Here’s how to make an adorable rag mouse like this one:
Cut out the main head and body piece for your cloth mouse. I used a rectangle, folded in half. With right sides together, stitch around the edges, leaving one end open for stuffing.
Choose a different fabric for your arms and legs. Cut strips about the same length as your main piece, as wide as you want them, with room to spare for turning back the right way around after sewing.
Fold it in half (right sides together) and sew, leaving an open end to add stuffing.
Make another one, then turn them right side out. 😀
Then make legs. You can make long legs, the same as the arms, or little legs. Either way is fine, so do whichever you fancy. I’ve done little legs this time.
Stuff them all with kapok. If you don’t have kapok you could use old socks to stuff them, or fabric cuttings. I have done this with some of my mice, it just makes them a little bit heavier, and somewhat lumpy. When they are stuffed, sew them together! Remember that your main piece is head and body, so the arms go a little higher than half way down, depending on how big a head you want your mouse to have. 😀
Next cut out some fabric squares to make the ears. Sometimes I make very tiny ears, this time I made big ears, then I sewed them right sides together, trimmed the edges, and turned them right side out. Make two. (You probably noticed that I have used pinking shears to cut my material. You don’t have to do that but it’s good for preventing the fabric from fraying).
Then tuck the ears over the top corners of the mouse’s head and sew them on, like so:
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Next you need to make a nose for your mouse. Cut three triangular pieces and then, putting their right side edges together, sew them together lengthways, to their points – I’m not explaining this very well – look at the diagram below 😀 Leave the base ends open, turn right side out and fill with stuffing.
Then tuck in the edges, and sew the nose onto the mouse’s face.
Next your mouse will need some eyes. I sewed over and over in one place to make these eyes, but you could sew circles of fabric on, or use buttons.
Now your mouse needs a tail 😀 This time I folded a length of fabric up so that the edges were tucked in, and sewed it over, but I have also used ribbons and oddments in the past. Attach the tail to the back of the mouse’s body.
Now your mouse is finished! I bet he’s cute 😀 Send me a photo, I’d love to see him or her ❤ Here’s some I made earlier:
You can make lots of friends for your mouse, in all shapes and sizes. Here are some I made earlier:
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So there you have it 😀 A word of warning – once you start making rag mice, you may find it difficult to stop 😉
“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’ve always loved bread but it doesn’t love me, so in recent years I’ve had to avoid it. I feel better if I avoid gluten and yeast most of the time but once in a blue moon I just can’t resist a bit of toast. So I decided to have a go at soda bread. Unfortunately, they usually put egg and/or milk in shop-bought soda bread, and anyway it comes in a plastic bag. So I looked online for vegan soda bread recipes and discovered that they include buttermilk, which is made by adding vinegar to milk and makes the air bubbles form in the dough when it’s cooking. The vegan recipes therefore do the same with plant-based milk. But I didn’t have any of that either, so I thought I’d try substituting plain old water. And it worked! Here’s how: First pre-heat the oven to Gas Mark 6 (200*c, 400*f).
Weigh out 12 ounces of self-raising, gluten-free flour and put it in a mixing bowl. You can add a couple of pinches of salt if you want to.
Separately, add one tablespoon (15ml) of organic apple cider vinegar to 250ml of cold water and mix.
Add the liquid to the flour and mix well with a wooden spoon.
4. Then spoon the moist mixture into a lined loaf tin,
and flatten it with the back of a wet spoon.
5. The next bit is VERY important – I learned this the hard way and still have a scar on my left index finger. Before you put it in the oven, cover the tin with foil. If you don’t, the top crust will bake very hard and the weight you’ll have to put behind your sharp, serrated bread knife to slice through it, could result in a bloody mess 😮
I use if you care foil and greaseproof paper because it’s recycled and eco-friendly. Since this won’t make the foil dirty, you can fold it up afterwards and reuse it 🙂
Oh, I’ve just noticed, on the if you care website, that they have an illustration of a roasted chicken on one of their products, which is very disappointing.
I’ll have to tell them that people who care wouldn’t be roasting chickens. It’s horrible when someone you trusted lets you down.
Anyway, back to the vegan soda bread:
Bake in a medium-hot oven (gas mark 6) for 40 to 45 minutes.
7. Don your oven gloves, hold your head away from the oven when you open the door, take out your loaf, remove the foil and put the bread on a wire rack to cool.
When it’s cool you can use it right away, or freeze it, but what I do at this point is slice up the whole loaf and put a small piece of greaseproof paper in between each slice, wrap it, put it in a container, and then freeze it.
That way, I can take my bread out of the freezer a slice at a time, keeping it fresher for longer.
I prefer mine toasted, so it goes straight from the freezer to the toaster, add some peanut butter, Marmite and baked beans for a delicious nutritious meal in minutes. 😀
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Violet’s Vegan Comics – creating vegan stories, vegan comics, vegan poems, vegan things-to-make-and-do, and vegan children’s books since 2012.
If you’d like your own Megan doll (from the Megan & Flos vegan science fiction comics), here’s how to make one 😀
First, find a pattern. I used Jean Greenhowe’s “ten of the best” pattern which is from this book but there are plenty of others to choose from, including lots of free ones you can download.
So, I won’t give you pattern details, you can just download whichever pattern you fancy and then make her look like Megan. If you don’t know how to knit yet, you can either learn, or sew a ragdoll instead 🙂
Anyway, this is what I did:
I used DK (Double Knitting thickness) acrylic yarn from my bag of oddments – no need to buy anything new. Her clothes don’t have to be blue, you can choose what she wears, and if you don’t have a bag of oddments, they often sell bags of leftover yarn in charity shops. I used UK size eleven (3 mm) needles.
The pattern I used starts at the ankles and works up to the top of her head (working in stocking stitch – one row knit, one row purl). I started in dark blue, for her jeans, then I changed colour, and knitted her light blue top, up to her shoulders,
then I changed colour again, to pink for her head. Then I cut the yarn, leaving a long length to thread through the stitches. Hey – didn’t I say I wasn’t going to explain the pattern? Sorry – I guess that’s useless information if you don’t have the pattern, and superfluous if you do. Oh well 😀
Excuse my photos by the way, my camera phone is very old. But you get the idea with that 🙂
Arms
Feet
Then I knitted the arms and the feet. Megan is wearing baseball boots, so I knitted the feet two thirds white, one third red. As you can see from the photo of the finished doll, they are proper red. I don’t know why the photos here make them look brown 😀 Then I sewed laces into the red part.
Then it was time to sew her up and stuff with kapok (natural organic fibre harvested from kapok trees, used for centuries – probably – for stuffing pillows and soft toys). But if you don’t have any kapok, you could fill your doll with cut up strips of old T-shirt. Any soft material will do.
Before stuffing, it was necessary to sew down the middle of the dark blue legs section, to create two legs, and after stuffing I tied a length of yarn around the base of the pink section, to make the head 😀 The boots were folded, sewn and stuffed before being attached to the ankles; and the arms sewn, stuffed and attached at the shoulders.
Next she needed a face! I just sewed her features on, and not very well at first – embroidery is not my strong suit – so I unpicked it and tried again. And again, until I was happy with it 😀
She doesn’t look like Megan yet does she? That’s because she needs hair!
So I made the hair by cutting lots of long lengths of yellow yarn, tying them in the middle, and sewing them from top to bottom of the back of Megan’s head. Ouch! Your pattern will show you how 😀
If you only have a little bit of yellow for her hair, the pattern shows you how to make a hat or a hood for her, and then you’ll only need a little bit to stick out the front. 🙂
Now she looks very Megan-ish! But there’s still one more thing she needs – do you know what it is?
Her solar-powered gravity-adjusting belt of course!
For this I cast on five stitches of purple and worked in moss stitch (every row knit) until it was long enough. I kept measuring it up against the doll as I went along, until it was the right length. Then I cast off, sewed the ends of the belt together, and added the gems. Or did I sew on the gems first, and then sew the ends together? You decide 😀
Ta-daa!
She looks ready for adventure doesn’t she?!
Why don’t you make yourself a Megan doll? Or a Reflecto Girl doll? Or any of our heroic vegan characters. And do send us photos if you make any, we’d love to see them 😀
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Violet’s Vegan Comics – creating vegan comics, vegan stories, vegan nursery rhymes, vegan children’s books and vegan things to make and do, 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.
We were absolutely thrilled to be interviewed last year by Supreme Master TV for one of their kids’ programmes. Being long-term fans of The Loving Hut, her vegan restaurant chain, we knew the Supreme Master Ching Hai, but never in a million years expected to be invited to share our work on her vegan TV channel. We were very, very excited, but also very, very scared!
Then, after doing the interview, we were told that the kids’ show for which it was filmed was being shut down 😮 So that was that 😀
But then, yesterday, more than a year after the interview was filmed, I got a message from Supreme Master TV saying that our interview was going to be on a different show. They showed us the finished video and it’s so much more than just the interview.
Thank you to all the lovely people at Supreme Master TV for the huge amount of work you’ve done on this. We love it!
By the way, in the video Miranda is dressed as Claudia – one of the Girl Scout Twins. I was supposed to dress up as Reflecto Girl but I wimped out 😀
And, to avoid any misunderstandings, it should also be noted that, though the artwork from the wonderful Oliver’s Vegetables is featured repeatedly in this video, that is only because we have read it in one of our Storytime videos. It’s not one of ours. It is written by Vivian French and the brilliant artwork is by Alison Bartlett.
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Violet’s Vegan Comics – creating funny, enlightening and sometimes action-packed vegan children’s books, poems and things to make & do, since 2012.
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.
You have to be really careful not to accidently buy something containing animal products when you’re buying art and craft materials but, thanks to an ever increasing number of people like us demanding cruelty-free art supplies, there are more on the market than ever before 😀
The wonderful ARTdiscount store gives us detailed information about which products are vegan-friendly and make it easy to be sure you’re not accidentally hurting anyone with your creative pursuits.
Here is their detailed page, divided into specific sections like ‘vegan watercolour artist’, ‘vegan calligraphy’, ‘vegan sketcher’ and ‘vegan kids’ art materials’, you’ll find everything you could want right there 😀
There are lots of summer reading challenges out there to join, online or at your local library.
They invite you to read six books over the summer! You might be able get a chart from your library to keep track of your progress, or you could get creative and make one yourself! It’s a great way to keep busy and entertained. As luck would have it, we have all the books you need and more to keep you going all July and August, for younger children, veggie kids aged eight and up, vegan teenagers, vegan fairy tale enthusiasts, English language learners and everyone else that likes books and animals.
We have them free to read online, or you can order them in paperback, not to mention our delightful new ebooks! Available to download to your tablets or ereaders. The choice is yours, feel free to go crazy.
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?
We have a tie! The winners are Reflecto Girl #7 Incidental and The King’s Three Sons.
Reflecto Girl #7 Incidental!
Click on the pic to read this new short fairy tale
Have you read them yet? What will you read next? There’s tonnes of stories with lovely vegan characters to choose from on our stories and comics page. Read them for free, any time you like. 😀
My latest article for CounterPunch is provocatively titled, yes. Because while it’s right to improve life for a confined elephant, focusing on a being in permanent captivity makes a problematic case for personhood.
On social media, the elephant personhood case is tagged #FreeHappy. This confuses the humans-in-charge regime with freedom. Moving Happy might be the best we could do under the circumstances, but it wouldn’t create freedom; Happy would remain a refugee. This needs to be said. We need to be serious about freedom if we’re claiming to struggle for it. We must defend other animals’ interests in thriving independently of human supervision before it’s too late.
2022 – this year’s “free range, high welfare” dairy babies
We will not forget. We do not forget that millions of babies like these are born to be killed every year. Just so that humans can drink their mothers’ milk and make it into ice cream and cheese and yogurt. For these unnecessary things, these babies were born and will die. Unnecessary suffering caused by Raystede.
Earlier this year I happened to be walking in this field before there were any animals in it, and I heard one of their mothers crying out. A pitiful, heart-breaking bellow reached me from the unseen farm, maybe half a mile away. Her cry was repeated, over and over, and I knew they must have just taken her baby.
I walked all the way home, another mile or more in the opposite direction, and I could still hear her as I turned the key…
“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.”
Did you know that May is Get Caught Reading month? Reading is a great way to relax, to take your mind off whatever’s worrying you, or to lose yourself in adventure without leaving your armchair, deckchair or bathtub. I mean, one of the joys of reading is that you can do it pretty much anywhere, no power source required. Well, we’ve got a lot of reading suggestions for you.
If you’re looking for comics and stories of adventure, or ghost stories or fairy tales or hilarious naughtiness, we’ve got you covered! On the other hand, maybe you’d like the picture book about an alien with a funny name, or the one about a furry friend who bakes a cake, or the one about two little piglets on the run. Look no further – we’ve got the best selection of vegan-friendly storybooks around!
Even the seagulls love our books! 😀
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Violet’s Vegan Comics – creating funny, enlightening and sometimes action-packed vegan storybooks for readers of all ages, since 2012
Jania contacted me recently and asked if we would share her vegan children’s book about a little girl with selective mutism.
With beautiful illustrations by Olin Tri Djasfar, this delightful little rhyming story explains how hard it is for Luna to talk to people outside her own family. Except cows. She feels relaxed and happy, talking to cows.
But when she witnesses the heart-breaking scene of a baby being wrenched from his mother, she determines to find the courage to speak out and tell all her friends about the horror of the dairy industry.
This is such a beautiful story of empathy and courage which shows that, with kindness, everybody wins.
Luna’s Voice is available in paperback on Amazon but you can also read it for free right here 😀
Here is a guest post I wrote in support of Shira Dest’s Project Do Better. My mental capacity is not equal to Shira’s so I find it a lot to take in and have to absorb it slowly. What I do know is this: whatever our abilities, we all have things we can contribute to Shira’s plan. Please do whatever you do well to make the world a safe place for children and animals.
This is the fundamental pillar of Project Do Better. I asked Violet for her thoughts on this topic, and about her children’s books: Violet’s Vegan Comics. She was kind enough to share these thoughts:
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Project Do Better
Shira Dest is an ambitious woman and she has an ambitious plan. Some might say an over-ambitious plan. Some might call it impossible. But why should it be impossible? Because most people are uncaring? No. Most people care. Most people would prevent the suffering of a child if they could. So what’s the problem? Why aren’t all children safe? The problem is a society and education system that conditions children to turn a blind eye to the suffering of other animals.
The moral code by which “good” people raise their children is inconsistent. Its contradictions require that children are taught to apply the rules selectively…
Violet's Vegan Comics 