We adopted a Turkey!!

"Dear Carl and Karen,

On behalf of all of us, especially the turkeys, we would like to express Farm Sanctuary’s deep appreciation for your generous donation to our Adopt A Turkey Project. With your help, we can ensure the lifelong care of the rescued turkeys living at our sanctuaries, educate the public about their plight on factory farms, and encourage everyone to enjoy a cruelty-free holiday!

Your adoption materials will be mailed within 2-3 weeks, however we make every effort to send certificates in time for the holidays. If you need to submit additional gift recipient information, please contact us at 607-583-2225 ext 221 or info@farmsanctuary.org and be sure to mention your transaction number.

Whether you are starting a new tradition or continuing this life-saving choice from past years, we cannot thank you enough for making this holiday a compassionate one for ALL.

Yours for the animals,

Farm Sanctuary"

The Thanksgiving Day Hype

Or
“What’s all this fuss about turkey?”
By CPVegan

This is mainly directed to fellow Americans.
Question: Is this going to be yet another Thanksgiving celebration-which I might add, unlike Christmas, is devoid of gift-giving and really focuses on family-bonding-where there is an hysterical need for a turkey to be consumed or the celebration isn’t genuine?

By now, you all know my wishes for the vegan lifestyle to influence more souls to elevate their spirituality enough to show more compassion and re-consider their diets to exclude all flesh and dairy. So here’s my next question to the American carnivores:
Why turkey? Why not horses? Why not dogs? Why not cats?
I think it is because these “pets”, these “companion animals” which many of us have formed special bonds with, are held sacred by us in so many special ways that we would never betray them just to appease our lust for the taste of flesh .
But hold on…many people do!
There are actual farms where pets are raised and slaughtered for the flesh trade.
Just Google “eating horses” or “eating cats” for example and don’t be shocked if you get over 32,000,000 results.
Horse-eating countries: Japan, Canada, Slovenia, france, Belgium, Italy
Cat-eating countries: Philippines, China, Peru
Dog-eating countries: So. Korea, So. China, Southeast Asia, Vietnam

So, advertising and marketing has brought society to the turkey-table with clever
slogans to convince us of the absolute necessity of choosing this one species to “celebrate” life with. This is the American tradition. After all, Norman Rockwell's illustration Freedom from Want appeared on the pages of The Saturday Evening Post on March 6, 1943 so it must be the way it’s supposed to be. (This painting is also known as Thanksgiving Dinner. This was the third installment of Rockwell's famous Four Freedoms series.)


I’m certainly not proposing you now switch to horse, cat or dog meat. But I just wanted to see if anyone is awake out there to the slight chance that the “turkey lust” did not really originate in your head. It’s a holiday, as I mentioned above, that should encourage us to be more responsive to recognizing the good we have in our lives through family ties and caring friends. Food isn’t the message for the heart.
The shelters don’t need the turkeys; the troops don’t need the turkeys.
They need US. We all need each other.
Do not do to others what you would not want them to do to you.

When you make positive changes in your life, others can't help but change around you.

Animals, as fellow earthlings, are not ours to experiment on, torture, eat, wear, enslave, exploit, abuse, and kill billions of annually at will, just because humans desire to do so.I feel you can never underestimate the influence you can make on a person's life...my wife and I already have 4 converts to vegetarianism notched into our plastic belts! They may also follow that truer path to veganism in time.

Tell me, why in the world must eating a plant be soooo much in need of defense over eating some chicken's knuckle, or pigs tongue?All we ask is a life based on good conduct and reason. Yes, reason. C'mon...reasonable living already. Healthy living.

I want more people to think about going vegan. It's not that hard. Really. I mean, ice skating is harder you know.Join me. Join the many.You are NOT incapable of reason!

He Coined the Term-"Reverence for Life"

I thought it would be interesting to introduce you to a fine human
being who once journeyed with us through the trials of life-
About Albert Schweitzer

Here is an excerpt from one of his books titled
From Civilization and Ethics

"You are happy, they say; therefore you are called upon to give much. Whatever more than others you have received in health, natural gifts, working capacity, success, a beautiful childhood, harmonious family circumstances, you must not accept as being a matter of course. You must pay a price for them. You must show more than average devotion of life to life.

Open your eyes and look for a human being, or some work devoted to human welfare, which needs from someone a little time or friendliness, a little sympathy, or sociability or labour. There may be a solitary or embittered man, an invalid or an inefficient person to whom you can be something. Perhaps it is an old person or a child. Who can enumerate the many ways in which that costly piece of working capital, a human being, can be employed. Search, then, for some investment for your humanity, and do not be frightened away if you have to wait , or to be taken on trial. And be prepared for disappointments. But in any case,do not be without some secondary work in which you give yourself as a man to men. It is marked out for you, if you only truly will have it."

Welcome Jessicah!!

Please visit her educational post each day. The link is in the blog list in the right hand column.
Look for Diabolic Paradox.
Here's what she has to say about herself: "I am Jessicah, i'm interested in the art of creativeness"

Thanks Gemma!!

In response to my last post, I received comments from the author of the vegan blog, "Invitation to my Vegan Journey"!! Use the link to the right to get to know her and share in her life's journey.
And, of course, read what she had to say below.

My Confession

You know, I've seen a lot of blogs where the authors sadly confess to being tardy in their postings. I've always thought it was lame and even a waste of my time to read their excuses. Guess what...I'm now one of them. Reason: Facebook. I've been placing all of my propaganda on my "Home" page AND ACTUALLY GETTING RESPONSES! sO, I'M WONDERING ABOUT PERHAPS MAINTAINING THIS AND THAT OR JUST THAT! WHAT DO YOU THINK? WHICH IS MORE EFFECTIVE OUT THERE?
Here's the link to my Profile which I hope gets you in.

Karen Made it to Their Front Page!

Big Apple Walk for Farm Animals: 2 pictures by yours truly; look for Karen in the top one!

Something like a conflagration is needed

This movement to end animal cruelty, exploitation and abuse should be illuminating the darkness surrounding these industries on a daily basis and embolden vegans as well as vegetarians to voice their outrage and bring shame to the "stockholders".
STEP ONE:
The various fund-raising, consciousness-raising events and marches need the fuel of an impassioned song or anthem for this worthwhile crusade. I would hope it's chords and sentiments would inoculate us with a passionate zeal that encourages us to effect an intense revolution of reform; and be a wake-up reveille to those with blinders on...
Now who can come up with the lyrics? We'll work on the melody later...

The Walk for the Farm Animal Sanctuary in NYC's Central Park

Trying out Flikr to give you a slideshow of the highlights.
Karen and I walked the 60 blocks with over 600 people! What a great and beautiful day!