves in libraries, or cafes, or anywhere else they won’t be sold, we put a book fairy sticker on them.
WHAT IS A BOOK FAIRY?
Book fairies are people who, when they’ve finished reading a good book, leave it for someone else to enjoy. They pop a book fairy sticker on it, and hide it in public to be found.
We’re stealthy. None of the books we leave have the V-word on them. They’re just colourful storybooks and comics which we hope children will see and want.
We also have a little Book Exchange in an old phone box near us where we can leave books. So I was thinking, maybe you have something like that in your area. And maybe if we sent you some books you’d leave them on a shelf for children to find. 😀
Will you help us? Do you have a local book exchange or anywhere that would be ideal to leave books for children to find? We’ll send you them for free (for as long as funds last). If you can help, please contact us privately on the form below. Help us to inspire a vegan future.
Purify your body head to toe Your thoughts inna your mind and slowly make Jah rhythm flow Nature is the keeper of your body and your soul Even all of that you’ll never truly own
Brothers sisters watch out what you put in your body If you are what you eat then think about what you must be If you still feed yourself upon their industry They sell the whole world illusion of fertility Robbing humans, animals and plants of their dignity To feed the masses but to feed their greed specially They breed the hybrid and manipulate Jah very seeds Agro-chemistry is like a war technology They destroyed all over the Earth the soil microbiology To bring about a new kind of captivity Control the food and you control the whole of humanity
Look into infinity, humble before a Tree And Purify…
Bring a healing to a nation Give them the seed for plantation Sovereignty resides in the heart of the land And what you a go do with the strength inna your hands
The seeds they took away and wiped away all diversity Testing their madness in the soils of so-called third world countries To force the people in labor and poverty Dis a what ya call a modern day slavery Referenced mostly hybrids in them legal catalog
Made all ancient seeds illegal like any drug So you must buy their machines and their chemicals And produce all the food according to their laws.
My dad, who suffers from heart disease, was told to “eat more meat” by his GP as a response to his iron deficiency! And when he went into hospital last year for stent operations there was not a single vegan option on the Coronary Care Unit menu. I complained to the hospital but they ignored me. This is madness! Support and share Plant Based Health Professionals‘ campaign to get meat off hospital menus: Give Bacon The Boot!
A group of British doctors has backed a call for the end of factory farming to prevent future pandemics like COVID-19.
Dr Gemma Newman from the non-profit Plant-Based Health Professionals is leading a plea for the public to give up eating meat as part of the ’No Meat May’ campaign. A record number of people are taking part this year with 33,000 sign-ups compared to 10,000 in 2019. Of those who have signed up this year, a survey carried out by the campaign found that 38 per cent did so because of concerns surrounding the meat industry and diseases like Covid-19.
Hannah Bradshaw, one of the 23,000 new participants, says these concerns were certainly a part of her decision to give a plant-based diet a go.
”There is more information about the meat industry causing diseases than ever before,” she said, “and stronger links between the impacts on our health compared to a meat-free diet.”
The campaign has seen a big increase in sign-ups this year.
WHAT’S THE PROBLEM WITH MEAT?
Zoonotic diseases, like Covid-19, are those that can spread between animals and humans. Worldwide they have been the cause of many historic outbreaks including H1N1 and Ebola. There is little evidence, however, to suggest that eating less meat directly reduces the occurrence of deadly disease outbreaks.
The most important factor, according to the UN Environment Program, is instead an increased amount of close contact between humans and animals like pigs, bats or birds which allows pathogens to jump between species. In 2016 it identified increasing encroachment of animal agriculture into natural ecosystems as a driving factor of zoonotic diseases warning that the “livestock revolution” could lead to a potential disaster.
“Some politicians and commentators blame China for Covid-19, but they do not mention that all of the recent major disease outbreaks have been caused by tampering with animals and their habitats,” says Dr Newman, “our chicken salad or pepperoni pizza could be the next big health risk.”
“Industrial-scale factory farms are like a ticking time bomb”, she adds, “and shifting our diets away from meat [and all animal products] could help move towards a safer future”.
IMPROVING OUR OVERALL HEALTH
Consultant Haematologist and Director of Plant-Based Health Professionals UK, Doctor Shireen Kassam also believes there is an urgent need to reduce our meat consumption for both human and planetary health.
“More than 90 per cent of the meat we consume is produced in industrial scale factory farms, which provide the perfect conditions for the generation of novel infections with epidemic and pandemic potential.”
“Factory farming also requires the widespread use of antibiotics,” she adds, “which has contributed to a dramatic rise in the number of antibiotic-resistant infections affecting humans.”
“We have now entered an era where it is not uncommon for doctors to find themselves treating patients with bacterial infections for which there are no effective antibiotics.”
Dr Kassam explains that it is also a matter of overall public health. “We have known for decades that a healthy plant-based diet, which minimises or eliminates meat [and animal products], is associated with some of the lowest rates of chronic disease and a longer and healthier life.”
The wonderful Tower Hill Stables sanctuary, home to nearly 600 animals, is run by record breaking marathon runner Fiona Oakes and her partner Martin Morgan.
Recently I returned to my home town to visit family and, compared to where I live now, it’s like stepping back into the 1980s in terms of vegan options. My dad was in the Coronary Care Unit of the local general hospital and there wasn’t a single vegan option on the hospital menu, for breakfast, lunch or dinner! The Coronary Care Unit!
Well, I’m sure you can imagine how I felt but on my way home my spirits were lifted. I popped into the local library and look what was on the wall!
So don’t get disheartened, I said to myself – there are vegans everywhere, plugging away.
Basking Sharks are so named because they’re often seen feeding at the surface of the water where they look like they’re basking in the sun! They are enormous and often spotted in UK waters during summer months.
APPEARANCE:
Apart from their large size, Basking Sharks have:
a very large mouth – this can be well over 1m wide!
5 huge gills which almost encircle the head
and a powerful crescent-shaped tail
COLOUR:
They tend to be greyish-brown with a lighter underbelly. Often they have irregular patches, patterns and streaks on their flanks and fins. Using photo-ID we can use these distinct markings to identify individual Basking Sharks.
SIZE:
The largest reported Basking Shark was 12m long. But most don’t get bigger than 9.8m.
WEIGHT:
The average Basking Shark weighs 4.5 tonnes. Yet, they can weigh up to 7 tonnes!
DIET:
Basking Sharks eat zooplankton. This includes small copepods, barnacles, decapod larvae, fish eggs and shrimp. They’re one of 3 filter-feeding sharks but are the only species that feeds entirely passively. They swim through the water with their mouth wide open, rather than actively sucking water in. Only closing their mouths to swallow their food. Long comb-like structures on their gills (known as gill-rakers) trap and filter zooplankton. These can strain up to 2000 tonnes of water per hour!
REPRODUCTION:
It’s thought that Basking Sharks live for at least 50 years. Males reach maturity at 12–16 years. And females at 20 years (around 4.6-6.1m in length).
Females produce eggs, which develop and hatch inside their body. They then give birth to fully developed young, which are around 1–1.7m long. This makes Basking Shark pups larger at birth than many species of shark are fully grown!
There’s little data on Basking Shark reproduction. But pregnancy is thought to last around 14 months. There’s only ever been one reported catch of a pregnant female (1943), who was carrying 6 pups. This suggests that Basking Sharks give birth in areas of low, or no fishing pressure.
BEHAVIOUR:
Basking Sharks are quite social. They can be seen on their own, in small groups, or, schools of hundreds. There are many reports of same size and sex groups. Suggesting a strong sexual and age segregation within the species.
Despite their size, Basking Sharks are capable of leaping clear out of the water. A behaviour known as breaching. They seem to breach most when in large groups and during courtship, so this may act as a social or sexual function. It could also help to dislodge external parasites.
Info from sharktrust.org/about-basking-sharks
Basking Sharks are long lived, slow growing and produce few young. This makes them extremely vulnerable to human impacts. Although Basking Sharks are now one of the most heavily protected sharks in UK and EU waters, they continue to face threats from human activities:
ENTANGLEMENT
Basking Sharks easily become entangled in fishing nets and ropes. Unless fishermen are on hand to quickly release them, they often die. Although some do manage to disentangle themselves. You can sometimes see scarring and abrasions caused by nets on their dorsal fin.
BOAT-STRIKE
Propeller and boat strikes remain a serious danger for Basking Sharks. Particularly in summer months when they’re feeding at the surface. Basking Sharks rarely evade approaching boats. So it’s common for them to have scarring and sometimes horrific injuries from collisions.
HARASSMENT
Basking Sharks are very sensitive to disturbance and harassment by people. In all the excitement of seeing Basking Sharks, boats and jet-ski’s often end up striking them. As well as causing physical harm, water-users can also disrupt their natural behaviour. Such as feeding, courting and mating.
FISHERIES
Basking Shark fisheries worldwide have all but collapsed. Although in some parts of the world they continue, driven by demand for shark fins. Basking Sharks are also still caught as bycatch in nets intended for other species.
Yesterday I heard a woman complaining at the checkout about how much she had to pay for plastic bags. She complained but she didn’t act. She didn’t make the effort to bring re-usable bags with her. She was clueless. I am daily flabbergasted at the cluelessness of so many people who blindly continue with their destructive habits in spite of the devastation they cause to the planet. Do they think it’s not their problem? Do they think the government will solve it?
‘One farmer says to me, “You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with;” and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plough along in spite of every obstacle.’
The Wicked Witch’s Plan To Get Rid Of Everyone, a new version of the fairy tale The Wicked Wicked Witch and the Ruinous Manipulation by Maud Earnshaw, illustrated by Beatrice Wilberforce, includes instructions about how to break the witch’s spell at the back 😉
Available from Amazon in the UK, Europe, USA and Canada
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vegan children’s book, vegan fairy tale, vegan children’s story
Before you turn up the thermostat – put on another jumper, and a hat and scarf 😀 It’s amazing how your own body can generate heat, all you’ve got to do is stop that heat escaping 😀
1.1 The objects of the charity are
(1) To prevent and relieve cruelty to animals and to protect them from UNNECESSARY SUFFERING and to promote and encourage a knowledge and love of animals and of their proper care and treatment.
“Functional MRI (fMRI) of fully awake and unrestrained dog ‘volunteers’ has been proven an effective tool to understand the neural circuitry and functioning of the canine brain. Although every dog owner would vouch that dogs are perceptive, cognitive, intuitive and capable of positive emotions/empathy, as indeed substantiated by ethological studies for some time, neurological investigations now corroborate this. These studies show that there exists a striking similarity between dogs and humans in the functioning of the caudate nucleus (associated with pleasure and emotion), and dogs experience positive emotions, empathic-like responses and demonstrate human bonding which, some scientists claim, may be at least comparable with human children. There exists an area analogous to the ‘voice area’ in the canine brain, enabling dogs to comprehend and respond to emotional cues/valence in human voices, and evidence of a region in the temporal cortex of dogs involved in the processing of faces, as also observed in humans and monkeys. We therefore contend that using dogs in invasive and/or harmful research, and toxicity testing, cannot be ethically justifiable.”
As soon as we got to know George we knew he was an especially thoughtful person. It was proved beyond doubt when I had a diabetic hypo (hypoglycemia: low blood sugar, causing brain to go to sleep) one afternoon a couple of years ago. I had been unconscious on the settee for a couple of hours and no one else was home except the two dogs. When I came round my brain woke up before my body did so when I tried to get up off the settee I just collapsed onto the floor. I was aware that both dogs, George and Jo Jo, were watching me closely. I was flat on my face and couldn’t even sit up so I needed my husband’s help. I knew he was somewhere in the garden (he’s the resident gardener of a six acre garden) so I tried to shout his name in the hope that he was nearby but I was unable to form words. I made a strange drunken sound which was beyond slurred but it wasn’t very loud and certainly not comprehensible. My arms were starting to work now so I managed to drag myself on my belly to the door and was just able to reach the waist-level handle to open it. Both boys followed me and when I’d got the door open wide enough I slurred “Git Sm’n” as best I could (I still couldn’t say Simon) before flopping back face-first on the doormat. Sweet Jo Jo stayed with me while George ran outside. Bear in mind he now had the freedom to roam six acres, but he didn’t. He stood at the end of the path to the gardener’s cottage and barked. He barked and barked until Simon came and then he ran back to the cottage ahead of him. Simon lifted me onto the bed, got me some orange juice and I made a fast recovery.
But if you think that was clever, wait ’til you hear what happened last week! I got my coat and wellies on, ready to take the boys for a walk. Jo Jo came running to have his coat and lead put on but George was at the other end of the living room guarding his food dish. He still had a bit of breakfast left and was worried someone might pinch it if it was left unattended. Well, I didn’t want to have to take off my muddy boots to traipse across the living room to fetch him so I kept calling him until he eventually reluctantly came. I attached his lead and the three of us left. When we were about thirty feet from the house I noticed George was limping quite heavily on his front left paw. I said, “Oh, darling, are you limping? What’s wrong?” and he stood still and gave me his paw when I reached for it. I couldn’t find anything wrong with it – he didn’t complain when I touched it and there was no thorn or stone or anything caught in it – so I attempted to resume our walk. George made an immediate U-turn and pulled back towards the house so I gave in and let him lead me back. When we got to the front door I opened it, took off his lead and he ran to his food dish – no sign of a limp whatsoever! He has not limped at all since. He is a liar! He pretended he’d hurt his foot so that he didn’t have to go!
Violet's Vegan Comics 