Chapter Two: Luke Walker A.W.O.L. – vegan children’s story

January 30, 2025

Chapter Two of Luke Walker: animal stick up for-er starts today:

Chapter Two: Luke Walker A.W.O.L.

“Huhee ut!”

Joe’s sixteenth funny face was not easy to maintain as it was beginning to hurt. With eyes wide, tongue sticking out and skin pulled tight around his cheek bones by his fingers, it was difficult to speak.

“I’m sorry!” Luke said, “It’s not working. I pressed the button four times but it didn’t take a picture.”

Joe retracted his tongue and massaged his face.

“Gis a look.”

Luke handed him the camera.

“It says MEMORY FULL,” Joe explained, “how many pictures have you taken?”

“I dunno,” said Luke as he put Dad’s camera back in his bag, “are we nearly there yet?”

They wouldn’t be there for another half an hour but the boys had already finished their packed lunches. Joe had suggested they save some for later but Luke thought it wisest to eat everything now so they’d have less to carry.

“How much longer ’til we get there?” Luke asked no one in particular.

It really was too much to expect people to sit still for two whole hours. And Mrs Tebbut’s insistence that the coach would not be making any stops along the way did not allow for the fact that some people’s need to quench their thirst with a lot of lemonade might lead to other needs. He tried to think of something else.

At 11.03 the coach pulled in to Parking Zone B at Dillingsgate Zoo.

“Ok, class 4, pay attention!” Mrs Tebbut called everyone to order. “You may leave whatever you don’t need on the coach but remember that once you’ve left it you won’t see it again until home time. So, if you think you might want it at any time during the day, take it with you now. You must stay in your allotted group, with your allotted adult, at all times. You must be back at the coach by 4.45 so that we can leave promptly at 5pm. Ok, have a nice day everybody.”

Glad that his teacher had finally finished her speech, Luke hurried to the front of the coach. He was in Mr Eden’s group, with Joe, but he couldn’t line up yet because he had urgent business to attend to. He told Joe to tell their group to wait for him and then ran towards the zoo entrance, looking for the toilets. When he returned, six minutes later, Mr Eden’s group was not there. Mrs Tebbut’s group was. Mrs Tebbut’s arms were folded.

“Luke Walker. What did I tell you not ten minutes ago?”

“Erm, something about if you leave it you can’t have it ’til you go home.”

“What else?”

“Can’t remember.”

“I told you to stay in your allotted group with your allotted adult at all times.”

“Oh yeah, I know but I jus’ had …”

“But nothing. If I tell you to do something, I expect you to do it.”

Luke looked at his shoes. There was no point trying to explain about the lemonade. He knew that the less he said, the sooner he’d be able to catch up with Joe. His mind started to wander. He wondered if he’d be able to play with the monkeys; and swim with the polar bears; he wondered where the gift shop was and whether he’d be able to get a souvenir pack of cards, or badges with animals on. He could certainly do with a few more badges.

“Luke! Did you hear what I said? You will be in my group instead of Mr Eden’s so that I can keep an eye on you.”

Luke’s eyes narrowed and his lips tightened. He was supposed to be in the same group as Joe. They’d been looking forward to going round the zoo together. This was a very annoying turn of events.

But, it was nice weather, and anything was better than being stuck in a classroom. Luke decided he might as well try to make the best of it.

Mrs Tebbut pointed at two big tigers.

“What can you tell me about the tigers in this enclosure?” she asked the group.

Luke was shocked. He put up his hand.

“Are they criminals?” he suggested.

“Don’t be silly Luke, of course they’re not criminals.”

“Well it don’t seem fair to put innocent animals in prison.”

******

You’re so right, Luke! Click here to read the rest of the chapter now, or come back tomorrow for the next instalment.

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Violet’s Vegan Comics – creating funny, exciting and sometimes action-packed vegan-friendly children’s stories since 2012.

vegan children’s story, vegan children’s book, juvenile fiction, vegan fiction, children’s book, children’s story

Z is for Zoo

September 15, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Zoo noun

Oxford Dictionary definition: zoological garden: public garden or park with collection of animals for exhibition and study.

Our definition: Place where wild animals are kept and/or bred in captivity. Zoos are prisons. Prisons in which innocent individuals are kept incarcerated for their whole lives, though they have committed no crime.

Elephants, for example, in the wild, are used to travelling many miles a day in herds of about ten related adults and their offspring. They are very social animals.

In zoos, elephants are usually kept in pairs or even isolated. Their enclosures are incredibly small, compared to what they are used to in the wild, and as a result they often show many signs of being stressed out or bored, like engaging in repetitive movements. Stress behaviours can include repetitive movements, pacing back and forth, head bobbing, rocking, repeatedly retracing their steps, sitting motionless or biting the bars of their enclosure or themselves.

What makes life so difficult for zoo animals is that they hardly have any privacy and lack mental stimulation and physical exercise. Even though you might think that zoo animals would get used to a life in captivity, they really don’t. Even animals that are bred in zoos still retain their natural instincts after many generations of captive breeding.

Animals like polar bears or felines are used to hunting; this habit is replaced by the zoo with regular feedings. Most animals kept in zoos would naturally roam for tens of miles a day.

Zoos claim to help with conservation. However, hardly any zoo registers their animals on an international species database and most zoo animals are not endangered at all.

Even though there are thousands of endangered species, zoos have only been able to return about 16 species to the wild with varying level of success. Most zoo animals released in the wild don’t survive. This is because zoos don’t provide the right environment for a successful captive breeding project. The animals would need to live in habitats resembling their natural ones, especially in terms of climate and fauna. The animals would also need to be raised with minimal human contact and in populations large enough to provide a natural social balance and a suitable gene pool.

Surplus animals are the unwanted animals for whom there is no more space, when zoos have bred yet another cute little baby to attract visitors. They can even be the cute babies themselves when they’ve stopped being cute at the end of the season. Zoos have a systematic “overproduction” of animals. These surplus animals are either killed – and sometimes fed to their fellow zoo habitants – or sold to other zoos or dealers. Selling animals is a profitable way for zoos to dispose of them. Dealers will sell them to hunting ranches, pet shops, circuses, the exotic meat industry and research facilities. Surplus animals are also found for sale on the internet.

To sum up: DON’T GO TO THE ZOO! If a school trip is being organised, tell your teacher why you don’t like zoos and ask them to take you somewhere better. If they won’t listen, explain what zoos really are to your friends and then get together to petition the school. If they still won’t listen, just ask your parents to let you stay home from school that day. Maybe they could take you on a better trip instead, such as to a museum or art gallery.

That reminds me – see what Luke Walker, ‘animal stick up for-er’, did when he was forced to go on a trip to the zoo – now that’s a boy who acts on his conscience! (Though he is sadly unappreciated by those who know him 😉 )

E is for Elephant

March 12, 2015

By Violet's Vegan Comics

Elephant noun

Oxford Dictionary definition: Largest living land animal with trunk and ivory tusks.

Our definition: Elephants are large mammals of the family Elephantidae and the order Proboscidea. Two species are traditionally recognised: the African elephant and the Asian elephant. Male African elephants are the largest surviving terrestrial [land] animals and can reach a height of 4 metres and weigh 7,000 kg. All elephants have a long trunk, used for many purposes, particularly breathing, lifting water and grasping objects. All African elephants, male and female, have tusks whereas only some Asian males have tusks. About 50% of Asian females have short tusks known as tushes – which have no pulp inside. Usually in mammals tusks are enlarged canine teeth, but in elephants they are actually elongated incisors and are essentially no different from other teeth. One third of the tusk is actually hidden from view, embedded deep in the elephant’s head. This part of the tusk is a pulp cavity made up of tissue, blood and nerves. The visible, ivory part of the tusk is made of dentine with an outer layer of enamel. Their tusks can serve as weapons and as tools for moving objects and digging. Elephants’ large ear flaps help to control their body temperature. African elephants have larger ears and concave backs while Asian elephants have smaller ears and convex or level backs.

Elephants are herbivorous and can be found in different habitats including savannahs, forests, deserts and marshes. They prefer to stay near water. Females, known as cows, tend to live in family groups, which can consist of one female with her calves or several related females with offspring. The groups are led by an individual known as the matriarch, often the oldest cow. Elephants have a fission-fusion society in which multiple family groups come together to socialise. Males, known as bulls, leave their family groups when they reach puberty, and may live alone or with other males. Adult bulls mostly interact with family groups when looking for a mate. Calves are the centre of attention in their family groups and rely on their mothers for as long as three years. Elephants can live up to 70 years in the wild. They communicate by touch, sight, smell and sound; elephants use infrasound (low frequency sound), and seismic communication (sometimes called vibrational communication) over long distances. Elephant intelligence has been compared with that of primates and cetaceans. They have self-awareness and show empathy for dying or dead individuals of their kind.

African elephants are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, while the Asian elephant is classed as endangered. One of the biggest threats to elephant populations is the ivory trade, as the animals are poached for their ivory tusks. Other threats to wild elephants include habitat destruction and conflicts with local people.

Horribly, in addition to murdering them for their ivory, human beings have exploited elephants for entertainment in zoos and circuses for centuries; and now the military thinks they might be useful for sniffing out bombs!

Thank goodness for The Elephant Sanctuary, Tennessee, a natural habitat refuge developed specifically for African and Asian elephants, which is home to beautiful animals, rescued or retired from zoos and circuses, who can now live out their lives in a safe haven dedicated to their well-being.