More Shelly Williams.

Because I like her videos and because I found this one to be funny. She amusingly and adroitly addresses one of the more bizarre "arguments" advanced sometimes by corpse crunchers to justify their torture and obliteration of living beings. Thanks to So I'm Thinking of Going Vegan for her comment that inspired me to post this effort by Ms. Williams. The "bad" words are bleeped out but you'll be able to get the message. (note: after the ? mark at about 30 seconds into the video there are about 10 seconds of images of typical treatment of animals by slaughterhouses...then no more graphic photos)



It turns out today's post is entirely inspired by Canadians...thank you Canada and their inspiration resulted in posting videos from Australia (Shelly Williams) and from Austria (happy pigs going sledding). It is both a small world and a big one...and we don't own it (even though we act as if we do) we only share it.

This next video was discovered when I read the most recent post by Janice Gillett on her blog: Hearts On Noses, A Mini Pig Sanctuary. Janice pours her life into rescuing and providing sanctuary for pigs (and others). These animal folk are much maligned and even more misunderstood...you have been deprived more than you can ever know if you haven't been able to get to know a pig animal person. Here is a video of several pigs going "sledding". (no graphic images...just fun stuff)



Experiencing the world is quite different, once you begin to understand that the other animals are our sisters and brothers rather than "inferior" beings to be used in any way humans want to. Experiencing the world is quite different once you understand that not being "cruel" isn't enough, that unnecessarily killing animals "humanely" is not possible (it isn't "humane" to unnecessarily steal someones life), that "giving them a good life" before you take theirs is a self-serving fallacy. Using someone else without their permission is wrong...we all know that.

Giving up sh*thead arguments (as Shelly might say) offers the opportunity to see a world much more full of wonder and beauty, with many fascinating and wise and exquisite beings living there...available for friendship and for learning from and for sometimes loving but always there to be appreciated for their strengths and and their beauty (and sometimes their jerkiness too) and other qualities.

Seeing the other animals (and nature) as objects, as unfeeling, as "inferior", as food, as a "resource" is a crippling, blinding, distorting and damaging way to perceive them. That outlook damages and limits and twists the human holding it and that way of seeing also allows the ongoing destruction of the Earth and her beings.

Stop hurting and limiting yourself, stop hurting the animals, stop hurting the Earth...go vegan. Repair as much as you can...

And thank you Shelly Williams and Janice Gillett and So I'm Thinking of Going Vegan...for your efforts on behalf of the other animals and for your inspiration...and thank you sledding pigs for being yourselves.

Moo louder....!!!

Shelly Williams, the perky blond Australian youngster that created a remarkable video I featured when writing about "Hope for the Future" (September, 2010 post) has crafted another informational video.

In this she takes aim at the many euphemisms associated with the benign sounding "dairy industry" (August, 2010 post) and more accurately names and describes what exactly is inflicted upon the cow animals that are exploited. Bea Elliott over at Provoked recently wrote about some of the routine horrors associated with "America's dairy farmers".

It is seductive to lull oneself with the notion that cows "give" milk, "giving" milk doesn't hurt them, no one dies, they are well cared for, yadda, yadda, yadda. There are a few very brief depictions of cruelty, bear them if you can because Ms. Williams has put together a very well done video and if you watch until the end you will see why I titled this post "Moo louder"...:


She does a great job of pointing out the potent propagandizing the "dairy" people have managed to insinuate into western culture, to the point that much of it is taken as something "everybody knows" (milk is good for you, etc.).

I read something the other day I liked, it referred to milk as calf food. That is what milk from a cow animal is....baby cow food or calf food.

It has taken me a little time to comprehend this default truism...if a human somewhere (anywhere) is making money off of the practice or trying to make money...and a non-human animal is physically influenced or controlled by a human animal, then cruelty is being inflicted upon the non-human animals and/or exploitation is occurring and/or enslavement is being practiced and/or eventual death for the non-human animal will happen because of the interaction.

There may be exceptions, I can't think of any, but accepting this as a given makes the world as it currently operates much easier to understand. I guarantee that the exceptions (if any) to this rule of thinking are much fewer in number than those that affirm it.

Obviously all kinds of Earthlings are harmed in a multitude of ways by human animals in situations where no monetary profit occurs...but sometimes Earthlings (including human animals) interact and no harm occurs.

I am saying that if an interaction (involving physical influence or control) between Earthlings occurs and one of the parties involved is not a human animal and the human animal makes money or is trying to make money out of the interaction...the other Earthling was, or will be, harmed (exploited, traumatized, enslaved, injured, killed, etc.) in some way or another.

What a deal for the other Earthlings, eh?

Living as an ethical vegan helps to opt out of contributing to this grotesqueness and injustice. Advocating against these behaviors, maybe, in a small way helps repair this "breaking of the world". Thank you Shelly Williams...